I’m a USS Enterprise plank owner. She was my first duty station after electronics school, and I fell in love with her as soon as I came aboard. I still care about the Big E.
I was a tall, skinny 20-year-old seaman when I reported to the ship in September 1961. She was still the property of Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company and moored alongside a company pier while fitting out. The shipyard and the Navy had much to do, but the work moved along briskly during the mostly warm and sunny days before commissioning on 25 November.
The construction noise was almost constant through the day and sometimes far into the night. Passageways and compartments were filled with water hoses, air hoses, and extension cords. Down in the galley the smell of sweat, metal, and welding smoke mixed with the aroma of the food.
Comforts of Home
I was lucky. By the time I reported aboard, the living spaces were ready to house sailors, so I didn’t have to deal with the barracks ship. I had a large, comfortable bunk with a four-inch foam mattress, two large lockers beside me, an air-conditioning vent, bunk light, and access to a rack under the three stacked beds for shoes and other belongings. Since the mattresses were supported by metal pans rigidly attached to a frame, they were quite comfortable. I was even luckier because my bunk was in the middle. I had none of the problems of those on the top or the bottom rack. Our compartment occupied a center portion of the 03 level, near the bow of the ship. There was plenty of space for tables and chairs for socializing and card-playing. If you wanted to study, you stayed in your rack.
As a junior sailor, I did mostly grunt work and clean-up. I sometimes got a little free time to watch the tuning of the catapults. The ship faced the James River, and the Navy cordoned off a portion to accommodate the catapult-testing deadweight vehicles. They were rectangular, with multiple wheels and compartments, and were loaded to specific weights and shot into the river to determine the proper steam pressure for a variety of aircraft weights. That was done several times for each of the four catapults, and it went on for weeks.
Because the Enterprise is such a large ship, it took a while to learn my way around. Of course, every space had an address, just like any small town—a deck, a frame, left or right of center. In theory, if a sailor wanted to go to a machine shop at 3-183R he should have no trouble. But in fact, some spaces were so out-of-the-way you might have to go down a ladder at frame 150R and move aft to 179R, then left, and up then down other ladders to get there. That occasionally slowed some work. But it also provided hilarity for sailors and shipyard workers who knew the way as they gave false directions to the lost.
Trials and Tribulations
In October, we took the Enterprise out into the Atlantic for acceptance trials. I don’t know all the things the captain did to test the ship, but I do know he did rooster tails and figure eights. I know this because I was on mess-cook duty and was down in the galley deep-sink area, washing large pots and pans and large utensils. As the ship raced through her maneuvers at high speed, I was tossed from bulkhead to bulkhead, along with the just-washed pots and pans and dozens of utensils. Everyone but me was delighted with the Big E’s performance.
On commissioning day there were multiple cakes and speeches, all of which I missed because I had work to do elsewhere in the ship. After commissioning, the pace seemed to pick up. We shared Guantanamo Bay with the USS Constellation (CVA-64) when we first arrived to begin our shakedown cruise. This was an intense period of drills—general quarters, fire control, damage control, and man overboard, among others. I ran everywhere I had to go and learned that you could go through a frame hatch coaming with little loss of speed if you raised your foot and lowered your head as you flew through. Of course, if you timed it wrong, you got a nasty gash on your forehead and possibly your back.
Best Carrier in the Navy
We passed the tests with the highest score in the carrier Navy at the time.
On 4 July 1962 we entered Boston Harbor early in the morning in bright sunshine, manning the rails. However, the 40-degree wind blowing up our white trouser legs froze our Navy spirits.
After a brief Mediterranean cruise, we were suddenly dispatched to the Caribbean for the Cuban Quarantine affair. I suppose most of the officers knew what was going on, but in my memory, most of the enlisted sailors heard only wild rumors and received no official information until it was over. Most of us relaxed and played cards or sunbathed when our work was done each day. There wasn’t a lot to do, since the only flights were photo F-8 Crusaders. But we still all knew we were on board the first nuclear-powered and best aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy.