Commander Jason Lancaster, U.S. Navy
My worst shipyard experience was at General Dynamics NASSCO-Norfolk during the 2017–18 winter. The pier pipes froze, so there was no potable water or working toilets on the berthing barge. The solution was portable sewage tanks pumped several times a day and taken away for disposal.
Senior Chief Petty Officer David Larkin, U.S. Coast Guard (Retired)
The USNS Tippecanoe (T-AO-199) was undergoing a shipyard period in Subic Bay, Philippines. As we came on board one morning, we found all the brass on the ship had been stolen. Every fire nozzle, bell, drain grate, etc. Everything made of brass was gone.
James D. Sena, U.S. Navy Veteran
My worst experience was in dry dock at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on board the USS Badger (FF-1071). I spent almost every day as a fire watch for a welder on the O-5 level. His supervisors would X-ray his welds at night, then the next day he would be back ripping out his failed welds and redoing them. This went on for two weeks until one day another (much younger) welder got it right in one try.
Joe Tucci, U.S. Navy Veteran
We were in Boston Naval Shipyard in the fall and winter of 1966 for overhaul and fleet rehabilitation and modernization work. A Canadian corvette came in for some minor storm-damage repairs. The crew invited us on board. We shared some lime-spiked rum. Best drink I ever had.
Chief Warrant Officer Louis W. Bruneau, U.S. Navy Reserve (Retired)
The best was in Yokosuka, Japan,
in 1958 for repairs to the USS Shelton (DD-790) after damage from Tropical Storm Sally. They did a great job and were quick about it. We also got some non-storm maintenance done.
Ralph Van Horn II, U.S. Navy Veteran
On board the USS Hermitage (LSD-34) in Norfolk Naval Shipyard in 1978–79. I was an E-5. The living conditions were so deplorable I decided not to reenlist. I saw how much the Navy did not care for the sailor.
Captain Marcus J. Fisk, U.S. Navy (Retired)
While at Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation Shipyard in San Diego in 1980, the yard’s professional engineers spent four days trying to calculate and ballast the USS San Bernardino (LST-1189) for dry dock. Finally, I (as the damage control assistant) calculated the liquid load longhand on yellow legal paper and had my hull technicians flood the tanks and configure the ship for dry dock in one day.
Captain Tom Daniel, U.S. Navy (Retired)
When I was on board the USS Spiegel Grove (LSD-32) at Norfolk Shipyard in the 1980s, we lost a civilian welder from blunt-force trauma because he misjudged that the crane rigged to remove the air blower would clear him when he cut the last of four stanchions on the forecastle next to the quarterdeck.
Captain Brandon Booher, U.S. Navy
My best and worst experiences were one and the same. In command of a destroyer, and with one week remaining in a seven-month deployment, our sonar dome was damaged while operating in the East China Sea. The maintenance communities in Sasebo and Yokosuka went above and beyond to get our ship back in the fight.
Senior Chief Petty Officer Phil Lee, U.S. Navy (Retired)
In 1951, I was ordered to the USS Kula Gulf (CVE-108) in Boston Naval Shipyard. I was operating the forward elevator from the hangar deck when, with a few feet to go, I heard a crunch. I stopped the elevator, ran to the pit, and saw a lot of black liquid on the underside of the elevator. The cooks stored food in a void in the middle of the pit where we also stored firefighting liquid. The cooks had moved the liquid cans to bring out food. Guess who had to clean it up?
Captain Carl Lundquist, U.S. Navy (Retired), Golden Life Member
Thanksgiving Day in Singapore. Pouring rain and the boilers are down. As chief enginer of the USS Peleliu (LHA-5) in 1984, I was on the pier desperately trying to teach shipyard workers how to light off portable a donkey boiler so 1,800 people might not have to eat turkey dinner off paper plates. Reminded me of reading Kipling years earlier.
Commander Bruce Wolven, U.S. Navy (Retired)
We were in the Sasebo, Japan, shipyard for pump repairs. Ten Japanese workers gathered around the pumps and talked for two hours, and nothing was done. Suddenly, the pumps were removed and brought back the very next day. Moral: Plan your work and work your plan.
Jim Olsen, U.S Air Force Veteran
I was called into the office of the Coast Guard representative at the shipyard and he told me we had to replace all of the aluminum ladders with steel ladders. This was not in the budget, I said. After hearing his story about a fire, melting ladders, and toxic fumes, we found the money.
Steven Palmer, U.S. Navy Veteran
My best shipyard experience was post Navy. It was a nine-day shipyard on the SeaLand Enterprise in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. That included drydocking, removing the bridge, boiler work, class and Coast Guard inspections. The bridge was reinstalled in a raised position. We were curious how the welds would hold up during the January crossing from Kaohsiung to Tacoma.
Commander Richard Bennett, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Due to schedule slippage, fast cruise and sea trials for the USS Norfolk (SSN-714) straddled my wedding day. The skipper excused me early from fast cruise to attend the rehearsal; former shipmates backfilled the wedding party; and current shipmates’ sword arch welcomed Mrs. Bennett to the Navy.
Commander Earl Higgins, U.S. Navy (Retired)
In 1966, the USS Betelgeuse (AK-260) was moored at Detyens Shipyard on the Wando River near Charleston, South Carolina, for overhaul. One cold night the shore power (only power) failed. There was no electrician on call. The yard’s chief rigger did not understand the mathematics of rigging that the ship’s senior chief boatswain’s mate was discussing. Cargo winches were removed for overhaul. Whne they were reinstalled, they blew up—the motors had been rewound backward. A worker was caught stealing officers' foul-weather gear and was fired—for only one day. The Navy’s civilian supervisor played poker at night with shipyard officials.
Michael McCrave, U.S. Navy Veteran
The worst was at the Ship Repair Facility Guam in the summer of 1987 getting asbestos removed from ventilation system ducting while still standing duty on board. No air flow and hot as a TV dinner!
Chief Petty Officer John M. Duffy, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Maintenance delays by an unreliable civilian workforce marked both the Long Beach and Pearl Harbor naval shipyards as the worst. The best was by far the Yokosuka, Japan, naval shipyard. Quality work completed on time or ahead of schedule on the USS Reeves (CG-24) by a motivated Japanese workforce.
Commander Phil Keuhlen, U. S. Navy (Retired)
Early in 1976 at Ingalls Shipyard, I sat in on a telephone conference with the “kindly old genteleman.” The yard could not account for removal of material that had been logged into the reactor during refueling. Admiral Rickover told the shipyard they had sole possession of the title “worst U.S. Shipyard.”
Lieutenant Bruce Newman, U.S. Navy Reserve (Retired)
Fram II overhaul on the USS Polk County (LST-1084) in San Diego in 1961. Workers installed the new tripod mast one inch off center. I was the inport officer of the deck while welders, hammerers, painters, and complaining foreman messed up. Smoke, noise, odors and then a 1600 traffic rush on quarter deck.
Lieutenant William A. Pitard, U.S. Navy (Retired)
While I was serving on board the USS Midway (CV-41) moored at Naval Air Station Cubi Point, the Philippines, a U.S. government contractor drove a van of local hired nationals from dumpster to dumpster along the waterfront to “dive” for classified materials. A crude process: Stop van, everyone out, dash to dumpsters, in/out of dumpsters, dash back to van, next stop.
Commander Bill Claderwood, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Being on board the USS Arkansas (CGN-41) for a complex overhaul at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard was for a new division officer a valuable learning experience and a great introduction to ship maintenance/construction. This period also offered unparalleled access to Seattle, with the Washington State Ferry leaving from just a few hundred yards away from our ship’s brow.
Jim McDonough, U.S. Coast Guard Veteran
At the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland, in 1971–72, we watched a crew of technicians sit in Radio and smoke and drink coffee until the specified end date in the contract, when they finally started work installing crypto gear on the USCGC Munro (WHEC-724).
Commander John B. Tata, U.S. Navy Reserve (Retired)
After experiencing a worker strike lasting two months, years later I did not think it could get worse in the ship’s building yard. Supship Seattle and Todd Shipyard proved me wrong when our planned six month overhaul took more than ten months.
