USS KITTY HAWK (CV-63) moored at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. USN
Tyler Rogoway, The Drive: Making Steam: The Life And Times Of A U.S. Navy Chief Engineer
LCDR David Taylor gives us an unprecedented insight into what it took to keep America's Navy steaming full speed ahead, and what it would take to bring old ships back from the dead.
David Taylor spent 22 years in the Navy, serving from 1969 to 1991. During that time he rose in rank from an enlisted Seaman Recruit to becoming an officer, and eventually retired as a Lieutenant Commander. The majority of his career was spent in one of the most thankless and hidden but absolutely critical jobs in the US Navy—making the steam that propelled the vast majority of the Navy's fleet through the high seas.
After retiring from the Navy, Taylor worked at Philadelphia Naval Yard, breathing new life into tired old ships and helping to develop the new technologies the Navy set its sights on—for better or worse.
In the first of this two part in depth expose, Taylor gives us an incredibly rare insight into what it took to run the Navy's mightiest vessels during the height of the Cold War, and what it is like to be Chief Engineer, responsible for more than most would care to imagine, aboard a US Navy surface combatant. We will also learn what it takes to refit a supercarrier, and Taylor will deconstruct the feasibility of returning mothballed ships to the fleet, which is a hot topic as of late.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: I did not expect much from this story .... but once I started reading I could not stop. Fighter pilots aboard aircraft carriers may be the rock stars .... but it is the "little people" in the bowels of the ship that makes this all possible.
2 comments:
The whole of society is kept going by men that keep the pluming open, the heat on, the cars running, over worked, over taxed and under appreciated they just suck it up and keep going hoping things will change, but it never does.
I served under CDR Taylor when he was Chief Engineer (CHENG) aboard the England. Cdr Taylor is one probably the best of the many Chief Engineers that I knew in my 21 years of active duty.
A side note in case Cdr Taylor reads this... Don't get a swelled head over the attaboy CHENG, and BTW where is that plaque with the bent screw?
Post a Comment