wb9omc@ea.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick) (09/19/89)
From: wb9omc@ea.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick) I have taken the tour of the Norfolk Naval base and was fortunate enough to do it when the carrier USS Eisenhower (CVN-68 or 69, I don't recall) was in port. Gawd, was that thing big! Standing alongside it on the dock, a lot of people were looking around asking questions like "Where's the boat?" because the ship was so immense up close it WAS kind of hard to tell just where the *dock* ended and the *ship* began. We got to see a number of different ships and even got to take pictures UNTIL we got to the submarine area. The tour guide stopped the bus and told us to put our cameras away - he wouldn't start up again until everyone did. As he began driving into the sub area he pointed out the fellows with the M16's - loaded, fingers on triggers - and said that they were instructed to shoot (gulp) anybody with a camera or without proper authorization. I'm not really certain just WHY, although certain *activities* that I'd not care to discuss were happening at the time which may have had something to do with it. The tour was fairly inexpensive, and while exact numbers escape me (it was 6 or 7 years ago) the idea of about $4 comes to mind. You couldn't go on any of the ships, just look at them. But it kind of beat nothing. Duane