I got a nice surprise from me boss today. He called me into his office and told me his superiors wanted a "dedicated" deserving representative of our company to attend the change of command ceremony at Pearl Harbor for USS Tucson (SSN-770) at the end of this month. My wife and I get an all expenses paid trip to Pearl!
I have not been to Hawaii since I was 20 years old. Should be fun. I may look into renting a bike for a day whilst we are there.
SSN-770 is the second Navy vessel to carry the moniker of "Tucson" and the only submarine. She began manufacture in 1988 , her keel was laid in 1991 and she was christened in March of 1994. She carries directional control valves of many types manufactured here at our Tucson site.
She is of the new "improved" variety of Los Angeles class attack subs sporting an ample number of vertical tubes for Tomahawk cruise missiles. She has put a hurt on some terrorists in her as of yet still young span of service.
