****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I retired from Newport News Shipbuilding nearly a quarter of a century ago, but it was easy to identify with the various operations the author described so well. The shipyard was, and obviously still is, a first-class team of professionals. Describing Mike Butler’s approach, and illustrating the truly difficult work on the waterfront, was a most effective way to show what they could do. In my day, I believe the man who most resembled Butler and his responsibilities was a gentleman everyone called “Miff.” Irreplaceable.I have a few comments:Along with finally conquering the catapult, arresting gear, and elevator problems, I was most impressed with how yard President Jennifer Boykin led the effort to handle COVID 19. Balancing known precautions which had to be taken against the Navy’s needs to keep work going, all the while doing her best to treat the employees fairly. Great leadership lesson.Fabey rightly describes the special attention to finding ways to reduce man-hours on the KENNEDY. He doesn’t say so, but it kind of implies that such efforts have not been done before. In my experience, the yard has always tried to find ways to do better, and the Navy contracts I am familiar with rewarded the yard for doing so. He mentions the highly “outfitted” super lifts of hull sections with studs, hangars, machinery, etc., already installed. That’s not really new on the KENNEDY; they were doing that when I was there. I don’t doubt, however, that they have found ways to do it even better by now.One important thing missing, I thought, was much detail about how the elevator design mistakes happened, and how the yard finally got a handle on making them work. The book goes from didn’t work, didn’t work, didn’t work . . . . . . . , then suddenly they began to work. While that indicates probably engineering and design shortcomings at first, there must also have been some folks who rose to the occasion finally and got the problem fixed. Who were they? How did they do it?I think Fabey did a good thing by concentrating on the difficult waterfront work involved in building the carriers, and not particularly on the responsible yard executives. Still, in a company as large as Newport News, I’m sure some of them, such as engineering management, must have played important roles in finally solving the problems. A bit more about executive actions, and how they related to Mike Butler, might have completed the picture even more.A small technical comment: Fabey incorrectly describes the benefits of a “bulbous bow” on the carriers’ hulls. He says they are “meant to stop the carrier from nosediving as it broke through waves as tall as houses.” Actually what the bulb does is modify the way the water flows around the hull to reduce drag, and thus increase ship speed and propulsion efficiency.I haven’t seen a book like this before that tells how a shipyard works to complete a gargantuan project. Fabey describes that very well, and I enjoyed reading it. I recommend it.
