I served as the Reactor Training Assistant on USS Nimitz from May 1999 to December 2000 and was responsible for administering the training program for the 400+ nuclear-trained personnel onboard. This task was especially difficult since the ship was undergoing a nuclear refueling overhaul in Newport News Shipyard at the time. My main mission was to prepare the reactor department personnel for the reactor safeguards examination following the refueling, a necessary milestone prior to bringing the reactors critical again. The crew was able to do this through a complex mix of training lectures, drills, oral and written exams, practical applications, and cross decking with other operational carriers.

I’m sure the ship looks nothing like it did while I was onboard. When I reported in May of 1999, the ship was in dry dock and most of the spaces were stripped down for refurbishment. Traversing the ship was made especially difficult because of the numerous hoses and ventilation trunks that passed through all the passageways, transoms, and watertight hatches. All services such as medical, berthing, and dining were provided by a barge located next to the ship. When the ship left the dry-dock and went pierside for steam testing, as the reactor duty officer, I was one of the few duty personnel not allowed to leave the ship, which included not being able to sleep or eat on the barge which remained in the dry dock at the end of the pier. There were only a couple of staterooms on the ship that were still habitable, and that’s putting it nicely. There were a few duty nights where I had to scrounge around looking for a rack that had a mattress. And the temporary showers and heads that were rigged up for us few souls stuck on the ship were seldom hot and seldom clean.

I left active duty following this tour and never was able to see the ship operational. But I was proud when Nimitz returned to the fleet again following her overhaul, knowing I had a small hand in ensuring she met her operational commitments and was ready for the global war on terrorism following the events of 9/11. I’m now a commander in the Navy Reserves, supporting the Naval Network Warfare Command, but at heart, I’ll always be a “surface nuke.“

Robert Carlisle
CSC Program Management Principal Leader