In June, I traveled to Virginia to visit some friends living up there with the military. One of my best friends, Lauren, has been living in Virginia Beach for almost 4 years. Through some of her friends, we had the opportunity to tour the Norfolk – based amphibious transport dock ship, the USS Nashville.

The 570-foot Nashville was built in 1966 at Lockheed Shipbuilding in Seattle. The ship was launched on Oct. 7, 1967, and commissioned on February 14, 1970.  She was decommissioned today. The ship will be towed to a maintenance facility and remain in the Navy’s inactive fleet in Philadelphia, where she’ll join the Ready Reserve, in case she’s ever needed again.

Photographs are not allowed from the dock, but with permission, I was able to take photos on board the ship.

This is a wide angle shot of a berthing. Within this small space, 18 men would sleep here during deployment.

Right outside the berthing, this cold, hard operating table is the aft BDS (Battle Dressing Station). You can see the berthing to the left.

Here’s the Line Room. This massive rope is used to tie the ship to the pier.

The Well Deck is used for keeping an LCU or LCAC (Landing Craft Unit, Landing Craft Air Cushion) which transports Marines serving on the ship from sea to the shore. The back gate is lowered and this low area is flooded with up to 8 feet of sea water.

The ship’s massive flight deck holds up to 8 aircraft at once.  (Some of which include the Cobra, Super Hewie, 43, 52, 68, Ospry and Herrier.)

VERY hard at work…

The Focstle. Each link in the chain weighs 67 lbs, each anchor weighs 25,500 lbs. The Wildcat pulls the chains and anchors up for sailing

The Bridge. Some navigatin’ happens here. 

The Captain’s Bridge Wing. Its like I’m the captain or something… (I don’t think I was allowed to sit here.) 

One of the sailors painted this on the Shore Power Cable Box for the “final cruise.”

I also got a special tour of the engine room. This is Main Machinery Room #2. When the ship is sailing, on a normal day, this room gets up to 145 degrees. During the last deployment in Africa, this room was reaching a consistent 165 degrees and must me manned at all times.

The Throttle Board in the Machinery Room. (You can see the back of it in the photo above.)

Here’s another view of the empty Well Deck.

A well worn hat…

After the tour, we chatted about a sailor’s life on the mess decks. I captured a few photos of the reluctant sailors.

BMSN (SW) William Eric Whale, Undesignated Seaman Daniel Jay Martin, and BMSN James Dale Shirley.

At the end of the day, when we were hot, stinky, and tired, the cameras were turned on Lauren and I… 

Spending the day on the ship allowed me to catch a glimpse of the sacrifices that our US Navy Sailors, Marines, and other military personnel make daily so that we can enjoy our personal freedoms.
Thanks, guys for the awesome tour, and your service to our country.