After 4 years and a couple  billion dollars, the USS Carl Vinson is on her way back to sea and I am writing this post from inside her belly.

It really feels great to be part of something this big.

Time and time again I have wondered what it would feel like, what would I be thinking at this moment, after spending 2 years working to get her back to sea.

Well, I have waited long for this moment to be part of the second history, so to speak, of this great national asset. I wondered how I would feel about it as it happen; I thought I would be a bit sad, happy, nervous….well, I am feeling none of that right now. Instead, I am feeling rather pensive….honored even.

When is a great warrior at her most vulnerable?…while she is at rest without her shield. At this moment she is revealed…she is powerless. Once she rises, however, puts on her armor and stands again, she regains strength…she regains invincibility.

I feel in many ways that I have been privileged to have seen this great ship in its vulnerable moment without armor, I have seen her bones…I have seen her frailty. And time hence, when I am closer to the soil,  I will be able to say – “O that might ship Invincible Vinson, I knew well…I knew her when…I knew her then; and I and a few others of my friends, stitched her armor and gave her strength.”

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