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Susie's musings

War Birds and War Ships

On Thursday we had a rainy day as if getting ready for the big rain that is coming into Florida from the "tropical" moisture invading south Florida from the south. The weather channel said, "We are breaking out the ‘T’ word." It’s tropical time. I remember one year tropical storms started in May and we went through the alphabet and half way through the Greek alphabet to name the storms. Texas and Oklahoma are suffering with storms and tornados. God bless America. Despite the rain yesterday we went up A1A and US1 to Titusville to "The War Bird Museum" and visited the restored airplanes flown during WWII, VietNam, and the Cold War. Beautifully restored aircraft stored in big warehouses and maintained by volunteers. Lots of memorabilia from soldiers and sailors of the various wars. While we were there the volunteer mechanics worked on one of the WWII aircraft, changing oil and making lots of noise, then they rolled her out and… took off on the regional airport runway for an airshow in Mississippi! Wow! Noisy and odd to think of this creaky vulnerable, propeller driven aircraft in war compared to our big jets! To Southern Charm for lunch! and…. you guessed it, a nap for Susie before the final meeting dinner. Our speakers were the Commander of the Kings Bay Submarine Base and 2 lieutenants, both submariner women! They studied at the Naval academy and received masters degrees in subjects like mechanical and chemical engineering. They described their first days on submarines. They had to qualify just like men like Chuck did, learning all the systems. But these are nuclear submarines, new big war ships. They are now lieutenant and lieutenant junior grade and are very passionate about career and future! Boats have to be refitted with separate quarters and heads for women… showers have a sign that is turned… men/women. So facilities are also shared, but privacy is respected. Interesting. Our old guys have been a little skeptical about the cost of refitting the new nuclear submarines, but the commander was quick to defend "integration." He praised the intelligence and passion of the new women coming onboard. OK dears. Today is still sunny so I might go swimming! Have a great day. God bless us!