Hello, welcome to my work diary. Here I will be documenting my day by day work on board the USS Intrepid as a volunteer, so that I can easily remember what I did every day I was on board. Feel free to jump around! I write most of these the night after I return when I log my hours, and I try to write down names as I remember them
4/16:
Arrived at intrepid at 11, got my volunteer uniform, talked with David (head of volunteering) who explained my schedule and walked with me around some of the exhibits. I then stayed up in the captains bridge with a former helicopter/transport pilot for the navy. Stayed from 12-1, before being moved down to the Admiral’s bridge with a former serviceman on a seaplane repair ship (1-2), then was given a little lunch break. I reported back to the captain’s bridge at 3 with Bobby (a Intrepid serviceman who worked on the radio’s in CIS) until closing at 5. I then met back up with David and headed off.
4/17:
Arrived at Intrepid around 10:45, checked my schedule for the day and then headed off to the volunteer break room to drop off my stuff. Then met with David to discuss the plan for the day, and spent the first hour (11-12) wandering around the hangar deck including a short film on Kamikaze attacks that hit the Intrepid (on the actual spot where they had hit). Then met up with David again, grabbed my official work badge and met up with Mike Burns (a technician on the USS Darter submarine) which was nearly identical to the growler sub (the one on board) accept for the fact that it lacked missiles and was solely torpedoes. He took me on a personal (and private as the sub is currently closed to visitors) tour of the ship, stopping at just about every single machine on board and telling me how it was operated. Came back out around 1 where I met up again with David and walked around the flight deck for an hour, and peaked my head into the restoration hangar, where there are currently two helicopters under restoration. I then got lunch break around 2:15, and then headed up to the captains bridge around 3:00. I spent the rest of the day up there with Tom Fisher, who knew just about every question I could throw at him (he did not serve but is an educator). I interacted probably with ~150 guests, and the ship itself was about 4x as crowded today as it was yesterday. Look forward to tomorrow.
4/18
Arrived at Intrepid around 11, checked my schedule and spent the first hour inside the shuttle pavilion. Talked with a staff member inside the pavillion about the Enterprise and what made it unique and then took some time to get up close with it (11-12). Then walked over to the captains bridge where I spent one hour with a volunteer who had been on board since the 90’s (12-1). Then walked down to the admirals bridge where I met a army veteran who had operated radios in southern vietnam (1-2). Then I had lunch (2-3). I then spent the rest of the day on the flight deck with David and a couple of staff members, but peeled off from them and spent at least a full hour standing alongside the planes, and took time to spot the pitot tubes (a topic I had justs covered in intro to aeronautical engineering).
4/23
Began the day with two hours on the captains bridge with Tom Fisher (11-1). Then moved down to the hangar deck for one hour answering ocasional questions but also going through all of the exhibits including the one on Intrepid during vietnam (1-2). Then had break (2-3). I then spent the rest of the day walking around the flight deck getting an up close view of all planes looking specifically for stability characteristics, and saw some especially on older/slower planes. For example, slightly slanted upwards wings, large separation between elevator and wing, etc. Not too much however as many of these planes were designed to be unstable and therefore menoverable (3-5).
4/24
Today was actually vary similar to yesterday schedule wise. I began the day in the flight deck with two hours in the flight deck (one of which was with David, the head of volunteering, 11-1). Then moved down to the admirals bridge for an hour (1-2) and then was off for break (2-3). I again spent the rest of the day up on the flight deck, however, since it was such a nice day there were tons of visitors and so I was busy for the vast majority of it talking with guests about different planes and information on the plane (3-5).
4/25
It was a rainy day today and so David kept me inside for the first part of my day. Initially I was stationed in the hangar deck answering mostly directional questions (11-12). Then David met up with me and we walked through the forecastle, and then up into a part of the museum not open to the public. We walked through multiple officer rooms, bathrooms, storage closets and other places. It was really cool to see these parts of the museum and get a sense of what is constantly surrounding me on board. We also ended up in the catapult room, where mechanics could maintain the steam catapult. This was also amazing to see as I could see up close an amazing piece of engineering (12-1:30). I then went down to the 3rd deck which is where the galley and the mess is and got an up close look at what eating on board intrepid would look like (1:30-2). Then had break (2-3). After break David gave me some very informative info packets about all planes on board the ship and I took an hour to sit under the concorde and actually read through all of these (3-4). Finally I ended the day on the flight deck where I took the time to hop into the seaguard helicopter and get a sense what sitting in the cockpit of an aircraft was really like (4-5).
The following 4 days were a little out of order as my brother graduated from college on Saturday 5/1, which allowed me to go in on a Thursday rather then a Saturday.
4/29
It was a slow day on board Intrepid (mostly due to bad weather). I started my day in the Space Shuttle Pavilion answering guests questions and sharing new info (11-12). I then moved out to the flight deck where I viewed up close many of the different planes and actually got a chance to introduce myself to the aircraft restoration team as they were setting up (12-1). I then moved up to the admirals bridge where I met Al, a marine who was actually deployed during Vietnam (1-2). I then had break (2-3). Finally, I spent the rest of the day between the flight and hangar deck, and talking to aircraft restoration about there work and helping with the final touches on the Chickasaw helicopter and the Sea Cobra helicopter
4/30
It was another slow day onboard Intrepid, this time due to high winds. I began the day checking in with the head of Aircraft restoration (Peter), where he asked me if I would be open to aircraft cleaning (an important job onboard usually done at the start of the summer). I of course said yes, and he walked around with me on the flight deck showing me a few cool things about each plane and promising more stories once I start working (11-1). I then had break (1-2). I then traveled up to the captain’s bridge where i was alone for the first time for about an hour, before Michael Schleiff came to help me (2-4). Finally, I headed inside into the hangar deck for the last hour of my day (4-5). It was a particularly windy day with the Huey’s back rotor breaking free of its tie and actually damaging its own tail. As Peter said “This is the difference between an indoor and an outdoor museum” while pointing at the dent.
5/7
Arrived on board at 11AM and spent early part of day in aircraft restoration cutting out the stencils needed to finish that a-12 starter cart (11-1). Then I went down into the break room where I conducted a zoom interview with Mark Hers (an airplane captain/technician onboard intrepid working on an A4 flight squadron. 1-2). Then had lunch (2-3). Then I had a second interview with Kenneth Chin, who worked on aircraft fueling (called grapes for there purple uniforms) on Intrepid during Vietnam (3-4). Finished the day on the flight deck (4-5).
5/8
Arrived at 11am and had a very standard day (sadly I am writing this blog post a few days later and do not have a photo of my schedule so I do not have the details of this specific day. I know that I worked in the Captain/Admiral bridges however and had a good amount of time on the flight deck)
5/9
Arrived at Intrepid at 11AM and did one final walk through of growler before the submarine is opened up to the public, including some of the lower deck (very cramped) spots (11-12). Then split off and did an interview with Mr. Reznick who had a long career in avionics, reliability engineering and computer engineering (12-1). Then had lunch (1-2), Then had 2 hours on the flight deck and one hour in the admirals bridge to end the day (2-5).
5/14
Arrived at 11am and began the day be washing/cleaning the t38 (11-1). Then I had an hour in the hangar deck (1-2). Then lunch (2-3). Then an hour in the Growler control room (3-4) and finally an hour on the flight deck (4-5)
5/15
Arrived at 11am, and began with an hour in the hangar deck (11-12). Then I headed up to the captains bridge (12-1). Next I had a shortened break (1-1:40) and then headed off to growler control room for an 80 minute shift there (1:40-2) Finally I finished the day with 2 hours of flight deck
5/16
Arrived at 11am, and began with an hour in the captains bridge (11-12), then headed down to the admirals bridge (12-1). Then I spent 40 minutes on the flight deck (1-1:40), before covering the second half of another volunteers shift on the captains bridge (1:40-2). Then had lunch (2-3). Finally I finished the day between the admirals bridge (3-4) and the flight deck (4-5)
5/20
Worked in aircraft restoration chipping paint off of the f9f-8 cougar (11-1), Had lunch (1-2). Then went up to the flight deck for an hour (2-3) and then opened up the admiral’s bridge (3-4) before finishing the day on the flight deck (4-5)
5/21
Started off the day with 2 hours in the growler attack room with Mike Burns (darter veteran) (11-1). Then had lunch (1-2) before heading up into the admirals bridge (2-3). Then headed down to the flight deck (3-4) before finishing the day in the captains bridge
5/22
Started off the day with 2 hours on the flight deck (11-1) before I headed into the admirals bridge (1-2). Theen had lunch (2-3). Then headed into the admirals bridge for an hour (3-4) before finishing the day in the captains bridge (4-5).