USS Delaware Crew

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We had the priviledge to have a visit with some of the crew from 
the Delaware at last Saturdays meeting. I was able to have a chat with 
the COB who has 22 years in and is younger then my youngest son, damn. 
Anyway we had the COB and 4 other crew there...1 -1st class cook, and 
the rest of the guys were E4's. An interesting aside was one of the men 
was an MM nuke rated and was with his girlfriend who was also a nuke 
rated MM stationed on a carrier. Everyone intro'd themselves with a 
little bio about their jobs. The COB gave a little talk about the 
upcoming commissioning which will probably be held in Norfolk, Va. but 
that may change...Nothing definite yet.
I told him of my 
feeling that the 688 and the Seawolf class had a lot less "people room" 
then my tench class boat or so it seemed to me. He replied the Virginia 
class has even less people room since they moved much of the outboard 
stuff about a foot in from the hull, giving them less room. He explained
 how they qualify the guys out of BESS. They got about 80 new unqualed 
sailors. No one wants to go to sea with 80 unqualed crew aboard he said,
 so they ship them TAD to other boats for qualifications.I did think the
 crew size of 135 was a bit large though for the class. Did the 688's 
have a crew that big too???
An interesting visit for sure... 