[null and void]

ping!

[Long Cut]

Thanks for the ping, Null. This article is outstanding!

All the more so since, come next fall or thereabouts, I will be reporting aboard the USS JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV-67) for duty.

Yesterday, I drove past her at her berth at Naval Station Mayport, here in Jacksonville, Florida. Just SEEING a ship that large is stunning. And she's not even considered a "supercarrier", being a conventionally-powered (versus a nuclear-powered) craft.

I once read that the only man-made machine in the world more deadly than an aircraft carrier was an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine. I said,"So what? We own both...".

[Long Cut]

"Our universities might do better to mothball Ethnic Studies and send the entire freshman class to the Kennedy for a semester."

One thing's for certain: their eyes would be SNAPPED open to the real world.

Believe me, a tour of duty in ANY armed force, prior to college, is of incalculable value to the person, especially in these times. I would have no problem encouraging a child of mine to do so.