Murphy's Law: February 27, 2005

Archives

The U.S. Department of Defense is trying to cut expenses, and one of the ideas under consideration is to reduce the aircraft carrier force from 11 ships, to 12. The most logical carrier to be retired is the USS John F Kennedy. This is because the JFK is old, scheduled for some expensive refurbishment, and one of the few non-nuclear carriers in service. But sailors will miss the JFK for other reasons; long, hot, showers. The JFK was originally designed to have nuclear power. But the Secretary of Defence during the 1960s, seeking to save some money, ordered the navy to build the JFK to burn oil instead. The design was changed, but the ship was left with larger than normal, for a carrier, water tanks (designed to help keep the absent nuclear reactors cooled off). This meant that the crew had more leeway in taking long showers. A minor amenity, to be sure, but one that you quickly miss when you get transferred from the JFK to a ship with more normal (stingy) water use rules. 

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close