It was in dry dock, in Portsmouth, for the first 6 months I was stationed there. Then we sat around Norfolk getting qualified for sharpening pencils for a month or two before we did our weapons on-load and carrier quals for the squadrons. After we got back from that I got an apartment in Norfolk with a bunch of friends, it was a drag living on a ship......especially in Norfolk. It was more of a flop house, we probably had 75 keys made in the year we had it. The fishing was good in Norfolk but other than that I thought it was a pretty shitty place to live. High crime, ocean is toxic (even in VA Beach), everyone drives shitty because they all drive like where they are from. I just thought the whole stretch from Norfolk to VA Beach was depressing. Booze and chicks fixed most of that. Did see a lot of good bands play at the Boathouse. Med cruise was pretty boring too. The Navy to me was like a job that you got to leave, for a few weeks at a time, once a year.
