Ollie Shinn was new to Newport News Shipbuilding. He'd been hired by Tenneco, Inc, who owned the shipyard, to direct the operation of the Tenneco centralized computing facility located at the shipyard. It was one of three in the country. He was born in Missouri and spent his life in computers and sales, mostly in the Midwest. He'd not been around ships except what he'd seen in movies. He was acquainting himself with us and the company on one of the first of his many visits to Newport News.
I suggested that he come with me to the waterfront to see the guided missile frigate CGN Virginia in drydock, it had been launched recently. It was a great example of what everyone thinks of as a naval vessel. It is 500 feet long and has a beam of 65 feet, this allows for a top speed of about 30 knots.
We went aboard and stood on main deck at the bridge to get a good view of the flared main deck forward as it formed the bow. One could get a feel for the speed of this ship just by standing there. It is a work of art.
As we finished our little tour, we came to the gangway. There, at the exit off the ship, was a rough cardboard sign, "Fuck Tenneco, I'm going back to North Carolina!" scrawled in chalk. I was apologetic and embarrassed. I pulled down the sign, folded it and we went back up into the main office building.
There, in the big conference room, we found the VP of Production Control, the General Manager of Operations, and the VP of Human Resources in a meeting. I barged in and said, "Look what we found." They looked at the sign with interest.
The VP of Production Control said it was a sad commentary on the attitude of some of the workers. The GM of Operations said we had no way of finding the culprit. The VP of HR said, "This is what makes America great."
And you know, he was right.
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