THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 2, 1995 TAG: 9503020485
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 157 lines
Together with his father and his grandfather, James Michael Oliver figures his family's got more than 100 years invested in Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
His grandfather moved the family from Georgia to Portsmouth right before the Depression. He had left the furniture-making business for a pipe-fitting job - ``good-paying'' work building ships.
That life enticed Oliver's father, whose 36-year career with the shipyard was interrupted only by World War II.
Oliver, 48, grew up in the shadow of the shipyard cranes. From his home, he could hear the whistle blow when the shifts changed. His first memory was when he was 4 years old standing at the door of his parents' Cradock home, watching his father warm up his Cushman motor scooter for his short commute to work.
By first grade, Oliver said, he realized many other fathers in his neighborhood made that same daily trek. The shipyard was the fabric of his old Williams Court neighborhood.
Tuesday, Oliver waited to discover whether new generations would continue the tradition. The list of base closures was released from the Pentagon on Tuesday; it still must be approved by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission - BRAC -, which considered closing the yard two years ago.
When he got the word - Portsmouth wasn't on the list - Oliver let a long sigh.
``Phew,'' he breathed out loud. ``I still have a son and daughter to put through college yet.''
Still, he realized that in other areas of the country, communities that developed around the shipbuilding industry were being ripped apart.
Oliver visited the Long Beach, Calif., base two weeks ago and walked through families who were rallying outside the gates to save their base. He has friends at Long Beach, which the Pentagon on Tuesday targeted for closure.
``To see them all standing out there, you know it's real,'' Oliver said. ``To see it happen and you know the impact.''
Oliver travels regularly to work at other shipyards. He also keeps in touch with his peers on other bases through e-mail on the government computer network.
His counterpart at Long Beach, Tom Hundley, is one of the lucky ones. Oliver said Hundley is eligible to retire. Hundley will probably have more time to be active in the church where his wife is a Methodist minister, Oliver said.
He said the folks in Long Beach knew it was coming for weeks; that they ``have been like the guy with the sword hanging over his head by a hair.
``During this process you grieve with them,'' Oliver said.
He recalled the BRAC announcements in 1993 when the skipper of the Mare Island shipyard described his employees.
``He talked about how fine the people were, and then he broke down and started crying, right there on C-Span, on television, where everyone was watching,'' Oliver said. ``That's how we all feel. It's tough, it's really, really tough.''
For Oliver, his community, his family and his friends are rooted in the shipyard. His father raised four children on a shipfitters's salary.
He remembers growing up around other shipyard families - even after the Olivers moved away from Cradock into a house on an acre in Churchland that his father, Hamilton C. Oliver, built.
All of his father's friends worked at the shipyard and practically all were shipfitters like his father. Their families spent their leisure time together. The men all fished together.
He remembers their pride in their work and the friendly competition between trades.
``They would get together and say stupid things like `a machinist is nobody but a shipfitter with his brains knocked out,' '' Oliver said.
It's different from so many blue-collar jobs, Oliver said, because ships aren't built on an assembly line.
Building and repairing ships requires thought, creativity and skills. ``It's hard work,'' Oliver said. ``It takes a special breed to be able to adapt.''
Thirty years ago, Oliver entered the gates of the shipyard as an apprentice. It was a move made more out of necessity than tradition ; Oliver wanted to avoid the draft as the Vietnam War heated up.
He followed his grandfather's footsteps, starting as a pipe fitter, and worked his way up through the ranks. Today he is a production controller in the business office - the first white-collar worker in this family business.
Even before Oliver went to the shipyard, Vietnam had begun affecting his family's life. He said he remembers his father coming home haggard after working 12-hour shifts, seven days a week.
``They worked hard. They worked a lot of overtime to support the Navy and the country,'' Oliver said. ``It cost him time from his family, but I never heard him complain.''
His grandfather worked the same sort of schedule during World War II when the ranks swelled to an all-time high of 25,000. He also didn't complain about the work. He loved building the ships.
Oliver, who planned on attending Old Dominion University before joining the shipyard in 1965, says he wants his two children who are still at home to go to college. He says he pushes them in that direction rather than toward the route he took at the yard, where the work force has shrunk to 7,700 employees.
Oliver said he's taken his 12-year-old son, Aaron, to work with him and that the sixth-grader is fascinated by the ships, the work, and the atmosphere.
``I wouldn't mind him working at the shipyard,'' Oliver said. ``But I want him to get a college degree first. You have to have that now - even to work for the shipyard. It's all much more technical and competitive.''
After college, Oliver said, he wants his son to decide on his own future.
Oliver's father died a year ago. Last week, Oliver sold the Churchland house his father built. But the tradition - and stories - of shipyard life will continue as Oliver family legends.
There was the time his father was working at the top of a mast on a destroyer.
He was standing in a steel box as he worked, and his shipyard buddies, who knew he was afraid of heights, decided to shake the box.
``It didn't take much,'' Oliver said. ``They shook it, and he threw up on a pile of 'em down below. Then they were afraid to let him down. They knew someone was going to get it. Either my dad for throwing up on everybody, or the guys for getting my father so sick.''
Oliver's favorite story about his grandfather, William Frank Oliver Sr., was the time the 33-year shipyard veteran, a pipe fitter general foreman, was asked to radically step up the pace as the war in Vietnam was heating up.
``Mr. Lucas (the supervisor) would ask, `So Pete, you think you can make this schedule?' And my grandfather would say, `no problem.' Then Mr. Lucas would ask `well can you make it with a few less people?' And my grandfather would say `no problem.' And then he asked `would there be a problem if we upped your production schedule?' And again my grandfather said `it's not a problem.'
``Finally, Mr. Lucas said, `Pete, I've never seen you so agreeable,'' and my grandfather said, `Well, I retired last March.' '' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
James Michael Oliver
STATUS OF NAVAL SHIPYARDS
1. Charleston Naval Shipyard
Charleston, S.C.
Ordered closed 1993*
2. Long Beach Naval Shipyard
Long Beach, Calif.
Recommended this year for closing
3. Mare Island Naval Shipyard
San Francisco
Ordered closed 1993*
4. Norfolk Naval Shipyard
Portsmouth, Va.
Open
5. Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
Philadelphia, Pa.
Ordered closed 1991*
6. Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Kittery, Maine
Open
7. Puget Sound Naval Shipyard
Bremerton, Wash.
Open
8. Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Open
* in process of closing
by CNB