THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606190399
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: DUTY CALLS
SOURCE: BY WENDY GROSSMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 37 lines
Navy men can't leave home without him.
Petty Officer 1st Class Scott Ferguson, 31, is a machine shop supervisor at Oceana Naval Air Station.
``Nobody can go anywhere without us,'' Ferguson said. ``If something breaks, somebody has to fix it.''
In an unairconditioned shop with Top 40 music playing in the background, Ferguson takes a piece of steel and turns it into a hard-to-get or no longer manufacured part for a submarine, ship, or airplane.
Basically, he's a blacksmith in blue dungarees.
Since things break all the time, the shop is on call 24 hours a day. It's not uncommon for Ferguson to be called in on a Friday night to make a piece for a plane that can't get off the runway. But more often he comes in on the weekend to give people parts they forgot to pick up during the week.
So when his beeper went off on the night of his seven-year-old daughter Danielle's birthday, he thought he'd be right back.
``I thought I had to come in for a routine job. I ended up spending six hours here,'' Ferguson says. ``She was already in bed when I got home.''
Born a Navy brat in Scotland, Ferguson moved to Virginia Beach in 1968. He started working on cars when he was 16, and has spent the last 13 years in the Navy's machine shop.
Some people just make a part on an assembly line and ship it off. But Ferguson gets to go out and discuss why a part broke, remove it, fix it, and then put it back. He's never bored. And he's always needed. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Photo
ON THE JOB
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm] by CNB