Perquimans People
S - v'loft ; ?, ? ..
Hertford Navyman Kevin Morrfew serves on ship that flies
By GLKNN A HOUSTON
Special to the Perquimans Weekly
Kevin G. Morrow of Hertford
compare! sitting at the engineering
* operations control station aboard his
1 ship to being in the cockpit of a 747.
In tact, Morrow uses s lot of air
craft terms to describe his ship.
That's because It's a Navy ship that
1 flies.
?J Petty Officer 1st Class Morrow is a
? * crewman on the hydrofoil USS
? Gemini, based in Key West, Fla.
"It rides like an aircraft ? there's
no sensation of motion ? and it
1 makes banked turns," said the 25
?' year-old son of retired Marine Corps
?' Capt. and Mrs. Edward Morrow. 69H
Wiltolw St., Hertford.
"It's fast when it flies, capable of
'? going more than 40 mph, and you
* don't even notice when it flies over
' high waves."
' The Gemini actually flies in water
using its wing-like foils. The foils are
smaller than aircraft wings because
water is about <00 times more dense
' than air; a relatively small lifting
: surface can move the 132-foot, 256-ton
ship's hull completely out of the
water.
The Gemini uses a gas turbine
engine ? similar to the engines on a
? DC-lG aircraft ? when it flies and is
propelled by diesel engines while
- hull-borne.
When the Gemini is under way,
Morrow, an interior communications
electrician, stands duty as the
engineering officer of the watch.
"The ship has unmanned
enginerooms, and everything is
controlled from the engineering
operations control station," he said.
"The EOS is actually an L-shaped
panel that controls the ship's fuel and
hydraulics systems, the electrical
plant and the engines. It indicates
how every system is functioning.
Everything is at your fingertips."
Morrow is also Responsible for
maintenance and repair of the ship's
electrical switchboard and the
distribution system from its
generators.
He repairs the Gemini's aircraft
like gyrocompass; dead reckoning
tracer, which records the ship's
changes in direction; and interior
communications system.
"My collateral duties include
repairing electric equipment and
training my shipmates in electrical
safety as safety officer," Morrow
said.
"This ship has a small crew ? four
officers and 18 enlisted men. We have
to learn jobs outside our normal
Navy fields just to keep it operating.
This is probably the hardest-working
command I'll ever see.
"The crew sticks together as a
team. We know each other's
capabilities and trust each other."
Morrow enlisted in the Navy in 1975
and served on the submarine tender
USS Hunley, homeported in
Charleston, S. C., and at the Shore
Intermediate Maintenance Activity
in Norfolk, Va., where he earned the
Navy Achievement Medal fbr his
professional performance.
He joined the Gemini's pre
commissioning unit in December
1981.
He became a "plank owner," a
member of the commissioning crew,
when the Gemini joined the active
Navy fleet in November 1982.
"I went to school for about a year
before I actually joined the ship's
pre-commissioning unit in
Bremerton, Washington," Morrow
said.
"I requested a commissioning unit.
I knew I'd work some extremely long
hours to prepare the ship for con
missioning, but it's very rewarding
to be part of the first crew."
After its commissioning, the
Gemini headed down the West Coast
on a 5, 500-mile journey to its new
home port in Key West, transiting the
Panama Canal and making port calls
in San Francisco; San Diego;
Acapulco, Mexico; and Rodman,
Panama.
"We hit some rough weather off the
Oregon and California coats,"
Morrow recalled. "That proved to
me just how seaworthy this ship is."
"I enjoyed Acapulco. It cost me
about a dollar for a car and driver all
day to go shopping and sightseeing."
"I've been lucky since I've been in
the Navy, I only spent 190 days at sea
during the four years I was aboard
the Hunley and the hydrofoils make
deployments only a few days long. I
don't know how the people who have
to spend months away from their
families handle it."
Morrow's wife is the former
Barbara Bruner, the daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. L. L. Bruner, 49G Dogwood
Drive, Hertford. The Morrows have
two children: Emily, 5, and Heather,
2.
The Navy's six hydrofoils, all
based in Key West, are designed to
patrol restricted waters, support
task force operations and shadow
potentially hostile forces.
They also have been assisting the
Coast Guard with drug interdiction
patrol.
"My family and I enjoy Key West,"
Morrow said.'"The year-round warm
weather is what makes this place. We
love to swim and camp, and there's a
bicycle path that goes almost around
the island."
Morrow said he plans to make the
Navy his career.
"I quit school and came in the
Navy because I needed something to
straighten me out," Morrow said.
"Leaving school isn't a good choice,
but I got my general educational
development certificate in 1OTI."
"Now I'm taking courses la digital
elecrtronics."
"The rewards of the service are
great. I've had a wider variety of
experiences in the Navy than I ever
could have had in a civilian job."
Navy interior com
munications electrician
Kevin Morrow of Hertford
described riding a Navy
hydrofoil as almost like flying
in an aircraft. (Photo by
Carolyn Harris)
Navyman Kevin Morrow of
Hertford stands watch as the
engineering officer in the
engineering operations
control station aboard the
USS Gemini. (Photo by
Carolyn Harris)
Local teachers attend ACC program
Elsie W. Thomas of Hertford, and
Cheryl A. Newby of Belvidere, are
among more than 20 high school
classroom teachers from Eastern
North Carolina to be selected as N. C.
Writing Fellows to participate in a
three-week writing project to be held
on the Atlantic Christian College
campus, July 10-28.
The summer institute will deal
with techniques of the teaching of
writing in the classroom for teachers
in grades K-12. Fellows will par
ticipate in intensive personal writing
activities and acquire many new
writing techniques.
They will be provided with an
opportunity to observe what are
considered to be many of the best
writing lessons and will be exposed to
current theories and research con
cerning the composition process.
Fellows will after present writing
workshops within their own school
districts and use material which was
prepared at the ACC institute. They
are to receive six graduate credits in
the teaching of writing for par
ticipating in the event.
The Atlantic Christian College
workshop is part of the second N. C.
Writing Project to be held on the
campuses of eight colleges and
universities in the state.
Similar workshops are to take
place at Pembroke State University,
Wake Forest University /Winston
Salem State, UNC-Charlotte,
Western Carolina University /UNC
Asheville, UNC-Wilmington, Ap
palachian State University, and N. C.
State University/Peace College.
Serving as members of the steering
committee fot the ACC institute are
Dr. Thomas G. MacLennan and
Agnes McDonald of Atlantic
Christian College, project co
directors; and Emily McCleary,
Velam Smith, and Linda Perry of the
Northeast Regional Educational
Center.
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