Nuclear Power School was in Orlando, Florida after it moved from Mare Island. It shared a base with the Recruit Training Command, Service School Command, and the Naval Regional Medical Center, and was home for the nukes for six months of intense classroom training prior to practical power plant training at Idaho, New York or Connecticut.
Orlando in the late 70's was an idyllic location. Lounging on the 'beach' under the palms, playing tennis, side trips to Daytona, Clearwater, and Cape Kennedy/Canaveral made for a much better duty station than, say, Great Lakes in the winter. It wins my vote for most enjoyable duty station, despite the routinely scheduled 3:30 thunderstorm. Of course, I spent most of my tour in '78 with a broken foot, hobbling around on crutches, as part of the class of 7806.
Today, NPS is in South Carolina, and the base at Orlando is gone. The last NPS class graduated in December 1998, all the other commands were gone by then, and rumor is they locked the gates behind the last student out. Today it has been replaced by expensive condos, and even the shopping mall is gone. The local green area is named Bluejacket Park, though I doubt any of the residents would even know what a Bluejacket is, or was.
Much like the Bates, we didn't expect it to be around forever, but we thought we'd be a lot older before they both disappeared.
Bennett Road entrance to Nuclear Power School
NPS classroom building from the circle - 1978
NPS classroom building - side view - 1978
Nuclear Power School - Aerial View - 1999
(note the building between the two wye shaped classroom buildings that wasn't there in 1979)
Nuclear Power School (former location) - Aerial View - 2002
Orlando was very different from what I remembered. I did meet some interesting folks, but turned down all, and I mean all, offers for extracurricular activity.
Subscribe
Report
My comments