I was pleasantly surprised when reading in This Old Dorm about the upgrade plans for the shuttle formerly belonging to the former Director Tremayne of the Psi Corps. Not that it was being upgraded, because we already knew that that was going to happen, but that it was being upgraded to Kennebec class.

I'm not sure what a Kennebec-class ship is in the UF universe, and I'm sure the name was chosen because of the river in Maine, but it holds special meaning to me because the USS Kennebec (AO-36) was the ship my grandfather served on during WWII.

My grandfather's Kennebec was the 2nd (and last, so far; the 1st was a Civil War gunboat) US Navy ship bearing the name of the Kennebec River. She was the name ship (Kennebec-class!) of a type of fleet oiler, providing fuel oil, kerosene, diesel oil and aviation gasoline where it was needed. She was originally the tanker SS Corsicana, built in 1940, but was purchased by the US Navy in 1942 and re-christened the USS Kennebec. She was part of the support fleet for the North Africa landings, refueled ships while on North Atlantic convoy duty, and was part of the task group that captured the German U-505. She also saw service in the Pacific during the war. Although she was later in and out of commission depending on the needs of the Navy, she also saw duty during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. My grandfather's Kennebec's final decommissioning was in 1970, and she was sold for "non-transportation use" (I suspect that means scrap) for $180,077 on April 6, 1982.

If you're interested in more about the real Kennebec-class ships, the homepage of the USS Kennebec is at http://www.sadiehawkins.com/kennebec.htm

Thanks for allowing this semi-kinda-on/offtopic digression...

Regards,
Jeanne

http://www.jhedge.com
http://go.compuserve.com/Anime