I use to run and do maintenance on those huge Gas Turbine Propulsion Engines and Gas Turbine Electrical Generators as a Gas Turbine Technician. It used to be fun times back then not to along ago it seemed. It was my years serving aboard that ship while stationed in Yokosuka Japan. It was the best of years stationed there and deployed across the pacific rim.
Its Veteran Day here in the US and on this Veteran Day I remember and reflect on my 8 years in the US Navy. That was my very first ship in RL way before EVE and flying spaceships in space. It was a Guided Missile Aegis Cruiser, In relation to EVE that would be a Caldari ship i guess. I think about the good times bad times and the scary times all compressed into a few years of my life and the many awesome people I served with. Some the best people I ever knew I met during those years. Those memory always stay with those that served for life.
With all the service members everywhere in harm’s way in all the military branches throughout the world I wish you all a safe deployment and that you make it home in one piece.
To all you Military Vets its like a brotherhood no matter the era you served in.
Ardent Defender 
I can tell you a little about that poster!
I worked for Martin Marietta Aero & Naval Systems in Baltimore in the 1980s, as a technical editor and writer and DoD security specialist. I was part of the “Editorial” team of VLS and clearly remember meeting the artist who did this poster, right after he was awarded the contract. It represented a great launch to his career as an independent artist; he also won contracts for “Duck Stamps” in the same period. He told me about being escorted to the back of the Smithsonian Institution, where he was allowed to see (not touch) original clothing from the Revolutionary War, just so he could get the details correct. It was a huge hassle to get the painting approved – everyone from the CEO down to the artists and the ship’s captain had a say in everything – how bright the ship, how large the missile, emphasize the soldier or the ship. Then, the color separations went through the outside printing. We had whole pallets of these things made and shipped. As an editor, I could and did give away posters. Mugs were a little harder to come by.
As more ships came online, we developed a poster for every single one that Martin Marietta built. The ship captains always wanted their ship shown in a gale force wind, coming forward, and with all guns blazing. All the artists begged to show side or rear views (these ships could launch from the rear battery too), but the captains were adamant in never showing retreat.
We did “viewgraphs” – basically large slides. This was long before Power Point and it involved hours of handwork As I recall, the Editor’s office (and I had a home there for about a year) For a major presentation to the USN, we might have a stack 3 or 4 feet high. In our office bay, we had 8 or 10 non classified file cabinets full of just the completed viewgraphs. We had banks of photos too.
Yes, I still have my copy of this very same poster, plus a few more.
Today, I’m a college English instructor. My students are shocked when I bring up my “old life.”
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