Neither Confirm nor Deny

Aside from rattling nerves and sabers, the main job of an aircraft carrier is to blow up lots of stuff. In order to do that you need as many airplanes as possible and then you need to have a bunch of bombs and bullets. I've often gone to sleep at night while the ammo boys are loading bombs or missiles just a floor above my space only yards above my rack.

After arriving home from a cruise we'd sit off the coast of the U.S.A. for a day or two unloading all that ammunition. It was always within sight of the shore. Sometimes, if the wind was just right, you could hear music from the bars on the beach.

We have spent days unloading ammo while Soviet Bear bombers fly overhead taking pictures (I suppose) of our work parties. Somewhere in the old U.S.S.R. there must be a picture of me giving the finger to the Ruskies as they flew by.

But that was conventional weapons only. For the real stuff. The stuff that I can't confirm or deny exists on any ship in the fleet. For that stuff we'd have to put in to shore. I don't really remember how the nukes got off the ship but I do distinctly remember them being loaded. No, no. I remember being told by the rumor mill that that's what was being loaded. It might have not been nukes at all. It could have been booze for the brass for all I know. I was enlisted personnel after all.

The ship has elevators that are generally used to carry airplanes from the huge hangar deck (which is under the big flat flight deck) up to that flight deck. The elevators start level with the hangar deck and the flight crews roll the planes out onto the elevators. When they're securely there, the elevator is raised and the planes can then be rolled out onto the flight deck where they can be loaded with munitions and fuel and can be prepared for takeoff. Sometimes if you've seen a carrier from a distance it might look like there's a hole in the middle of it. That's because the elevator doors are open. There's an elevator on each side of the ship. If they're open you can see right through the hangar deck out to the other side.

When the ship is parked at its home port it is located next to a huge parking lot. That parking lot is mostly used for the ship's company to park their cars when the ship isn't deployed.

Just before the nukes come they make sure the parking lot is empty.
The elevators are lowered. Marines sit on the elevators with very large-looking machine guns. And they watch the parking lot. No unauthorized personnel (me included) are allowed to approach the ship or the parking lot or the guns.

Great big trucks bring in something that can't be seen.
Helicopters also bring something in.

It looks sinister.

It was my duty to neither confirm or deny the existance of nuclear weapons on U.S. Navy ships in the fleet.