USS JFK Carrier Project in RI

The Project Vision

Mission Statement  • Project Description: Broad Appeal  •   Education  • Community Benefits  • Disaster Relief  •
Why We Will Succeed

 

Project Description: Education

Educational elements, especially those with a workforce development component, will play a major role in our plans and future success.

USS JOHN F KENNEDY ACADEMY

Job Training: Vocational training groups are excited about the school-to-work potential offered by the fully equipped shops aboard John F Kennedy:

• Machine shop and welding facilities
• Woodworking shop
• Fiberglass and composite materials workshop
• Electrical, electronics and communications shop
• Hydraulics and pump service workshop
• Damage control training: “thinking on your feet to overcome emergencies”
• Marine shipboard fire fighting training facility
• Industrial finishes and coatings lab
• Prototyping workshop with 3-D design and modeling tools
• Navigation technology school
• HAZ-MAT response training

NOTE: A number of the job training functions will include paid work opportunities to fulfill ship and park-related day-to-day needs. For example:

• Culinary school specializing in the hospitality business such as theme parks and resorts
• Exhibit design and production workshop
• Aircraft restoration workshop and research archive
• Media services print and imagery shop

These vocational training programs should help provide youth with useful skills and experiences to help them become productive members of society.

Joint ventures with local schools and universities will form the backbone of this program.
Bristol-based Roger Williams University has agreed to a broad-based, long-term relationship with the aircraft carrier project.

Dr. Robert Ballard’s URI involvement also opens the door to affiliations in certain oceanographic and marine disciplines. One such partnership involves URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography and several Career & Tech Centers. An ROV built by the Cranston Robotics program will be equipped with monitoring sensors for use in habitat studies, aquaculture programs and the underwater inspection of ships’ hulls.

For cooperative programs with other educational institutions, the project has access to 86 colleges and universities within 50 miles – one of the largest such concentrations of higher ed facilities in the entire country.

Restoration Workshops: An adjunct to the vocational training programs will be hands-on workshops, where volunteers can help staff to restore aircraft and other important artifacts, such as the 1938 Ford sedan driven to battle on December 7, 1941 by Pearl Harbor Medal of Honor recipient LT John Finn.

Seeking to appeal to sports fans, we acquired an F9F Panther jet, the same type fighter baseball great Ted Williams flew in combat in Korea with the Marine Corps. With the support of the Boston Red Sox we are restoring the aircraft in his fighter squadron markings. This is a major vocational training opportunity, and it will become the centerpiece of a satellite Ted Williams Museum in Rhode Island.

Another major restoration effort will be Paramount Pictures’ 39 foot long model of the USS Nevada, battleship of Pearl Harbor fame, used in "Winds of War" and other motion pictures.