A Day In The Life: Hampton Roads Naval Museum

Chief Tomich & Rosie

Writtten by Michelle Davenport

As many people may know, I volunteer at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum in Norfolk, VA.  Normally I do administrative work, some scheduling and keeping my 'boss' entertained, but that's not what this article is about.  I've chosen to share an event versus the day to day of what I do.  Because let's face it, data entry is boring.

Every year in August the museum spends time with the Chief Selectees and gives them a bit of naval history on chiefs. It's called CPO Heritage.  I've been fortunate enough to help in four of these.

For three years I helped sell raffle tickets to win a cutlass.  The cutlass is normally donated by Vanguard, so all proceeds go to the museum to pay for coffee and such for the volunteers.  A big shout out to Vanguard for doing this!  My first year, on the first day, I even went through all the presentations with a group of selectees.  This year, the chief's mess took care of the raffle and I was not needed.  I turned to my 'boss' and asked what I could do.

This was my last year for this event and I did NOT want to miss out on it!

We can do it!

So it was decided that I would help with a presentation.  Tom would be portraying Chief Peter Tomich during his presentation of what happened on the USS UTAH on December 7, 1941.

Yes, Chief Tomich was a real person and actually on board the ship during the attack on Pearl Harbor.  

But how were we going to work in why I was there?  I wanted to blend in with the presentation.  At first I had thought to dress like a woman from the 1940s, that could be fun, but why would she be on the ship.  Then my husband came up with the idea of Rosie The Riveter.  Tom loved it!  I loved it!  It was an easy costume and Tom could quickly explain why I was there.



Perfect!

So for three days I was up by four am to get ready and be out the door by five am.  I don't normally do hair and make up, but for this event I went all out.  So yeah, it took me a bit longer to get out the door than is normal for me.  Hence the four am wake up.

Seeing the USS WISCONSIN in the early morning light was so awe inspiring!

We did 24 presentations in 3 days.  It was brutal sometimes, being in the belly of a ship with no a/c on a 90-100 degree day, but very rewarding.  Let's just say I think I sweat, I mean glistened, a few pounds off during those three days.  So up side!

I will say that I was very proud to help share the experience of these selectees this year.

And on an awesome side note.  They loved the Rosie bit in this presentation and want to do it again next year.  Sadly, someone else will have to do it since I'll be on the west coast this time next year.  I think we already have a volunteer though!

Michelle Davenport is the author of “Second Chances at East Beach” in By the Bay: East Beach Stories.  Her story “Tag!  You’re Dead” will be in Volume II, to be published in 2017.  For more information on Michelle, please visit her website.