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Heavy Metal: The Hard Days and Nights of the Shipyard Workers Who Build America's Supercarriers – Virginia Steelworkers Forge the World's Most Powerful Naval Weapon
An extraordinary story of American can-do, an inside look at the building of the most dangerous aircraft carrier in the world, the John F. Kennedy.
Tip the Empire State Building onto its side and you’ll have a sense of the length of the United States Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the most powerful in the the USS John F. Kennedy. Weighing 100,000 tons, Kennedy features the most futuristic technology ever put to sea, making it the most agile and lethal global weapon of war.
Only one place possesses the brawn, brains and brass to transform naval warfare with such a creation – the Newport News Shipbuilding yard in Virginia and its 30,000 employees and shipyard workers. This is their story, the riggers, fitters, welders, electricians, machinists and other steelworkers who built the next-generation aircraft carrier.
Heavy Metal puts us on the waterfront and into the lives of these men and women as they battle layoffs, the elements, impossible deadlines, extraordinary pressure, workplace dangers and a pandemic to complete a ship that will be essential to protect America’s way of life.
The city of Newport News owes its very existence to the company that bears its name. The shipyard dominates the town—physically, politically, financially, socially, and culturally. Thanks to the yard, the city grew from a backwater to be the home of the premier naval contractor in the United States.
Heavy Metal captures an indelible moment in the history of a shipyard, a city, and a country.
Tip the Empire State Building onto its side and you’ll have a sense of the length of the United States Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the most powerful in the the USS John F. Kennedy. Weighing 100,000 tons, Kennedy features the most futuristic technology ever put to sea, making it the most agile and lethal global weapon of war.
Only one place possesses the brawn, brains and brass to transform naval warfare with such a creation – the Newport News Shipbuilding yard in Virginia and its 30,000 employees and shipyard workers. This is their story, the riggers, fitters, welders, electricians, machinists and other steelworkers who built the next-generation aircraft carrier.
Heavy Metal puts us on the waterfront and into the lives of these men and women as they battle layoffs, the elements, impossible deadlines, extraordinary pressure, workplace dangers and a pandemic to complete a ship that will be essential to protect America’s way of life.
The city of Newport News owes its very existence to the company that bears its name. The shipyard dominates the town—physically, politically, financially, socially, and culturally. Thanks to the yard, the city grew from a backwater to be the home of the premier naval contractor in the United States.
Heavy Metal captures an indelible moment in the history of a shipyard, a city, and a country.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published June 14, 2022
65 people are currently reading
1634 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
March 31, 2022
I was surprised at all that went into the building of an aircraft carrier. The logistics, the politics, the science, the materials, the workers, and the list goes on and on. The author does a good job of laying out the whole process, describing it through the use of the construction of CVN79 (the John F Kennedy) in Newport News, VA.
It's good writing, easy to follow and interesting. I learned a lot.
It's good writing, easy to follow and interesting. I learned a lot.
June 5, 2022
I learned an insane amount here. Not only is this book fascinating in its own right, it serves as a reminder that there are entire subjects about which we as individuals know nothing. Thank heaven for writers like Fabey who can distill a topic for the layman and make us feel like we know something.
October 3, 2022
I anticipated that Heavy Metal would be about how aircraft carriers are built. In fact, it's a book about the lives of the various workers and managers at the shipyard at Newport News, Virginia that builds the carriers, and the interactions between the shipyard and the military and politicians against the backdrop of the construction of two carriers between 2011 and 2021. Although Fabey makes it clear that this is what the book is about, it was still a different perspective than what I thought it would be.
I learned some interesting things by reading this book. Like the fact that the 7-story command tower on the carrier deck is actually built separately and lowered into place in one piece by a giant crane. I had also thought that the carrier was built by the shipyard and then the Navy boarded and sailed off on missions when it was complete. In fact, there's a whole process through which the Navy takes over parts of the carrier as they are completed and there are years of sea trials before the ship is deployed.
Still, the social history style of the book was not for me. It's an endless series of stories about Joe the welder and Bob the crane operator and Tom the foreman. There are constant struggles between the military and Congress about costs and military priorities. But there's no narrative, no conflict that threatens the shipyard or uncertainty about whether the carrier will be built, no thesis about the need for these carriers or military strategy or modern labor and industry. It was really hard to maintain my interest in a bunch of machinations about budgets and cost control efforts and individual stories about some of the jobs at the shipyard.
Also, in the later parts of the book, Fabey is unable to hide his disdain for President Trump. He takes pot shots at every opportunity, and no mention of Trump is made without being accompanied by a snide aside, negative adjective or malevolent motivation. Then, Fabey becomes a COVID scold, lamenting how if we had all worn masks like we were told to by the authorities (who lied to us for two years), this all would have been over quickly, and criticizing all who didn’t do what Fabey thinks was warranted. It's a book about aircraft carriers, not political views and baseless opinions about mask efficacy, and I was not interested in Fabey's viewpoints on these topics.
I learned some interesting things by reading this book. Like the fact that the 7-story command tower on the carrier deck is actually built separately and lowered into place in one piece by a giant crane. I had also thought that the carrier was built by the shipyard and then the Navy boarded and sailed off on missions when it was complete. In fact, there's a whole process through which the Navy takes over parts of the carrier as they are completed and there are years of sea trials before the ship is deployed.
Still, the social history style of the book was not for me. It's an endless series of stories about Joe the welder and Bob the crane operator and Tom the foreman. There are constant struggles between the military and Congress about costs and military priorities. But there's no narrative, no conflict that threatens the shipyard or uncertainty about whether the carrier will be built, no thesis about the need for these carriers or military strategy or modern labor and industry. It was really hard to maintain my interest in a bunch of machinations about budgets and cost control efforts and individual stories about some of the jobs at the shipyard.
Also, in the later parts of the book, Fabey is unable to hide his disdain for President Trump. He takes pot shots at every opportunity, and no mention of Trump is made without being accompanied by a snide aside, negative adjective or malevolent motivation. Then, Fabey becomes a COVID scold, lamenting how if we had all worn masks like we were told to by the authorities (who lied to us for two years), this all would have been over quickly, and criticizing all who didn’t do what Fabey thinks was warranted. It's a book about aircraft carriers, not political views and baseless opinions about mask efficacy, and I was not interested in Fabey's viewpoints on these topics.
July 21, 2022
As someone who works at the shipyard it is fascinating to see an outsiders point of view. My only stipulation with this book….leave the politics out of it. The author was clearly trying to paint a narrative that honestly wasn’t necessary.
March 12, 2023
Author transports the reader to the Newport News shipbuilding yard to share many fascinating details about the people and processes involved in building a 100,000 ton aircraft carrier. Along the way are many interesting characters who have shaped that industrial world of Virginia, including labor organizers, craft workers, politicians, business leaders and other assorted folks.
The fact that steel can float in water never ceases to amaze me, honestly. That being the case, I enjoyed this one very much, though the impressive level of engineering, construction, and related detail may be a bit much for the casual reader. But if shipbuilding books float your literary boat, you’ll absolutely love this one.
On a personal note, I never served in the Navy but had the good fortune once to spend a night on a carrier at sea, including participation in both a plane (Carrier Onboard Delivery aka COD) launch and landing. Between that once in a lifetime aviation opportunity, along with watching multiple fighter jets do the same with their afterburners aglow and engines rattling my bones, those 24 hours at sea were incredible beyond words. To those who do serve at sea, whether in a carrier, submarine or other marine vessel, I salute you!
The fact that steel can float in water never ceases to amaze me, honestly. That being the case, I enjoyed this one very much, though the impressive level of engineering, construction, and related detail may be a bit much for the casual reader. But if shipbuilding books float your literary boat, you’ll absolutely love this one.
On a personal note, I never served in the Navy but had the good fortune once to spend a night on a carrier at sea, including participation in both a plane (Carrier Onboard Delivery aka COD) launch and landing. Between that once in a lifetime aviation opportunity, along with watching multiple fighter jets do the same with their afterburners aglow and engines rattling my bones, those 24 hours at sea were incredible beyond words. To those who do serve at sea, whether in a carrier, submarine or other marine vessel, I salute you!
Want to read
July 29, 2022WSJ review: https://www.wsj.com/articles/heavy-me...
Excerpt:
"American carriers have become more than warships. They have been the sentinels, Mr. Fabey notes, that “guarantee open sea-trade lanes around the world,” that enable “the US to set the global trade table.” They have been the beacons of hope that “show American compassion with humanitarian aid in times of crisis or disaster.” They project muscle but also the American values of democracy, human rights, pluralism and the regular peaceful transfer of power.
In the face of an increasingly aggressive and autocratic China, a nation building an ever more Orwellian surveillance state around its citizens, vessels like the Ford and the Kennedy represent the degree of resolve that lies behind the democratic option and an open society. Mr. Fabey takes note of a sticker that adorns the hardhats of many of the ship workers at Newport News: “We Build Freedom.”
(Paywalled. As always, I'm happy to email a copy to non-subscribers)
Excerpt:
"American carriers have become more than warships. They have been the sentinels, Mr. Fabey notes, that “guarantee open sea-trade lanes around the world,” that enable “the US to set the global trade table.” They have been the beacons of hope that “show American compassion with humanitarian aid in times of crisis or disaster.” They project muscle but also the American values of democracy, human rights, pluralism and the regular peaceful transfer of power.
In the face of an increasingly aggressive and autocratic China, a nation building an ever more Orwellian surveillance state around its citizens, vessels like the Ford and the Kennedy represent the degree of resolve that lies behind the democratic option and an open society. Mr. Fabey takes note of a sticker that adorns the hardhats of many of the ship workers at Newport News: “We Build Freedom.”
(Paywalled. As always, I'm happy to email a copy to non-subscribers)
July 5, 2022
This is an easy read. Yet it is fairly biased toward the shipyard workers and the US Navy. I'm still not sure what the problems were with the catapult system and the elevators. I guess Fabey thought that any problems were beyond the scope of the story. But it is disappointing to read a whole book on carrier construction and still feel like you're missing half the story. Fabey also doesn't go to any contractors, and we don't learn anything about the full systems that the Navy provided for integration. Reading between the lines a little, there seem to be huge problems with sloppy work, non-work, racism, …
> The real fight started over the choice spots in Hidens where one could make the speediest exit out of the lot at the end of the day. To even have a shot at nabbing those first few spots, steelworkers like McCann and Patterson had to arrive more than an hour before their shift started. … Once safely anchored in Hidens, McCann and Patterson joined the streams of steelworkers for the fifteen- to twenty-minute walk to the gate, lugging skateboards, pushing bikes, or carrying running sneakers. In the fall, some found the walk pleasurable, but come winter, that freezing wind off the James cut like an icy dagger. Many workers remained in their cars to sleep for another hour or so instead of going through the turnstiles so early … He jumped in, started it, and hit the gravel road, trying his best to accelerate while navigating the potholes to a back road that might just get him out of the lot in time to beat the traffic jam. But he didn’t make it to the exit until after 3:38, so he sat there, turned off his engine, and listened to the radio for the next hour.
> Reporters joked that the navy should design a brand-new carrier, the USS Trump—with coal-powered boilers, hand-operated pulleys and levers operating the elevators, and medieval catapults to fling aircraft out to the sky.
> He had entered many a space, brushes in hand, and discovered a chaotic mess, the metal in some cases damaged by a welder’s carelessness, and he spent half his time just cleaning the steel so he could start the actual painting. Sometimes, another trade would come in, install a new box, and ruin a perfectly good paint job, forcing him to repaint everything he had just finished a day or so before. … Patterson often retouched the same space four times due to sloppy work by other trades. … the chief cause of daily friction among painters, metalworkers, and the other trades remained the rules for how they could work—or more accurately, could not work—with one another. Painters could work within ten feet of hotwork (jobs involving blowtorches, electric arcs, and other tools that produce high heat or sparks). But paradoxically, hotworkers had to remain at least thirty-five feet away from paint work and combustibles, to create a safety zone so flying sparks couldn’t cause a fire with the highly flammable painting materials. … More than once, Big Ed Elliott arrived at a space, saw a painter, and found a bucket to sit on. “Might as well get comfortable,” he’d say. “Not going to get any work done here today.” … It could be so damn annoying when a painter like Patterson would arrive in a space where steel was being cut, ground, or welded—and open a paint can twelve or fifteen feet away. That served as a fine distance for the painter, but it ended a shift’s work for a hotworker the moment the paint lid came off. … If a painter could do the job ten feet or farther away from the hotwork, then that painting had to be done. The fact that the painting forced the hotworkers to stop their job—well, that was their problem. Efforts to change the rule to thirty-five feet for everyone failed, and during the Kennedy dry-dock work, the two separate distances applied.
> The real fight started over the choice spots in Hidens where one could make the speediest exit out of the lot at the end of the day. To even have a shot at nabbing those first few spots, steelworkers like McCann and Patterson had to arrive more than an hour before their shift started. … Once safely anchored in Hidens, McCann and Patterson joined the streams of steelworkers for the fifteen- to twenty-minute walk to the gate, lugging skateboards, pushing bikes, or carrying running sneakers. In the fall, some found the walk pleasurable, but come winter, that freezing wind off the James cut like an icy dagger. Many workers remained in their cars to sleep for another hour or so instead of going through the turnstiles so early … He jumped in, started it, and hit the gravel road, trying his best to accelerate while navigating the potholes to a back road that might just get him out of the lot in time to beat the traffic jam. But he didn’t make it to the exit until after 3:38, so he sat there, turned off his engine, and listened to the radio for the next hour.
> Reporters joked that the navy should design a brand-new carrier, the USS Trump—with coal-powered boilers, hand-operated pulleys and levers operating the elevators, and medieval catapults to fling aircraft out to the sky.
> He had entered many a space, brushes in hand, and discovered a chaotic mess, the metal in some cases damaged by a welder’s carelessness, and he spent half his time just cleaning the steel so he could start the actual painting. Sometimes, another trade would come in, install a new box, and ruin a perfectly good paint job, forcing him to repaint everything he had just finished a day or so before. … Patterson often retouched the same space four times due to sloppy work by other trades. … the chief cause of daily friction among painters, metalworkers, and the other trades remained the rules for how they could work—or more accurately, could not work—with one another. Painters could work within ten feet of hotwork (jobs involving blowtorches, electric arcs, and other tools that produce high heat or sparks). But paradoxically, hotworkers had to remain at least thirty-five feet away from paint work and combustibles, to create a safety zone so flying sparks couldn’t cause a fire with the highly flammable painting materials. … More than once, Big Ed Elliott arrived at a space, saw a painter, and found a bucket to sit on. “Might as well get comfortable,” he’d say. “Not going to get any work done here today.” … It could be so damn annoying when a painter like Patterson would arrive in a space where steel was being cut, ground, or welded—and open a paint can twelve or fifteen feet away. That served as a fine distance for the painter, but it ended a shift’s work for a hotworker the moment the paint lid came off. … If a painter could do the job ten feet or farther away from the hotwork, then that painting had to be done. The fact that the painting forced the hotworkers to stop their job—well, that was their problem. Efforts to change the rule to thirty-five feet for everyone failed, and during the Kennedy dry-dock work, the two separate distances applied.
August 19, 2022
This book is absolutely superb for anyone interested in modern shipbuilding and how the Navy does business. It's amazing things actually get done. It's the story of Newport News Shipyard in Hampton Roads Virginia and how America's aircraft carriers are put together. The author doesn't shy away from contentious issues like racial strife, accidents, unionization, political animosity, and the uncertainties of working on navy contracts. This is a nitty gritty book with interviews of workers and managers at all levels. It is at times heartbreaking and inspiring. Really well done. My only nit pick was that the authors dislike for the former President shone through in several statements that i felt were unnecessary in a book about building aircraft carriers. Overlooking that though, this is a superb book that should be read by all interested in our Navy and the future.
July 26, 2022
This is the story of the people who work at Newport News Shipyard (NNS) hung on the framework of building the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN79). If NFL Films were to write a book about the building of a supercarrier, this is the book they would write. This is certainly the book that NNS and the Steelworkers local 8888 would have wished for.
The story is in no way in-depth. It tells a little about how the carrier is built. It tells a little about the people who build it, who manage it, and who will use it. But it doesn't really say much about any of it. Building the carrier is described only in vignettes about cutting steel, crane lifts, and painting, as are the stories of select workers, managers, and Navy personnel. It is sanitized from any real conflict, even that you would expect between the Navy, Congress, and the Shipyard.
One thing I found disappointing is the way the book ended before the carrier was really completed. It felt to me that the author had a deadline and just stopped writing. Of course with a 50 year lifespan, it would be hard to find real ending points, but using a random spot between launching and full outfitting seemed abrupt to me. The last couple chapters felt less complete and rushed to print.
I found it somewhat interesting and I learned some things. So it wasn't a bad book, just vaguely incomplete.
The story is in no way in-depth. It tells a little about how the carrier is built. It tells a little about the people who build it, who manage it, and who will use it. But it doesn't really say much about any of it. Building the carrier is described only in vignettes about cutting steel, crane lifts, and painting, as are the stories of select workers, managers, and Navy personnel. It is sanitized from any real conflict, even that you would expect between the Navy, Congress, and the Shipyard.
One thing I found disappointing is the way the book ended before the carrier was really completed. It felt to me that the author had a deadline and just stopped writing. Of course with a 50 year lifespan, it would be hard to find real ending points, but using a random spot between launching and full outfitting seemed abrupt to me. The last couple chapters felt less complete and rushed to print.
I found it somewhat interesting and I learned some things. So it wasn't a bad book, just vaguely incomplete.
January 27, 2025
The book follows the construction of the John F Kennedy aircraft carrier at Newport News beginning in 2011. At the time of the book’s release in 2021, the ship remained to be completed (the completion date has been announced as 2024 – it was christened in 2019 - and now is scheduled to be delivered in 2025). The Kennedy is the 2nd in the Ford class which had suffered spectacular cost overruns and delays as they tried to initiate new technologies for launching aircraft (EMALS) and to operate the ship with fewer sailors. At the same time, new techniques were being tried to speed up construction ordered by Robert Gates as a way to reduce costs and to complete the proposed 10 ship class as a replacement for the current Nimitz class of carriers.
These ships are extraordinarily expensive, the Ford costing north of $12 billion. The Navy hoped to recover some of these costs with reduced manpower through the use of new technologies. The assumptions behind these predictions have been challenged by numerous officials. But it was also the first to be designed digitally, a system that was supposed to bring new efficiencies to the process. No more did workers have to carry around heavy rolls of blueprints. The simply looked at their tablets, scanned the wire bundle bar codes and it was revealed exactly where the cables should go and what they should be connected to. The amount of wiring was staggering. There was four million feet of fiber-optic cabling alone since the ship was to have all the communications interconnected. No more eyeballing or guessing where things went. The tablets laid out everything instantly and corrected, saving dreaded and expensive rework.
At least that’s the way it was supposed to work, but sometimes, because those driving the computers didn’t have the historical knowledge and experience of building ships, they might not allow enough room to weld some pipes together, for example. The idea was to create a “system” one that could be duplicated and save money and time building these dinosaurs.
I question whether the current trend to build extremely complex weapons systems like the F-35, the new class of carriers, and other systems, making them far more expensive thus reducing the number that can be built and requiring far more maintenance, is an intelligent use of taxpayer money, not to mention reducing the effectiveness of the smaller forces. The scandals of the Seventh Fleet revealed after the collisions showed poor training and deferred maintenance because of cost that can only hurt the country’s defense. In a changing environment where drones do battle and are really cheap and expendable, I wonder whether carriers will not pass the way of the battleships. I recommend any of a number of recent books on drone warfare.
A really interesting book.
These ships are extraordinarily expensive, the Ford costing north of $12 billion. The Navy hoped to recover some of these costs with reduced manpower through the use of new technologies. The assumptions behind these predictions have been challenged by numerous officials. But it was also the first to be designed digitally, a system that was supposed to bring new efficiencies to the process. No more did workers have to carry around heavy rolls of blueprints. The simply looked at their tablets, scanned the wire bundle bar codes and it was revealed exactly where the cables should go and what they should be connected to. The amount of wiring was staggering. There was four million feet of fiber-optic cabling alone since the ship was to have all the communications interconnected. No more eyeballing or guessing where things went. The tablets laid out everything instantly and corrected, saving dreaded and expensive rework.
At least that’s the way it was supposed to work, but sometimes, because those driving the computers didn’t have the historical knowledge and experience of building ships, they might not allow enough room to weld some pipes together, for example. The idea was to create a “system” one that could be duplicated and save money and time building these dinosaurs.
I question whether the current trend to build extremely complex weapons systems like the F-35, the new class of carriers, and other systems, making them far more expensive thus reducing the number that can be built and requiring far more maintenance, is an intelligent use of taxpayer money, not to mention reducing the effectiveness of the smaller forces. The scandals of the Seventh Fleet revealed after the collisions showed poor training and deferred maintenance because of cost that can only hurt the country’s defense. In a changing environment where drones do battle and are really cheap and expendable, I wonder whether carriers will not pass the way of the battleships. I recommend any of a number of recent books on drone warfare.
A really interesting book.
June 30, 2024
3 stars for me, sadly. I expected this to be more around carriers and the construction process which I love to geek on. Instead, it’s a narrative around various people in the ship yard. While enjoyable, I wish they talked in more detail on the wild engineering feats that go into it. Give me more stats on the largest gantry crane in North America (fun fact: I have been on it and also licked it s/o Elizabeth who I still follow on good reads)
The last few chapters finally had the emotional response the author was going for thru out the book. COVID was a wild time and decimated production schedules everywhere but the shipbuilding industrial base is STILL recovering which does not bode well for the expected ‘near peer adversarial conflict’ in 2027 when China wants to take Taiwan. Reading about the union and various ways the yard interacts with their workers and dealt with shifting times and uncertain futures is also resonant.
The author takes some time to get up on a soapbox about COVID and Trump, and tries to root that in the shipbuilders takes. Honestly could have either read a lot more here or a lot less as there was enough content that it was clear the author was trying to make a point with but didn’t include enough to actually make it. It feels at times as if the author has a specific outline and he tried to fit his interviews and stories to it, and not the reverse
I distinctly remember when Bidens 2022 budget proposal came out and had a wide range of expected ships. Fascinating to read the authors perspective on it and the mild language when me & other Naval PhDs all read it and had a very different perspective: on the unmanned goals (I.e., just say you’re trying to reduce manpower true unmanned is near impossible bc of security considerations and this is all anchored in navy wanting to cut costs which over life of ship manpower is one of the biggest). Upper number of expected ships was there to ask for more $$ and another extension of service life, knowing that navy wasn’t going to get an increase in new ships and even if they did shipbuilders probably couldn’t ramp production
Realistically I don’t think we are going to deviate from carrier based groups in my lifetime. As an adversarial deterrent they are one of the top ones we have- you can’t spot a submarine out on patrol. As a recruitment technique they also drive numbers - just watch the latest top gun. And what would you replace them with? Book said it best- an alternative aircraft carrier is still an aircraft carrier
TLDR who wants to talk geopolitics and naval might I’m here every day
The last few chapters finally had the emotional response the author was going for thru out the book. COVID was a wild time and decimated production schedules everywhere but the shipbuilding industrial base is STILL recovering which does not bode well for the expected ‘near peer adversarial conflict’ in 2027 when China wants to take Taiwan. Reading about the union and various ways the yard interacts with their workers and dealt with shifting times and uncertain futures is also resonant.
The author takes some time to get up on a soapbox about COVID and Trump, and tries to root that in the shipbuilders takes. Honestly could have either read a lot more here or a lot less as there was enough content that it was clear the author was trying to make a point with but didn’t include enough to actually make it. It feels at times as if the author has a specific outline and he tried to fit his interviews and stories to it, and not the reverse
I distinctly remember when Bidens 2022 budget proposal came out and had a wide range of expected ships. Fascinating to read the authors perspective on it and the mild language when me & other Naval PhDs all read it and had a very different perspective: on the unmanned goals (I.e., just say you’re trying to reduce manpower true unmanned is near impossible bc of security considerations and this is all anchored in navy wanting to cut costs which over life of ship manpower is one of the biggest). Upper number of expected ships was there to ask for more $$ and another extension of service life, knowing that navy wasn’t going to get an increase in new ships and even if they did shipbuilders probably couldn’t ramp production
Realistically I don’t think we are going to deviate from carrier based groups in my lifetime. As an adversarial deterrent they are one of the top ones we have- you can’t spot a submarine out on patrol. As a recruitment technique they also drive numbers - just watch the latest top gun. And what would you replace them with? Book said it best- an alternative aircraft carrier is still an aircraft carrier
TLDR who wants to talk geopolitics and naval might I’m here every day
June 12, 2023
A glimpse into the world of American super carrier construction centered at Newport News Virginia. The book touches upon about every aspect of the carrier construction process, the local history of the carrier industry, and the lives of the workers in Newport News. The book describes the dangerous manipulation of hundreds of tons of metal, the coordination of thousands of specialists, the struggles with unproven new technologies, and realistic tests of the vessels with explosives. The book also talks about a wide range of other ancillary topics: negotiations in Congress to get approval and funding for the carriers, emergency measures during the Covid pandemic, union labor problems, and – unbelievably – worker car parking.
The book brings home the colossal scale of carrier construction in time, money, and complexity. A super carrier can take ten years from initial design to completion of sea trials, easily cost ten billion dollars, and require the latest in technology. Along the way there can be funding problems, labor problems, and exasperating technical glitches, any of which can be show-stoppers.
This is a good book, but I have a couple of suggestions to make if there is a second edition. The book has a helpful glossary of acronyms and technical terms, but it could use an appendix listing brief descriptions of the carriers of the past which are mentioned in the text: which CVN number goes with which ship, and the most important dates for the ships. I ended up having to make my own list. Another appendix could list the major milestones in the development of a carrier. I guess these are all covered in the text, but in a somewhat haphazard way.
One of my biggest “take-aways” from the book brought out how long the lives of carriers have been and still could be. Referring to the recent carrier John Kennedy, one of the people in the book said that “the last captain of the JFK isn’t even born yet.” This seems precariously sanguine at a time when China can confidently place a space probe on the other side of the Moon.
The book brings home the colossal scale of carrier construction in time, money, and complexity. A super carrier can take ten years from initial design to completion of sea trials, easily cost ten billion dollars, and require the latest in technology. Along the way there can be funding problems, labor problems, and exasperating technical glitches, any of which can be show-stoppers.
This is a good book, but I have a couple of suggestions to make if there is a second edition. The book has a helpful glossary of acronyms and technical terms, but it could use an appendix listing brief descriptions of the carriers of the past which are mentioned in the text: which CVN number goes with which ship, and the most important dates for the ships. I ended up having to make my own list. Another appendix could list the major milestones in the development of a carrier. I guess these are all covered in the text, but in a somewhat haphazard way.
One of my biggest “take-aways” from the book brought out how long the lives of carriers have been and still could be. Referring to the recent carrier John Kennedy, one of the people in the book said that “the last captain of the JFK isn’t even born yet.” This seems precariously sanguine at a time when China can confidently place a space probe on the other side of the Moon.
February 2, 2023
I picked up Michael Fabey's Heavy Metal:The Hard Days and Nights of the Shipyard Workers Who Build America's Supercarriers to learn more about the working conditions of shipbuilders at Newport News, Virginia. There are many recognized workplace hazards in shipbuilding and some new ones, like COVID-19. While one chapter in particular did satisfy my curiosity about occupational safety and health, I think what this audiobook impressed upon me the most was the scale and complexity of aircraft carriers and how much effort goes into funding, designing, building, troubleshooting, and maintaining them. There was a lot of discussion of contracts, man hours, and deadlines as the book traced the building of CVN-78 (USS Gerald R. Ford) and CVN-79 (USS John F. Kennedy), the first ships of a new carrier class. Lurking in the background is the question of the United States's military readiness and ability to maintain naval prowess as China is building its own aircraft carriers. I could see how this book has the effect of making more military spending seem reasonable and necessary. I thought this was an interesting "listen."
own
August 20, 2022a book about the work of the American military shipyard in Newport News (that's what it's called), where they build huge aircraft carriers. I've read enough to know that not everything runs smoothly there either. But there are certainly a lot of interesting nuances. The book is good for its multilayering. In it you find about politicians (incl. presidents) who maneuver between the desires of the Ministry of Defence, shipbuilders and voters. And about geopolitics - competition with China. And about military technology. And about the interesting, but dangerous daily work at the shipyard. And about the lives (including outside the shipyard) of workers and their families. Both pluses and minuses are described. There are examples of recklessness, "optimizations", and screw-ups, but also of feats of labor and professionalism. There are fears for the future and hope. A strong niche nonfiction. Anyone who is more interested in the Military Industrial Complex, the anthropology of the profession, the underside of modern life in the US should like it.
November 23, 2025
I thought the chapters were a little disjointed and Fabey has often mashed multiple topics together even when they didn't seem to have a logical connection (most memorable was a brief passage about a shipbuilder's death on the job due to a fall and the subsequent tightening of OSHA scrutiny. This was two pages long and had nothing to do with the rest of the chapter.). It is very obvious what words are (nearly?) direct quote from interviews and the prose is reminiscent of a particularly proficient college application essay. Learning about the politicking was interesting though. Overall I finished the book impressed by the sheer amount of infrastructure, manpower, and technological innovation that goes into such a ship, and disappointed that this effort goes towards making war, but that's just my own view.
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October 13, 2022Zero stars.
After seven attempts to read this book, I finally gave up on Page 96.
Though I am not -- and never was -- a shipbuilder, I do know a bit about construction and about Navy ships. It was clear to me that Fabey (A) does not understand either the meanings or implications of any of the technical terms he uses, (B) did not bother to ask -- or perhaps didn't know that he needed to ask -- any of the shipbuilders he interviewed for information about those terms.
One commenter mentioned that the book is jumbled. I would put it this way: This book appears to be an unedited collection of notes recorded by the author. Thus, my suggestion: Give this collection of notes to a GOOD writer and let him/her organize them into a legible, informative and even intriguing narrative.
After seven attempts to read this book, I finally gave up on Page 96.
Though I am not -- and never was -- a shipbuilder, I do know a bit about construction and about Navy ships. It was clear to me that Fabey (A) does not understand either the meanings or implications of any of the technical terms he uses, (B) did not bother to ask -- or perhaps didn't know that he needed to ask -- any of the shipbuilders he interviewed for information about those terms.
One commenter mentioned that the book is jumbled. I would put it this way: This book appears to be an unedited collection of notes recorded by the author. Thus, my suggestion: Give this collection of notes to a GOOD writer and let him/her organize them into a legible, informative and even intriguing narrative.
October 24, 2022
An interesting story of the building of a modern super-carrier, somewhat overwhelmed by the many names and sorta indistinct personalities of the people involved. I read the book because my men’s group had chosen super-carriers as a topic and felt lucky to have a whole book about it — and, while it served that purpose of understanding the hows and whys of the construction process, delays, cost overruns and the importance of the project to the Newport News community, it never really coalesced as a story, a critical requirement for engaging non-fiction for a general reader. It served its purpose for me, but I’d have a hard time recommending the book to anyone just poking around for a strong non-fiction read.
Grade: B-
Grade: B-
November 9, 2022
Had the book focused on the actual building of aircraft carriers versus taking uncountable side trips into the personal lives, family history, and inconsequential perspectives of many ship builders and sailors, it would have held my interest. Too much of the book devolves into tangential topics that detract from the incredible technology and labor that goes into building an aircraft carrier. The book could have been half as long and would have been considerable better. Sadly, the author’s animosity towards Donald Trump comes through loud and clear, while Biden’s Afghanistan troop withdrawal debacle is dismissed with a single subordinate clause. The book ends with a whimper.
August 21, 2022
I grew up as a Navy brat in Norfolk Virginia in the Newport News shipyard right across the Chesapeake was a standard geographic fixture quite close to me. This book offers an absorbing account of the complexities that go into building a state-of-the-art warship and trying to do so through a pandemic such as Covid. It weaves together the plot lines of labor/management relations, political lobbying for a strong defense budget and challenges of building a Navy to meet a resurgent and increasingly bellicose China.
December 17, 2024
There’s a lot to like about Heavy Metal, specialty as someone from the Peninsula and drives by the shipyard everyday. It does get a bit technical that non-shipyard employees like me might find difficult. The personal stories are really interesting. The best part of the book were the last few chapters. I do wish the author would have added one more chapter at the end to kinda conclude the whole book. It currently just ends suddenly. Also, I was at the christening of the Kennedy and the book mentions both my previous and current employer so that’s fun!
November 27, 2022
The story of building the latest generation of aircraft carriers at the Newport News shipyard in Norfolk, Virgina. It is truly a monumental effort to produce these behemoth technological marvels, especially in times of tumultous politics and COVID 19.
Unfortunately, much of the story just isn't that interesting. The book focuses heavily on the John F. Kennedy, which is not complete as of the end of the book, so the author probably should have waited a year or two to publish.
Unfortunately, much of the story just isn't that interesting. The book focuses heavily on the John F. Kennedy, which is not complete as of the end of the book, so the author probably should have waited a year or two to publish.
September 2, 2022
I did not think this book was very well written. It jumped around a lot with lots of names to keep track of. When it finally got around to how a nuclear carrier is built, it did get interesting. But it took many, many pages to get that point. There were times I almost put the book down and away for good. But I did finish it.
January 23, 2023
A patron at the library who was heading to Newport News recommended this book and I enjoyed learning about an industry I had knew nothing about. The creation of major ships such as aircraft carriers is a huge business that requires precise and difficult work. Politics are involved as funding for these huge projects is precarious. The book looks at both the worker and management levels.
October 4, 2022
Good read, some insight into day to day construction of America's newest carriers. Writer is pro-union, and interjects his polictcal agenda. His personal opinion regarding COVID-19 and those that choose not to get vaccinated is not.relative to the carrier build.
October 20, 2022
A very interesting read on the building of a US aircraft carrier and the people that build them. Had no idea as to the amount of years that it takes to build a carrier. Also information on how China is looking to catch-up with expanding their fleet.
January 30, 2023
Very interesting, detailed dive into all that happens around the building of an aircraft carrier and, especially, the people who build it. Nicely balanced with specific quotes and glimpses into people’s lives up to a broad large scale view.
December 18, 2025
Didn't finish - was only moderately interested in this book. I got through parts about labor negotiations and strikes, and previous carrier builds. But I didn't reach anything about the actual building of this aircraft carrier. Maybe I'll try again someday.
July 30, 2022
Parts were a bit slow, but I found it interesting to hear what goes on to build an aircraft carrier.
August 19, 2022
Loads of detail, perhaps to excess. Interesting overall, pictures did help, wish there were more on the construction.
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October 4, 2022Interesting
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