are probably the only people here who would remember this, but i have to say listening to senator bagich's questions about wanting a deep water port in alaska brought back fond memories of senator stevens when i was secretary of the navy many years ago and under the strategic dispersal concept at that time he was pushing real hard for home ports in alaska. of course, at that time we had 465 ships in the navy. but also, admiral, i think your comment about learning how to operate in the persian gulf, that really brought back a strong memory to me from when i was secretary of the navy and we had just started, actually, operating full-time in there, and i remember visiting the u.s.s. stanley in the persian gulf like in 1987. the first thing i would do when i would go aboard ship, it came from my youngster crews at the naval academy when i worked with engineering spaces with the s p snipes was always to go down into the engineering spaces and to ask them the last time their commanding officer had visited the engineering spaces. the railings on the ladder going down into the engineering spaces w