For more than 100 years, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) Apprenticeship Program has grown people from the community into the journeymen who built the shipyard into what it is today. This time on Heritage Hour, we look back through time to remember the graduates through the decades.
While the waterfront and the clothing styles have certainly changed since the apprentice class of 1915, the dedication to completing the program is the same to this day. Long before the first nuclear powered submarine would come into the drydocks for maintenance, these journeymen built friendships along with their skills. Some came in as soon as they met the age requirement, others came in later in their lives. Many, but not all, would earn the distinction of honor graduate and be recognized for their efforts. All these aspects were just as true for the 1915 class as the 2025 class and all those in between.
1985 saw the largest graduating class up until that point with almost 350 personnel. That year, the graduation took place at Chrysler Hall instead of Willett Hall due to the sheer number. Later graduations would take place at Willett Hall until it could no longer support the needs of NNSY. Once more, the graduates would walk across the stage in Norfolk that also hosted symphonies and Broadway shows.
Throughout the decades, the apprentice classes have shifted in the number of graduates. While some boasted hundreds, some years only had a few dozen. The apprenticeship program is not an easy one, and not everyone who starts it walks across the stage after four years. In 1965, over 50 of those who started failed to graduate. Through the decades, there is visible and warranted pride in those that made it to end.
In 1975, NNSY Commanding Officer Rear Admiral Elmer Westfall addressed the graduates and told them to see themselves 25 years into the future: “When you recall the successful years between now and the year 2000, let it be said with pride that we knew who and what we were. We set our sights high, and we kept faith in the future.” Fifty years later, his words can be carried forward for the graduates of 2025: in 2050, what successes will they reflect upon as they look back to this point in time as they added their chapter to the history of Norfolk Naval Shipyard.