The Villages - June 2022 - 47

Now at a fork in the road, Calka took a turn that led to
the Navy.
" Nuclear energy sure sounded interesting, and the
naval nuclear power program had a reputation of fast
and furious - and that's kind of how I like it. I thrive on
that, " he said.
Calka spent the next six years learning and training.
This time, he had to buckle down and be vigilant with
his studies.
" It wasn't high school anymore, " he said. " It was
heavy and intense, lots of reactor physics, reactor
principles centered around heat transfer, fluid flow,
electrical theory, mechanical theory and calculus. Let's
say there were 31 people in my class, but at least half
failed. And the problem was, if you failed, you'd go back
to the conventional fleet for six years. You couldn't just
retest in a month. "
Calka crammed for five or six hours in the evenings,
taking short breaks to eat before rushing back to
study hall. Students whose test scores dipped faced an
academic board and were evaluated on their suitability
for the program.
" On Monday, the school was like a morgue, " Calka
said. " We knew there were people who went (for
evaluations) and we didn't really know if they passed
or not. And if they didn't pass the academic board, they
were immediately taken out and shipped out. "
Calka spent two years in school followed by four years
on the USS Long Beach, a nuclear-powered guided missile
cruiser named after the city in California. The only ship
of her class, and the world's first nuclear-powered surface
combatant, deemed the " Only Real Cruiser " because it
was the last cruiser built with a World War II-era cruiserstyle
hull. Propelled by two nuclear reactors, Calka said
they were used to generate heat.
" You can burn wood; you can burn coal, whatever it
takes to generate heat to boil water and create steam to
drive that, " he said. " We never think about that, just turn
the knob. "
Calka's rigorous education and on-the-job training
allowed him to see the technical side of things many of us
benefit from but never question or even imagine.
" I did contract and consulting work, " he said. " I also
worked directly for the utilities companies, depending
on what was available. But we don't have a nuclear
power plant on every corner like a 7-Eleven, so I was
moving a lot. "
MAGAZINE
47
The Villages - June 2022

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