A boat, a shipyard and a girl back home.
Those are the stories structural welder Randy Quave heard growing up. His dad worked as a deckhand on the private yacht of Robert Ingersoll Ingalls, the company’s founder.
Long before Randy was born, his dad traveled aboard the vessel with Mr. Ingalls, including trips to Key West.
Eventually, the senior Mr. Quave wanted to come home.
"He got homesick and said he missed his girl, so he hitchhiked from Key West to Mississippi," Randy said.
The girl he missed was Randy’s mother. They married, and Randy’s dad went to work at Ingalls as a welder.
Years later, when Randy was ready to start working, his dad asked if he wanted to come to the shipyard.
Randy’s answer: "Yeah, why not?"
He entered the welding apprentice program. Nearly 38 years later, he’s still here.
A FAMILIAR FACE
Today, Randy’s job as Hull Material Support for the Welding department looks very different from when he started.
As a driver, Randy moves the materials, tools and equipment welders need to keep work progressing. One day, he’s hauling raw material. The next, he’s delivering portable welding machines—but one thing he’s always doing is helping people get what they need for the job.
"When they call me, I’ll bring it if I can," he said.
His job takes him from one end of the yard to the other, and after nearly four decades, he knows a lot of the shipbuilders he sees along the way.
"I work with so many really great people, fantastic leadership, too," he said.
HELPING GUIDE THE FUTURE
Randy doesn’t just help the welders who are already in the yard; he’s also become a familiar face to many new welders just getting started at Ingalls.
Part of his job duties include picking up new hires from the Training Center and taking them to their workstations.
"I’ll pick them up, load all their tools on the truck and have somebody walk them down to where they need to go," he said. "I kind of show them around."
For someone whose own career began with his dad pointing him toward Ingalls, helping new shipbuilders find their way around the yard comes naturally to Randy.
38 YEARS AND COUNTING
Over the years, Randy has worked in different shops, shifts and stages of construction. He’s watched ships go from pieces of steel to warships.
"I’ve worked on the plates. I’ve worked in the yard. I’ve worked on the hill," he said. "Just seeing them come to life and hit the water, it’s just the coolest."
"I don’t know how you can look at what we do and not think it’s amazing."
Randy, thank you for being an Ingalls shipbuilder!