During World War II, U.S. Navy personnel scrambled across the teakwood decks of the battleship USS Colorado, valiantly facing heavy fire and kamikaze attacks. After the Colorado was scrapped in 1959, much of the decking was salvaged by Boeing, which used it to adorn the walls of one of the employee cafeterias at its Developmental Center in Seattle. Today, more than 50 years later, that cafeteria is being remodeled, and the teak has been removed. But thanks to the efforts of Boeing employees, it will soon be brought back into service— as the floor of a new USO facility at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. “A number of people within Boeing have really gone out of their way to make sure that the teak was treated with respect and donated to people who would use it in an appropriate way,” said Jeff Doan, a Site Services planner who coordinated the initial work to preserve the teak planking. Along with Brad Hill, who is managing the remodeling project for Site Services, part of Boeing’s Shared Services Group, they worked with Global Corporate Citizenship and Mike Lombardi, corporate historian, PHOTOS: (Left) Teak planking from the USS Colorado that adorned a Boeing cafeteria’s walls is stacked for new use as a USO facility floor. MARIAN LOCKHART/BOEING (Insets, from top) The USS Colorado in New York Harbor, 1932. U.S. NAVY A view from the deck circa 1920. U.S. NAVAL HISTORICAL FOUNDATION With the help of Boeing employees, teakwood decking from WWII battleship becomes the floor of a USO center By Bill Seil to find a new home for the teak. Bid specifications were developed; Boeing Surplus Sales personnel were responsible for transferring most of the teak to the USO. Site Services took great care to protect the teak as it was removed from the walls of the cafeteria, Doan noted. Most of the roughly 2,000 square feet (190 square meters) of teak will go to USO Northwest for its new airport facility. Much of the impetus behind preserving the teak came from Pam Valdez, support and training director for the KC-46 Tanker program, Boeing Defense, Space & Security, in Mukilteo, Wash. In 2004, while she was working at the Developmental Center, she discovered the history of the cafeteria teak. She worked with Ryan Jutte, now an F-22 training systems integrator with BDS at the Developmental Center. To honor the history of the Colorado, Jutte designed a plaque to place on the cafeteria walls, and a small group of Colorado veterans, along with their families, were invited for a celebration and an opportunity to see the decking they had served on 60 years earlier. Each was given a small piece of the teak as a keepsake. “It just struck me that the historical Frontiers March 2014 33
Frontiers March 2014 Issue
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