The USS Hawaii, an attack submarine, stretches nearly 400 feet in the port of Pearl Harbor When submerged in water, it weighs more than 7,500 tons. At any given moment, it could navigate to depths exceeding 800 feet, or launch a land attack missile.
But to Taylor Halbrook, a machinist's mate, the massive Navy weapon is like something else entirely: a home. You can almost always find him on the ship, day or night. He might be watching over the midsection of the engine room on one of his eight-hour shifts. If he's off the clock, he could be playing Grand Theft Auto on the PS3 with a few buddies in an attempt to unwind.
Taylor, a 2011 Blair Oaks High School graduate, said it's often hard for him to stop thinking about the stability of the ship.
"Whenever you're on the boat, you're thinking about the boat," he said. "It doesn't shut off."
Taylor has been working on the USS Hawaii for a year, spending a large chunk of his time on the boat. The submarine's 140 highly-trained sailors are in a maintenance period at the moment, able to spend some time with loved ones on the island. But they will be back at sea at some point over the summer. The classified voyage means six months of isolation for Taylor and his shipmates.
It's tough for some people to get accustomed to life on the submarine, Taylor said. Sometimes people can't tolerate the boat's many close areas, and there are many sailors who are asked to leave.
Trained Navy personnel that do make it as crewmen on the Hawaii grow closer through the experience of living together, he said. They come to rely on one another.
"The submarine isn't able to just float in the water," Taylor said. "If any one of us doesn't do our job correctly, the whole submarine will go down and 140 people will die."
Taylor said one of his favorite aspects of the job is working with his close friends in the Navy. He's always been the kind of person who thrives on a team - even in high school.
At Blair Oaks, Taylor found a place on a handful of sports teams, including football, wrestling and track. He almost missed his graduation ceremony because of the state track tournament where he was a member of the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 relays.
Still, he didn't think of joining the military until his senior year when he met with a recruitment officer. Sitting in the office with the active duty Navy soldier, two words stuck out to Taylor: job security.
"Going into the Navy meant that I wouldn't have to start my life with college loans, or putting that burden onto my parents for paying for college," he said.
In June of his first summer after high school, he left for boot camp. For two months, he was "brought up to the Navy standard," going through intense training and hours of cleaning. One day, as a requirement, they had to experience firsthand what tear gas felt like in order to gain confidence in the gas masks that protected them. As Taylor remembers, "it burned everywhere."
When boot camp ended, he went to months of mechanical engineering school in both South Carolina and New York, learning how to diagnose and fix problems on an attack submarine. Soon enough, the 20-year-old landed a job, hopped on a plane and moved to Hawaii.
But he wasn't alone. Savannah Halbrook and Taylor married in June 2013.
"He was already in Hawaii, I came there, we got married and then he left about a week after we got married," Savannah said. "We just kind of considered living in Hawaii as our honeymoon."
Their wedding was a small ceremony on a glistening white beach. Both Taylor and Savannah talked it over and agreed they didn't want any grand, lavish wedding. There was virtually no crowd at the service - just the officiator and one of Taylor's crew members working a camera.
Savannah, who had dated Taylor for more than two years before they got married, said she fell in love with her partner's strong values. Above all else, he cares about the people in his life, she said.
"Whenever I first met him, he had a very close-knit group of friends, and he's very close with his family...you can just tell the relationship he has with everyone," Savannah said. "It's very close and based on trust and honesty."
And on Memorial Day, Savannah took time to think about people like Taylor who serve our country. As a member of many military spouse groups on Facebook, she was able to be a part of a larger conversation about service and duty, interacting with families and friends of soldiers.
"It's important to remember how we have our freedoms," Savannah said.
Taylor and Savannah got to spend Memorial Day going on a hike with their dogs. It's rare that their schedules align, Savannah said, and it was nice that they got to spend their day together.
"It's amazing that both of us have a day where we can spend time together and not be interrupted or distracted" she said. "And I think it's even more special that it is Memorial Day that that happens on."