The budget of the US Navy in 1953 was 13 billion. STEC, in the above document, received an injection of 27 million dollars. Its actual operational cost (being a lean operation and all) was maybe about 30 million, or the cost of maybe one U-2 or half of an Essex carrier.
Putting this into perspective, STEC takes a measly 0.22% of the navy’s overall budget. This is basically chump change and is well within the estimates of Navy R&D (at the time).
STEC Archives, Print Document Division
Curator signature: Marby
Format: Archival Records
Object: Memorandum authorizing additional funding to special project “Special Task and Evaluation Command”
Location (if known): White House
Time (if known): November 11, 1953
MEMORANDUM OF CONFERENCE WITH THE PRESIDENT TOP SECRET
DECLASSIFIED XX-XX-199X
#0###
Others present:
Secretary of State
General Smith
Admiral Nimitz
Vice Admiral Lockwood
Rear Admiral Burke
Authorization was sought from the President to go ahead on a program designed to increase the budget of the Special Task and Evaluation Command (STEC) by approximately 20 million. Admiral Nimitz notes that much of this would be invested and used for basic infrastructural and logistical purposes. The unusual nature of STEC’s true operations (pertaining to that of the shipgirl and fairies) should result soon in complete financial independence possibly within the decade.
The President approved this action and asks about the progress of STEC. Rear Admiral Burke reports that STEC has eliminated one additional Abyssal since the last special meeting in June, and that no further sightings are observed.
Rear Admiral Burke delivers a report on STEC’s research progress. He comments that much of the data expected to be derived from current projects – such as results of biomedical tests – would be of general scientific interest. However, data such as the development of systems pertaining to shipgirl technology and other theoretical operations that could arise from such remains classified. The President agreed to this recommendation, but larconically points out that when he wrote STEC’s constitution he never would have thought that the classified information would be “stuff straight out of fairy tales.”
Vice Admiral Lockwood reports that STEC’s progress in underwater projects are developing at a satisfactory speed. Embedded personnel in Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet is beginning routine surveys. He wonders if there are ways to increase the number of ONI fairies or even possibly the future of a submarine shipgirl appearing. The issue of involved Admiral Rickover into STEC is raised.
General Smith indicated that while the CIA is capable of providing additional intelligence support, it will be necessary for STEC to create its own infrastructure given the increasingly large demand. Rear Admiral Burke suggests that an additional 7 million be allotted to STEC for this purpose. The President indicated agreement.
The President concludes that STEC’s operations must be moral, secretive, and justified. He stresses that information pertaining to STEC is not to be released or used in any way that could be interpreted as provocation, as it is important to communicate to the world that the United States do not want war.
“Morgane, what is your avatar on the hon-haka forums?”
Oh.
It’s a sketch of Jer. As most of you know, I’m partial to her design. Think of it as an alternative outfit for her or what happened if we had given all the Iowa sisters the same blue colored dress.
Okay, this is a bit of an usual topic, but since the topic came up, I might as well comment on it.
I think if I were to look for one thing that brings humanity together, it’s probably food. Everyone has to eat, and almost everyone likes to eat something. You see this in anime, too, where someone’s cooking skills are often for laughs or used as a display of skill. Let’s not get into things like Hiei or Isokaze’s cooking.
So, naturally, the question becomes: who’s the best cook? Or, “who’s good at cooking?”
This is a bit of a long answer, so bear with me for a bit.
I tend to go a slightly different route, however. In the same way that there is a general level of maturity in all of Pacific’s shipgirls, you can assume a general level of competency or at least familiarity with common household items and cookware. I mean, shipgirls are shipgirls – they aren’t exactly in danger of starving themselves – and even the laziest would probably know how to open cans or operate a microwave or “stick thing in fire to make it cooked.”
MREs and ramen noodles are pretty easy, too.
That being said, here is what you can expect. Again, most shipgirls will tend to show up with at least 1930s-1950s knowledge of cooking appliances and techniques. Remember that the world was still very keen on educating young women things like homemaking and cooking at the time, so some of that probably contributes to the “working” knowledge that shipgirls show up to the world with.
In other words, they’d be at home with something like this.
An image taken by Zero as he visits one of America’s many history museums. You can see that even in this 50s styled kitchen, there are already many appliances that are recognizable even to us today. Importantly, things such as fridges, toasters, blenders (I think I see a juicer too) and even modern-styled ranges are all already there.
So, what I’m saying is that you can expect the average shipgirl to know how to fry some bacon and use the grease to make omelettes, or to create a cold-cut platter and luncheon salads, or to dress a roast and make something hearty for dinner.
I mean, sure, when you get to the higher end of things you have girls like Surcouf whose cooking is elegance personified (and very French) or Langley (nobody beats mom’s apple pie!), but I tend to think of cooking as both a matter of experience and skill.
In other words, given a proper recipe, I think only the most harebrained shipgirls (looking at you Chester) would have trouble following a plan from start to finish. In addition, how good someone is at cook is going to depend on whether or not she likes to cook, likes to eat, enjoys being creative, and how much time she actually spends on the matter. Someone like Cal might be surprisingly capable, but she’d hardly be in the kitchen in contrast to someone who likes to cook her own food every day (e.g. iowa sisters, Tennsy). As a whole almost all of the subgirls are scary good at actually cooking (but that’s a nod to history as well), but someone like Narwhal might be way, way, way better at using coconuts than anyone else in her class.
I guess, like always, the answer is that “it depends.” Some day I’ll probably post a bit of a blurb about the general spread of tasters versus eaters versus cooks inside STEC, but for now, I think it’s time to call it a night. We’ve been really, really busy these days with the entire team moving about to catch our own internal deadlines.
