Welcome to your tour of a state-of-the-art U.S. Navy nuclear submarine. You are standing on Pier 22 of Norfolk Naval Station in the Tidewater section of the state of Virginia. The pier is a long jetty of concrete, stretching westward into the Elizabeth River from the high security checkpoint next to the towering structure of the haze-gray tender ship.

Your destination is the end of the pier, where the sole in-port submarine of Submarine Squadron 8 is tied up -- all the other units of the squadron are already deployed at sea. The USS Hampton, SSN-767, is preparing to get underway for a rapid-deployment exercise, and you are lucky enough to be sailing with the crew.

The Hampton is in the Los Angeles-class of submarine. The class of submarine is always named after the first ship to be built in this style. The lead ship of the class, in other words, was the USS Los Angeles.

The first thing you notice about the Los Angeles-class submarine is her sleek shape as she lies tied up to the pier. The hull (the outer shell of the submarine) is long and cylindrical and black, only the top few feet protruding above the dark water of the slip.