Ship's company from October 1986 until retirement on 30 November 1989.
Worked on the APS-180 radar system for the E-2C aircraft. Shop supervisor from June 1988 until retirement.
Below are a couple of photos from my retirement ceremony. My wife Cathy is in one of the Photos with me.

In all, the model took about a year to complete. Some of the delay was because of bad cataracts and unable to see to do small detail work, such as gluing the props to the E-2s and applying the star and bars decals to the aircraft. I actually waited about 8 months between the completion of the ship and doing the small detail work and applying the decals after my cataract surgeries. The kit is a 1/800 scale Arii model with some modifications to the starboard forward sponson. The port side forward sponson, island and some of the aircraft actually were salvaged from a model that was about 85% completed when it was destroyed by someone who broke into our house and trashed things looking for stuff easy to pawn of sell. That was in April of 2007. The hangar deck was the base for a waterline model and glued in place with support glued along the inside of the hull. I hand drilled holes to add the black thread for the arresting gear.
I will soon start work of one aircraft from each squadron aircraft that was attached to CVW-2 during my last cruise from Feb. 1989 through Aug. 1989. I will send photos of each as I get it completed. All squadron markings (except for VF-1 and VF-2) will be custom printed on my inkjet printer so as to match the squadron markings as closely as possible.
I greatly enjoyed my time aboard the Ranger and made many friends, a couple of which I still maintain contact with.
Ken