NATCHEZ — In 1942, Joe Paine became part of the first group of sailors to board the U.S.S. North Carolina — then in 2008 he watched another group of young sailors do the same.

The difference — his North Carolina was a World War II battle ship, while the new North Carolina is a nuclear powered attack sub.

Paine, a Natchez resident, joined 6,000 World War II veterans, politicians and current sailors for the commissioning of the new U.S.S. North Carolina on board the decks where he and 2,700 others fought battles from the Mediterranean to the South Pacific.

“It brought back old memories and I just lived in the past for a little while,” Paine said.

Paine also enjoyed seeing some of his old Navy friends, many who had not seen in decades.

“Those men have gotten old since I’ve been there, so most of them I didn’t recognize,” he said.

His U.S.S. North Carolina, which was decommissioned shortly after World War II and is now a museum, was in great shape, he said.

“The decks, when we went back to look at them, looked brand new,” Paine said.

And this was an aspect that was especially important to him as a plank owner, or a member of the originally crew of the ship. Each of his original shipmates received a piece of teak wood with a brass name plate and commissioning date, the same memento given to the current crew of the new submarine. This helped create a special bond between current and past crews.

“You always feel a kinship with somebody that’s aboard Navy ships,” he said. “The ones that I met there were fairly young people, of course, but they were all plank owners. There was no G.I. stuff. We were in civilian clothes, but they opened up to us like we were old buddy, buddies.”

Being a plank owner is such an honor to members of the Navy, that Naval Secretary Donald Winter dropped what he was doing to have a 10-minute conversation with him Paine said.

“(Sec. Winter) was gracious and showed a lot of interest in our conversation,” Paine said. “Although brief, we had an excellent exchange of patriotic thoughts regarding the ceremony and what his commission meant to the Navy of today.”

And the Navy and the U.S.S. North Carolina of today have big shoes to fill.

In WWII, Paine was the head electrician on one of the ship’s turrets.

“It was my job to make sure all the guns could fire,” he said.

And fire they did. In a shooting competition between battleships, a 20-foot by 20-foot canvas was stretched out in the Gulf of Mexico, 24 miles from the ship’s location as a target. Paine’s turret put all three of its 16-inch shells through the target.

This accuracy became a big asset in the Mediterranean, when they battled the French ship, the Jean-Bart.

“(The French) had 11-inch guns and of course they were no match for us,” Paine said.

The ship also fought in several major Pacific battles.

Despite the strong legacy his shipmates left, Paine has faith that the new crew will help the submarine live up to its name.

“The speakers of the day referred to the event as the ‘passing of the torch’ from the ‘worlds greatest generation’ and I can tell you all, we are passing it on to very capable and dedicated people,” he said. “This is the new great generation.”