Working for Newport News Shipbuilding is a livelihood that countless Gloucester and Mathews residents have relied on for well over a century. Last Thursday, the Gazette-Journal had an opportunity to take a comprehensive tour of the Huntington Ingalls-owned shipyard on the James River, led by its vice president of operations, Mathews resident Danny Hunley.

More than 900 Gloucester residents and nearly 100 Mathews residents, or 22 percent of all local residents who commute to Newport News for work, are employed at Newport News Shipbuilding.

The tour started inside Newport News Shipbuilding’s state-of-the-art Apprentice School. It continued through the revitalized neighborhood built to accommodate both students and the public, and on through the secured gates of the shipyard.

Inside, the yard’s 23,000 workers were hustling around performing their duties—some of them riding one of the 6,000 bicycles that Hunley said provide an easy form of transportation throughout the...