His handiwork is a holiday tradition in Portsmouth

PORTSMOUTH

These days, Warren Swain has to admire his heavenly creation from afar.

When relatives are in town during the holiday season, the retired sheet-metal worker drives them to downtown Norfolk and points to the giant, lighted star atop Portsmouth Naval Medical Center.

"I say, 'See that? I built that,' " the 66-year-old said, beaming with pride.

Swain was invited back to the facility Friday morning to watch his former colleagues push the star upright ahead of Saturday's Grand Illumination of Norfolk and Portsmouth. At the end of the holidays, it's lowered flat and remains on the roof the rest of the year.

It was the 50th time a giant star had been pushed into place, 18 stories up on the roof of the hospital's elevator penthouse, officials said. Swain, who retired in 2006, said he built the current star in 1991.

The original star, built in 1959, was made of black iron pipe with electric lights taped to it, hospital officials said. When it began to wear out, Swain's boss asked him if he could build a new one.

He fabricated aluminum in six sections and had it welded together. Each angle of the star, from point to point, has two 8-foot-long fluorescent bulbs and plastic covers anchored to it with cable ties.

The first two years, Swain recalled with a chuckle, it took 25 men to raise his star with ropes and keep it from flying off the side of the building in gusty winds. The third year, Swain got permission to have a hydraulic lift built for the star. Now three men can push it into place.

"I hope this one will last 50 years," Swain said.

Cindy Clayton, (757) 446-2377, cindy.clayton@pilotonline.com