2020 – The year of the Fast Attack

Coming Soon

Well, that was the plan last December. I was thinking that a good follow-up to my 2019 year of highlighting the 41 for Freedom Boats would be a logical way to spend the year. To be honest, I spent a lot of time helping to say goodbye to the USS Pittsburgh (SSN 720) and the year started off with good intentions.

Then came Covid.

In the months that followed the discovery of this crazy new disease from China, I will have to admit my focus was a bit out of whack. I mean, to be fair, I think the single biggest waste of money anyone spent last year was for something called a “Planner”. Most of the teaching I did was in the first few months before that got cancelled. Even my preaching was shifted over to remote as gatherings became taboo and government took control. And we have a lovely collection of masks that range from exotic N95 variants to cloth coverings that bear every sort of design.

To say it was a strange year would be an understatement. Losing friends and family members has been the hardest part. Yesterday, we had to say goodbye to a friend and mentor who succumbed to the virus way too soon. The disease is actually growing all around us as the new vaccine is arriving. I will be glad to see the end of this nightmare. But it certainly has woken us up to the ease in which it dominated the entire globe. Mysteriously not so much China. That is curious.

The Year in Review on theleansubmariner – The Numbers

Overall, by midnight, the blog will be over 655,620 visits. This is the most impressive number although I can see that some visits are multiple for the same visitor.

For the year, we had 98,678 visitors which makes 2020 the third highest year since I began. That averages about to about 270 visits per day. The cumulative average per day over the past few years had been about 175 so that is a nice upwards trend.

December 2020 was the highest single December with a total of over 9580 visits.

Stories and subjects

As of today, there are 935 Published posts (about twenty five are archives and not viewable at this time). I categorize each of the stories and there are 256 Categories and over 1500 tags. That makes the stories more searchable. If you are looking for strictly submarines, you can search that way. It also helps me in my position for Google and Bing Searches.

In 2020, I published 119 stories. Of those, 73 are submarine or US Navy connected.

Followers

I am eternally grateful for the followers on the blog. I have 849 direct followers that have signed up for emails, 170 through Twitter and 650 through Facebook. The numbers fluctuate occasionally when I publish controversial stories. I am also found on Linked In and have no way of capturing how many regular followers there are on that platform. The total I can document is about 1,668.  I thank each and everyone of you that give me feedback and encouragement.

2021

I am still working on the final plans for publishing my book about Cassin Young. But I plan on continuing to provide content about submarines, Naval History and Military History in General. This is the 80th year anniversary of the lead up to Pearl Harbor and so many stories still need to be told. I will add some Cold War stories as appropriate and as always sprinkle in some learned leadership lessons.

I hope you will stay with me for a while. I have developed some new friendships that are valuable in themselves.

Happy New Year and I wish you Health, Happiness and Prosperity for the year to come.

Mister Mac