Veteran’s Day 2019 – Neptune’s Cadillac Redux

Veteran’s Day is about remembering the men and women who sacrificed so much for the country. If you asked most of us, and we were honest. We would simply say that we did our jobs This article came from the Honolulu Advertiser and was written about the USS San Francisco shortly after we made the […]

USS Woodrow Wilson (SSBN-624) “The world must be made safe for democracy.”

I was assigned to the USS Halibut (SSN 587) in late 1975. The boat had just returned from her last mission and was about to undergo decommissioning. My previous assignment had been at Pearl Harbor on the USS George Washington but I did not want to extend to take the boat into the shipyard at […]

Submarine Base Centennial 1968

A submarine friend sent me a package a few days ago and I have been having so much enjoyment going through the material. Today’s entry is a visit to 1968 when the Submarine Base at New London was celebrating its 100th Birthday. With no further introduction, here is the booklet in its entirety:

The Silent Service – 1951 – Earning the Twin Dolphin

September 1951 found the United States embroiled once again in a conflict far away from its home shores. Harry S Truman was the President and he held a televised transcontinental news conference on the new medium of Television to discuss the official surrender of Japan at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference. September 4, 1951 – […]

The Typical Submariner Candidate in 1950 – Not Just Your Usual American Home Town Boy

The Typical Submariner Candidate in 1950 – Not Just Your Usual American Home Town Boy The average 20 year old American male in 1950 shared a number of things. They were between 9-10 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed so they grew up while the world was at war. Their entertainment was radio and […]

The Submariner Stereotype

How do you describe a Submariner? If you are a qualified submariner, you probably have a standard description when people ask about your life when you were on the boats. The most common responses I get are “Oh, I could never do that” or “Weren’t you afraid?” But nearly everyone of a certain age has […]

A Gathering of the Saints

This is the first post I have done in about a week. Summertime seems to be a tough time to write posts and looking back over the last eight years, July has always been the lowest response month for the blog. As someone who fills in for vacationing preachers in the summer, I am fully […]

“Why do Navymen volunteer for Submarine Duty?” one story from 1967

1967 – Five years before I raised my right hand for the very first time This article was written for the Navy Magazine ALL HANDS. As I look back at the history of the submarine force and what was happening during 1967, it is easy to understand why the Navy would want to put such […]

I left my heart… on the San Francisco

Oro en Paz, Fierro en Guerra – The San Francisco Story (Post #711) Over the years, I have heard many submariners say that a boat changed their life. For some, it was because the boat was their qualification boat. The completion of a hard and grueling period in their life when they were required to […]

The Boomer Pin Turns 50 – (Does that mean it can finally join the Holland Club?)

The Boomer Pin turns 50 in 2019 One of the most divisive subjects in the American submarine family is the breast insignia know by most as the Boomer pin. This little device has been a part of my uniform since January 1974 when I completed my first ballistic missile patrol. Wearing the pin by itself […]