How MAD were we?

In January 1963, the world was on edge. The recent Cuban Missile Crisis had shown how close we were to Mutual Assured Destruction on a scale never before seen. The arms race of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s had pushed the east and west closer to global confrontation since the end of the Second […]

Making a Submariner – Fifty Years ago

In January of 1973, my education as a submarine sailor began. I had already graduated from Machinist Mate “A” school and my original path to nuclear power school was diverted because of my inability to master the math and chemistry that was tested upon completion of “A” school. I was a bit disappointed. Instead of […]

Has anyone seen the anchor?

Adrift The definition of the word adrift is often this: so as to float without being either moored or steered: “a cargo ship went adrift”. Unless you are a submariner by trade, you are probably not familiar with the fact that some submarines have anchors. My first boat was the USS George Washington and she […]

Everything Old is New Again – Life in the Nuclear Shadow

Everything Old is New Again I’ve spent a great deal of time over the past few years studying about the development of nuclear power for use by the US Navy. One of the most informative documents was written in the early nineteen sixties titled Nuclear Navy 1946-1962 written principally by Richard G. Hewlett and Francis […]

A sign of the times… Got Shelters?

Sunday March 4, 1962 was a cool and cloudy day in Washington DC. The front page of the paper had several stories about Marine Colonel John Glenn, Jr., recent space traveler visiting his hometown in Ohio to happy throngs of people. Other front-page stories talked about government corruption, unrest overseas, and of course, across the […]

Losing the World’s Largest Submarine – The Unsolved Mystery of the Surcouf (1942)

Losing the World’s Largest Submarine – The Unsolved Mystery of the Surcouf The Washington Times had a picture of an odd-looking French submarine on page A-3 of the January 20, 1942 edition. The caption read: Free French Operate World’s Largest Sub. I had previously written a story about a French submarine that escaped Germany’s clutches […]

From the Deep – The Story of America’s Boomers

Once upon a time, I lived and worked on the very first ballistic missile submarine known as the USS George Washington (SSBN 598). It was a unique experience that allowed me to become a submariner and experience things that most never will. The GW was already about 14 years old by the time I got […]

February 1971 – This is not a Test

“For 40 Minutes in 1971, It Seemed the End Was Near” “Every TV and radio station in America was interrupted with an emergency message indicating nuclear war was imminent.” I was a junior then senior in High School in 1971 and the world was a very chaotic place. Some would even say it was explosive. […]

Happy Submarine Month 2021

Happy Submarine Month April is definitely submarine month in the United States. It’s also been that way for me personally since it was the month that my most memorable submarine experience celebrates an anniversary. The USS San Francisco SSN 711 was commissioned in April 1981 which was forty years ago. She has now been reborn […]

Watch Where You Are Going… The Ocean Is Big But Not as Big as You Think

Watch where you are going The world is filled with things in motion. Ever since the wheel was invented, one of the most cherished pieces of advice has had to have been to watch where you are going. We heard it as kids. It’s easy to become distracted along the way but those distractions can […]