A Swashbuckling Submariner – Creed Burlingame

The Washington Star GRAVURE SECTION from February 14, 1943 featured pictures of the many faces of the war around the world. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/dlc_1xul_ver01/data/sn83045462/00280603351/1943021401/0129.pdf From the Mediterranean to the Pacific, allied navies were aggressively pushing back against the forces of the Axis. This particular section of the paper showed images from many fronts but one small picture […]

A Day at the Races – Submarine Skulduggery in the Home Islands 1942-1943

Skulduggery has been described as underhanded or unscrupulous behavior. Using technology to sneak up on an enemy was once viewed by proper gentlemen as nothing more than skullduggery. In the nicest sort of way, that is what submarines are best at. I mean, how unfair is it that someone can sneak up on your homeland […]

Submarine Minelaying – More than one way to skin a cat

There is more than one way to skin a cat. That is one of those odd sayings form a long lost generation that typically means there is more than one way to successfully complete a task. My cats Moses and Oscar would be offended by the original usage which was about actually skinning cats. From […]

Alone for Christmas

Disclaimer: While there is some submarine content, most of this is personal testimony to a spiritual part of my life. But I present it without shame or remorse. Merry Christmas. Mac Alone for Christmas Baby its cold outside. As the wind blows and the temperature hovers around zero. I truly am thankful for the people […]

December 7 1942 – The first of many rememberences and concerrn for accountability

On the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, many reflections take place in towns across the United States. I was reading yesterday that one of the few remaining Pearl Harbor survivors turns 101 years old this year. It will also be the first year he is not able to travel to Honolulu since his doctor advised him […]

The Horrors of War – Navy Medicine at Pearl Harbor (1942 Reflection)

One of my earliest memories of Pearl Harbor was reading books about the attack. I grew up in a firefighter’s family so was aware of the dangers of fire in the civilian world. But reading the many books included in Samuel Eliott Morrison’s collection “The Rising Sun in the Pacific, 1931 – April 1942 […]

December 6, 1942 – The Navy Reveals the True Damage at Pearl Harbor

Within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor, news started filtering back to anxious families on the mainland that something horrible had happened to the country. The banner headlines from the eighth of December would forever be changed with news of the encroachment of the Empire of Japan across the vast reaches of the Pacific […]

“Every Moment Mattered” Book Update

Very fast update on my upcoming book. I got an update from my editor and the first big round of edits will be back to me by Monday. Kind of interesting since that is fifty years to the day after I joined the Navy and started my journey as a submariner. The note was really […]

1922 – A Thoroughly Modern Submarine

1922 A holiday from building With the signing of the Naval Arms Limitation Treaty, the American navy had a number of logistical problems to be met with in order to meet the terms of the treaty. Not the least of those issues was what to do with the ships that were now considered excess and […]

The Final Dive of the F-4 (March 1915)

F-4; THE FIRST SUBMARINE LOSS FOR THE US NAVY It was on the morning of March 25, 1915, that F-1, F-3, and F-4 left Honolulu for local operations. F-4 did not return, and the eventual detection and recovery was a classic of naval salvage. She was later “interned” at the bottom of Pearl Harbor after […]