Ten Years Ago, We said farewell to the 711 Boat

The Beginning of a New Era – September 30, 1954

In the beginning… I was born in 1954 in the Mon Valley area. That area is where the Monongahela River winds through the of western Pennsylvania. The area was famous for the many steel mills and coal mines and the air growing up was always smokey and had distinct odors depending on which way […]

Under the Ice Warfare: Kill or Be Killed

In my career I received the Order of the Ditch and was a Shellback. The first means that I transited the Panama Canal and of course the second means that I crossed the Equator. Going across the equator involves a lot of pomp and circumstances surrounded by a great deal of silliness. I will freely […]

REPORT ON THE U.S. SUBMARINE PROGRAM – 1968

During the period from 1966 through 1968, the Cold War was producing a heightened level of activity on both sides of the global divide. The Soviets were building their submarine fleet with increased attention to both quantity and quality. The west was trying to make sure its qualitative edge would be enough to counter that […]

Cold War Stories: Submarines: Past, Present And Future Of Silent Service (1962)

In April of 1962, I had not even turned ten years old. But I already had a fascination with submarines But I was conscious of many of the things that were going on in the world. I read every book I cold find in the library about the wars that came earlier in the century. […]

What’s that hissing sound?

Looking at the launch and commissioning of the Nautilus the last few days, it seemed odd to me that the sea trials were somehow out of whack with what I was used to. The experience of building a submarine in the eighties was that you had the launch, fitting out, sea trials, then commissioning. Looking […]

The First Time You Dive

You never forget your first There are few moments in any submariner’s life that equal the first time you submerge below the surface of the sea. For each generation or type of boat, the lead up to that dive is different. It might come at the end of a lengthy transit on the surface in […]

Not for glory, but for victory – The need for Auxiliary Ships

Not for glory, but for victory Submarine tenders are near and dear to my heart. My seagoing career was launched and finished on the decks of two Cold War era tenders (USS Proteus and USS Hunley). Although Proteus was actually built as a World War 2 era tender, she was later converted to support the […]

Voyage to the Bottom of the Seas – The Nuclear Navy of 1964

In 1964, I was ten years old. The movie, Voyage to the Bottom of the Seas had come out in 1961 but I only remember it from later showings on television when I was much older. The TV series that was born from that movie ran from 1964 to 1968 and I am pretty sure […]

Sudden Impact… Forever Impacted

Sudden Impact… Forever Impacted It was a cold and freezing night. (I’ve always wanted to use that line ever since Snoopy used something similar in one of his attempts to be a novelist. Cartoonist Charles Schulz made Snoopy use this phrase because “it was a cliché and had been one for a very long time”. […]