The Old Submariner

Submariner I sometimes don’t know where I’m going, but Oh, all the places I’ve been. Wrapped up in a hull made of steel, with a crew of fine sailors locked in. The missions are lonely and silent, the dangers untold with no yield, But we still climb down the steel ladders, the hatches above us […]

Submarine Base Pearl Harbor – Buried Secrets

Buried Secrets One of my favorite submarine reference books is called “United States Submarine Operations in World War II” written by Theodore Roscoe in conjunction with the Bureau of Naval Personnel and published by the United States Naval Institute. Reading through the book is like a looking through a periscope to the past. The people […]

Coins of all denominations – The Story of the USS Seawolf SS 197

USS Seawolf (SS 197) When the Japanese attacked the Philippines at the beginning of World War 2, all of the defensive plans that had been painstakingly drawn out before the war fell by the wayside. The tragedy of Pearl Harbor ensured that the relief that was supposed to come and rescue in the aftermath of […]

USS Pollack SS 180 – Bringing the War to the Enemy January 1942

A great piece of history concerning the first submarine to draw blood in the waters off of Japan. America was still reeling from the attacks at Pearl and across the Pacific. The large battleships were crippled or sunk and the aircraft carriers that would ultimately tip the scales were still few and far between. One […]

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 […]

2022 Fast Attack Submarine Report – Defending Freedom from Beneath the Waves

Fast Attack Submarines Defending a nation like the United States has never been an easy task. From the very beginning of the country, we have faced extreme challenges from powerful ocean going powers like Great Britain at it’s zenith, to the Imperial Japanese Navy that emerged from Pearl Harbor in December 1941 as the most […]

2022 – A year’s worth of special days

April 2022 will mark the fiftieth year since I raised my hand for the first time to take an oath of allegiance to the United States of America. As a seventeen year old boy from Western Pennsylvania, I don’t really think I understood what I was doing other than to know that once I took the […]

Seeing the world

I always wanted to see the world. When I was young, there was something inside me that loved adventure. I read Rudyard Kipling’s books from cover to cover and marveled at the mysteries of faraway places. Surely there had to be more to the world than my dingy old home town. I say dingy because […]

Every Moment Mattered Update (April 2021)

I have been working on a book project now for about five years. My first go at publishing was put on hold when the publisher asked me to include some stories and ideas that were in line with the publishers needs. Last November, I was doing a web based presentation for the McKeesport Heritage and […]

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 […]