I love LA

Regular readers know that once upon a time when the world was still dark with fears from the Soviets, a little known base in Scotland served as a portable pier for our submarine fleet. Starting in 1960, units of the United States Fleet anchored in a small inlet called Holy Loch that was just up […]

The Build – Reflections from an Old Docking Officer

The Build When you have sailed on submarines for most of your career, stepping outside of your comfort zone reveals many things about who you are. Most submariners have achieved a level of excellence that is demanded by the profession. You are operating a large ship that is designed to sink and do most of […]

Primus in Pace – USS George Washington SSBN 598

Post #598: Primus In Pace If you cross parts of the great American prairie, you can still see the ruts of the wagons that crossed the vast wilderness on their way to the west. Those ruts have been superseded by ribbons of concrete and asphalt that stretch from sea to shining sea and remind you […]

Post number 597… Submarine Number 597

An odd kind of submarine Today’s post is about an odd numbered submarine that played a unique role in the development of the nuclear Navy, the USS Tulibee. I am always reminded when I do stories about the nuclear submarine Navy that there has never been a point in my life that the United […]

Random Thoughts from theleansubmariner… I lived

I lived. I could have chosen to stay in my hometown and learned a trade. I could have hidden from life’s greatest challenges and been safe. But instead… I lived. I could have worked harder to gain acceptance to a fine educational institution and maybe be part of a fraternity that I could look back […]

Homecoming… its a harder journey than you think without brothers

When you get to a certain point in your life you start taking stock of what mattered. The first seventeen or eighteen years of most people’s lives are the foundations for much of who they become. If you grew up in Middle America, your understanding of relationships, education, and spirituality are all forged from those […]

Birth of the Boomers

Happy New Year from TLS I have been doing a lot of research on my WW2 projects and came across a great source of information. The Navy publishes a monthly magazine that dates back to the 1920’s under a variety of names including “All Hands Magazine”. Now for something completely different I was thinking about […]

The one thing you can’t stop

Today marks the end of yet another year. The world has turned 365 more times in its journey and I feel fortunate to have had more good days than bad ones during that time. I find myself in a much better place today than I did a year ago and for that I am grateful. […]

Is Navy a color?

A colleague posted a story about two seven year old girls talking at a funeral. One girl told the other her uncle was in the Navy. The second little girl said that she thought navy was a color. Is Navy a color? In the eyes of a seven year old, maybe that is her […]

2017 – What a great year.

2017 was quite a year There have been a lot of changes in my life the last year. Health events, career events and just general life events have all added to the mix. Some of the events have been surprising to say the least and frankly you could look at what happened in 2017 and […]