My Trusty Old .45 First Posted in 2011 (with Updates on the 2018 CMP Sales)

As a kid growing up, one of my favorite shows was a realistic World War 2 action series called “Combat!”. Sergeant Saunders (Vic Morrow) was my hero and his adventures with Kirby, Little John, Cage and Lieutenant Hanley and Doc. The series ran form 1962 to 1967 which is pretty remarkable since the actual American […]

Freedom of the Seas

On this 236th birthday of the United States Navy, we should never forget the reason why the Navy was formed and why it will remain a part of our Freedom as long as there is a United States of America. The free flow of commerce is one way of guaranteeing a free nation. The oceans still […]

Goin’ to the Chapel and We’re Gonna Get Married – Part Three

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/01/first-same-sex-marriage-being-celebrated-saturday-at-west-points-cadet-chapel/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Internal+-+Politics+-+Text%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo Oh happy day, break out the bubbly, the Nation’s first gay marriage at West Point. I can barely contain my joy. Oh well. They can explain it to the big Guy themselves when the time comes. I am now officially done with worrying about traditions. Go Navy. Beat Army. Mister Mac I had no […]

The Quality of the Weld

Being a former submariner, I have long had an interest in welding and the quality of welds. When you are riding a ship designed to sink that was built by the lowest bidder, proper and secure welds seem to be pretty important. The hulls of nuclear submarines are made out of a special steel which requiresvery […]

Life is simple… you’re either qualified or you’re not

I don’t know when qualification cards became part of submarine life. I know they were there when I first came aboard the George Washington. I remember Chief John telling me very specifically that the card was as important as any piece of paper I ever held so I better not lose it. Each week, I would […]

He was the best there ever was (just ask him)

Once upon a time there was a young Machinist Mate serving on a ballistic missile submarine who inherited the job of Repair Parts Petty Officer (RPPO). I am pretty sure he did not know what he had been volunteered for but as in other collateral duties, there really weren’t a lot of choices. The guy […]

Sound the Collision Alarm, Flooding in Lower Level Engineroom forward

Not really sure which I had more respect for on a submarine; fire or flooding. I think most people who aren’t in a flooding situation will tell you that a fire is more feared. Between the round shape of the hull and all the stuff that can burn, fires have a tendency to spread pretty […]

A Shiny New Coat of Paint

I think that one of mankind’s greatest achievements is the evolution of paint. I also believe it is mankind’s greatest admission of imperfection. I have been intimate with paint since I was a young boy. My Grandfather had an old boat on the Monongahela River in Western Pennsylvania called the Dawn. She was a forty-eight […]

Monkey See, Monkey Do

As I have gotten older, I have discovered that the words on pages seem to have grown smaller and less distinguishable. I was convinced for some time that this was a result of printing companies using cheaper and less effective ink and smaller letters to conserve costs. Kind of like the fast food restaurants are […]

The Old Metal Box

We have moved 18 times in our thirty one years of being married and I moved quite a few times before that dating back to 1972. As far back as I can remember, I have kept two things with me in all of those moves. One is a tattered old World Atlas that I faithfully […]