Remembering January 8 – USS San Francisco SSN 711

SSN 711 – That fateful day on January 8th We can never forget how truly dangerous submarine life can be. Rest in peace Shipmate

Remembering Pearl Harbor – The Story of Gunners Mate Second Class John C. Pensyl

Their voices cry out from the past. 2403 Americans died from the attack on Pearl Harbor. Of that figure, 2,008 of them were enlisted with the Navy, 218 were members of the US Army, 109 were Marines, and 68 were civilians. While much is written about the event, we need to never lose focus on […]

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 […]

February 1971 – This is not a Test

“For 40 Minutes in 1971, It Seemed the End Was Near” “Every TV and radio station in America was interrupted with an emergency message indicating nuclear war was imminent.” I was a junior then senior in High School in 1971 and the world was a very chaotic place. Some would even say it was explosive. […]

The Pearl Harbor Attack at Eighty Years

On December 7, 2021, it will be eighty years since the “surprise” attack on Pearl Harbor. In all of those years, many books have been written about the attack and its significance. In the aftermath of the attack, there were also a lot of congressional hearings to discover why such a devastating attack could have […]

700,000 Views

Sometime yesterday, the Blog went over 700,000 views. Thanks to all who have visited and continue to support theleansubmariner. There are roughly 1000 posts currently in my searchable files. I hope to increase that number as the year ahead rolls out. It has been a difficult year personally for a number of reasons but my […]

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 […]

Sometimes you just need a little time to refocus

I have written nearly 1000 posts since the beginning of the blog. Of course most of them have been about submarines and leadership but its been fun to record other historical events and key events from naval history. One project that I started a few years ago was about Captain Cassin Young. His story fascinated […]