The USS Ohio Museum – Why Not.

I read today that when the USS Ohio finally retires, it will do so as the oldest continuous operating submarine in US History. The first submarine of the class, the USS Ohio or SSBN-726, was commissioned in 1981, followed by 17 more vessels. Though Ohio-class submarines were built to have a 30-year service life, most […]

Truman’s Decision – 1945

It seems a lifetime ago when I last sailed on a submarine. I left the USS Ohio in December of 1984 after making my fourth patrol. It was a routine patrol with nothing special to report. Considering that we were conducting a strategic deterrent patrol, that is a very good thing. After having served on […]

Navy Training, Sir (Adventures in learning)

Navy Training, Sir One of my favorite movies of all time is Stripes and one of the best lines in the movie is when the platoon completes their razzle dazzle maneuver, and the general asks where they have been. Eventually Bill Murray shouts: Army Training sir.” I’m assured by my friend Phillip Dockter that the […]

How MAD were we?

In January 1963, the world was on edge. The recent Cuban Missile Crisis had shown how close we were to Mutual Assured Destruction on a scale never before seen. The arms race of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s had pushed the east and west closer to global confrontation since the end of the Second […]

Diesel men are like connoisseurs of old hams or juleps

This story from the Washington Star Newspaper from May 18, 1942, brought back a lot of memories for me. The first part certainly takes me back to all of the training I received as a young man in the Navy. Over the course of my career, I attended over 60 Navy schools related to […]

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 […]