What’s in a name? (a short explanation of how naming submarines got so fishy fifty years ago)

Growing up, I read nearly every book I could get my hands on that contained US Navy ships. I especially loved the stories about the Second World War. It was so cool to be able to know that Battleships were always named after states, cruisers bore the names of cities and destroyers were honored with […]

Read More What’s in a name? (a short explanation of how naming submarines got so fishy fifty years ago)

“In my spare time, I went to Harvard”… how they kept from being bored on a boomer in ’65

November has been submarine month at theleansubmariner. Probably a large part of that is the nostalgia of looking back over the last 45 years and my own experiences on the boats. I got a chance to share some of my memories as well as stories from the archives that highlighted submarine development since the early […]

Read More “In my spare time, I went to Harvard”… how they kept from being bored on a boomer in ’65

It takes a thief

In the late nineteen sixties, there was a TV series starring Robert Wagner called “It takes a Thief”. Wagner starred as a reformed thief who used his powers for good instead of evil. The series was loosely based on an old English proverb that said “Set a thief to catch a thief”. (Or as is […]

Read More It takes a thief

The Birth of the Atomic Fleet – When Science Fiction was Dwarfed by Science Fact

The Birth of the Atomic Fleet In 1950, the same year the USS Pickerel conducted a remarkable journey from Hong Kong to Hawaii in just 21 days under snorkel, the President of the United States, President Harry S. Truman, authorized the building of an atomic submarine for the first (August 1950). Pundits and politicians had […]

Read More The Birth of the Atomic Fleet – When Science Fiction was Dwarfed by Science Fact

USS George Washington SSBN 598 – First and Finest (December 30, 1959)

A short history of the first ballistic missile submarine. USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (SSBN 598) THIS SHIP has been given the most illustrious name in America. Rarely does history confirm contemporary judgment in pronouncing a man “indispensable” to his country. But there is general agreement that on three occasions, when the fate of our Nation hung in […]

Read More USS George Washington SSBN 598 – First and Finest (December 30, 1959)