Letters from Home – Lifelines in a Sea of Loneliness

Mail Call Anyone from my generation and before who has ever served in the military is aware of how important letters are when you are away from home. They are truly the connection you have to a place where “normal” lives despite the chaos of your current situation. With the internet, my nephews told me […]

What’s in a name? The Saga of the Jinxed Sea Otter – 1942

What’s in a name? The Saga of the Jinxed Sea Otter Even before the United States entered World War II, an old nemesis from the last World War was making its presence known: the submarines of the German Navy. Sea commerce was the life blood of the British Empire and in 1940, America was already […]

The Three Plane Navy – The Story of Rear Admiral Fullam’s Vision

A little bit longer of a post than normal, but I found this to be an interesting story about a visionary man who played a key role in the Navy in the early 1900’s. Twenty years before the attack on Pearl Harbor, many voices were actively trying to warn about the narrow-minded vision of naval […]

A Mother’s Love… where have the last two years gone?

A Mother’s Love I feel sorry for anyone who had a bad or broken relationship with their Mom. Looking back over the years, I have known many people who went through that. There seemed to be a lot in the Navy who came from broken or less than perfect homes. They always seemed to be […]

May you live long enough that you long for your past despite the hardships and difficulties.

The definition for nostalgia that comes from Webster’s Dictionary include these: a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period of irrecoverable condition the state of being homesick With apologies to Webster and company, this is my definition: May you live long enough that you long for your past despite […]

Everything Old is New Again – Life in the Nuclear Shadow

Everything Old is New Again I’ve spent a great deal of time over the past few years studying about the development of nuclear power for use by the US Navy. One of the most informative documents was written in the early nineteen sixties titled Nuclear Navy 1946-1962 written principally by Richard G. Hewlett and Francis […]

Once upon a time… the podcast for theleansubmariner

EP29: The lean submariner and coach, Bob MacPherson

When are those P-40’s going to arrive to “raise hell on the other side of the line?” March 1942

Where are the planes? March 7th In the Philippines, the ever-encroaching forces of the Imperial Japanese Army must have seemed relentless. The under gunned and under-protected American and Philippine forces were subjected to an increasingly powerful Japanese force. Fall of the Philippines Only in the Philippines, almost on Japan’s southern doorstep, was the timetable of […]

“The sea – like life itself – is a stern taskmaster” The Story of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz

Originally posted on theleansubmariner:
The sea – like life itself – is a stern taskmaster. This was the early childhood lesson taught to the boy who would later become one of the most influential leaders in the United States Navy. He was significantly influenced by his German-born paternal grandfather, Charles Henry Nimitz, a former seaman…

SSN 590 – USS Sculpin – Cold War Warrior

Originally posted on theleansubmariner:
SSN 590 USS Sculpin Sculpin: A spiny, large-headed, broad-mouthed, usually scale less fish of the family Cottidae. Several species are found on the Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America. USS Sculpin (SSN-590), a Skipjack-class nuclear-powered submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the…