Lifer

This one is going to make somebody mad. (also may have some cussing so you have been warned) I don’t mean for that to happen, but I have noticed this topic on some of the veteran’s Facebook pages over the past few years and I already know that some people are going to be pissed […]

Blockades and Submarines – An Opinion From a Master Submariner in 1939

Simon Lake was by any measure a Master Submariner. A prolific inventor, he held over two hundred patents at the time of his death in June of 1945 (just a few months short of the end of the war that was largely shaped by submarine warfare). Lake was a dreamer and had many ideas about […]

Blockades do work

One of my earliest memories as a kid was the story about the Cuban Missile Crisis. While there were many parts to this story, the one that I remember most was the Naval Blockade. October 22, 1962 – President John F. Kennedy orders a surface blockade of Cuba to prevent Soviet offensive weapons from reaching […]

The Origin of Submarine Dolphins – The Fourth (and I think) Final Chapter

The rest of the story This will hopefully be the final segment in my saga of how the Submarine Dolphin insignia came to be. Each stage along the way has been a lot of fun as I have sifted through magazines, articles on line, historical societies, the Library of Congress and a source which contains […]

Submarine Dolphins Part Three – The Artists that created the Insignia

It must be true, I saw it on the Internet The great thing about living in the age we do is the incredible access to resources on the internet. I have a number of historical reference sites that I use to build my stories and enjoy finding nuggets form time to time. I take it […]

The Origin of Submarine Dolphins – Part Deux

Nothing like stirring the pot… (you can always count on a Submariner to do something like that). In the last couple of days, the Post about the Origin of Submarine Dolphins has been one of the most viewed articles on the blog in a long time. Along with the views came the comments. Some were […]

It’s a Bonny Life in the Land of Kilts and Bagpipes – ALL HANDS September 1967

This article was written less than a decade after Site One was established in the Holy Loch. I did not arrive in Scotland until August of 1990 to serve on board the AFDB 7 Floating Drydock but many of the same conditions that existed back in the Sixties were very similar to what was written. The […]

The Origin of Submarine Dolphins – All Hands Magazine January 1961

Submarine Warfare Insignia One way to distinguish a United States Navy Submariner from any other sailor is to see the dolphins predominantly displayed on his or her uniform. Officers wear a gold version and enlisted wear a silver version. I have seen many stories over the years about the origin of the insigne but this article […]

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 […]

21 Days Under Water – The USS Pickerel’s 5200 Mile Journey at Periscope Depth

In 1950, the US Navy was coming to terms with its peacetime role in a Cold War setting. The Russians had obtained the German submarine technology along with the rocket scientists from captured territory. No longer content to be a coastal navy, the Russians were building their own fleet of new submarines with the ability […]