Your Table is ready Mr. Ambassador… Serving the USSV CF

Your Table is ready Mr. Ambassador Mac. Petty Officer Mac. Chief Mac. Mister Mac. (and a hundred various civilian titles including manager, trainer, leader, coach, speaker, preacher and on and on). Of all the titles I have had in my life, one that I have never had was Ambassador. At least not until this week. […]

“The Flight Is Doomed” … until the submarine shows up to the rescue

“The Flight Is Doomed” Of all the submarine stories from history that have been forgotten over time, very few are as interesting as the one about a submarine rescuing an airplane in the Pacific Ocean which then then towed it to safety. Nearly 100 years ago, flying between the continental US and Hawaii was still […]

In the beginning… building a submarine despite the odds (1900)

In the beginning… building a submarine despite the odds (1900) The 125th Anniversary of the United States Submarine force will occur in April of 2025. This is one of a number of articles related to that celebration. I spend a lot of time researching history and my favorite source material comes from the National Archives. […]

125 Years ago – Does Tesla’s Telautomaton Predict the Future of Submarines?

This is the 125th year since the United States Navy adopted her first modern submarine. Of course, the country had seen other submarine warfare devices before (Turtle and Hunley among others), but the use of a machine with the ability to surface and dive as well as operate using motive powers was a great leap […]

Part time sailors? There is no such thing

I’m still going through boxes of old paperwork and stuff I have saved over the years. Some of the items include pictures and mementoes from my years in the navy. One item that was in an old album was a faded copy of a Welcome Aboard letter from Charleston’s FBMSTC (Fleet Ballistic Missile Training Center). […]

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The Line (Revisited)

A Great Reunion – Well, Mostly Great

The 2024 Gathering of the Saints is finally over. I have been absent from the keyboard for a while as we executed our latest reunion in Charleston SC. The planning for the reunion started at the end of 2023 and was non-stop until the very last day of the event. One thing about reunions is […]

April 11 2024 – Holland Club

I was honored to have my wife and my Submariner Brothers present last night at the USSVI Charleston Base to see my induction into the Holland Club. I actually wasn’t sure I would ever make it. A special thanks to RADM Mike Sharp and the men from the USS San Francisco SSN 711 that were […]

What’s that hissing sound?

Looking at the launch and commissioning of the Nautilus the last few days, it seemed odd to me that the sea trials were somehow out of whack with what I was used to. The experience of building a submarine in the eighties was that you had the launch, fitting out, sea trials, then commissioning. Looking […]

The First Time You Dive

You never forget your first There are few moments in any submariner’s life that equal the first time you submerge below the surface of the sea. For each generation or type of boat, the lead up to that dive is different. It might come at the end of a lengthy transit on the surface in […]