Deep Submergence

It has been a long month. We all revert to character in times of trial. As a young man on submarines, I often looked forward to the boat pulling away from the pier and seeing the land disappear in the fading horizon. I almost hated to go below after rigging topside for dive, but at […]

The Submariner Stereotype

How do you describe a Submariner? If you are a qualified submariner, you probably have a standard description when people ask about your life when you were on the boats. The most common responses I get are “Oh, I could never do that” or “Weren’t you afraid?” But nearly everyone of a certain age has […]

Living on borrowed time

Living on borrowed time. It seems strange to think about the duality of time. On the one hand you have all the time in the world. On the other, there never seems to be enough of it. In the end, we all die. It’s not a gruesome fact, it’s just a fulfilment of the fact […]

Who are you calling old?

The old Submariner The old Submariner knows a thing or two about what Submariners are all about. But the definition is generational and the definition has changed a time or two. The original old Submariner remembers clothes smelling of sweat and gasoline. The air was putrid and the battery acid ate right through his clothes. […]

USS James Madison SSBN 627 – Tribute to a Founding Father

This is the fourth in the series about the 41 for Freedom submarines. If you have followed the series, you have noticed that they are not in chronological order. I am trying to remain faithful to the way they were arranged in the book EMINENT AMERICANS, NAMESAKES of the POLARIS SUBMARINE FLEET, by H. G. […]

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 […]

400,000 – Thanks for the visits

I have been watching the counter on the blog and it has been slowly but steadily climbing. Sometime today, we passed 400,000. The number of actual visitors is actually closer to 250,000 people but the fact that we hit 400K today is still pretty rewarding. Since the beginning, the blog has changed. A lot less politics […]