Local Submarine Blogger Interviewed By Boise Weekly

Here's a link to an interview (Bad Word warning!) with me in the Boise Weekly, the local free "alternative" newspaper. I got interviewed last week for their "Citizen" column, where they talk to people who do interesting things. For me, I guess they decided my submarine blog was worth writing about.

Please humor me as I engage in a bit of navel gazing to "revise and extend" my remarks from the published interview:

-- When I said "The Hunt for Red October" was "more accurate than anything that had come out to that point", I was referring to the book, not the movie. I still hold that this is true as far as nuclear submarining goes, obviously there are quite a few movies and books about WWII submarining that are much more accurate, and books have come out since then that are more realistic (mostly written by actual Submariners).

-- I admit I'm a little bit embarrassed by the juxtaposition of me talking about how I joined the LDS Church with my use of a very Bad Word in the next paragraph.

-- I was a little disappointed that the interviewer didn't mention my sons' band, Nuclear Redemption -- Mountain View High School's biggest band -- that I had name-dropped explicitly. Overall, though, he did a pretty good job of condensing a 50 minute talk into something readable.

-- When I talked about Idaho blogosphere site traffic, I was actually talking about Treasure Valley blogs; obviously, Huckleberries Online gets way more traffic than I do up in Northern Idaho. Also, I should have said that Unequivocal Notion has moved most of its content to TreasuredValley.com.

-- For me, the neatest thing about the whole experience was actually having someone do a drawing of me; I've never had that before.

Please let me know if you see anything else questionable that I said in the interview, and I'll try to explain myself if I can.

Submarine Supply Shortages

A while back, I posted about the "Great Topeka Food Depression" of 1992. We didn't have a Chop during pre-deployment preps, and the short-timer MSC in charge of ordering the food didn't take into account that we'd have 20 riders aboard -- the type of riders that never miss a meal (you know the type). Our last port visit before our "mission vital to national security" got cancelled, so we weren't able to pick up the stores load we were counting on after the new Chop did an inventory and figured out we were running low on food. First, we ran out of yeast, but the MS's saved the last bit and tried to grow some more. It ended up dying, but that was OK, because by then we'd run out of flour. The sugar ran out soon thereafter. During the last few weeks, we were reduced to a diet of bologna pinwheels and unsweetened jello; we drank water or "diet bug" with meals (bug juice without sugar -- horrible). When we finally pulled into Bahrain, we only had four tubes of bologna and one pathetic bag of mixed veggies left. We had made a list of the riders we were going to eat first if we got extended. Luckily, we never did run out of coffee; otherwise, I'm sure there would have been a mutiny.

Since the last port visit was canx'd, a lot of guys weren't able to pick up the various personal items they had planned to get there. As a result, a black market started up for things like candy and, especially, tobacco. A couple of smart non-smokers had bought a bunch of tobacco in San Diego before the deployment and made a killing. Eventually, that supply ran out too, and I saw the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen before -- the concept of "ABC" smokeless tobacco. ("ABC" stands for "Already Been Chewed".) Luckily, that all seemed to be used by the original owner; I don't think a market ever emerged for that particular commodity.

Do you have any humorous or poignant stories about shortages on submarines?

Happy Independence Day!

Fireworks in this picture are from the commissioning celebrations for USS North Carolina (SSN 777) last year.

Here's a link to the holiday message from the new SecNav.

MCPON Awards Dolphins In Japan

I just got an E-mail from a Sailor aboard USS Michigan (Blue) (SSGN 727) that says in part:

We are in Yokosuka doing a port call right now and the MCPON came down for lunch yesterday. After the tour it was pre-arranged for him to give one of our new guys his fish. So everyone lines up on the decks like normal and just as he is ready to pin the kid he stops short, tosses the new pair of fish on the table and takes his own off and pins them on this guy. He then had the newly pinned guy pin the new fish on him. You could tell it was totally spur of the moment, I almost wanted to cry... A very cool day to be a Submariner and one I am sure our newly qualified brother will never forget.
There where lots of pics taken by his official photogropher so hopefully they will go up on Navy.mil soon. Just thought your readers would like to know what a class act MCPON West is.

Normally, I don't post stories based on a single E-mail, but this one is so good I couldn't pass it up. (Also, I got some confirmation because I know the MCPON is in Japan, and his Facebook page says to expect that a story about him awarding dolphins to someone on USS Michigan will be posted soon.)

Personally, I got my fish from my CO (He Who Must Not Be Named) while underway. Did any of you guys get your dolphins from someone "cool" or in unusual circumstances?

Update 1013 03 July: Here's the official story from the Navy website. It appears the MCPON also gave his own ESWS pin to a Sailor off the USS John S. McCain (DDG 57). Excerpt:

On board USS Michigan, West also offered his "dolphins" to newly frocked Electronics Technician 3rd Class William Earl Auer.
"My hope is that these young men will remember the day as much as I will and will pass these on through generations of our great Sailors. I'm honored that they will be wearing something that I've worn for years. Wouldn't it be cool in 30 years if someone is still wearing those warfare devices," said West.

Unless one of my sons goes into submarines, I was planning on being buried with my original set of dolphins. Based on what the MCPON did, I'm thinking that instead I'll get buried with one of my other sets and pass the originals down in case some future descendent goes into submarines.

Navy Website Has Boomer Picture!

For the first time in 3 months, the official Navy website had a picture of an SSBN; here it is:

It's a picture of USS West Virginia (SSBN 736) returning to Kings Bay from a patrol. Another picture of the boat returning is here.

Should the Navy do more to publicize the SSBN force? Or should they wait until we need funding for an Ohio-class follow-on?

Using Lasers To Find Submarines

Check out this story about how a scientist from the Naval Research Laboratory is investigating the use of lasers for finding or communicating with submerged submarines:

The shock wave created by either method can travel several miles and can be used for several purposes. One would be for one-way communication with underwater vessels. Triggering pressure waves in a specific order could allow a plane to communicate with underwater vessels via basic Morse code, or, more likely, says Jones, with a complex, encoded pattern of pulses.
Another use for laser-induced sound waves would be for mapping the ocean floor. When they hit a submerged object, the pressure waves bounce back. A nearby submarine or buoy could detect the pattern of those waves and create a map of the ocean floor, or the location of other submarines in the area.

Every once in a while, you read some story about how lasers are going to make submarines obsolete by making the ocean "transparent" and easily finding submarines. Somehow, these systems never end up working out. The reason, of course, if that you would get huge rates of false "positives" for any such system. One thing about ASW exercises that's always bugged me is how skimmers get a false sense of how good they are because they get cued to where the submarine is to start with -- otherwise, of course, it would turn such exercises into a waste of time because they'd never find the sub. Still, in the real world, they're not going to know where the subs are at to start their search, or even if one is there. When I was on the Carrier Group staff, during workups I saw many "positive submarine" detections called that weren't anywhere close to where the submarine actually was; in wartime, each of these would have likely resulted in wasted ordnance. Ships only carry so many ASW weapons. I think that to make skimmers aware of this, we should occasionally do ASW exercises where no submarine is present. That could be a valuable teaching lesson that could save ordnance for when it's actually needed during wartime.

Navy Working Uniform Now Allowed Out In Town

I haven't seen the NAVADMIN yet, but the MCPON reports, on his Facebook page no less, that the CNO has approved the wearing of the Navy Working Uniform (NWU) out in town in some circumstances:

Today our CNO approved a revision to the policy that governs the wear of the Navy Working Uniform. Effective immediately, Sailors in most locations can now wear our newest uniform outside the lifelines of our bases and our ships. They can wear it for short routine stops and even at restaurants out in town as long as it's during working hours.
This is a big win for our Sailors and for our Navy. The American public is going to be introduced to this new uniform and our men and women have been eager to get out there and show it off.
Much of the credit for this decision goes to our CNO, Admiral Roughead, and our Chief of Naval Personnel, Vice Admiral Fitzgerald. They recognized a need early on to make sure our Sailors knew exactly how to wear this uniform before we sent them out in front of the American public. Our Chiefs trained them and provided the feedback. Now we're ready to move forward and let communities around the country see what a United States Sailor looks like in blue and gray camouflage.
Also, BZ to Fleet Master Chief Scott Benning and the Navy Region Mid-Atlantic Chief's Mess. They led the way in getting their Sailors trained up on the NWU and set the standard for the entire Navy.
More details on this can be found in NAVADMIN 188/09.
Have a great weekend.
HOOYAH,
MCPON

This is a policy change that really makes sense. As you might recall, none of us really liked the old "can't wear it out in town at all" policy that was first promulgated. I like how the MCPON tries to exonerate the CNO and CNP for the original idiocy, basically saying the previous policy was only in place until Sailors learned to "wear this uniform". I'm sure our Sailors were very challenged on this point. [/sarcasm]

Update 1824 26 June: Here's a more "official" version of the announcement, from the Navy webpage.

Good Ship Topeka Deploys

My first boat, USS Topeka (SSN 754), left on deployment earlier this week; here's a picture:

According to this story, Topeka was featured in the new movie "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". Even when we first got around to San Diego in 1991, the Topeka was kind of the "go-to" boat when it came to media availabilities. With her recent appearance on "24", along with this movie, it looks like they're still using her as the local Media Darling. (I won't see the movie until Saturday, but from what I've heard from some family members, who went to the midnight showing Tuesday night, the boat doesn't fare so well.)

Update 1701 27 June: I saw the movie. I didn't have enough thoughts about it to make it worth writing a full "Movie Review" post, but I liked it OK. It was basically a huge advertisement for American servicepeople and advanced U.S. military gear, and I was cool with that. (That's probably also why a lot of media critics don't like it.) The movie was pretty long (almost 3 hours) so I should have looked it up on RunPee before I went. As usual, there were some technical problems with the submarine sections: the submarine is shown as being on the surface while "on station", but is able to submerge within about 30 seconds. The ocean where Megatron is buried, the Laurentian Abyss, is described as being "9,600 fathoms" deep -- it's actually about just over 2,000 fathoms deep, and the deepest point in the actual ocean is 5,900 fathoms. The 3-D capabilities of the shipboard sonar are at least explainable if one assumes that they've instrumented the area where a submarine is on duty "at all times". They also showed my old carrier, USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), right before she somehow changed into CVN 71. (The Stennis shows up again later as herself.) Except for the part where the sub was on the surface, the gaffes weren't actually too distracting, so I give the movie three Hot Decepticons Coeds out of five.

Virginia-Class Update

In one of the least surprising results ever, the Virginia-class submarine program got the "highest possible ranking" from the Navy's "independent" Operational Test and Evaluation "Force" (COMOPTEVFOR) this month. What interested me in this Navy announcement of the success was some information on what some of the Virginia-class boats are doing now:

"COTF's findings validate what we have known for some time about the Virginia class - that they are ready to become the backbone of the U.S. submarine force," said Vice Adm. John J. Donnelly, commander, Submarine Force. "Virginia and Hawaii have conducted successful deployments prior to their post-shakedown availability (PSA) and New Hampshire is currently deployed. These are the first U.S. submarines to deploy prior to their PSAs, so we had confidence that these ships could operate as advertised, and now we have independent verification."
In its June 2009 IOT&E report, COTF went on to recommend full fleet introduction for the class and commented that "the Virginia-class submarine demonstrated major improvements in littoral environment capabilities" as compared to previous classes of submarine.
Currently, New Hampshire is conducting a deployment prior to its PSA. Additionally, Hawaii is underway to its new homeport in Pearl Harbor, making it the first Virginia to permanently leave Groton, Conn. Texas will follow Hawaii to Pearl Harbor in the fall. Lastly, Virginia is currently working up to its first six-month deployment, which will begin this fall.

So what would have happened had COTF not recommended "full fleet introduction" of the Navy's largest shipbuilding program? I'm guessing "a plague of locusts o'er the land".

Live Free... Or Die!!

During a visit to Norway last month, the crew of USS New Hampshire (SSN 778) got roped into an international naval parade in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Norwegian Submarine Force. Here's the picture:

Some other pictures from their European tour can been seen here and here. I've always thought it was a pain to have to go out in town in a liberty port in uniform -- except in Australia. (My favorite story of a shipmate having a great adventure while in uniform out in town was recounted here.) What ports have you been to where it's worth your while to hit the beach in uniform?

(As to the title of this post, I just wanted to honor my favorite state motto -- New Hampshire has the best, no doubt about it.)

"Submarine Officer" Video From The 80s

Check out this unintentionally humorous 1988 Navy propaganda video trying to get people to become Submarine Officers:



The funniest part is where the JO actually relieves as DOOW.

(Personally, I only stood Dive once after I qualified, which was when the CO wanted to to meet with all the Chiefs at the same time. Another officer stood COW, and we completely screwed up the trim as a prank.)

Submarines Interacting With Idiot Civilians

Here's an interesting story from the St. Petersburg Times about a fishing boat that saw USS Georgia (SSGN 728 729) surface south of Key West. Excerpts:

The sub, wrote Navy Commander Patrick W. McNally in an e-mail, was being used for routine dive training to prepare "operators for possible missions overseas." McNally wouldn't share specifics "due to the sensitive nature of special operations."
Schermerhorn and Marlowe learned that when five boats stocked with machine guns approached. Men in sunglasses and black fatigues told them to move 2,000 yards away. Marlowe grabbed the boat's wheel. Schermerhorn held his camera.
"Due to my extensive knowledge of the sea and out of concern for our national security, I took many photographs," said Schermerhorn, 48. "It's my obligation and duty to investigate."...
...It was all a little too Tom Clancy for Marlowe, a self-proclaimed Georgia boy who wanted only to fish. But Schermerhorn, who called the sub's activity "suspicious," has kept digging. He contacted the U.S. Coast Guard, the FBI and the Monroe County Sheriff's Office with his story. He may write a book.

Well, it's clear that this guy is a serious goob. He reminds me of the idiot civilians who try to get really close to submarines when we're entering and leaving port (especially in San Diego). "We don't care about the Rules of the Road, we just have to get this picture", they'll say. "Why are you sounding your horn 5 times when we just want to get close and take a fun picture?" When I was on Topeka, one of those idiots actually hit us; luckily, the Coast Guard was right there to cite them (and hopefully take away their keys.)

Nowadays, we have people with guns on the sail (which we didn't back in the early 90s), and I think the idiots recognize that we will shoot them if they get too close. Have you ever been hit by an idiot civilian while on a sub, or come close to having to fire warning shots at them because they have to get close to get that picture?

Edited 1730 19 Jun to correct a typo in the hull number.

O-7 Selections Announced

Much later than usual, the FY10 Rear Admiral (Lower Half) selections were released in ALNAV 43-09. Congratulations to the Submarine community selectees: Richard Breckenridge, James Foggo III, Robert Hennegan, and Thomas Wears. We only had 4 selectees this year, down from 6 last year. (The two years before that we had 4 and 5 for FY08 and FY07, respectively.) This is by far the toughest cut for any promotion in the Navy -- selection rates are typically about 5%.

Anybody like to share any good sea stories about the new Admirals?

Chinese Submarine Hits U.S. Towed Array

An unidentified Chinese sub yesterday hit the towed array of Yokosuka-based USS John McCain (DDG 56) near Luzon, according to this CNN report. Excerpts:

The array was damaged, but the sub and the ship did not collide, the official said. A sonar array is a radar towed behind a ship that listens and locates underwater sounds.
The incident occurred near Subic Bay off the coast of the Philippines.
The official, who declined to be named because the incident had not been made public, would not say whether the U.S. ship knew the submarine was that close to it.

(I'm assuming they'll correct the ridiculous "radar" reference, emphasis mine, as soon as someone with a clue at CNN actually reads the article.) The article goes on to state that it's unlikely this was intentional on the sub's part, since it would have been really dangerous had the tow cable gotten wrapped around the submarine's shaft. This is putting it mildly; there's no way around admitting that this could only be seen as a case of really bad submarining. Submarines never, ever want to get near the stern of any ship that might have a towed array deployed for that very reason; it you get that cable wrapped around your only propulsion shaft, especially this far from your homeport, you're pretty much SOL and heading home on your dinky outboard (if Chinese subs even have them). While I'm sure we'll see lots of uneducated "how could we let a Chinese submarine get that close to us" wailing from those without clues -- what do they expect us to do, open fire at a submarine belonging to a nation with which we're not at war? -- the main takeaway from this for me is that, once again, Chinese submariners are proving that they're not really ready for prime time. (But the Sub Force still needs lots of funding to Stand Up to the Chinese Submarine Threat, if you're a Congressional Aide who wandered here from Google.)

Update 1046 13 June: Submariner John at Improved Clinch offers his thoughts on the coverage. Still nothing official from any of the Navy sites, even the Seventh Fleet Facebook page -- seems like it would have been worth at least a quick wall post.

Update 1600 15 June: Stars and Stripes reports that the McCain has returned to Sasebo. This idiot posting at OpEdNews claims that the Chinese sub was intentionally trying to foul the array in their screw so they could steal it. That would be one gutsy CO. Considering the odds of finding a U.S. destroyer streaming an array and getting the pursuit curve right with the limited speed of a diesel boat and getting the depth right, it would be quite an accomplishment.

Update 1751 19 June: In this Navy Times article, unnamed defense officials claim the McCain was tracking the Chinese submarine. Those who are wondering why the McCain couldn't avoid the submarine when it was tracking it don't understand that ranging is very difficult in passive TMA, and is an inexact science at best even it the target isn't maneuvering.

Wear Your Dolphins To Work Day: April 9, 2010

A retired Master Chief going by the moniker "The Old Boomer COB" has come up with a fascinating idea; he even has a website to publicize it. Excerpts:

One day I decided to have silver Dolphins embroidered on some of my shirts, and as time went by a number of guys commented on my fish. Many of them said their Dolphins were the only Navy memento they still had. Some mentioned the fun of going to the Submarine Birthday Ball. We often traded sea stories, and we each went our own way. Life as an ex-bubblehead geezer was pretty good.
One night I woke from a sound sleep to the thought "If we can have a 'take your daughter to work day', why not have a 'Wear your Dolphins to work day'? Earning Dolphins must be at least as hard a having a baby, right? So why are we hiding our achievement?" We were in the "Silent Service", not the "Hide it like we are ashamed Service". I know some sea lawyer is thinking that we aren't supposed to wear uniform insignia with civvies, but we're SUBMARINERS! We wore beards when the rest of the Navy was clean shaven! We wore Nikes as uniform of the day at sea. We hit golf balls off the bow at the North Pole! We wore civilian clothes on watch for half-way day. We have friends with names like "Warhead"! If we can take pictures from inside Russian harbors, we can damn well wear our fish with civvies one day a year. Why not do it to celebrate the Submariner Force Birthday, April 11th? OK, the 11th is a Sunday in 2010, so lets make it Friday the 9th.

I think it's a great idea. And since 2010 is a "round number" anniversary (the 110th), I'm thinking we can even get a Congressional Resolution honoring submarines and making that Friday "National Submariners Day" or something like that. What do you commenters think? Is it worth the effort?

French Sub Hunts For Pinger

The French nuclear submarine FS Émeraude (S 604) has arrived in the central Atlantic to look for the "black box" from Air France Flight 447. From a BBC article:

The "black boxes", which emit a locator signal for about 30 days, could be up to 6,100m (20,000ft) deep, on the bed of the Atlantic. They could provide vital clues as to why the Airbus A330 crashed on 1 June...
...French military spokesman Captain Christophe Prazuck said the submarine - the Emeraude - should be able to cover an area of 26 sq km each day. It has advanced sonar equipment on board.
"There are big uncertainties about the accident site, the ocean floor is rugged... so it's going to be very difficult," he told French radio.
"It's going to be very complicated and we're going to need a lot of luck" to find the plane's data recorders.
The US is also joining the search, sending two sophisticated listening devices, which will be deployed on two large vessels hired by France. They will be towed in a grid pattern across the search area.
If the aircraft's two black boxes are located, a mini-submarine called the Nautile will be sent down to retrieve them. The vessel, which has a crew of three and is about 8m long, is the same one which explored the wreck of the Titanic.

Here's a picture from the Navy website of some of the equipment we're sending down. ScoopDeck has more on the Navy's role in the search. I'm not sure how much help the submarine will be compared to the pinger detectors that will be towed around the area; it all depends on what the Sound-Velocity Profile of the wafer is like in that part of the world. If the layer's around a few hundred feet or shallower, the French boat could make the discovery. If not, it was probably sent down as a PR move to show that the French military is putting all their assets to use -- after all, they've already paid for the fuel.

Has your boat ever been sent to look for something like this?

A True Statement

From an E-mail I got from a writer for a national publication:

"You've got the best sub commenters on the web..."

I agree with him 100%. Thanks to everyone who contributes worthwhile comments and makes this blog what it is.