Keeping the blogosphere posted on the goings on of the world of submarines since late 2004... and mocking and belittling general foolishness wherever it may be found. Idaho's first and foremost submarine blog. (If you don't like something on this blog, please E-mail me; don't call me at home.)

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Frustrations of a Sub-Blogger

This is not a whiny post (see below for that). This is a post that explains one of the biggest frustrations of being a submarine blogger -- normally you only see the "bad" things about the Sub Force in the paper, and we can't blog about all the good things, because of the classified nature of the business.
In today's New London Day, Bob Hamilton has a good report on the first day of the Naval Submarine League symposium (registration req'd after tomorrow, then that doesn't even work after a week; you have to pay for it -- "damn you, New London Day!"). VADM Munns talked about some of the stuff that we can't talk about (and since he's ComSubLant ComNavSubFor, he can decide what he wants to talk about...):

"Last year, submarines helped intercept smugglers' ships carrying a combined cargo of more than 40 tons of drugs, the head of Naval Submarine Forces said Wednesday.
“That's enough to affect the price of drugs in New York City,” Vice Adm. Charles L. Munns said on the opening day of the Naval Submarine League annual symposium at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center.
"It was an unusually candid address for a submariner. In fact, Munns told those in attendance that he had to get the information declassified before he could pass it along to them. While he couldn't give them specifics, he said, “We're doing similar things in the global war on terror.”
"Munns said the submarine force has been spending hundreds of operating days working with navies in Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia on anti-drug and anti-terrorist operations. Since terrorists often use the sale of drugs to raise money for their campaigns, the two missions often overlap.
"Munns asked his listeners to help him spread the word, because, he said, it's time the submarine force started to get more credit for its achievements."


Read the rest, as they say (while it's still free!)

Going deep...

2 Comments:

Blogger chaoticsynapticactivity said...

I had two neighbors on SSNs in the early 80's as neighbors. Great guys, and certainly ones who broke the mold on stereotypes of "overly brainy to the point of boring." It always sucked at the almost weekly (when we were around) backyard cook outs, when you'd see their eyes light up and see the excitement on their face, hear a few words like "One time, when I was..." then the voice would trail off, they'd take another hot on their beer and be quiet...

I know there was a great sea story behind all of that..

Our group was an LDO Crypto guy, me the "shoe", an A-6 pilot, and the two SSN guys and our wives...not like we were gonna tell, but they always kept it to themselves...

6/11/2005 9:16 AM

 
Blogger Bubblehead said...

It gets the same way within the sub community; I was working with a "projects" guy once (you know, the guys with the PUCs) and he mentioned something that piqued my interest in the course of normal, work-related conversation; I asked him what the project boats did, and all he could say was, "I wish I could tell you, I really do, but I just can't!" I got the impression that when they debrief you, they tell you they're going to send people around throughout your life to "test" you... I'm almost glad I left the Carter when I did...

6/12/2005 12:09 PM

 

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