Fair Winds And Following Seas

It's been almost 10 years, but it's time for me to say "farewell" to The Stupid Shall Be Punished and hang up my blogger's hat. Basically, I've run out of UNCLAS sea stories. Thanks to all the readers and commenters who have made TSSBP the great place it's been for Submariners to hang out, argue, and tell sea stories over the last decade. I think that communities like this are important, and I hope someone else picks up the baton and runs with it.

I'll probably post again if there's some "lead story in the news" type of submarine story, or if I ever finish the short story I've been thinking about writing for the last 12 years, or if I just need a convenient parking spot for some long-form political essay I feel I need to write, but otherwise I think this will be it. Thanks for reading all my sea stories over the years, and contributing your own.

As all Submariners know, and non-Submariners have such difficulty understanding, the brotherhood of submarining is truly unique. In no other field of endeavor do men have to place such trust in one another at all times to keep one another safe. This creates a bond that years and distance cannot dim. I often feel that I probably have more in common with non-American Submariners than I do with regular people in my hometown. The experiences we share -- the ones we can't share with anyone else outside the fraternity -- are what make us so different. While other military organizations share something similar, we are the only group -- outside of maybe astronauts -- who exist continually surrounded by an environment that can kill us in an instant if someone makes a mistake, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, when out at sea. Submariners must trust their shipmates, and their ships, literally with our lives. We each leave something of ourselves behind on each submarine on which we serve, from which each boat forms it's own soul. Submarines are truly alive with the blood, sweat, and tears of every person who has served on her.

"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep." -- Psalms 107:23-24

Going deep...