Glad to be Here!

On making my first post to this group blog, I am reminded of the first meal I had with my fellow officers upon reporting for my JO tour fresh out of submarine school. For God knows what reason, I thought a good topic for conversation might be my orders. I found it a little frustrating -- but also pretty amusing -- that my choice of orders had me reporting to not just the opposite type of boat I'd requested, but one that was due to become a Pacific boat halfway through my tour as well!

Not only did I choose exactly the wrong topic of conversation as an instrument to break the ice, I wielded that instrument with a soon-to-be legendary lack of skill. The first words out of my mouth were, "I wanted a boomer on the East coast, but they sent me here instead!" Suffice it to say that I got a lot more laughs out of that one than I thought I would, for a different reason than I'd intended, and for a whole lot longer (i.e., the remainder of my tour of duty) than I imagined possible!

Having reanimated that skeleton in my closet, I would like to thank Bubblehead for starting this blog and Bothenook for introducing me to other submariner bloggers in the first place. I don't hold myself out as a mil-blogger: I focus mainly on politics. It simply never occurred to me at the start of my blogging career to look for other submariners. Had Bothenook not noticed one of my rare submarine posts and linked to me in the first place, I likely wouldn't have had the opportunity to join the blog that Bubblehead has started here.

I have followed the blogs of the other contributors (Presently, they are: Bothenook, Bubblehead, and Willy Shake.) for several months. These are all excellent blogs and, for those interested mainly in submarines, they are much better than my own. It is a privilege to be on their team. With the talent Bubblehead has already assembled here so far, I know that our readers are going to enjoy this blog. I would also add that a visit to any of the individual blogs listed under "submariners" would be a good bet for some interesting reading on a wide range of other topics.

And to our readers: Thanks for stopping by. Visit early. Visit often. Tell your friends!

-- CAV

Update

6-5-05: Fixed a typo, HT The General. (And thanks for publicizing the new blog.)

posted by Gus Van Horn @ 3:55 PM