new submarine bloggers
three more have cropped up... one an old friend to the community trough, and a couple of new ones. i've got the links posted over at the corner
here. go visit them and give them a big howdy.
and i'd like to point your attention towards one of the newbies. he posted a hilarious, typical underway musing that really tood me back to those long boring underway watches, and the craziness that bubbled up in our conversations.
Moon Colony, and midgets get special rates....
Cross Post from
TheSubReport.com Blog.Inspired by the
Russian Typhoon Submarine Beach Photo posted on the internet last month, I figured we could have some photoshop fun and see what kind of beach photo someone could come up with using a
U.S. Navy Submarine.
See the
TSR Blog for more info.....
Sub chiefs get blasted in a Navy Times letter to the editor
The below letter (linked here, though you need to be a Navy Times subscriber to view it), is sure to stick in the craw of the submarine CPO community. I'm not a CPO, but I'll assure you I couldn't disagree more with AFCM Moss' assessment. I think he's way, way off base.
A real mess on a sub
I am embarrassed for the chief petty officer community and especially [for] the CPO community in the silent service [“Admiral’s mast held for sailor in hazing case,” July 10].
I think that the nuclear Navy has a certain endemic problem with its chief petty officers in that they have no real chiefs’ mess from which to glean knowledge and leadership. The gold and blue crews are just that, and there is no goat locker where a chief can go to ask assistance from his fellow chiefs. The [chief of the boat] is not a mess president, he is a leading chief with the responsibility of caring for all ranks and rates onboard the vessel. He wears many hats, but not the one that is most important to the command structure — that of the president of the chiefs mess. Why? Because they do not have a CPO mess. There is no room, and most nuclear Navy types believe they can get leadership from a book. Case in point [is] the outgoing master chief petty officer of the Navy.
The nuclear Navy has a problem due to the close-knit relationships that must be developed and relied upon to get the job done. The old adage “Liberty expires at 0730” does not apply in most cases. Thereby, “familiarity breeds contempt” and the chief is just another one of the fellas.
I do not believe that a nuclear Navy submariner chief should be allowed to participate in the command master chief program until he has done at least one tour onboard a large surface combatant and is exposed to a real chief’s mess and understands his position in that mess. Leadership is a trait honed in the chief’s mess, and no book can give you the knowledge that a seasoned master chief can from his experiences alone.
AFCM (AW/NAC) Bill Moss (ret.)
Melbourne, Fla
Sorry, AFCM...I think you are WAY off base.
Tags: Navy, Submarines, Leadership, CPO
Crossposted at The Sub Report Editor's Blog and The Online Magazine formerly known as Rob's Blog
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Nukes out of a job?
Not likely, but this could be a step in that direction :)
UTC Power, a United Technologies (NYSE: UTX - News) company, today announced that its UTC Fuel Cells unit will design and develop a 300 kW proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell power module for the Spanish shipbuilder NAVANTIA, S.A. for use in the Spanish Navy's S-80 submarine.
Not likely that this will do the nukes in, but it shows promise.
Tags: Submarines, Nuclear Power, Fuel Cells, Spain
Crossposted to The Sub Report Editor's Blog and The Online Magazine Formerly Known As Rob's Blog.
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WWI sub found off Scotland
A WWI British submarine (originally mistaken as a sunken trawler) has been found off the coast of Scotland. The sub, known as the H11, was lost while under tow in 1920.
Tags: Submarines, WWI
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Crossposted to The Online Magazine formerly known as Rob's Blog and The Sub Report Editor's Blog.
Submarine News Links 17 July 2006
With
The Sub Report on break until Thursday (although the guest bloggers are doing a bang-up job keeping things updated at
The Sub Report Blog) I figured I'd try my hand at doing some Sub Report-style linkage. Here goes today's effort:
Sailor Accused Of Arson Is Given BondNuclear Propulsion Systems ImprovingSecond Sailor Convicted Of Hazing Charges (annoying registration required)
Excerpt:
"A military jury convicted a second USS Columbus sailor of hazing and assault Friday at a special courtmartial. "Petty Officer 1st Class Alvin Franklin, 25, also was found guilty of aggravated assault for pouring isopropyl alcohol on a shipmate’s uniform shirt and setting it on fire. The all-male jury of four chief petty officers and a chief warrant officer — none of them submariners — cleared Franklin of two other counts of assault and of threatening to kill Cool. "But like another Columbus sailor convicted of hazing last week, Franklin will be allowed to stay in the Navy, despite a request from prosecutors that both men receive bad conduct discharges. With credit for time served, Franklin will spend 10 more days in the brig at Bangor submarine base. He also will forfeit two-thirds of his pay for two months and be demoted to third class petty officer."
More What You'd Call 'Recommendations' Than Actual Orders?Possible Step Forward On Taiwan Submarine DealEric always includes a picture, too, so here's
a new picture of my old boat USS Topeka (SSN 754) being shown off to impressed schoolchildren in San Diego:
(Cross-posted from
The Stupid Shall Be Punished)
how submariners diet
a little seastory about dieting in honor of the USS Pennsylvania's loss of 861 pounds on a patrol. oh, it's over at
my corner of the bubbleblogosphere
Sounds About Right
A young Naval Officer was in a bad car accident, but due to the heroics of the hospital staff his only permanent injury was the loss of an ear. Since he wasn't physically impaired, he remained in the military and eventually became an Admiral who was sensitive about his appearance.
One day the Admiral was interviewing three Master Chiefs for the Command Master Chief position.
The first Master Chief was a Surface Navy type and it was a great interview. At the end of the interview the Admiral asked him, "Do you notice anything different about me?"
The Master Chief answered, "Why yes. I couldn't help but notice you are missing your starboard ear, so I need to know whether this impacts your hearing on that side." The Admiral got very angry at this lack of tact and threw him out of his office.
The next candidate, a Aviation Service Master Chief, when asked this same question, answered, "Well yes, you seem to be short one ear." The Admiral threw him out also.
The third interview was with an Submarine Master Chief. He was articulate, extremely sharp, and seemed to know more than the other two Master Chiefs put together. The Admiral wanted this guy, but went ahead with the same question, "Do you notice anything different about me?"
To his surprise the Submarine Master Chief said, "Yes. You wear contact lenses."
The Admiral was impressed and thought to himself, what an incredibly tactful Master Chief. "And how do you know that?" the Admiral asked.
The Submarine Master Chief replied, "Well it's pretty hard to wear glasses with only one f..... ear."
A submarine connection to the 4th of July. On 4 July 1944, on his fourth war patrol in command of USS Seahorse (SS-304), Commander Slade Cutter sank the Kyodo Maru #28, the fifth ship of the patrol, bringing his patrol tonnage sunk to 17,321. It would be Commander Cutter's final patrol of the war...but in this case, a happy ending, as his fifth patrol was cut short not by tragedy but by the end of WWII.
Second only to Dick O'Kane and tied with "Mush" Morton in the number of Japanese ships they sank in World War II, Slade Cutter had an uncanny ability to find and destroy enemy targets wherever he went. It was said by VADM Charles Lockwood, COMSUBPAC, that Cutter "could find Jap ships in Pearl Harbor if asked." Cutter's four war patrols as Commanding Officer of USS Seahorse (SS-304) netted 19 sinkings and more than 70,000 tons of shipping in the postwar accounting, and he was awarded four Navy Crosses during the conflict.
Slade Cutter, a true American hero.
