Memorial Day Thoughts from Paul Myers

Thanks for the post Paul !! Posting this on the Google blog for the rest of the crew...   

MEMORIAL DAY

No Smoking on US Submarines

 

I was surprised to find out that smoking was banned on US Submarines. I had heard that it was going to take place in 2010 but this is the first official press I've seen to confirm that it's gone. 

http://www.healthymagination.com/blog/smoke-free-worksite-challenge/

In the USS Augusta control room during the early 80's, the cigarette smoke was frequently thicker than in a Navy bar. During battle stations of course the "smoking lamp" was out, but when we were piloting or just on duty the smoking lamp was generally lit. And it must have been more than half of the crew that smoked. 

My first boat was the Stonewall Jackson SSBN-634 Gold and I would guess at least 2/3 of the crew smoked. That was 1981 and 1982 for me. We also used to chew tobacco which the thought of still disgusts me. But I chewed like the best of them back then. We used to tape a bucket to the primary plot when we were piloting and about 4 or 5 of us would share it for our chew. Actually made an inspector vom when he saw it. That was so funny. The entire control room was lol when the inspector looked in our chew bucket and then started to gag. 

My first COB on the Stonewall Jackson told me a story about how the Navy tried to eliminate smoking cold turkey on a boomer in the 1970's. When the boat was about to pull out they confiscated cigs from the entire crew. I don't know how they did that because we used to carry about 20 cartons per man for the patrols. Well they went to sea and started their patrol. 3 days later the sub rode on the surface back toward Norfolk because there had been so many fist fights they had to abort the patrol. When they got 150 miles from shore they were greeted by a huge Navy chopper which dropped down thousands of cartons so the crew could continue the deterrent patrol.

It took me 27 years of smoking to finally quit and I'm so glad I was finally able to make it off the Marlboros. Smoking sucks. I'm glad the Navy finally decided to man up and forced all bubble heads that are too young and too stupid to quit. We were almost all too young and too stupid in our days on the boat and we thought we would live forever. But cigarettes turned out to be one of the stupidest things a person could do in the history of the world. Go Navy.

More Targets

China has 60 submarines including 8 nuke boats according to this article: http://weapons.technology.youngester.com/2011/11/chinese-submarine-threat-to-us.html

You have to wonder when these guys are going to figure it out. It would be exceedingly difficult to protect any of them in a shootout with the US. In fact even the Russians could probably take out the majority of their submarine fleet in a couple hours.

It used to be that submarines were a stealth technology. That's old news now. It's almost impossible to hide and especially in the waters near China.

Yeah in the old days submarines like the USS Augusta were tasked with finding and killing enemy submarines. Now there is more focus on confirming locations so the bad guys can be taken out by helicopters or missile shots from aircraft. Even if the Chinese subs are on the bottom and they're at ultra quiet, patrol aircraft can drop sonobuoys to cover a wide area and then direct a fighter aircraft to bomb anything that moves.

So why don't they spend their money doing something useful? I think they are trying to develop an economic war machine like the one we have.

Submarine Officer Video

Just saw this video on Facebook.
It's 11 minutes long. Shows initial dive, battle stations, loading a torpedo, taking a torpedo shot, underwater view of torpedo shot, tracking a bad guy, patrol quiet, supposedly tracking an "Alpha". Complete with corny music.

USS Augusta Launch Video

The commentator said it was 5 degrees during the launch at Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton CT. I don't think there was a man onboard who I've ever talked with that was there that didn't remember how biter cold it was in our dress uniforms for hours outside. When we were relived from the ceremony we felt like frozen Popsicle's taking small creaky steps going up the hill at E.B. back to our offices in Building 80. Then the Commissioning up at Portsmouth NH was almost as cold. Time flies when you're having fun... this was almost 30 years ago now.



Just thought I'd post this incredible time lapse video that has literally nothing to do with the 10 boat... it's from the International Space Station from August to October, 2011.

Happy Veteran's Day... Have Some Free Food !!

I got this list from "The Military Wallet"

 The original article had a lot to say about these places... I'm just listing them here so you can scan the list. Cheers -

Applebee’s – free meal, Friday, Nov. 11:
Bar Louie AmericaBar Louie
BJs Restaurant and Brewhouse
Champps AmericanaChampps Americana
Chili's Restaurant
Fox and Hound Bar
Golden Corral
Famous Daves
Hooters
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
Little Caesars
McCormick and Schmicks
Outback Steakhouse
Sizzler Restaurant
The Spaghetti Warehouse
Subway
Texas Roadhouse
T.G.I. Friday’s
The Olive Garden
Twin Peaks Restaurants
UNO pizza

Read more from source article: http://themilitarywallet.com/veterans-day-free-meals-and-discounts/#ixzz1dMqsXYbh

Recommended Sumarine Blog

I was looking at one of the best submarine blogs in the world today... it's called "The Stupid Shall be Punished" and it's a great blog. I highly recommend it if you are a former bubblehead looking for some interesting posts. It's on Blogger and he gets hundreds of posts on some of the more explosive topics.

http://bubbleheads.blogspot.com/

http://bubbleheads.blogspot.com/