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OUR CREED: To perpetuate the memory of our shipmates who gave their lives in

the pursuit of duties while serving their country. That their dedication, deeds,

and supreme sacrifice be a constant source of motivation toward greater

accomplishments. Pledge loyalty and patriotism to the United States of America

and its constitution.

OOGA OOGA

UNITED STATES SUBMARINE VETERANS INCORPORTATED

PALMETTO BASE NEWSLETTER

DECEMBER 2010

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Six U.S. Navy submarines nested together, circa 1939-1941. Probably seen from Canopus (AS 9)

in Manila Bay, Philippines. The inboard submarine is not identified. The others are (from left to

right): Pike (SS 173), Tarpon (SS 175), Porpoise (SS 172), Perch (SS 176) and Permit (SS 178).

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Palmetto Base Officers

Base Commander

Tommy Richardson

Vice Commander: Brian Steffen

Jr. VCDR: D. W. Eggleston

Secretary: Fernando Iglesias

Treasurer: J. P. Watson

Chaplain: Bob Miller

Chief of the Boat: Jim “Snake” Stark

Webmaster: Mark Basnight

Storekeeper: Brian Steffen

Events Chair: Allen “Buzz” Danielson Fundraising Chair: Jim Null Liaison Officer: D. W. Eggleston

Committee Chair: Tom O’Brien

Ship’s Photographer: Jim Null

Bereavement Chair: Randy Browning

Kap(SS) 4 Kid(SS) Chair: Don Van Borsch

Newsletter Editor: Randy Browning

Members Milt Berky

David Castro

James L. Charbonneau

Tracy R. Charbonneau

Lonnie Franklin

Ronald Friend

Julian Galloway

Joseph E. Gawronski

Joseph L. Geiger

Glenn E. Harris

Stoney Hilton

Michael House

John Jeffries

Charlie Kerr

James N. Kirby

Arnold Kirk

George “Scram” Kokolis

John J. Krause

Harold R. Lane

William M. Lindler

Charlie MacKenzie

Eddie McVicker

Mark Morgan

Tom Paige

Larry Peay

Ted R. Schneeberg

James P. Scott

Vince Seay

Leonard M. Snell

John Solis

L. E. Spradlin

Jerry Stout

Clarence Teseniar

Thomas N. Thompson

Jeffro M. Wagner

Medal of Honor Winner, Holland Club, Past District Commander, Past Base

Commander, Past Vice Commander, Past Secretary, Past Treasurer, Past Chaplain,

Palmetto Base Hall of Fame, Palmetto Silver Star Award

Honorary Members Judy Cline Charles Murray

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November 16, 2010

Attendees Mark Basnight Deborah Basnight

Milt Berky

Mrs. Wilcox

Randy Browning

Cyndi Browning

Allen “Buzz” Danielson

D. W. Eggleston

Lyla Eggleston

Fernando Iglesias

Joni Iglesias

Harold Lane

Helen Lane

Bob Miller

Kathleen Miller

Mark Morgan

Dee Moran

Jim Null

Eleanor Null

Tom O’Brien

Barbara O’Brien

Tom Paige

Larry Peay

Linda Peay

Tommy Richardson

Rebecca Richardson

John Solis

L. E. Spradlin

Mary Helen Spradlin

Jim “Snake” Stark

Anne Stark

Brian Steffen

Jerry Stout Christina (Jerry’s Guest)

Thomas N. Thompson

Don Van Borsch

Jeffro Wagner

Barbara Wagner

Minutes

• 38 members and guests were present

• Holland Club Inductees: Harold Lane , Larry Peay , Julian Galloway , William

Lindler and Clarence Teseniar

• Hall of Fame Inductees: Jim Null and Tom Paige

• Silver Star Award: Brian Steffen

• Events Chair recommended we present the JROTC certificate to the JROTC as a whole

instead of presenting to the Commanding Officer at the nest base meeting. Base

Commander directed the secretary to note it and that the Events Chair and Chaplain can

work it out later.

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D. W. Eggleston - January 3rd

L. E. Spradlin - January 13th

Jim “Snake” Stark - January 15th

William Lindler - January 23rd

Jim Null - January 27th

Don Van Borsch - January 29th

Ronald Friend - January 31st

Tommy Richardson - January 31st

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Base Commander presents Harold Lane his Holland Club membership

Base Commander presents Larry Peay his Holland Club membership

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Holland Club Members

Base Commander inducts Thomas Paige into the Holland Club

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Base Commander awards Vice Commander Brian Steffen the Silver

Star award

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January 2011 Fundraiser

Thanks to kindness of Salsarita’s, our base received 10% ($77.00) of the evening’s total sales

just for showing up and talking with the guests. Not too bad for just standing around.

Hope to see more participation at the next event from 3 – 9 PM on Thursday, February 3rd.

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Dates in American Naval History

January 1

1950 - Mary T. Sproul commissioned as first female doctor in Navy

1959 - U.S. Naval Observatory introduces system of uniform atomic time using cesium beam

atomic oscillators. This measurement has been adopted as standard by the International

Committee on Weights and Measures.

1962 - Navy SEAL teams established

January 2

1969 - Operation Barrier Reef began in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

January 3

1904 - Marines from USS Dixie arrive in Panama

1944 - Top Marine ace MAJ Boyington captured after shooting down 28 aircraft

1945 - Third Fleet carriers begin a 2 day attack against Formosa destroying 100 aircraft with loss

of only 22 aircraft.

January 4

1910 - Commissioning of USS Michigan (BB-27), the first U.S. dreadnought battleship.

1863 - Blockading ship USS Quaker City captures sloop Mercury carrying despatches

emphasizing desperate plight of the South.

1989 - Aircraft (VF-32) from USS John F. Kennedy shoot down 2 hostile Libyan Migs.

January 5

1855 - USS Plymouth crew skirmish with Chinese troops

1875 - CDR Edward Lull begins expedition to locate best ship canal route across Panama. Route

followed 30 years later.

1943 - USS Helena (CL-50) fired first proximity fused projectile in combat and shot down

Japanese divebomber in southwest Pacific.

1968 - First Male Nurse Corps officer in Regular Navy, LT Clarence W. Cote.

January 6

1916 - First enlisted flight training class at Pensacola, FL

1942 - Japanese capture 11 Navy Nurses in Manila, Philippines

1967- Operation Deckhouse V begins in Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

1996 - USS Hopper, named for RADM Grace Hopper, commissioned.

January 7

1960 - Launch of first fully-guided flight of Polaris missile at Cape Canaveral (flew 900 miles)

1967 - Mobile Riverine Force begins arriving at Vung Tau, Vietnam

January 8

1847 - Battle of San Gabriel (Navy, Marines, Army defeat Mexicans in CA)

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January 9

1861 - Union steamer Star of the West fired on in Charleston Harbor

1918 - Establishment of Naval Overseas Transportation Service to carry cargo during WWI

1945 - Carrier aircraft begin 2-day attack on Japanese forces, Luzon, Philippines

January 10

1847 - American naval forces occupy Los Angeles.

1917 - Navy places first production order for aerial photographic equipment.

1934 - VP-10F flies first non-stop formation flight from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor, arriving

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1956 - Establishment of first Navy nuclear power school at Submarine Base, New London, CT

January 11

1863 - CSS Alabama sinks USS Hatteras off Galveston

1944 - Aircraft from USS Block Island make first aircraft rocket attack on German submarine

January 12

1813 - US Frigate Chesapeake captures British Volunteer

1848 - Attack on Sloop Lexington, San Blas, Mexico

1953 - Landings tested on board USS Antietam, first angled deck carrier

January 13

1865 - Amphibious attack on Fort Fisher, NC

1964 - USS Manley evacuates 54 American and 36 allied nationals after Zanzibar government is

overthrown

January 14

1813 - US Frigate Chesapeake captures British brig Hero

1815 - HMS Endymion, Tenedos and Pomone capture USS President

1863 - Navy General Order 4, Emancipation Proclamation

1943 - In first submarine resupply mission, USS Gudgeon lands 6 men, 2,000 pounds of

equipment and supplies on Negros Island.

January 15

1865 - In largest amphibious operation of war, Union forces capture Ft. Fisher, Wilmington, NC,

by joint amphibious force.

1997 - Navy physician CAPT Jerry Lineger joined the crew of the MIR space station after being

launched on Atlantis during space Shuttle Mission STS-81. Prior to the mission, he was

trained at the Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia for over a year.

January 16

1930 - USS Lexington provides power to Tacoma, WA, when floods knocked out city power

plants

1991 - Operation Desert Storm, liberation of Kuwait from Iraq, begins

January 17

1832- USS Peacock makes contact with Vietnamese court officials

1900 - US (CDR Taussig in USS Bennington) takes formal possession of Wake Island

1955 - USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the first nuclear-powered submarine, casts off lines at 1100 and

sends message "underway on nuclear power"

January 18

1911 - First aircraft landing on board a ship, USS Pennsylvania by Eugene Ely.

1962 - After a flash fire in the Persian Gulf on Danish tanker, Prima Maersk, burned a crewman,

USS Duxbury Bay transfers a Navy doctor to help the Danish crewman and USS Soley

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took him to the nearest hospital at Bahrain Island.

1968 - Operation Coronado X begins in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

1977 - The Trident (C-4) missile development flight test program commenced when C4X-1 was

launched from a flight pad at Cape Canaveral, FL

1991 - USS Nicholas attacks and captures Iraqi oil platforms

January 19

1840 - LT Charles Wilkes, USN is first American to discover Antarctic coast

January 20

1783 - Hostilities cease between Great Britain and the United States

1903 - Theordore Roosevelt issues Executive Order placing Midway Islands under jurisdiction of

the Navy Department.

1914 - School for naval air training opens in Pensacola, FL.

1948 - Establishment of U.S. Persian Gulf Area Command (later changed to Middle East Force in

August 1948).

January 21

1954 - Launching of Nautilus, first nuclear submarine, at Groton, CT

1961 - USS George Washington completes first operational voyage of fleet ballistic missile

submarine staying submerged 66 days

January 22

1800 - CAPT Thomas Tingey ordered to duty as first Superintendent of the Washington Navy

Yard

1944 - Operation Shingle, Allied landing at Anzio, Italy

January 23

1960 - Bathyscaph Trieste descends to deepest part of the ocean, Marianas Trench

1968 - USS Pueblo seized by North Korean forces in Sea of Japan

January 24

1942 - Battle of Makassar Strait, destroyer attack on Japanese convoy in first surface action in

the Pacific during World War II

1991 - Helos from USS Leftwich and USS Nicholas recapture first Kuwaiti territory from Iraqis

January 25

1963 - 1st Seabee Technical Assistance Team arrives in Vietnam

1968 - Operation Windsong I in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

January 26

1911 - 1st hydroaeroplane flight is witnessed by naval aviator

1913 - The body of John Paul Jones is laid in its final resting place in the Chapel of Naval

Academy, Annapolis, MD

1949 - USS Norton Sound, first guided-missile ship, launches first guided missile, Loon.

1960 - USS John S. McCain rescues the entire 41-man crew of the sinking Japanese freighter,

Shinwa Maru, in the East China Sea.

January 27

1942 - USS Gudgeon is first US sub to sink enemy submarine in action, Japanese I-173.

1945 - Commissioning of USS Higbee (DD-806), first U.S. Navy ship named after women

member of U.S. Navy.

1967 - Fire in Command Module at Cape Kennedy during simulation countdown. Lunar Module

Pilot LCDR Roger B. Chaffee and two other crew members died.

1973 - Paris Peace Accords signed, ending U.S. participation in the Vietnam War

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January 28

1778 - Second New Providence Expedition raised the flag with thirteen stripes over Fort Nassau.

1960 - Navy demonstrates value of moon communication relay, used in fleet broadcasts.

1962 - USS Cook (APD-130) rescues 25 survivors from after section of Panamanian tanker, SS

Stanvac Sumatra, which broke in two in the South China Sea

1986 - Space shuttle Challenger explodes killing CDR Michael Smith, USN, and 6 other

astronauts

January 29

1914 - U.S. Marines land in Haiti to protect U.S. consulate

1943 - Beginning of 2 day battle of Rennell Island after which U.S. transports reached

Guadalcanal

January 30

1862 - Launching of first turreted warship, USS Monitor

1968 - Tet Offensive begins in Vietnam

January 31

1944 - American amphibious landing on Kwajalein, Marshall Islands

1961 - Lieutenant Commander Samuel Lee Gravely, Jr. becomes first African-American to

command a combat ship, USS Falgout

1981 - Era of Enlisted Naval Aviators ends when last pilot retired

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The Origin of the Ranks and Rank Insignia Now Used by the

United States Navy

Enlisted Ranks: Petty Officer

The Petty Officer can trace his title back to the old French word petit meaning something small.

Over the years the word also came to mean minor, secondary and subordinate. In medieval and

later England just about every village had several "petite", "pety" or "petty" officials/officers

who were subordinate to such major officials as the steward of sheriff. The petty officers were

the assistants to the senior officials.

The senior officers of the early British warships, such as the Boatswain, Gunner and Carpenter,

also had assistants or "mates." Since the early seamen knew petty officers in their home

villages they used the term to describe the minor officials aboard their ships. A ship's Captain

or Master chose his own Petty Officers who served at his pleasure. At the end of a voyage or

whenever the ship's crew was paid off and released the Petty Officers lost their positions and

titles. There were Petty Officers in the British navy in the Seventeenth Century and perhaps

earlier but the rank did not become official until 1808.

Petty Officers were important members of our Navy right from its beginnings and were also

appointed by their ship's Captain. They did not have uniforms or rank insignia, and they usually

held their appointments only while serving on the ship whose Captain had selected them.

Petty Officers in our Navy got their first rank insignia in 1841 when they began wearing a sleeve

device showing an eagle perched on an anchor. Some Petty Officers wore the device on their

left arms while others wore it on their right . All wore the same device. Specialty or rating marks

did not appear officially until 1866 but they seem to have been in use for several years

previously. Regulations sometimes serve to give formal status to practices already well

established.

In 1885 the Navy recognized it three classes of Petty Officers--first, second and third--and in the

next year let them wear rank insignia of chevrons with the points down under a spread eagle

and rating mark. The eagle faced left instead of right as it does today.

The present Petty Officer insignia came about in 1894 when the Navy established the Chief

Petty Officer rank and gave him the three chevrons with arc and eagle. The first, second and

third class Petty Officers also began wearing the insignia they do today.

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USS Scorpion (SS-278)

Lost on: Lost on Jan 5, 1944 with the loss of 77 officers and men in the East China Sea, on her 4th war patrol. It is assumed she was sunk by a mine.

US Navy Official Photo

NavSource.org

NavSource.org

Class: SS 212 Commissioned: 10/1/1942 Launched: 7/20/1942 Builder: Portsmouth Navy Yard Length: 307, Beam: 27 #Officers: 6, #Enlisted: 54 Fate: Scorpion was lost with all hands.76 men lost. Sunk by possible Japanese mine in the Yellow Sea off China.

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USS Argonaut (SS-166)

Lost on:

Lost on Jan 10, 1943 with the loss of 105 officers and men off Rabaul, on her 3rd war patrol. While attacking a convoy, she torpedoed a Jap destroyer who along with 2 other destroyers depth charged her. As she tried to surface, the destroyers sunk her by gun fire.

Navy Photo / NavSource.com

BC Patch

NavSource.org

Class: SS 166 Commissioned: 4/2/1928 Launched: 10/10/1927 Builder: Portsmouth Navy Yard Length: 381, Beam: 34 #Officers: 8, #Enlisted: 80 Fate: On Jan. 10, 1943 Argonaut was forced to the surface by the depth charges from 3 Jap Destroyers and she was destroyed with all hands by surface fire.105 officers and men went down with the submarine.

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USS Swordfish (SS-193)

Lost on: Lost on Jan12, 1945 with the loss of 83 officers and men somewhere near Okinawa, on her 13th war patrol. Probably was lost to a mine.

US Navy Official Photo

NavSource.org

NavSource.org

Class: SS 188 Commissioned: 7/22/1939 Launched: 4/1/1939 Builder: Portsmouth Navy Yard Length: 311, Beam: 27 #Officers: 5, #Enlisted: 50 Fate: After repeated attempts to contact Swordfish by radio had failed, she was reported as presumed lost, the victim of unknown causes. 89 men lost.

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USS S-36 (SS-141)

Lost on: Lost on Jan 20, 1942 with no loss of life, on her 2nd war patrol. She ran hard aground on a reef and radioed for help. The entire crew was rescued by a Dutch ship after they scuttled her.

US Navy Official Photo

BC Patch

NavSource.org

Class: SS S Commissioned: 4/4/1923 Launched: 6/3/1919 Builder: Union Iron Works Length: 219, Beam: 22 #Officers: 4, #Enlisted: 34 Fate: S-36 was lost when it was destroyed after she ran aground on the Taka Bakang Reef in Makassar Strait, Indonesia, near Makassar City. The crew was rescued.

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USS S-26 (SS-131)

Lost on:

Lost on Jan 24, 1942 with the loss of 46 officers and men in the Gulf of Panama, on her 2nd war patrol. She was rammed by the USS PC-460 and sunk within seconds. The CO, XO and one lookout on the bridge, were the only survivors.

US Navy Official Photo

BC Patch

NavSource.org

Class: SS S Commissioned: 10/15/1923 Launched: 10/22/1922 Builder: Fore River Shipbuilding Co Length: 219, Beam: 22 #Officers: 4, #Enlisted: 34 Fate: Rammed by PC-460 at night in the Gulf of Panama, S-26 sank on 24 January 1942 with the loss of 46 men Two men survived. Her hull was not salvaged.