1

From the 2018 Reunion Committee Chairman -

Chuck Hladik, TM2(SS) G 67-70; USSVI – USS

Oklahoma City Base:

I want to thank everyone that

came to Oklahoma

City. Hopefully everyone came

away with a positive view of

Oklahoma and Oklahoma City.

The Tinker/TACAMO tour was

a great opportunity to see how

the Navy interfaces with our Submarines around

the world. The people that went on the tour were

impressed with what can be done from those

planes.

There were more than 30 people who visited

the Bombing Memorial. Visiting the Bombing

Memorial is a sobering experience.

The Eternal Patrol Ceremony, where we

remembered our deceased Shipmates, held at the

Oklahoma State Capitol along with Navy Color

Guard from Tinker Air Force Base was well

attended.

Many of our attendees visited Brick Town and

rode the Water Taxi and enjoyed the Myriad

Gardens.

The Chihuly sculpture at the Oklahoma City

Museum of Art had some people amazed by its

size.

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage

Museum a collection of western art and artifacts

was toured by many attendees and well received.

Edgar Cruz, a local guitarist, provided

entertainment at the Saturday Evening

Banquet. He played a selection of music genre

that was very professional and entertaining.

I am still tying up loose ends and will be for a

few more days. Without much help from Nick &

Linda Nichols, BJ & Barb Boyle, Ray & Rita Kreul,

Karen & David Huckeba, Stan Penning & Stevie

Ames, Mike Schlins, and my wife Joyce, I would

have never been able to do this reunion. They

worked on many tasks behind the scenes and

during the event to make the reunion come

together. The work of Barb Boyle writing the

request for proposals from hotels was very

important for getting the Embassy Suites. BJ

Boyle and Stan Penning with their input for

planning the reunion events were very valuable.

Karen Huckeba and Joyce Hladik made the great

table decorations for the Hospitality Tables and

VOL. 2018 #11 NOVEMBER 2018

U S S H E N R Y L . S T I M S O N A S S O C I A T I O N S S B N 6 5 5 N E W S L E T T E R

A s s o c i a t i o n O f f i c e r s & B o a r d o f D i r e c t o r s 2 0 1 7 — 2 0 1 8

PRESIDENT Tom [Marie] Krauser

VICE PRESIDENT Steve [Terry] Novic

SECRETARY Nick [Linda] Nichols

TREASURER Ken [Diane] Meigs

OUTGOING PRESIDENT Ray [Rita] Kreul

HISTORIAN / CUSTODIAN Larry [Linda] Knutson

WEBMASTER / NEWSLETTER Nick [Linda] Nichols

CHAPLAIN Jake Morris

STOREKEEPER / SHIPS STORE Jim [Suzie] Weaver

O t h e r P o s i t i o n s 2 0 1 7 - 2 0 1 8

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the Friday and Saturday Banquet tables. The

donation made by Vice Admiral Dennis Jones of

the books for raffle, and the sale of his books

were important to offset the cost of the reunion.

Mike Schlins‘ donation of the beautiful bowls for

another raffle was great. Joyce Hladik made two

(2) Quilts, one for the raffle and another for the

door prize. We also had a third quilt for raffle as

Bill Wilson brought back the one he won at the

2016 Charleston Reunion. There were many other

people that pitched in with various things that

needed to be done, helped in typical Submariner

fashion. I was very pleased with the hotel and

their staff for taking care of our needs and

providing two excellent meals.

I would also like to thank Dick Young for

accepting the Chairmanship of the next Reunion

to be held in Cincinnati, OH. He knows how much

work it will take having been Co-Chairman for the

National USSVI Convention held in Cincinnati in

2010. I attended that reunion and they did a great

job. He took on the task anyway. I'm sure he will

do a great job with the Stimson Reunion. I will be

looking forward to seeing everyone there.

//Chuck chkjoy1@gmail.com

=======

Each person who registered and attended the

reunion received a very nice YETI-type cup. No, it

wasn‘t a Yeti but it still has all the features. There

are six (6) Blue and eight (8) Red cups left. These

will be sold on a first come-first served basis for

$17 each (shipping and handling included).

Contact Chuck Hladik as soon as possible if you

are wanting one of them. They will go fast!!!

chkjoy1@gmail.com

=======

A request for the shipmates who attended the

reunion

Mike Schlins took many pictures during the

reunion. He has given these to the webmaster

and you will be seeing them on the website soon.

You‘ll also see some of them in the newsletter.

Most, if not all, of those attending did a great

job taking pictures with their phones and we

would like to see those pictures. You can follow

the directions in this link to send the pictures to

our Webmaster.

Picture Upload Instructions (to Dropbox)

You can email them to him at

655webmaster@ssbn655.org. ——————————————————————

From the Association President -

Tom Krauser, MM1(SS) B 72-74:

As the new President of the

Henry L Stimson Association I have

some very big shoes to fill. Ray

Kruel has done a great job for the

last two reunion cycles and Chuck

Hladik before him. I am sure they will

help me grow into those shoes and

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help make the association grow and thrive. Steve

Novik was elected as the new Vice President.

Nick Nichols was re-elected as Secretary. Ken

Meigs was re-elected as Treasurer. Others

continuing their positions: Jake Morris is the

association Chaplain; Larry Knutson is Historian/

Memorabilia; Nick Nichols is Webmaster; Jim

Weaver runs the ship‘s store.

I, and all the shipmates who attended the 2018

USS Henry L Stimson Reunion in Oklahoma City,

want to thank Chuck and Joyce Hladik, BJ and

Barbara Boyle, Stan Penning, Stevie Ames, Ray

and Rita Kreul, Nick and Linda Nichols and all the

others who worked tirelessly to make the reunion

a fantastic success. We all had a great time

visiting with our shipmates and reliving all the ―sea

stories‖ (primary objective of reunions) and seeing

the sites of Oklahoma City (secondary objective of

reunions). The hotel was great and the staff was

very friendly and accommodating making sure our

stay was an enjoyable one.

Chuck and the reunion committee did an

outstanding job of planning and coordinating the

reunion and everything went smoothly during our

stay in Oklahoma City.

Our guest speaker at Saturday‘s dinner,

Captain Michael Black, Commander Strategic

Communications Wing ONE, did a fantastic job of

explaining how his command supports the

submarine forces to ensure we were always in

communication with our commands / leaders and

the history of how his command came into

existence. The board made Captain Black an

honorary member of the Stimson Association.

Although, I did not go on the tour of Tinker Air

Force Base and Communications Wing ONE I

heard many comments of how fantastic and

informative the tour was. (Also thanks to John

Glaub for helping get the tour bus started to get

his shipmates back to the hotel.)

I would also like to thank Bob Knight for

shuttling many of us to the airport saving his

shipmates hundreds of dollars in taxi costs.

I would like to give a very special thanks to

Nick Nichols for the great job he does in support

of the Stimson Association. He publishes the

newsletter every month which keeps all of us

informed about what is going on. It is not an easy

task and I know it takes a great deal of time and

effort to assemble and distribute it to everyone. I

had a hard enough time just getting an article to him

each month for the newsletter! He is also the

webmaster which takes a lot of his time to keep it

updated. Nick‘s dedication helps make the

association as successful as it is. And thanks to

Linda Nichols for all she does, especially

proofreading each newsletter checking the spelling

and grammar, and for sharing Nick with us.

For the last several months I have been

providing a column of computer information for the

newsletter. I will continue to give you computer

information but not on a regular monthly basis. I‘m

happy to say that a Stimson shipmate, George

Birmingham, has stepped up to the plate to

continue the monthly columns. He has labeled it

―The Computer Corner” and it will be near the end

of each newsletter in the future.

——————————————————————

From the Past Association President -

Ray Kreul, TM2(SS) G 65-69

USSVI– Snug Harbor Base:

As past president I just want to

say once again, Chuck, you and

Joyce hit the reunion out of the ball

park. For all you shipmates who

attended it was great renewing

friendships and to the new attendees,

thanks for attending. I hope you felt

welcome and met new shipmates.

All you shipmates who were on the fence about

attending you missed a great time.

Looking forward to the 2020 reunion, Dick and

Debbie Young are hosting the event in the

Cincinnati area and are already off and running.

My deepest sympathies go out to all our

shipmates who suffered losses during the hurricane

and past storms. Rita and I pray you will recover

and will rise above it all.

Thanks once again for all your past support.

Best of luck to the new board and keep up your

excellent work.

From Rita and I, see you all in 2020.

4

We shall never forget our WWII SUBVETS, they

held the line.

——————————————————————

From the Association Chaplain - The Rev.

John K. Morris, LT G/ENG 66-69

(Jake to y’all)

It was a joy and a privilege to see

many of you in Oklahoma City in

October. Time to renew old

acquaintances and form new. Great

accommodations, meals, and staff

support. Many thanks to Chuck and

Joyce Hladik and their many helpers

for making this a special time together.

Lots of important activities, but none more so

than our gathering at the State Capitol rotunda for

the Eternal Patrol ceremony. The bell had to be

rung far too many times. There were names I did

not recognize, but knew we shared a common

experience. Others that I recognized, but limited

memories. And then, of course, those that brought

back a flood of memories. It hurts to know that

these shipmates are no longer with us, but their

names bring smiles as well.

For those of you that could not join us in

Oklahoma City, I hope you can be part of our year

2020 gathering in Cincinnati.

//Jake

——————————————————————

From the Association Treasurer: Ken Meigs,

ETR2(SS) G 65-70 Plank

Greetings Shipmates,

We had a very productive

business meeting at the Reunion.

Six (6) shipmates became Life

Time Members of the Association

by paying their one-time $100 dues.

There are also two (2) more who are sending me

a check and their names will be added to this list

when received. All of these 6 LTM membership

funds will go into the Charity fund.

James Sanderson FTB2(SS) B 82-86

Dr. Sridhar Natarajan LT(SS) B 83-86

Michael Stracke TM2(SS) G 65-70 Plank

Bob Knight TM2(SS) G 66-70/B 71-75

Jerry Blevins LT(SS) B 76-79

Tom Lawson FTCS(SS) G COB 80-81

We also received $50 from 5 different

members for their Reunion Dues that I will place

in the Association / Operating fund.

Donations of $2000 for the St. Mary's

Submarine Museum and for $100 for the Cold

War Memorial Maintenance and Preservation

Fund at Patriot's Point were approved at the

reunion and will be sent out shortly. There is a

new website for the Cold War Memorial so check

it out. http://coldwarsubmarine.memorial/

God bless, Ken

I stand for our Flag and kneel at the Cross

——————————————————————

From the Association Storekeeper - Jim

Weaver, SK2(SS) B 68-69; USSVI– Corvina

Base:

The ships store has patches,

decals and challenge coins ($5/ea +

$1 flat mailing fee). Email or text if

interested. 775-750-6891

jweaver2845@gmail.com

Some links to websites catering to

our Submariner needs. If you have used a

website to order submarine items from please

send this info to me:

SubmarineShip.com - this is where the shirts

and hats were made for the reunion

——————————————————————

From the Association Historian/Memorabilia

Custodian - Larry Knutson, MMCS(SS) B 79-81

USSVI-Charleston Base:

I hope everyone who attended

the reunion had a chance to view

the selection of Association

Memorabilia that was there. I was

unable to attend and Gordon Long,

who was going to transport the

items with him, also had to cancel

attendance at the last minute. Gordon was able to

ship the items for arrival on Thursday and Nick

brought everything back to Charleston with him.

Don‘t forget the box of check-in cards Captain

Weeks had on every Gold Crew member of his

command. Several have asked for and received a

copy of their card. If you were on Bob‘s crew and

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would like a copy just send an email to our

Secretary 655webmaster@ssbn655.org.

I will be continuing to place one picture each

month from our collection of items that have been

donated to the Association.

Stimson Ship’s Clock provided by QM1(SS)

Chuck Linhart G 68-74to the Association

—————————————————————

From The Editor

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT

FEDVIP OPEN SEASON

November 12 – December 12 TRDP–to–FEDVIP Transition

The TRICARE Retiree Dental Program (TRDP)

ends on December 31, 2018. Most of those who

use this Retiree Dental Insurance Program know it

as Delta Dental.

If you are currently enrolled in a TRDP plan,

you will not be automatically enrolled in a FEDVIP

plan for 2019. You must enroll during open

season.

The first opportunity to enroll in FEDVIP will be

during the next Federal Benefits Open Season,

which runs from November 12 through December

10, 2018 (ET), with coverage effective January 1,

2019.

Use the following link to access all the

information you will need about the various plans

that will become available to you when open

enrollment occurs. If you have a regular dentist,

talk to them before enrolling in one of the

programs. Not all dentists will take all of the

coverage programs.

https://tricare.benefeds.com/InfoPortal/

containerPage?

EventName=transition&ctoken=Xy3C5dRF

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Veterans Day – Free or Discounted Meals

Here is a list of places that give free meals and

items for Veterans Day (note, some of these may

offer meals on 11/12 instead of 11/11). Call the

business to ensure they are participating or which

days they will be giving the free meals. Please

feel free to share with fellow Veterans in your

respective networks.

Participating restaurants include Applebee‘s,

Olive Garden, Golden Corral and more! The

whole list is at this link: https://

www.thespruce.com/veterans-day-free-meals-

1357348?

utm_source=emailshare&utm_medium=social

&utm_campaign=shareurlbuttons

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

USSVI MEMBERSHIP: We have another Stimson

shipmate who has joined the United States

Submarine Veterans Inc. (USSVI) membership.

USSVI is a great organization and we have many

of our shipmates who are members. They are

notated on the secure Sailing List with SV. I would

like to congratulate the following on joining

USSVI:

Thomas J. 'TJ' Hoying YN2(SS)

B 79-83 OVHL 2

Toledo Base member as of May 2018

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Cold War Submarine Memorial

On December 6, 2002, on a bright and clear

December afternoon, the Cold War Submarine

Memorial was formally dedicated in an impressive

ceremony which culminated a five-year effort by

the Cold War Submarine Memorial Foundation to

establish a fitting memorial to recognize the

unique and enduring contributions to peace and

freedom rendered by those who served in and

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supported our submarine force and the execution

of its singular sea-based deterrent mission

through the decades of the Cold War. Click link to

continue to this newest website…

http://coldwarsubmarine.memorial/index.html

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

STIMSON Association Life Membership:

IAW Article 1.VI.a. of our Bylaws, there is an

option for our shipmates to obtain a Lifetime

Membership (LTM) in our Association.

The Bylaws state: At any time, a member may

make a one-time payment of $100.00 for Lifetime

Membership. Special recognition and a separate

roster of all Lifetime Members shall be established

and maintained by the Secretary and posted on

the Web Site by the Webmaster.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Lean Submariner Here‘s the latest posts on the blog. Still going

strong. The link to his blog is

https://theleansubmariner.com/

*****

Post Number 637 – Commemorating the

USS Sturgeon SSN 637 Workhorses of the

Cold War Over forty years ago when I first

volunteered for submarine duty, one of the

hottest boats in the fleet was the boats of the

637 Class. These workhorses were

responsible for so many missions during the

Cold War that it would be impossible to

catalog them all on a single […] Read more of

this post

*****

A Letter No Submariner’s Father Ever

Wants – Lieut. Tsutoma Sakuma and

Japanese Submarine No. 6 Submarines

have always been dangerous. The early

submarines were even more so because of the

emerging technologies that had not yet

evolved. The men who rode the early boats

were a different breed. This story is about one

of them who was a national hero in Japan and

left a legacy that would have implications […]

Read more of this post

*****

400,000 – Thanks for the visits I have been

watching the counter on the blog and it has

been slowly but steadily climbing. Sometime

today, we passed 400,000. The number of

actual visitors is actually closer to 250,000

people but the fact that we hit 400K today is

still pretty rewarding. Since the beginning, the

blog has changed. A lot less politics […] Read

more of this post

*****

Happy Birthday 1947 – Predicting the

Future of Naval Warfare The official Navy

Birthday is now celebrated on October 13

every year thanks to Admiral Zumwalt

declaring that day as the one to remember.

But it has not always been celebrated on that

day or with the same focus. In 1947, the

aftermath of the Second World War was being

felt all around the world. […] Read more of

this post

*****

21 Days Under Water – The USS Pickerel’s

5200 Mile Journey at Periscope Depth In

1950, the US Navy was coming to terms with

its peacetime role in a Cold War setting. The

Russians had obtained the German submarine

technology along with the rocket scientists

from captured territory. No longer content to be

a coastal navy, the Russians were building

their own fleet of new submarines with the

ability […] Read more of this post

*****

The Birth of the Atomic Fleet – When

Science Fiction was Dwarfed by

Science Fact The Birth of the Atomic Fleet In

1950, the same year the USS Pickerel

conducted a remarkable journey from Hong

Kong to Hawaii in just 21 days under snorkel,

the President of the United States, President

Harry S. Truman, authorized the building of an

atomic submarine for the first (August 1950).

Pundits and politicians had […] Read more of

this post

*****

The Origin of Submarine Dolphins – All

Hands Magazine January 1961 Submarine

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Warfare Insignia One way to distinguish a

United States Navy Submariner from any other

sailor is to see the dolphins predominantly

displayed on his or her uniform. Officers wear

a gold version and enlisted wear a silver

version. I have seen many stories over the

years about the origin of the insigne but this

article […] Read more of this post

*****

The Origin of Submarine Dolphins –

Part Deux Nothing like stirring the pot... (you

can always count on a Submariner to do

something like that). In the last couple of

days, the Post about the Origin of Submarine

Dolphins has been one of the most viewed

articles on the blog in a long time. Along with

the views came the comments. Some were

[…] Read more of this post

*****

Submarine Dolphins Part Three – The

Artists that created the Insignia It must be

true, I saw it on the Internet The great thing

about living in the age we do is the incredible

access to resources on the internet. I have a

number of historical reference sites that I use

to build my stories and enjoy finding nuggets

form time to time. I take it […] Read more of

this post

*****

The Origin of Submarine Dolphins – The

Fourth (and I think) Final Chapter The rest

of the story This will hopefully be the final

segment in my saga of how the Submarine

Dolphin insignia came to be. Each stage along

the way has been a lot of fun as I have sifted

through magazines, articles on line, historical

societies, the Library of Congress and a

source which contains […] Read more of this

post

*****

It’s a Bonny Life in the Land of Kilts and

Bagpipes – ALL HANDS September 1967

This article was written less than a decade

after Site One was established in the Holy

Loch. I did not arrive in Scotland until August

of 1990 to serve on board the AFDB 7 Floating

Drydock but many of the same conditions that

existed back in the Sixties were very similar to

what was written. The […] Read more of this

post

*****

Blockades do work One of my earliest

memories as a kid was the story about the

Cuban Missile Crisis. While there were many

parts to this story, the one that I remember

most was the Naval Blockade. October 22,

1962 - President John F. Kennedy orders a

surface blockade of Cuba to prevent Soviet

offensive weapons from reaching […] Read

more of this post

*****

Blockades and Submarines – An Opinion a

Master Submariner in 1939 Simon Lake was

by any measure a Master Submariner. A

prolific inventor, he held over two hundred

patents at the time of his death in June of

1945 (just a few months short of the end of the

war that was largely shaped by submarine

warfare). Lake was a dreamer and had many

ideas about […] Read more of this post

*****

Lifer This one is going to make somebody

mad. (also may have some cussing so you

have been warned) I don't mean for that to

happen, but I have noticed this topic on some

of the veteran's Facebook pages over the past

few years and I already know that some

people are going to be pissed […] Read more

of this post

*****

The Home Depot Foundation Pledges

Quarter of a Billion Dollars to Veteran-

Related Causes by 2020 Yesterday's post

was about a very unhappy man who was mad

at (insert name of home improvement store

here) for not being eligible for a military

discount. I was thinking after I posted that

story that many people are not aware of how

much some companies work very hard to

support actual veterans-in-need

causes. Because I […] Read more of this

post

8

*****

The Last Navy Day – How Truman almost

killed the US Navy Navy Day is October 27

(sort of) Not to be confused with the Navy's

Birthday, which is celebrated on October 13,

Navy Day was established on October 27,

1922 by the Navy League of the United States.

Although it was not a national holiday, Navy

Day received special attention from President

Warren Harding. Harding wrote […] Read

more of this post

*****

October 27, 1949: The Day Comdr. John S.

McCain, Jr., Let The Cat Out Of The Bag…

Or Did He? A Navy at war on two fronts: The

Cold War and the War against unification The

fall of 1949 was a tumultuous time for the

United States Navy. Harry Truman and his

Defense Secretary were focused on the

unification of all of the Armed Services in a

move to contain costs and gain efficiencies.

On […] Read more of this post

*****

October 27, 1922 was the very first Navy

Day in the United States - October 27, 1922

was the very first Navy Day in the United

States. Former President Theodore Roosevelt

had been born on that day and it was selected

by the Navy League and the Navy Department

as the most appropriate day to celebrate the

United States Navy. This celebration was not

just held in the United […] Read more of this

post

——————————————————————

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Sharing Pictures with Shipmates:

If anyone has pictures you would like to share

with your shipmates please follow the directions in

this link and I will be glad to put them in the

newsletter.

Picture Upload Instructions (to Dropbox)

——————————————————————

The following Stimson Shipmates have

departed on Eternal Patrol.

=====

None reported this month

=====

The direct link to the Association Eternal Patrol

page is: http://ssbn655.org/eternal-patrol/

eternal-patrol.html

=====

If any of you have any information about the

following shipmates being on Eternal Patrol

please send it to me at

655webmaster@ssbn655.org as soon as

possible.

HM2(SS) George D. Hinds, B 76-78

(possibly lost at sea)

*********

——————————————————————

BINNACLE LIST

(if you would like to be placed on our Association

Binnacle List please send an email to

655webmaster@ssbn655.org)

====================================

Michael Welch, YN1(SS) G 75-76

Cards to: 104 Wilcox Ct., Summerville SC 29483

10.25.18: Jennifer Welch sent this: Thanks you

for all your prayers now my husband is recovering

and will receive visitor. His room#201 @ 2600

Elms plantation North Charleston SC 29406.

Thanks again and God bless.

9.24.18: Mike Welch had his surgery for artery

replacement in his left leg on Sept. 19th. The

surgery took around 3 hours. After he was home

for a day his defib went off 13 times. He had a

heart cath to see what the problem was. On 26

September he had a 6-way bypass. While in ICU

after surgery he got pneumonia which set him

back some. His recovery is slow but he seems to

be doing better each day.

8.7.18: It looks as if I will be unable to attend the

reunion. I am currently scheduled for artery

replacement of my left leg with a bypass at Roper

on September 11. I have no idea how long and

extensive the rehab will be at this time. I have

very little circulation in my left leg and it pains me

constantly. I will provide an update when my

9

doctor gives me one. Thanks shipmate.

====================================

Vinnie Ryan, ET1(SS) B 69-74

Cards to: 436 Lakeshore Dr., Oak Point TX 75068

10.3.18: I had been hoping to attend the reunion

for at least a day, but I'm recovering from very

recent carotid artery surgery. I have been blessed

that my condition had been discovered before the

probable down side. Although I am recovering

well, I can not travel for a few weeks.

I always look forward to the newsletters and

appreciate your efforts and those who support

you. My thoughts, best wishes, and prayers are

with all our shipmates and brothers. I'm sure y'all

will have a great time at the reunion and I look

forward to reading about it and seeing the photos.

====================================

William ‘Sandy’ Hastie, CAPT B CO 80 (Oct-

Dec)

Cards to: 365 Kenmure Dr., Flat Rock NC 28731

10.26.18: I will be getting a PET scan this

Sunday, October 28. I will give you the results

then. The treatments seem to be going well. The

PET scan should give us a definitive answer on

whether the Keytruda infusions continue to

work. //Sandy

7.25.18: Friends, four months ago we received

devastating news, first a CT scan at Duke showed

that the mesothelioma had returned in force; the

following week Sandy had a PET scan at Pardee

Hospital that showed the cancer had

metastasized to his abdominal/hepatic region,

chest wall and lymph nodes. Dr. John Hill, his

local oncologist, started Sandy on Keytruda

immune therapy infusions immediately and he

received an infusion every three weeks. Sandy

had a PET/CT scan at Pardee Hospital on Sunday

(July 22) to determine if the treatment was

working to reduce or at least stabilize the growth

of cancer. Today we received the best possible

news. Not only has the large nodule in his chest

been reduced by 75% but the remaining cancer

nodules are no longer evident.

==================

Joe Mueller, CAPT Gold CO 77-81

Cards to: 3825 Colonel Vanderhourt Cir, Mt.

Pleasant SC

No new updates

9.21.18: Not good news at my cancer center

today. A recent bone marrow test result showed

that my cancer treatment is no longer effective.

There is not a backup plan right now except for a

pill that has shown some good tests results, but I

will need the systems approval to use it. My

oncologist thinks that may come in October. Will

update this when there is more info. Best, Joe

8.4.18: My treatment at Hollings cancer institute is

going reasonably well. I don’t have a long leash to

be able to travel but am hanging in there. Say

hello for me. Best, Joe

6.3.18: I‘m in a chemo trials at Hollings that has

put the leukemia in partial remission.

4.1.18: I’m in treatment for leukemia at the MUSC

Hollings Center, so won’t be able to make this

reunion.

I’m making good progress so am hopeful. Will

miss the

gang, Joe

==================

Jim Gray, MM1(SS) B 69-71

Cards to: 1 Rugby Ct., Toms River NJ 08757

No new updates

6.20.18: I am still alive. Got out of the hospital

after the operation on Apr 2 after 2 weeks being

there. Started the chemo May 23 went fine no

problems. Then got my 2nd chemo on June 13

and all hell broke loose on evening of the day

after. Thursday, Friday and Saturday side effects

and humility. Father's day was quiet since I was

relaxing and sleeping. Monday another lesson in

humility. Yesterday and today moving toward

normal.

2.5.18: I have been recently diagnosed at my

local hospital as having mesothelioma.

==================

Bob Faulkner, MT1(SS) B/G 80-86 OVHL2

08757

Cards to: 2901 N 82st Place, Scottsdale AZ

85251

No new updates

11.7.17: Remember Bob as he continues to find

10

the best result to manage Parkinson's Disease

symptoms.

——————————————————————

WELCOME ABOARD: Found & Updated

Shipmates

(Shipmate has contacted us to be added or have

info updated on our Sailing List. Please check the

online Sailing List to access the shipmates contact

info.)

**********

MM1(SS) Michael D. Schulz G 65-69

Plank Owner

(info added per his request)

STS1(SS) Jeff Morse B 86-91

(email updated per his request)

TM2(SS) Chuck Hladik G 67-70

(email updated per his request)

ET1(SS) George Birmingham G 69-74

(email updated per his request)

MT3(SS) Brad Batson B 85-88

(info added per his request)

Many of our shipmates are on FaceBook but are

not listed on our Sailing List. Please check the

new ‗Looking For‘ Sailing List on the website to

help locate these shipmates. When you see

shipmates on Facebook ask them if they are on

the Sailing List and please send them a personal

invite to contact 655webmaster@ssbn655.org to

be listed and become a member of the Stimson

Association.

——————————————————————

GREAT LINKS TO SPEND TIME WITH

(all links from “The Draft” will be on the

website)

**********

655 Association Website

www.ssbn655.org

**********

Submitted by Jeff Morse, STS1(SS) B 86-91

"Eternal Father, Strong to Save":

The Navy Hymn

The song known to United States Navy men

and women as the "Navy Hymn," is a musical

benediction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=ZKMEl4HU0fA

**********

Submitted by Jeff Morse, STS1(SS) B 86-91

Submarine School Documentary -

The Real Thing!

My Colleagues and I did our best to show you

what was 'real" on a US Nuclear powered

submarine. Thank you for watching it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=2ycDINNZHBw

**********

Forty-One For Freedom - A Fleet is Built

By Special Projects Office

Featuring the USS Daniel Boone SSBN 629. ~30

minutes of old footage about the building of one

of the 41 boats up to departing on patrol.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/

embed/4PAmEFrzQdk

**********

——————————————————————

SEA STORIES & COMMENTS

From Our Shipmates

=====

None submitted this month

=====

——————————————————————

VETERANS AFFAIRS - RETIREE INFO

https://www.va.gov/

<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Cold War Recognition Certificate

Source: FRA Newsbytes October 26, 2018

The 1998 National Defense Authorization Act

(NDAA) requires the Department of Defense

(DoD) to award Cold War Recognition Certificates

to all members of the armed forces and qualified

federal government civilian personnel who

faithfully and honorably served the United States

any time during the Cold War era, September 2,

1945, through December 26, 1991. Applicants

11

must certify that their service was "faithful and

honorable" and they must supply a copy of a

supporting document that proves they served

during the Cold War era. The certificate may be

awarded posthumously to those whose relatives

apply on their behalf. There is no charge for a

Cold War Recognition Certificate.

Note that no medal has been authorized or

issued for Cold War Recognition. The program is

scheduled to run until the supply of certificates is

exhausted. This award is only issued one time. No

replacement certificate will be issued. For more

information on obtaining a certificate go online.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

2.8 COLA for 2019

NewsBytes October 12, 2018

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently

announced a 2.8 percent increase in the Cost of

Living Adjustment (COLA) for the calendar year

2019 for military and federal civilian retirees,

survivor benefit annuitants, disabled veterans and

Social Security recipients. The new COLA rate is

effective December 1, 2018 and the adjustment

will appear in the December 30, 2018 payment.

By law, COLA is based on the Consumer Price

Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical

Workers (CPI-W), a broad measure of consumer

prices generated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics

from the third quarter of the previous year to the

third quarter of the current year. It measures price

changes for food, housing, clothing,

transportation, energy, medical care, recreation

and education. Since 2008, the annual COLA has

been above two percent only once and has been

zero three times.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Greetings from the VCS,

Veterans Canteen Service (VCS) is a part of the

Department of Veterans Affairs. Established in

1946, VCS' mission is to provide Veterans

enrolled in VA's Healthcare System, their families,

caregivers, VA employees, and volunteers a of

variety reasonably priced merchandise and

healthy dining options all tax-free. VCS, also

known as the "VA Canteen", serves over 5 million

customers each month in over 200 operations

located in VA Medical Centers and Clinics across

the country.

VCS offers the following services at most VA

Medical Centers and Clinics across the

country:

PatriotStore Retail Shop

PatriotCafe Food Court

PatriotBrew Coffee Services

Vending Services

PatriotStoreDirect Special Order Call Center

Optical Services

Barber & Beautician Services

Concessionaire Sales

More Info

——————————————————————

Submitted by W.O. Posey, EMCM(SS) B COB 79-

81

US Navy’s Most Decorated Ship – You’ve

Never Heard of It Just as the Navy Intended

12

George Winston Jul 3, 2018

It‘s pretty likely that you have never heard of

the US Navy‘s most decorated warship. That‘s

because the Navy did not want you to hear of it

while it was in service. What may be more

fantastic is that it received all of those decorations

without once firing a weapon in attack or defense.

The USS Parche was built in 1970 as a

hunter/killer submarine. No one, not even the

shipbuilders that worked on it, knew what was in

store for this special ship. The Parche was built to

be a nuclear submarine which would follow enemy

vessels both above and below the sea and then

destroy them. Part of the Sturgeon class as built,

it received its commission in 1974 and served two

years in the Atlantic Fleet as intended.

United States Navy attack submarine USS Parche (SSN-

683) off Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

In 1976, the Parche was retrofitted for the first

time. There is not much information about what

changed but after the work was complete, the

Parche was rarely heard of by the public. The

Navy had chosen the Parche to support the

National Underwater Reconnaissance Office

(NURO). NURO was a secretive joint effort

between the Navy and the CIA.

The Parche went from being a typical attack

ship to becoming a ―ghost,‖ spying on the enemy

with advanced monitoring, reconnaissance, and

surveillance systems. While the submarine force

is referred to as the ―silent service‖ because subs

operate best when no one knows where they are,

the Navy took this concept to the extreme with the

crew of the Parche. Sworn to secrecy, they could

tell no one the nature of their missions.

Parche (SSN-683) in the Mare Island Channel departing the

yard on 19 August 1994 with the assistance of Skenandoa

(YTB-835).

At the end of the 1970s, the Parche had

traveled into the Sea of Okhotsk multiple times

with the USS Halibut and the USS Seawolf in

order to wiretap Soviet communications over the

cables running across the seabed. Known as

Operation Ivy Bells, the surveillance went

undetected until the National Security Agency

(NSA) accidentally leaked details of the operation

in the mid-1980s.

Along with the invaluable intelligence gained

from the wiretaps, the Parche recovered

fragments of the USSR‘s anti-ship rockets. This

allowed the Navy to analyze them and develop

countermeasures to protect US ships.

A colorful banner made by family members awaits the crew

as the Sturgeon-class submarine USS Parche (SSN 683).

The Parche received numerous additional

retrofits throughout the 1980s and 1990s. These

overhauls improved the sytems used on the ship,

adding cameras and a longer hull to fit more

13

equipment and more crew – amongst other things.

The Seawolf and the Parche also received

skegs. These legs on the bottom of the ships

allowed them to sit directly on the ocean floor and

allow divers to exit the vessel to perform their

wiretap and debris recovery missions.

In the 2000s, it was determined that the

Parche had reached the end of her lifespan. It

was already one of the last Sturgeon-class

vessels in the Navy – having been replaced by

the Los Angeles and Seawolf classes. In 2004,

the decision was made to decommission the

Parche.

Sail of the USS Parche (SSN-683). By Clemens Vasters /

CC BY 2.0

After serving for thirty years, the Parche was

scrapped. The sail with her markings was retained

and is on display in Bremerton, Washington. The

USS Jimmy Carter serves the same purpose as

the Parche today.

The Parche received nine Presidential Unit

Citations, ten Navy Unit Commendations and

thirteen Navy Expeditionary Medals, a total

unmatched in the entire history of the US Navy. It

will be decades before the public is informed of all

that the Parche did while in service. But the

number of citations and commendations received

during her service is proof that she served her

country well.

——————————————————————

'No arsenal, or no weapon in the

arsenals of the world, is as

formidable as the will and moral

courage of free men and women.'

- Ronald Reagan

——————————————————————

Moveover, 355-Ship Navy: New Report Calls

For An Even Larger Fleet

(NAVY TIMES 27 OCT 18) ... David B. Larter

PARIS – The U.S. is woefully short of ships

and even the Navy‘s target goal of 355 ships is

well short of what the country needs to prepare for

two simultaneous major conflicts and maintain its

rotational presence requirements with excess

capacity for surge operations and combat

casualties.

That is the major finding of a new study from

the conservative think tank The Heritage

Foundation, an organization prominent in the

Trump era because of its knack for influencing

administration policy.

The study calls for a force of 400 ships, 40

percent larger than today‘s force, and an increase

of about 12 percent over the Navy‘s current 30-

year shipbuilding plan. The plan would require

another $4 to $6 billion annually in the

shipbuilding budget to get to 400 ships by 2039,

the study estimates.

The study, conducted and written by Thomas

Callender, a retired submarine officer and analyst

at Heritage, acknowledges the difficulty of

achieving a 400-ship fleet under budget

constraints and with a limited industrial capacity in

the U.S. But, Callender said, the study was based

solely on current demands on the fleet, as well as

the National Security Strategy and what Defense

Secretary Jim Mattis has laid out in the National

Defense Strategy.

―My analysis was strictly based on

requirements to fight and win two major regional

conflicts as well as some additional stated

requirements for certain ship classes,‖ Callender

said. ―I acknowledge that this will mean a

significant increase in the Navy‘s shipbuilding

budget – about $4-6 billion above the Navy‘s long-

range shipbuilding plan.‖

All ships great and small

The study calls for several big increases over

the Navy‘s current 30-year shipbuilding plan,

including a 13th aircraft carrier, 19 new small

surface combatants, seven new amphibious ships

14

and a full 22 more combat logistics ships.

The plan calls for only minor adjustments to

the large surface combatant and attack submarine

numbers.

The big jump in small surface combatants is

aimed at having enough ships to support a 13-

carrier Navy, support 12 littoral combat ships

configured as mine hunters, and have excess

capacity to escort logistics ships.

The increase of 22 combat logistics ships is

driven by Navy concepts of operations that are

moving to an increasingly distributed force that will

require support for smaller elements of Navy ships

such as far-flung surface action groups, for

example.

―While a 400-ship Navy is expensive to build,

the nation needs a larger and more capable Navy

to deter our adversaries and prevent war,‖

Callender said. ―If our Navy is too small to deter

great power adversaries such as China or Russia

in the future, the cost for fight and hopefully win

that war will greater exceed the monetary cost to

build a 400-ship navy.

―Additionally, the nation will see the loss of

ships and sailors in numbers we have not seen

since World War II. It is my hope that we find the

national will to fund the 400-ship navy the nation

needs and deter a great power conflict.‖

https://www.defensenews.com/

naval/2018/10/26/move-over-355-ship-navy-

report-from-trumps-favorite-think-tank-calls-

for-an-even-larger-fleet/

——————————————————————

Repairs Underway On Submarine Missile

Tubes Affected By Welding Problem

(NEW LONDON DAY 28 OCT 18) ... Julia

Bergman

Despite a welding problem that affected missile

tubes that were to be installed on new U.S. and

United Kingdom navy submarines, construction on

the U.S. submarines is expected to remain on

schedule.

The Navy announced the welding problem in

August. BWX Technologies Inc., headquartered in

Virginia, which manufactures missile tubes, and is

a subcontractor of submarine builder Electric

Boat, reportedly discovered the issue. Testing to

inspect the welds was not done properly.

Twelve missile tubes were affected, and the

problem was discovered before the tubes were

installed on any submarines.

The Navy and EB are "aggressively pursuing

actions to recover affected tubes and expedite

delivery of new tubes," Bill Couch, a spokesman

for Naval Sea Systems Command, said in a

statement last week.

It's unclear whether the Navy will be able to

repair all of the tubes, or whether some new tubes

will have to be built.

The cost per tube, including all material and

production, is between $8 million and $10 million.

Liz Power, an EB spokeswoman, said the

company continues to work with BWX

Technologies and the Navy to determine the

scope of the issue and any necessary corrective

actions.

"Electric Boat continues to focus resources on

management of our supply base to ensure quality

products are produced," Power said in an email.

"At Electric Boat, we design and build our

submarines to meet the stringent requirements set

by our Navy customer to ensure they can perform

the many missions required of them."

It's not clear how long it will take to fix the

issue.

"I'm confident they can fix a lot of them,

whether they can fix every single one of them is

not clear," said U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd

District, who recently visited EB's facility in

Quonset Point, R.I., to observe the repairs being

done.

"With this program, timing is everything,"

Courtney said.

Navy officials have stressed repeatedly that

the program to build 12 new ballistic missile

submarines, known as the Columbia class, is on a

tight timeline, and there's no room for error.

Courtney said many of the affected tubes were

reserved for the U.K. submarines so there's "less

impact" to the Columbia program.

The Navy is working with EB "to mitigate

schedule impacts," associated with the issue,

15

Couch said. He added that the Navy "purposely"

planned for early construction of the tubes "to

mitigate risks such as this," and construction on

the first Columbia submarine is expected to start

in fiscal year 2021 as planned.

Courtney said he hasn't seen an estimate of

how much it will cost to fix the welding issue.

Couch told the Associated Press in August that

the cost wouldn't be known until after the

assessments are finished.

The repairs are very labor intensive, Courtney

said, explaining the original welds have to be

removed, and have to be replaced with news

welds that "don't disturb other parts of the tube."

EB has assigned engineering welders to

supervise the repair work being done, and is

hiring about 100 people to do quality assurance

testing, he said.

https://www.theday.com/military-

news/20181028/repairs-underway-on-

submarine-missile-tubes-affected-by-welding-

problem

——————————————————————

Actor Gerard Butler and the US Navy practiced

rescuing a bag of popcorn with a nuclear

submarine — here's why

Christopher Woody, Business Insider, 18

October

Scottish actor Gerard Butler stopped by the

Pentagon earlier this week to promote his

upcoming movie "Hunter Killer" by speaking to the

press about how he worked with the Navy to

research his role as an submarine captain.

Among the details he revealed about his time

aboard the nuclear-powered attack sub USS

Houston at Pearl Harbor was a peculiar aspect of

how a crew reacts after someone falls overboard.

"I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but

when you are doing a man overboard, rather than

putting a man overboard, they throw a bag of

popcorn into the water," Butler told reporters.

"Then you spend the next — you have four

minutes, because if you are in cold water, he's not

going to make it, and neither is the popcorn —

because, actually, the bag breaks open," he

added. ―So you spend the next four minutes

maneuvering an 8,000-ton sub to try and get next

to the popcorn so somebody can jump in and

rescue it."

There's more than a kernel of truth to Butler's

anecdote.

While it isn't standard, most US submarines do

use popcorn for man-overboard drills, Cmdr.

Sarah Self-Kyler, a public-affairs officer for the

Navy's Atlantic submarine forces, told Business

Insider on Tuesday.

The popcorn and the bag it comes in are

biodegradable. The bag, once the popcorn is

popped, is also about the size of the human head

and equally hard to see when its bobbing in the

ocean, Self-Kyler added. It will also float for a

short period, usually less than 10 minutes, and

disappear, adding time pressure to the exercise.

Sometimes crewmen will tape two bags

together, but once the popcorn is away, Self-Kyler

said, it "most accurately represents what a man

overboard looks like from a submarine."

Though different subs will handle things

differently, such drills are typically only done while

entering or exiting port, as that is generally the

only time subs are surfaced. Many crew members

have to be involved to carry it out.

The popcorn, usually pulled from the sub's

general inventory, is popped in a microwave then

sent to the top of the conning tower, where it gets

thrown overboard.

At that point, Self-Kyler said, sailors on watch

will shout that a man has fallen overboard and

crew members in the control room will mark its

location.

It then becomes the job of navigators and sub

drivers on duty to steer the boat back to the

location where the popcorn went overboard, "work

[ing] together to pinpoint that location."

Above deck, watch-standers have to keep their

eyes on and fingers pointed at the popcorn the

whole time, so as to stay focused on the very

small object as the submarine maneuvers to come

back alongside it.

"Every watch-stander is required to be

qualified on this kind of operation," Self-Kyler said.

They "have to show the captain they can drive the

16

ship back to that bag of popcorn."

In the event of a real man-overboard, the

submarine would also send out an alert to all

mariners in the area, telling them via a radio call

to keep an eye out for a sailor in the water and

relaying their last known position. The sub's crew

would also be mustered for a roll call to identify

the missing crewman.

Bags of popcorn aren't the only things

submariners use for man-overboard exercises.

They can also use cardboard boxes, Self-Kyler

said, though whatever they use also has to be

biodegradable. There are also specialized floats

or mannequins that sailors use for search-and-

rescue drills.

Navy ships do not use popcorn in their man-

overboard drills, Jim DeAngio, a spokesman for

the Navy's Atlantic surface forces command, said

in an email.

"They primarily use what is referred to as a

'smoke float,' a canister that, when dropped into

salt water, activates itself," De Angio added. "It

floats and smokes and provides an object to

target for rescue."

A sailor going overboard is not a common

occurrence, but it does happen.

"In a man overboard situation, obviously, we

want to recover the sailor as quickly and efficiently

as possible," DeAngio said.

A decade ago, the Navy introduced a Man

Over Board Indicator for the float coats sailors

working on deck are required to wear. A

transmitter in the coat, a receiver in the ship's pilot

house, and a directional finder on a rigid-hull

inflatable boat deployed to pick up the sailor were

to be used in conjunction to make the rescue

process a matter of minutes.

Aircraft carriers, which have open flight decks

and carry more crew members than other Navy

ships, have nets along the deck to catch sailors

before they hit the water. They don't always work

though.

Peter von Szilassy, an airman on the USS

Theodore Roosevelt in 2002, was blown by a jet

blast in a bomb-disposal chute, one of the only

areas without a safety net. He fell 90 feet into the

Persian Gulf and was sucked toward the ship's

66,000-pound propeller. But he was able to swim

free and was picked up with little more than

bruises.

Navy search-and-rescue swimmers go through

rigorous training to be able to pluck sailors out of

the water within minutes — a life-or-death time

limit when the sea is freezing.

"When the three whistle blasts are

broadcasted you have to be out there. It's not

about you. It's about the person in the water,"

Boatswain's Mate 3rd Class Adam Tiscareno said

earlier this year.

"Whoever is out there, it's their worst day. They

don't know if they'll make it back."

——————————————————————

To prep for ‘Hunter Killer,’ here’s what Gerard

Butler did aboard the attack sub Houston

To prepare for his role as Navy submarine

Capt. Joe Glass in the just-released movie

―Hunter Killer,‖ actor Gerard Butler traveled to

Pearl Harbor to spend three days aboard the Los

Angeles-class attack submarine Houston.

―Hunter Killer‖ is the story of a submarine crew

that‘s tasked with stopping a Russian coup and

avoiding the miscalculation that could lead to

World War III. It was filmed with the Defense

Department‘s support; the Pentagon sees it as an

effective way to connect with movie-going young

men and women who might consider the military

after watching the action-adventure film.

Like it is doing with ―Top Gun 2,‖ after

approving the movie script, the Pentagon made its

ships, aircraft and personnel available for

shooting scenes, and had advisers around to

assist with set accuracy. The movie-making is

done at no cost to DoD. If an action sequence

can‘t realistically be made part of a training

mission, the Pentagon bills the production

company for the time.

The next Navy blockbuster, one that looks like

the lovechild of ―Fast and Furious‖ and ―Hunt for

Red October,‖ will be surfacing in theaters on Oct.

26. Butler visited the Pentagon Monday and

conducted an unexpected press conference with

defense reporters.

17

On ‗man overboard‘ drills. ―I don‘t know if I‘m

allowed to say this, but when you are doing a man

overboard, rather than putting a man overboard,

they throw a bag of popcorn into the water,‖ Butler

said. ―Then you spend the next — you have four

minutes, because if you are in cold water, he‘s not

going to make it, and neither is the popcorn —

because, actually, the bag breaks open. So you

spend the next four minutes maneuvering an

8,000-ton sub to try and get next to the popcorn

so somebody can jump in and rescue it.‖

He slept in the executive officer‘s quarters. ―I

slept in the same room as the XO,‖ Butler said.

―So when he was working, I was sleeping and vice

-versa. There was two bunks in the room. Director

Donovan Marsh got to sleep in the crew‘s

quarters.‖

They were underwater for three days.

―Basically, while we were down there we drilled

pretty much all of the sequences that we would do

in the movies. So we had battle stations. We had

dives. We had quick surfaces, we had fire drills

and it gave us a lot of ideas.‖

That led to building a sub set on gimbals. "We

ended up with a 17-ton set with 40 actors and

crew and all the camera equipment basically

working on this hydraulic platform. So when we go

for our first dive in the movie, we could lean back,

and when we were in the action sequences or

torpedo chases, or avoiding depth charges ... the

sub could move. We didn‘t have to do the ‗Star

Trek‘ thing,‖ Butler said, which he demonstrated

by stiffly doing a Trekkie-like shuffle to the side of

the podium and leaning sideways.

He did not work out while on board. "But we

put that in the movie,‖ Butler said. ―There‘s a little

space where guys are cramped in with the bike to

show the uses that have to be made of these tight

spaces on the sub.‖

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-

military/2018/10/15/to-prep-for-hunter-killer-

heres-what-girard-butler-did-aboard-the-attack

-sub-houston/

——————————————————————

The Navy's Columbia-Class Ballistic Missile

Submarine Has a Very Special Propulsion

System

The Navy has now completed at least one-

fourth of the design drawings and begun

advanced work on a stealthy "electric drive"

propulsion system for the emerging nuclear-

armed Columbia-Class ballistic missile

submarines -- as part of its strategy to engineer

the quietest, most technically advanced and least

detectable submarine of all time.

The Columbia class, slated to begin full

construction by 2021, is to be equipped with an

electric-drive propulsion train, as opposed to the

mechanical-drive propulsion train used on other

Navy submarines.

―The electric-drive system is expected to be

quieter (i.e., stealthier) than a mechanical-drive

system,‖ a Congressional Research Service

report on Columbia-Class submarines from earlier

this year states.

In today‘s Ohio-class submarines, a reactor

plant generates heat which creates steam, Navy

officials explained. The steam then turns turbines

which produce electricity and also propel the ship

forward through ―reduction gears‖ which are able

to translate the high-speed energy from a turbine

into the shaft RPMs needed to move a boat

propeller.

Designed to be 560-feet– long and house 16

Trident II D5 missiles fired from 44-foot-long

missile tubes, Columbia-Class submarines will

use a quieting X-shaped stern configuration.

―Of the required design disclosures

(drawings), 26-percent have been issued, and the

program is on a path to have 83-percent issued

by construction start,‖ Bill Couch, spokesman for

Naval Sea Systems Command, told Warrior

Maven several months ago.

The ―X‖-shaped stern will restore

maneuverability to submarines; as submarine

designs progressed from using a propeller to

using a propulsor to improve quieting, submarines

lost some surface maneuverability, senior Navy

officials told Warrior Maven in previous interviews.

Navy developers explained that electric-drive

propulsion technology still relies on a nuclear

reactor to generate heat and create steam to

18

power turbines. However, the electricity produced

is transferred to an electric motor rather than so-

called reduction gears to spin the boat's

propellers.

The use of an electric motor brings other

advantages as well, according to an MIT essay

written years ago when electric drive was being

evaluated for submarine propulsion.

Using an electric motor optimizes use of

installed reactor power in a more efficient way

compared with mechanical drive submarines,

making more on-board power available for other

uses, according to an essay called ―Evaluation

and Comparison of Electric Propulsion Motors for

Submarines." Author Joel Harbour says that on

mechanical drive submarine, 80-percent of the

total reactor power is used exclusively for

propulsion.

―With an electric drive submarine, the installed

reactor power of the submarine is first converted

into electrical power and then delivered to an

electric propulsion motor. The now available

electrical potential not being used for propulsion

could easily be tapped into for other uses,‖ he

writes.

Research, science and technology work and

initial missile tube construction on Columbia-Class

submarines has been underway for several years.

One key exercise, called tube-and-hull forging,

involves building four-packs of missile tubes to

assess welding and construction methods. These

structures are intended to load into the boat‘s

modules as construction advances.

―Early procurement of missile tubes and

prototyping of the first assembly of four missile

tubes are supporting the proving out of production

planning,‖ Couch said.

While the Columbia-Class is intended to

replace the existing fleet of Ohio-Class ballistic

missile submarines, the new boats include a

number of not-yet-seen technologies as well as

different configurations when compared with the

Ohio-Class. The Columbia-Class will have 16

launch tubes rather than the 24 tubes current on

Ohio boats, yet the Columbias will also be about 2

-tons larger, according to Navy information.

The Columbia-Class, to be operational by the

2028, is a new generation of technically advanced

submarines intended to quietly patrol the

undersea realm around the world to ensure

second-strike ability should the US be hit with a

catastrophic nuclear attack.

The nuclear-armed submarines are expected

to serve all the way into and beyond the 2080s.

General Dynamics Electric Boat has begun

acquiring long-lead items in anticipation of

beginning construction; the process involves

acquiring metals, electronics, sonar arrays and

other key components necessary to build the

submarines.

Both the Pentagon and the Navy are

approaching this program with a sense of

urgency, given the escalation of the current global

threat environment. Many senior DoD officials

have called the Columbia-Class program as a

number one priority across all the services.

―The Columbia-Class submarine program is

leveraging enhanced acquisition authorities

provided by Congress such as advanced

procurement, advanced construction and multi-

year continuous production of missile tubes,‖

Couch added.

——————————————————————

‘Hidden Figure’ Who Designed Navy Ships,

Dies At 83

(NEW YORK TIMES 19 OCT 18) ... Katharine Q.

Seelye

During World War II, when Raye Montague

was 7 and growing up in Arkansas, her

grandfather took her to see a traveling exhibit of a

German submarine that had been captured off the

coast of South Carolina. She was enchanted.

―I looked through the periscope and saw all

these dials and mechanisms,‖ she recalled years

later. ―And I said to the guy, ‗What do you have to

know to do this?‘ ‖

His response: ―Oh, you‘d have to be an

engineer, but you don‘t have to worry about that.‖

The clear implication was that as a black girl

she could never become an engineer, let alone

have anything to do with such a vessel.

She would go on to prove him very wrong.

19

The girl who faced racism and sexism in the

segregated South, where she rode in the back of

the bus and was denied entry to a college

engineering program because she was black,

became an internationally registered professional

engineer and shattered the glass ceiling at the

Navy when she became the first female program

manager of ships. She earned the civilian

equivalent of the rank of captain.

In a breakthrough achievement, she also

revolutionized the way the Navy designed ships

and submarines using a computer program she

developed in the early 1970s.

It would have normally taken two years to

produce a rough design of a ship on paper, but

during the heat of the Vietnam War Ms. Montague

was given one month to design the specifications

for a frigate. She did it in 18 hours and 26

minutes.

At the height of her career, she was briefing

the Joint Chiefs of Staff every month and teaching

at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis,

Md. Many of her ship designs are still in use.

Ms. Montague was one of a number of black

women who, starting in the 1930s, performed

invaluable, highly technical work for the United

States government but who, working behind the

scenes, were invisible to the public — and often to

their colleagues.

She died of congestive heart failure on Oct. 10

at a hospital in Little Rock, Ark., her son, David R.

Montague, said. She was 83.

Although she was decorated by the Navy, Ms.

Montague, who retired from the service in 1990,

was not acknowledged publicly until 2012, when

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette wrote an in-

depth profile of her.

She was not recognized nationally until the

publication in 2016 of ―Hidden Figures,‖ Margot

Lee Shetterly‘s best-selling account of the black

female mathematicians at NASA who facilitated

some of the nation‘s greatest achievements in

space. Their acclaim was amplified later that year

when the book became an Oscar-nominated

movie.

The Navy honored Ms. Montague as its own

―hidden figure‖ in 2017. She was inducted into the

Arkansas Women‘s Hall of Fame this year.

Like her counterparts in the space program,

Ms. Montague faced enormous obstacles — or

what she called challenges, since she believed

she could always find ways to work around

anything that stood in her way.

She grew up in Arkansas in the racially fraught

1950s, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her

seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Ala.,

and Gov. Orval E. Faubusof Arkansas called up

the National Guard to bar nine black students

from the all-white Little Rock Central High School.

But Ms. Montague had a certain confidence about

herself, she said, instilled by her mother, who

raised her alone.

―You‘ll have three strikes against you,‖ her

mother, Flossie (Graves) Jordan, told her, Ms.

Montague recalled last year in an interview on the

ABC program ―Good Morning America.‖ ―You‘re

female, you‘re black and you‘ll have a Southern

segregated school education. But you can be or

do anything you want, provided you‘re educated.‖

Raye Jean Jordan was born in Little Rock on Jan.

21, 1935. Her father, Rayford Jordan, was not in

the picture for long, and her mother raised her on

her income from a cosmetology business. Ms.

Montague graduated from Merrill High School in

Pine Bluff, Ark., in 1952.

A bright student who loved science and math,

she wanted to study engineering at the University

of Arkansas in Fayetteville. But because Arkansas

colleges would not award such degrees to African

-Americans in those days, she attended Arkansas

Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College (now

the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff). She

graduated in 1956 with a degree in business.

Still determined to become an engineer, she

headed to Washington and secured a job with the

Navy as a clerk-typist. She worked her way up,

becoming a digital computer systems operator

and a computer systems analyst in a male-

dominated field.

―I worked with guys who had graduated from

Yale and Harvard with engineering degrees and

people who had worked on the Manhattan Project

20

developing the atom bomb,‖ Ms. Montague told

The Democrat-Gazette.

She took computer programming at night

school and after a year asked for a promotion.

Her boss, by her account, told her that if she

wanted a promotion, she would have to work

nights. That was tough for her. There was no

public transportation at night, and she didn‘t have

a car. In fact, she didn‘t know how to drive.

But she went out and bought a 1949 Pontiac

for $375 and had the salesman drive it to her

house. She then taught herself to drive, leaving

her house at 10 o‘clock at night and creeping

along the roads until arriving at work for the

midnight shift. She got the promotion and returned

to working days.

The project that would be her signal

achievement seemed to be an impossible task

when it was assigned — to lay out, step by step,

how a Naval ship might be designed using a

computer. That had never been done before.

Her boss (who didn‘t like her, she said) gave

her six months to complete the project, not telling

her that his department had been trying to do it for

years without success.

Ms. Montague learned the computer system on

her own and then told her boss that to install her

program she would have to tear down the Navy‘s

computer and rebuild it. And that would mean

working at night, she said.

He told her she could work nights only if she

had someone else with her, and then made it

clear that he wouldn‘t pay any of her colleagues

overtime. She thought that his demand was

frivolous and that he intended her to fail.

Not to be deterred, Ms. Montague brought

along her mother and her 3-year-old son. Finally

impressed by her determination, her boss gave

her extra staff. She met the deadline and

presented him with her computer-generated

designs for a ship.

President Richard M. Nixon, who wanted the

Navy to be able to produce ships at a faster pace,

heard about her accomplishment and sent word

for her to design a rough draft of an actual ship.

They gave her all the staff she needed and an

unlimited budget, her son said. It led to her

designing the first Navy ship with a computer

program, in less than 19 hours.

For that feat she received the Navy‘s

Meritorious Civilian Service Award in 1972. The

Navy began using her system to design all its

ships and submarines. Her achievement put her

on the map, and she began advising other

government agencies and the private sector,

including the automobile industry. Her last Navy

project was the nuclear-powered Seawolf

submarine.

Along the way she was married three times, to

Weldon A. Means in 1955, to David H. Montague

in 1965 and to James Parrott in 1973. She had

her only child, David, with Mr. Montague, who has

since died. When her third marriage ended, she

returned to using the name Montague. In addition

to her son, she is survived by a granddaughter.

After she retired, Ms. Montague moved back to

Little Rock to be near her family. There she took

part in civic organizations; mentored young

people, including prison inmates; organized

clothing drives; gave motivational talks; and

played bridge.

―She was busy opening doors for people and

inspiring them,‖ her son said. ―Her message was

always the same: ‗Don‘t let people put obstacles

in front of you, but understand you also have to

put in the work.‘ She didn‘t have any patience for

people who weren‘t willing to go the extra mile.‖

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/

obituaries/raye-montague-a-navy-hidden-

figure-ship-designer-dies-at-83.html

——————————————————————

Only southerners will get this…and of course

die-hard Alabama fans…

The year is 2024 and the United States has

just elected the first woman as President of the

United States, and she is from Alabama!

A few days after the election, the president-

elect calls her father in South Carolina and asks,

"So, Dad, I assume you will be coming to my

inauguration?"

"I don't think so. It's a long drive; your mom

isn't as young as she used to be, we'll have the

21

dog with us, and my arthritis is acting up in my

knee."

"Don't worry about it, Dad, I'll send Air Force

One to pick you up and take you home, and a

limousine will pick you up at your door," she said.

"I don't know. Everybody will be so fancy. What

would your mother wear?"

"OH, Dad," she replied, "I'll make sure she has

a wonderful gown custom-made by one of the

best designers in N.Y."

"Honey, Dad complained, "You know we can't

eat those rich foods you and your friends like to

eat."

The President-elect responded, "Don't worry,

Dad. The entire affair is going to be handled by

the best caterer in D.C. And I'll ensure your meals

are salt-free."

So her parents reluctantly agreed, and on Jan.

20th arrived to see their daughter sworn in as

President of the United States. The parents of the

new President are seated in the front row.

The President's dad sees that a Senator is

sitting next to him and leans over and whispers,

"You see that woman up there with her hand on

the Bible, becoming President of the United

States?

"The Senator whispered in reply, "Yes, sir, I

sure do."

Dad says proudly, "Her brother played football

for Alabama."

——————————————————————

Editor: Many of you may have seen this before but

the message remains the same.

"I Packed Your Parachute"

Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in

Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was

destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb

ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He

was captured and spent six years in a communist

Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and

now lectures on lessons learned from that

experience!

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting

in a restaurant, a man at another table came up

and said, 'You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in

Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You

were shot down!‘

'How in the world did you know that?' asked

Plumb.

'I packed your parachute,' the man replied.

Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude.

The man pumped his hand and said, 'I guess it

worked!'

Plumb assured him, 'It sure did. If your chute

hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today.'

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about

that man. Plumb says, 'I kept wondering what he

had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a

bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers. I

wonder how many times I might have seen him

and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?'

or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot

and he was just a sailor.'

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor

had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of

the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and

folding the silks of each chute, holding in his

hands each time the fate of someone he didn't

know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, 'Who's packing

your parachute?' Everyone has someone who

provides what they need to make it through the

day. He also points out that he needed many

kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot

down over enemy territory - he needed his

physical parachute, his mental parachute, his

emotional parachute, and his spiritual

parachute. He called on all these supports before

reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life

gives us, we miss what is really important. We

may fail to say hello, please, or thank you,

congratulate someone on something wonderful

that has happened to them, give a compliment, or

just do something nice for no reason. As you go

through this week, this month, this year, recognize

people who pack your parachutes.

I am sending you this as my way of thanking

you for your part in packing my parachute. And I

hope you will send it on to those who have helped

pack yours! Sometimes, we wonder

22

why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without

writing a word. Maybe this could explain it! When

you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch,

guess what you do - you forward jokes. And to let

you know that you are still remembered, you are

still important, you are still loved, you are still

cared for, guess what you get? A forwarded joke.

So, my friend, next time when you get a joke,

don't think that you've been sent just another

forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of

today and your friend on the other end of your

computer wanted to send you a smile, just helping

you pack your parachute.

——————————————————————

A brief, but thoughtful, piece by a retired

chief…..

The military experience made us the ethical

persons we are and gave us a great sense of

understanding of the people around us. Like it or

not it gave us an experience we will never forget.

Occasionally, I venture back to NAS, Meridian,

where I'm greeted by an imposing security guard

who looks carefully at my identification card,

hands it back and says, "Have a good day, Sr.

Chief".

Every time I go back to any Navy Base it feels

good to be called by my previous rank, but odd to

be in civilian clothes, walking among the

servicemen and women going about their duties

as I once did, many years ago.

The military is a comfort zone for anyone who

has ever worn the uniform.

It's a place where you know the rules and know

they are enforced - a place where everybody is

busy, but not too busy to take care of business.

Because there exists behind the gates of every

military facility an institutional understanding of

respect, order, uniformity, accountability and

dedication that becomes part of your marrow and

never, ever leaves you.

Personally, I miss the fact that you always

knew where you stood in the military, and who

you were dealing with. That's because you could

read somebody's uniform from 20 feet away and

know the score.

Service personnel wear their careers on their

sleeves, so to speak. When you approach each

other, you can read their name tag, see their rank

and, if they are in dress uniform, read their

ribbons and know where they've served.

I miss all those little things you take for granted

when you're in the ranks, like breaking starch on a

set of fatigues fresh from the laundry and standing

in a perfectly straight line military formation that

looks like a mirror as it stretches to the endless

horizon.

I miss the sight of troops marching in the early

morning mist, the sound of boot heels thumping in

unison on the tarmac, the bark of drill instructors

and the sing-song answers from the squads as

they pass by in review.

To romanticize military service is to be far

removed from its reality, because it's very serious

business -- especially in times of war.

But I miss the salutes I'd throw at officers and

the crisp returns as we criss-crossed with a "by

your leave sir".

I miss the smell of jet fuel hanging heavily on

the night air and the sound of engines roaring

down runways and disappearing into the

clouds. The same While on carrier duty.

I even miss the hurry-up-and-wait mentality

that enlisted men gripe about constantly, a

masterful invention that bonded people more than

they'll ever know or admit.

I miss people taking off their hats when they

enter a building, speaking directly and clearly to

others and never showing disrespect for rank,

race, religion or gender.

Mostly, I miss being a small cog in a machine

so complex it constantly circumnavigates the

Earth and so simple it feeds everyone on time,

three times a day, on the ground, in the air or at

sea.

Mostly, I don't know anyone who has served

who regrets it, and doesn't feel a sense of pride

when they pass through those gates and re-enter

the world they left behind with their youth.

I wish I could express my thoughts as well

about something I loved -- and hated sometimes.

Face it guys - we all miss it...Whether you had

one tour or a career, it shaped your life.

23

*A Veteran-whether active duty, retired, served

one hitch, or reservist is someone who, at one

point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made

payable to "The Government of the United States

of America", for an amount of "up to and including

their life."

That is honor, and there are too many people

in this country who no longer understand it.

-Author unknown.

——————————————————————

The Computer Corner

By: George Birmingham

Starting this month, I will be assuming the

responsibility for sharing computer tips and tricks

with all of you to make our digital lifestyle safe and

rewarding. I will continue the tradition set by Tom

Krauser who started this column in April 2017 and

has set the standard that I will do my best to meet.

Our digital lifestyle embraces a wide variety of

devices that we have come to rely on in our

everyday life to keep us in-touch, and engaged,

with the world, our friends, and our families in so

many ways. I would like to make this column

responsive to your needs as digital citizens and

embrace not only the world of Microsoft based

PCs but to also include Apple iPads, iPhones and

the world of the Apple MACs.

My background for the last 15 years has been

in the world of computer security. When I think of

security in the digital world, I think back to Willie

Sutton. "When asked why he robbed banks, Willie

replied, ―I rob banks because that's where the

money is.‖ In today's world, the thief doesn't have

to physically go to the bank to get things of value;

he/she can go to your digital devices to get those

things. Things like passwords you use every day

to conduct your business in the digital world and

pieces of information that the thief can use to

steal your identity and create mischief using your

good name.

As Tom covered in past issues, Cyber Scams,

e-mail phishing attacks, Malware and Viruses are

just some of the ways that the bad guys try to

infiltrate our digital lives. As a security practitioner,

I'd like to continue that tradition with tips on the

rapidly changing attacks and scams that we face

to make you better able to safeguard your digital

existence.

I can answer questions on Windows PCs,

several of the Windows Operating Systems, like

Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 10, as

well as iPads, and MACs as I have all of these

devices at my disposal. I also can answer

questions on home networking (things like routers,

both wired and wireless networks) and the Linux

O/S in case any of you are Linux users. My

current hobby focuses on Home Automation using

the Raspberry Pi computer and Z-Wave/ZigBee

based appliances.

So please reach out to me at

mailto:subvet_ssbns@bellsouth.net with your

questions, any suggestions for topics you would

like to see covered in future columns, and any

comments you may have. I'll be glad to help in

any way I can.

//George

************

Shipmates,

As a member of AARP (because I'm old and

retired now), I get e-mails from them on a regular

basis. Perhaps you do as well. The most recent e-

mailing caught my eye, as I regularly ( like every

day) get scammer phone calls, seemingly from

phones in my area code and exchange. I'll bet you

do too.

As I worked through the article noted in the

subject line - "Scam Calls Are ‗Epidemic‘ — and

Getting Worse", the following series of URLs were

provided that I thought you might find interesting.

Our local TV stations seem to have news stories

on these topics fairly often, so this is becoming a

real problem for seniors. However, Our children

might also find information that will make them

wiser, as they may/will, unfortunately, become

targets at some point.

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-

2018/scammer-calls-increasing.html

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-

2018/social-security-scam-warning.html

24

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-

2018/identity-theft-social-security-

benefits.html

This article has some pretty good advice

for not only us but for our children.

"...following the advice of the SSA, which for

years has urged everyone over the age of 18

to open accounts to help prevent con artists

from opening an account in your name and

claiming your benefits."

When we are younger, and our retirement

ages are a ways out, we don't think about this.

But now that we have to get Social Security

numbers for our children having a way to make

sure our benefits are not stolen is good advice.

And the SSA has wised up, as they make you

change your passwords every 6 months. Not a

bad idea for all our passwords when you think

about it, but they actually enforce it. And you get

an e-mail when you change your password, so

you would know

if someone is tampering with your account.

And now that we, and our adult children, all

have a variety credit cards, which our card

providers and merchants seem unable to protect

very well, often exposing

our social security numbers when they are

breached, we have to be vigilant, even if it is a

pain-in-the-you-know-where to do so.

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-

2018/ftc-irs-tax-theft.html

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/

This page has a lot of good information as

well. Please share this information with other

seniors as you think appropriate. Being informed

is being armed for defense. So be well and be

safe. I hope you find this information useful.

//George

——————————————————————

Editor: this info has been submitted by Tom

Krauser. Great info…

Free, Official Sources to Find Unclaimed

Money

Does the government owe you money? There

might be unclaimed funds or property waiting for

you from savings or checking accounts, wages

and pensions, tax refunds, life insurance policies,

and a lot more. Companies may offer to find this

money for a fee. And scammers may try to trick

you with fake promises of money from the

government. But you can find your unclaimed

money yourself for free. Check out USAGov‘s list

of official sources to get started: https://

www.usa.gov/features/free-official-sources-to-

find-unclaimed-money

MissingMoney.com is a database of

governmental unclaimed property records.

Common types of unclaimed property include:

Bank accounts and safe deposit box contents

Stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and dividends

Uncashed checks and wages

Insurance policies, CD‘s, trust funds

Utility deposits, escrow accounts

These are links where you can look up if

anyone has unclaimed funds including lost bank

accounts that have been reported to the states.

Any state: http://missingmoney.com/

New York: https://www.osc.state.ny.us/ouf/

25

SOME REUNION PICTURES—MORE TO COME IN FOLLOW-ON EDITIONS

AND WILL ALSO BE PUT ON THE WEBSITE

2018 STIMSON REUNION ATTENDEES

26

EMCM(SS) Elam Mauk

B 65-69 Plank / COB 66-68

CAPT Michael F. Black

Commander, Strategic

Communications Wing ONE /

Task Force 124

Guest Speaker for

Stimson Reunion

ETC(SS) Jim Shirley

G Decom 90-93

Last man out of the

Decom office

27

Our group toured COMSTRATWING One - the ABNCAP

and TACAMO Headquarters and received a tour of one of

the TACAMO planes

28

Pictures in the hotel lobby

provided by Chuck Hladik Pictures provided by Tom Nobis

via FaceBook