A Tender Tale
We all live in a Yellow Submarine...
a Yellow Submarine...
a Yellow Submarine... ...theBeatles
The Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine. At the time - there were 41 of these boats - each armed with enough destruction to wipe all life off the planetseveral times.  |
Guided Missle School
Dam Neck (Virginia Beach) Jacket Patch
In the 60's and 70's, this is where the
Polaris and Posiden techs were trained |
These boats have the ability to stay underwaterfor very long periods of time - and their movements are -- forall practical purposes -- undetectable. The Soviets couldn't findthem; so - they couldn't defend against them - and the delicatebalance of power during the "cold war" prevailed - resultingin peace. An FBM Submarine is a collection of subsystems -- groupsof components connected together to perform some specified taskor produce a specific bit of data. One very important subsystemon the FBM's was the navigation subsystem - called the "ShipsInertial Navigation System" - or SINS for short. This a collectionof precision gyroscopes, accelerometers and a computer set upto detect the motion(s) of the submarine. By "integrating"the accelerations of the submarine over time - speed, directionand distance can be determined. If you know where you startedfrom - and know very accurately what direction and distance you'vegone - you then know where you are. |
| The guidance gyros of an early missile. |
Feed that information to a missile - tell it whereit's target is - and it will fly from where it's at - to it'starget - very accurately (using it's own version of a SINS). Forthe first 15 months of my enlistment - the Navy trained me inthe operation, maintenance and repair of the boat's SINS. Thenext three months was Submarine school, New London, CT.
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The submarine piers at the Sub
base / SubSchool New London |
When we graduated from "C" (SINS) school - we were toldto take any leave we wanted - because after SubSchool - we wouldbe sent straight to our next command. So I went from VirginiaBeach to New London via Los Angeles - and most of my class matesmade similar trips. When we arrived at New London - about thethird thing the Petty Officer at the "Welcome Aboard"speech said was "Any leave you have on the books will beautomatically granted on graduation from this school". Itwas then that I learned that there were many times the militarywas less than "squared away." A friend of mine had drivenhis car from home to New London - and he - like myself - had ordersout of the West Coast. Sailors - known for their ability to improviseand make do - would figure out how to beat the Navy out of sometime ---  |
| New London Jacket Patch |
So we did some checking. If we flew to the West Coast- we would be allowed a couple days travel time -- but -- if wedrove - we would get 10 days "travel and proceed" time.So we told the Navy we had to drive - after all we had to gethis car back home. By the end of SubSchool - I had 4 days leaveon the books - and he had three. Well 3 + 10 = two weeks - that'smore like it!. We got our POV time - and the Friday we graduated- we headed south down I95. Twenty Five hours and 10 states later- we were in Mississippi. I'd never been in the Deep South - itwas - uhhh - different. A half hour later - we were in his hometown - another 10 minutes into the "country" - and wepulled into his front yard. I was in shock. Oh - not from hishome - or anything like that - nope. Something else. I knew hehad a brother and sister - but hadn't given it any thought beyondthat. After all - the picture of his sister in his wallet wasof a young girl of perhaps Junior High age.
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