1) Eagle1 has a good post on size vs. mission for submarines.
2) Galrahn has a post going over Sen. Dole's call for increased investment in large-scale weapons systems from the submarine point of view; Wired responds with a post that, other than implying that they think we still have battleships, actually seems to agree that submarines are a decent investment.
3) The Navy 1-star list came out on April 1st (no foolin'!), and from what I can tell, here's a list of all the submarine Captains that were selected:
Doug BieselLet me know if you see any others on the list. Promotion from O-6 to O-7 is the most competitive promotion flowpoint there is (other than, of course, the special case of E-9 to E-10), with a selection percentage of only about 2-3%. In my experience, the Armed Forces do a pretty good job of getting competent guys into flag or general officer ranks -- where "competent" = "knows how the world really works". I've known a lot of stupid O-6s (especially when I was working with Marines at CENTCOM) but I've never known a dumb O-7. They might not reach the right conclusions with the knowledge they have, but they at least have the basic information down pat.
Barry Bruner
Jerry Burroughs (Acquisition Corps)
Brad Gehrke
Dave Johnson (ED)
Mike McLaughlin
Robert Thomas
I was thinking this might be the year that my first former boat CO might make Flag, but it didn't happen. Did you ever have a former CO of your sub make Flag, and did he ever help you out after he became an Admiral?
