I know we had a thread on this fairly recently, but now that the first episode of the new submarine-themed comedy "Last Resort" has aired, there seems to be a lot of interest in what actual Submariners thought of it, so I'll start a new post. Personally, I could overlook the concept that in the future there would be a sub-launched Tomahawk that functions as a non-nuclear depth charge (despite that being almost the most ineffective weapons system imaginable -- I suppose a Tomahawk that crashes into the water without a warhead would be slightly less effective), and the idea that a submarine could identify the stealthy American submarine that fired said Tomahawk from hundreds of miles away, and the horribly simplistic depiction of test depth flooding, and the OOD announcing "Venting forward, venting aft" on the 1MC when submerging (without looking through the 'scope -- I'll give them some advanced non-penetrating periscope on a boomer in the future), but I don't know if I can forgive the "happy dance party" when crossing the equator.
So what were your "favorite" submarine elements of the first episode?
Update 1307 28 Sep: Crap, I forgot my blogiversary again; I marked 8 years of TSSBP earlier this month. Thanks to all the readers and commenters!
Update 1020 30 Sep: And while we're on the subject of inaccurate portrayals of Submariners, it appears the Navy is guilty of turning a Submariner into a SWO for recruiting propaganda. (LT Carter did his JO tour on USS Minneapolis-St. Paul (SSN 708).
Update 1315 30 Sep: Almost forgot about the impossible shot made with the missile. Since you see the missile pass over D.C. (at an altitude way too low for it to make another 200 miles on a ballistic trajectory), and see it explode 200 miles to the east, it's clear they intended the viewer to believe the missile was shot from the western IO across the Pacific, over the U.S. west coast, and past D.C. -- a distance of about 12,000 nm. This is well beyond the published max range of a D-5 missile; even the 7,000 nm range from the western IO to D.C. by the shortest path is right on the hairy edge.
The Belle Brigade – "Belt of Orion"
With the vocal blend on those harmonies, you might guess that the singers are related, and you'd be right. The core of The Belle Brigade is Barbara and Ethan Gruska, who come from a musical family (their grandfather is composer John Williams). Here's a live version.
Talk Like a Pirate Day 2012
In honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, I thought I'd use the English-to-Pirate translator on an scurvy dog bent on pillaging Americans, Mitt Romney. Here's some of his recent scurrilous remarks, rendered into pirate via one of the English-to-pirate translators:
There be forty-seven percent o' t' people who will vote for t' president no matter what. All starboard, thar be forty-seven percent who be
There be forty-seven percent o' t' people who will vote for t' president no matter what. All starboard, thar be forty-seven percent who be
Random Stuff
Here's some submarine/Navy-related stuff in the news:
1) Here's a follow-up story from the Associated Press with more details about the submarine CO who faked his own death to try to dump his mistress. The question remains: Is this a more salacious story than the Australian officer who repeatedly spanked a junior female sailor?
2) The LANTFLT winner of the 2012 Stockdale Award is USS Boise (SSN 764) Commanding Officer CDR Brian Sittlow. w00t! This comes a year after the Boise won the Battenberg Cup.
3) Here's a story of an ET1(SS) from USS Missouri (SSN 780) who was re-enlisted at Foxwoods by an Elvis impersonator. What's your favorite "non-traditional" re-enlistment story?
4) In some sad news, the United States Submarine Veterans of WWII national organization officially disbanded following their convention in Norfolk. The youngest member is 86, the oldest 102. The Submarine community will have lost the best of us when the last of these heroes finally departs on Eternal Patrol.
Update 1615 25 Sep: Q. When is a diesel submarine louder than any Western nuke boat? A. When it's an Iranian Kilo-class boat that just got out of an overhaul in an Iranian shipyard in which they fabricated the repair parts in Iran!
Also, two submarines were recently announced as the winners of the CY 2011 Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Award for superior performance in intra-type battle efficiency: USS Newport News (SSN 750) from LANTFLT, and USS Hampton (SSN 767) over in the Pacific.
Newport News is on a similar roll to Boise, with their CO earning the Darby Award from the Submarine League back in July.
1) Here's a follow-up story from the Associated Press with more details about the submarine CO who faked his own death to try to dump his mistress. The question remains: Is this a more salacious story than the Australian officer who repeatedly spanked a junior female sailor?
2) The LANTFLT winner of the 2012 Stockdale Award is USS Boise (SSN 764) Commanding Officer CDR Brian Sittlow. w00t! This comes a year after the Boise won the Battenberg Cup.
3) Here's a story of an ET1(SS) from USS Missouri (SSN 780) who was re-enlisted at Foxwoods by an Elvis impersonator. What's your favorite "non-traditional" re-enlistment story?
4) In some sad news, the United States Submarine Veterans of WWII national organization officially disbanded following their convention in Norfolk. The youngest member is 86, the oldest 102. The Submarine community will have lost the best of us when the last of these heroes finally departs on Eternal Patrol.
Update 1615 25 Sep: Q. When is a diesel submarine louder than any Western nuke boat? A. When it's an Iranian Kilo-class boat that just got out of an overhaul in an Iranian shipyard in which they fabricated the repair parts in Iran!
Also, two submarines were recently announced as the winners of the CY 2011 Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Award for superior performance in intra-type battle efficiency: USS Newport News (SSN 750) from LANTFLT, and USS Hampton (SSN 767) over in the Pacific.
Newport News is on a similar roll to Boise, with their CO earning the Darby Award from the Submarine League back in July.
C&L Fundraiser 2012
Crooks and Liars, one of the coolest big blogs, is holding a donation drive. I imagine most readers here are familiar with Crooks and Liars, but if not, it's a great place to catch up on political video clips. I periodically guest post over at C&L as part of the Mike's Blog Roundup crew, and C&L is really unique among bigger blogs in consciously, deliberately trying to spread the love and link
RIP Buck
I was shocked and saddened to learn that a former co-blogger, Buck, had died. (He was relatively young; it was due to natural causes; I'm omitting other details for privacy's sake.) Buck was very good with computers, and that's how he earned his living. He also did all the web design over at Blue Herald, which he revamped several times (the site's mostly dormant now, and has one of his simpler
"Last Resort" First Episode
For those who are interested, here is the full first episode of the upcoming ABC series "Last Resort" about boomer Sailors:
If anyone gets all the way through it, let us know what you think in the comments. One frequent commenter who's watched it E-mailed that he thought it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The opening scene where the OOD makes all the announcements the COW is supposed to when submerging doesn't give me much hope...
If anyone gets all the way through it, let us know what you think in the comments. One frequent commenter who's watched it E-mailed that he thought it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The opening scene where the OOD makes all the announcements the COW is supposed to when submerging doesn't give me much hope...
Never Forget
My faith teaches me that I'm supposed to forgive those who hurt me. This is something I'm having real problems with in this case.
9/11/12
Kurt Eichenwald has a piece in The New York Times titled "The Deafness Before the Storm" that adds details to what's known about 9/11:On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies —
Navy Weddings
While there's some interesting submarine news out this week (my old boat Topeka returning home from deployment after a really crappy trifecta -- Yoko/Singapore/Guam -- of port visits, and the Navy signing some initial documents for the Ohio replacement that indicate the first one will go on patrol in 2031), I wanted to post today about weddings; mine was 27 years ago today:
As you can see, we didn't have a Navy wedding. I met my wife when I was going to school at NPTU Idaho; it was the old "a small group of guys going to Idaho realizing that all the Sailors live in IF and all the college girls are in Pocatello, so we should live in Pocatello" story. We decided to get married just before I transferred, and pulled the trigger fairly soon after I got to my next command (NROTC Unit at the University of Kansas, where I was assigned for NECP). Since we had the wedding up in my hometown, there was no Navy presence there, so it was strictly a civilian affair. That being said, I wish we could have done a Navy wedding, since I've always really enjoyed the traditions.
Do you have any good "Navy wedding" stories?
Update 1208 07 Sep: Also, the FY13 Major Command Assignments list is out, but I'm not seeing it anywhere else on the 'net, so I won't post it here until it's out in the open elsewhere. I was interested to see that the SSGN commands are considered a "major command". SUBRONs 1, 4, 5, 16, and 17 are getting new Commodores.
As you can see, we didn't have a Navy wedding. I met my wife when I was going to school at NPTU Idaho; it was the old "a small group of guys going to Idaho realizing that all the Sailors live in IF and all the college girls are in Pocatello, so we should live in Pocatello" story. We decided to get married just before I transferred, and pulled the trigger fairly soon after I got to my next command (NROTC Unit at the University of Kansas, where I was assigned for NECP). Since we had the wedding up in my hometown, there was no Navy presence there, so it was strictly a civilian affair. That being said, I wish we could have done a Navy wedding, since I've always really enjoyed the traditions.
Do you have any good "Navy wedding" stories?
Update 1208 07 Sep: Also, the FY13 Major Command Assignments list is out, but I'm not seeing it anywhere else on the 'net, so I won't post it here until it's out in the open elsewhere. I was interested to see that the SSGN commands are considered a "major command". SUBRONs 1, 4, 5, 16, and 17 are getting new Commodores.
Family Of The Year – "Hero"
This is a local L.A. band. I've had this song stuck in my head for the past week, so I decided to learn it (the chords are pretty easy). You can also hear the studio version or this stripped down one.
Happy Labor Day 2012
Happy Labor Day, brought to us by the labor movement, the same folks who brought us the weekend. I wrote more about this last year. Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns & Money has been running a fantastic ongoing series, This Day in Labor History. Jon Perr has another one of his superb posts on economic/fiscal matters, "15 Things the GOP Doesn't Want You to Know About Taxes and the Debt." Meanwhile,
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