Corrections (thanks to viewers.) I apologize for the pronunciation of "Groton" and "Polaris." USS Halibut was nuclear powered, not diesel. Polaris was replaced first by Poseidon before Trident.
I served on the Decommissioning crew of the George Washington, and had the honor of being the last Officer of the Deck during the Decom ceremony in Bremerton, WA. As you said, her last days as an operational submarine she was redesignated as an SSN. We used to call her a "Slow Approach" instead of a "Fast Attack".
I was on the USS Glenard P. Lipscomb which had a somewhat unique propulsion system. After they flashed over one of their generators they had to limit her speed. She truly was a slow approach boat. But she was very quiet. I was on her decommissioning crew.
@@ARepublicIfYouCanKeepIt I was an ICC Nuke (one of the last ones), served on USS Pollack (SSN-603, USS Guardfish (SSN-612) as well as the GW. Thank you as well!
Thanks for including the USS Kamehameha (SSBN/SSN 642) in your video as the final commissioned member of the 41 for Freedom. There is a good reason she lasted 37 years - she was very well built. A product of the Mare Island California public shipyard, the quality of the engineering and construction in the early 60's was a true marvel. I either rode or otherwise associated with this "Boat" for the final 9 years of her life, albeit her role not as a Boomer. As a Seal Delivery Vehicle (SDV) platform, she pioneered many techniques used by her converted Ohio Class Sisters in use today. As a testament to the ship and crews, I proudly say that her tally of dives equaled the number of surfacings, the greatest hope of all Submariners.
@@RodneyGraves I caught her in the yards during the conversion. I don't recall any scuttlebutt about anything like that. Not like my previous boat and an electric plant casualty - they talked about that for years. I always understood that there were three things that determined why she was selected: Recently refueled Good material condition SALT II treaty requirements to remove tubes from service as new Ohio's came on line
Ah yes, the 'Dead Giveaway'! Much fun was had once Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z entered the consciousness of the sailors in Norfolk thanks to the anime club! 😁
Dad was a plank owner on the Francis Scott Key and was a nuke engineer. Unfortunately a lot of asbestos was used to keep the cold depths at bay and many men who build these have died due to exposure from the asbestos. Not to mention all the other hazardous materials used in the construction of subs. One of my favorite stories he use to tell me was when a new guy would come on board. He could tell they were very nervous and he had one new guy ask him. "Don't you get scared when we dive to depth, all that pressure on the hull?" My dad just smiled and said, "Don't worry shipmate we are no more than a mile off shore at any given time." The new seaman would look at my dad with a dumbfounded look..then fire back at him... "Wait most times we don't even know were we are, we are in top secret locations, we can not even tell our families were we are going." My dad would just grin at the sailor and point his finger straight down to the deck, .....1 mile from shore shipmate. I can only imagine the look on the face of that seaman as my dad walked away to the engine room for his watch on the reactor. Miss you dad. Fair winds and following seas!
My brother-in-law was a sonar tech on that submarine and went on to be a Senior Chief. My brother was an STC on fast attacks. He got out after 14 years. I grew up near Groton and even worked at EB when the Ohio Keel was laid in 76. I did an enlistment in a Patrol Squadron. My other brother was in charge QA at United Nuclear where they made the fuel rods.
They used asbestos primarily to insulate steam piping and in seals and gaskets used in the steam system. It was not used to insulate from the cold. They used a cork like material to line the hull and reduce condensation.
Boomer family, lived in housing Groton CT. We had sirens go off at fixed times. One meant ""Leave now, go to meet up place". The other siren meant "Cover in place". No basement. I was informed a closet with no windows was the "best choice". All the wives near my house set up a "Siren sounds play date". We would go outside if the weather was nice, put out blankets and bring our young babies and toddlers outside. We got in trouble as it was felt we were not taking this seriously, and we replied we felt we'd rather not die in a closet and would play with our children so that they would not get upset...as they would in a closet. We were proud of our husbands, and on a mostly submarine base if your husband was home, his job was to be your "husband" also. As in clearing snow and cutting grass (especially as most of us were busy with small children!)
My step father was on the Omaha, a Fastie, but before that, he had been on a boomer. Mom would have been considered (incorrectly) a 'Cougar', since my step father was 18 months younger than *I* am. More like a good friend to me. They met up at a Christian fellowship in Groton, and eventually moved to Pearl. Mom went to work for PACFAST and my step dad went on patrol. While he was only a Petty Officer, Mom served as a bit of stability and a rock for some of the younger wives of the guys on patrol, helping them out to endure being without a husband for three months or more. Then again, you also had 'boomer widows', the wives who were only married when their husbands where in port. As a single guy, I ran into a couple of them, and when you found out, it was like 'Good bye!' I had too much respect for the men who were out there on the front line. I felt sorry for the women, they hadn't really any idea what they were getting into, early 20s, husbands gone for more than 3 months at a time, not hearing from them. This was back in the late 70s and early 80s. The wives could send a 'Familygram', but they'd never hear back because when the boats were out, they were radio silent. Being a submariner's wife is no easy job, and I applaud all of the wives of the men who served back then, your job was as important as those who rode the boats.
@@GaryMCurran Yeh. And it was always *SO* sad when we'd get back from patrol, and some of the married guys wouldn't have anyone there to greet them. Right then, they knew...
I was a repairman on the sub tender uss simon lake in rota spain and we took care of subron 16 boats in the early 70s. Most of the boats were of the ben franklin class with number in the 640 and above range. I went to sea on sea trials on the uss Kamehameha 642. All these boat had the poseidon missles at that time.
Fun fact...JFK wanted to send a GW class SSBN to provide a nuclear deterrent for Turkey...instead of sending the Jupiter missiles to be deployed there...but the Turks did not want an invisible Boomer sitting off their coast, they wanted a VISIBLE show of NATO's commitment to their defense. So JFK deployed the missiles that Ike had announced would be sent back in 1958, and then Khrushchev had his big idea about Cuba, and the rest is history.
Riding a small Vespa motorbike around the island of Lesbos/Mytilini in the 1980s I saw a picturesque harbor with an island that held what looked to be non-descript military facility; signs posted along the nearest road warned in English and Greek that photography of the facility was banned. I'm pretty sure we never ever put nukes on Greek territory but it could have had conventional missiles there and most likely had radar monitoring of Russian and Turkish airspace because the island was located about 5 miles from Turkey.
Khrushchev's deployment of missiles to Cuba wasn't just about the Jupiter missiles in Turkey. It was also about the massive missile imbalance overall. Kennedy was elected on the idea that Ike and Nixon weren't serious enough about developing a nuclear deterrent, that the US had only dozens to a couple of hundred ICBMs to the rumored several hundred Soviet ICBMs. In reality, when JFK took office, the USSR had *four* missiles and only one launcher, and the missiles were unreliable. (Nixon knew this but couldn't talk about it.) The Soviets wouldn't catch up for several years, and placement of nuclear weapons in Cuba was a way of leveling the playing field by putting US targets at much greater risk than they were.
@@JarrodFrates Yes...very true...and when the Cuban Missile Crisis kicked off, the Soviets still only had 40 ICBMs or less...and probably only 10 or those or less were really actually in working order. JFK and LBJ talked a huge game about how far "behind" the US was, when in fact we were hugely superior to the USSR in deliverable nukes.
@@iKvetch558 Kennedy and Johnson were working off of what they had. Even Johnson's role in the Senate didn't give him access to the Intel about the actual missile gap, which was among the most closely held secrets in government. Nixon tried to downplay it and talk about how the US would close any gap, but the public placed less trust in his stated position than in JFK's much clearer drive for greater missile production.
Mr. Geiger, Another great episode! I was a career submariner who spent my days at sea aboard attack submarines, (STURGEON class boats). I did, however do a tour of duty in Holy Loch Scotland refitting and repairing SSBNs. The Navy was incredibly serious about our missile subs. Woe be the person(s) responsible for keeping an SSBN from making her patrol on time and 100% ready. No expense was too great and no effort too extreme. In my years in Holy Loch, I do not believe we ever failed to get a boat out to sea as scheduled. The money the taxpayers spent on those submarines then and now was well spent. Never a shot fired in anger as our adversaries knew the consequences of piquing a fight with the U.S.
@@noneofyourbusiness7600 dude... I wasn't Navy. But I WAS Army. We stuck a guy to the outside of our 113 and drove over an hour back to the motorpool at Ft. Hood with him taped up. Stuff is legendary
Served aboard the last of the "41 for Freedom", USS Will Rogers (SSBN 659) as a MMN/ELT (Machinist's Mate, Nuclear/Engineering Laboratory Technician) during the Cold War. Home ported in Groton, CT. Operated out of Holy Loch, Scotland. The privilege of a lifetime with a proud heritage, an unparalleled education and so many memories. Set me on a path that no other experience ever could have.
I personally dealt the final death blow to the USS Will Rogers. Did the last patrols on board, brought it back to the states to offload the missiles and took her into the shipyard. As a reactor operator, I was the one that disconnected and cut the power cables to the reactor control rod motors so the heart of the ship could never be restarted again. But then I went back to the Groton yards and was the RO when the USS Rhode Island first went critical and came to life. Glad I got to do both ends of the ship life cycle.
Ya fuckin nuke!!!!! Just kidding. I was a 'conehead' as you nuclear power trained guys called us forward pukes. I was a RadioMan. I had the test scores for nuclear power training and RM or ET or STS, basically anything. What kept me out of Naval Aviation and just about everything else was my color acuity. I flunk color vision tests. I wasn't supposed to be an RM, either but, as you know, we do things a bit differently than the standard, skimmer Navy. I'm 62 now. Still fondly remember my days on the two boats I was on, the two submarine squadrons I was at and the days teaching school at SubTraFac, San Diego. I miss those days. Take it easy, Brother.
@@donaldshockley4116 What amazing experiences. I completed prototype on MARF at Ballston Spa. MARF was a water-moderated S3G variant. I was selected for ELT. After training, I participated in fueling and initial low-power testing of S8G. Again, the privilege of a lifetime that I still recommend to young men and women to this day.
I had the pleasure of visiting the James K. Polk and Von Steuben in the 1980s. I've never forgotten the graciousness of the Polk crewmembers just days before Christmas of '83.
Thanks for this great video! My father, Senior Chief Petty Officer Lee Yates, USN, was one of the key players in the development and testing of the Polaris missile back in the early/mid 1960's. He's 91 years old now and still enjoys telling stories of some of the crazy things that happened during testing.
Thank you for the lesson. President 7Jimmy Carter served in the submarine service in the 1950s. He worked with nuclear reactors and as part of a team shutdown the reactor at Chalk River that had a meltdown. Rest in peace. Thank you and all members of the submarine crews for your Silent Service.
He was at Chalk River for a month along with 149 other Navy personnel and 850 Atomic Energy of Canada Employees. The disassembly and reconstruction of the reactor there took over 14 months. He was not there for the accident or the shutdown of the reactor which occurred months before his arrival. He never finished the Navy nuclear training pipeline as it existed then. Yes...he served on a diesel electric submarine.
@DuffyF56 The US Navy and the Atomic Energy Commission sent Jimmy Carter and a number of other personel to clean up the Chalj River accident. He was one of the few people certified to enter a nuclear reactor. He was there along with 22 other people to clean up and repair the Chalk River reactor. Building a replica of the reactor they practiced the clean up procedures as each person was only allowed 90 seconds of exposure. This experience shaped Carters opposition to the Neutron bomb.
@@shawnr771 LOL...DREAMING....Rickover asked the Canadian's if they could send Navy personnel to help to get experience in dealing with contamination. He was but ONE of 150 people sent by the Navy and led a team of 12 in disassembling part of the reactor. There were also 850 Atomic Energy of Canada personnel involved as well as 200 Canadian military members. He was there LESS THAN a month on an effort that took over 14 months to complete. Try sources other than Wikipedia and learn what really happened.
I had the honor of working on the ssn Nautilus, the 571 boat. It was the first operating nuclear powered submarine and I worked the torpedo room at EB in Groton while she was in wet docks before being decommissioned. I worked with a great group of machinists and the crew were first class, too. Miss those days.
I built a scale model (with interior) of the George Washington back in 1966--Revelle had a plastic model kit and building that submarine was a lot of fun.
@@jamesmurphy9346 I heard the same rumor. Back in the Sixties most things about American submarines were still state secrets--and during the investigation, Revelle's designers demonstrated how they were able to make educated guesses regarding the interior of the George Washington. I also built a scale model of the Nautilus. Disneyland's first submarine fleet was named after the Nautilus (the nuclear boat--Disney made 20,000 Leagues) and other nuclear subs.
I had one of those kits too, but around 1960, from the original manufacturer: Renwal. Renwal had a whole line of "cutaway" kits in which you could view the interior. Most notably, the Visible Man and the Visible Woman, with a transparent outer "skin" so you could view the person's organs, blood vessels, and skeleton underneath. IIRC, Revell then started producing those too after Renwal went out of business. All of Renwal's kits were highly detailed. If you used a magnifying glass on the interior of the submarine kit, you could see rolls of toilet paper in the boat's head!
USS Henry Clay SSBN-625B 2-2-78 to 3-85, Nuke MM, 13 patrols. Thanks History Guy. My brother served on the Jefferson and the Lafayette also as a Nuke MM.
I served on two of the original "41 for Freedom" as a sonar technician. USS Lafayette (SSBN-616) USS James K. Polk (SSBN-645) The Polk was also decommissioned as an SSBN and recommisioned as an SSN (slow approach) SEAL platform like the USS Kamehameha. Now completely decommissioned, you can find the sail at the Nuclear Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque, NM...if interested in a road trip!
As usual an entertaining watch. I was surprised to find a video on the subject of nuclear ballistic missile submarines that didn't mention either Admiral Hyman G. Rickover or John P. Craven. The former is known as "the Father of the Nuclear Navy" and the latter was Chief Scientist of the Special Projects Office of the Navy. In that capacity he was instrumental in making the Polaris program successful as well as implementing SOSUS (Sound Surveillance System to listen to Soviet submarines). And dozens of other projects.
John P Craven was the Chief-Scientist of the Polaris program, and he told me one day that one of the main engineerinhg problems was creating an impenetrable diaphram that sealed the tube section containing the missle. To solve this problem, within this layer of materials composing the diaphram was a layer of peanut butter, which was used in the initial prototypes to get it to work. Later this substance was replaced with a syntheitic material, but initially, to meet deadlines, they used peanut butter.
Hey, many of your viewers are from Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island. Electric Boat is the largest employer in Rhode Island. The local newspaper The New London Day employs a number of former navy personnel. The quality of their reporting on such matters is renowned. My father had a model of the George Washington on his dresser, my brother and I eventually broke it. The technical complexity of building nuclear submarines is on par with building a space craft.
My brother in law and I both served on the last of the original 41 boats. The USS Will Rogers SSBN 659. Commissioned in 1966. How did we build 41 boats between 1959 and 1966? That could never happen today.
USS James Monroe SSB(N) 622 gold crew. Multiple deterrent patrols. Nuke. Saw and was briefly aboard the George Washington (visit for technical purposes). By the time the Polaris A3 missiles came along, warhead, range, reliability, and accuracy issues had been substantially addressed... however, things can always be "better." As a deterrent, the Boomers apparently did their job, and are still doing it despite numerous technical advances aimed at nullifying their stealth. Note that after the original Scorpion was bisected to make George Washington, a new Scorpion was laid down... and subsequently lost. That event has been UA-camd by several, but all suffer from factuality and completeness issues that are inherent when publicly discussing events in the silent service. I also served on USS Scamp SS(N) 588, the sister ship to the Scorpion SS(N)589. I do enjoy and appreciate your channel.
Note @ 12:24 the sub in view with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. There's a story behind that: Going back some 50+ years ago as a kid, I was informed the arched crane at the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, visible from the Bayshore Freeway (Highway 101), was a structure used to test the missile launch mechanism on the ballistic submarines. Some time later there was a local TV news report that showed a film clip how it was done: A large steel/concrete cylinder was lowered by cable from a crane into the sub's launch tube, whereupon the launch mechanism was engaged, pushing the steel/concrete cylinder into the air. The cable-tethered cylinder prevented it from falling back onto the submarine.
I was on 625 Blue from '80 to '85. Agreed, good general presentation. One, nit however (isn't there always one of us) is that Poseiden missiles replaced Polaris, which were then replaced by Trident. When I left the boat, the missiles were a transition phase between Poseiden and Trident because actual Trident missiles wouldn't fit in our tubes. One of the things I remember was a missile test where in we launched 4 (I think but could have been 5) missiles (dummy warheads) one after the other quickly. I remember the work up and launch consumed the crew for several months both predeployment and patrol time in getting ready. That and refits in Holy Loch and the Dunoon Dollies.
I worked at EB when the keel for the Ohio was laid in 1976. Both my brother and brother-in-law were STCs, one on fast attacks and the other on boomers. I was in the Navy and never went to sea on a ship.
Bravo Zulu. I served on several of the 41 for freedom, and happily we never had to exercise their might in anger. The boomer cycles were hard on the families. Many made it but it was common they didn't. It's a proud community. Very nice history lesson, thank you
As a US Navy vet serving on an ASW Frigate in the early 1980s, we hunted Soviet subs. Homeported at Norfolk, Va., we saw the SSN attack subs at the "D&S Piers", where Destroyers, Frigates and Submarines were berthed. We had no "boomers" assigned, though they made occasional port visits.
@@davidcampbell4465 I'd hazard a guess it was a Knox class Fast Frigate. I served on two of them. U.S.S Reasoner FF-1063 (west coast), U.S.S. Moinester FF-1097 (east coast).
fun fact, one of that class is pictured at 4:28 in video. Fun fun fact, U.S.S Reasoner is the ship use by the Village People for the In The Navy video.
When I was in the Navy back in the 70s, my best friend from boot camp through my last active duty command, was a guy whose father was an engineer on Polaris. He later moved the family to the UK so he could work for a shipbuilding company in Belgium, and my friend and I visited his family in England for Christmas 1975. His dad was a fascinating guy to share a beer with, always having an interesting Navy story to relate.
As an ex boomer sailor (6 patrols, USS Thomas Edison SSBN 610 Blue crew) I was *shocked* that you made no mention of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, generally regarded as the father of both the nuclear navy, as well as the FBMs. You really might want to do a deep dive into his story. He was quite driven, quite a perfectionist, and quite eccentric --- not necessarily in that order. From his requirement to always have some special English lemon drops wherever he went, to having a special false ID card with a picture of a monkey where his photo was supposed to be, to having a serious problem with sea sickness. He was *DEFINITELY* "history that deserves to be remembered".
Rickover actually spoke to me. He was riding my SSN on our first sea trials from EB. I was standing in the crews mess, filling a cup with coke and he poked me in the back as said “Move”. I was a nuke EM and he watched each duty section perform a scram drill. He was about 3 feet tall.
As a starting point, you might want to pick up a copy of the book _Blow Negative_ by Edward Carl Stephens. It's a fictionalized story about a Commander Sampson Greice, which was strongly based on Admiral Rickover.
@@Eric-kn4yn There were usually 25 to 30 on patrol, 8 or 10 in refit/restock/sea trials, and around 6 or 8 in the yards for overhaul at any given time. You had to have an excess to maintain an effective deterrent at sea.
My uncle was Levering Smith. He was responsible for much of the development of the Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident missiles that went in those subs. He was a great guy. I still miss him.
So much time has gone by for me. I served from 1962-1966. Some of that was aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, SSBN 600. The Navy trained me to be a reactor operator costing $75,000. ($700,000 in today money). College in 1962 cost $1,000 per year and my family didn't have that kind of money, so the Navy was a wonderful option. But to enter their program required the participant to have an IQ of 120. The Navy tested mine as 158 so I was accepted. Training for parts of the program was 7 days a week, 14 hours a day with a day off infrequently. It was difficult but fun. Computers, calculators, did not exist yet, only slide rules, paper and pencils.
As a local to where the Nautilus was birthed and where it's currently on display... "Groton" is pronounced with a "Grah-tin", not "Grow-tin".. I've been a huge fan of this channel for years now.. love it and keep up the great work!
Whenever i ever burnt out or down about my job, maybe I should rewatch to keep myself reminded of why I do what I do as a long-term employee of Electric Boat. I do really appreciate your submarine videos! I can't help but wonder about the timing of this video, coming out the day after the passing of Jimmy Carter. RIP Jimmy. You were a good man!
I was anti-submarine warfare when on active duty. We used P-3C aircraft. Russian subs were easy to track as they were extremely noisy. Ours were much more difficult but we could do it. We were VP-24 batmen.
I was in AX in VP23 on P-3 B 50 years ago. My oldest brother was a STC on a fast attack and our squadron couldn’t find them in an exercise. A few days later my brother and I met up in Rota and went out drinking together. We got back to his submarine about 2Am and he had the cook make us steak and eggs. A few days later he got to go on a patrol on a P-3.
Have seen US and Royal Navy ballistic subs sailing up to their base on the Holy Loch in Scotland, absolutely enormous beasts compared to the subs of WWII. The contrast between the terrifyingly awesome destructive power of these vessels and the surrounding Scottish coastal landscape was not lost on me...
Some of the old 41 boats were converted to Trident missiles, but many still carried the Polaris' replacement, the Poseidon missile until their decom. This included all of the submarines that operated out of Squadron 14 in Holy Loch. I did 7 patrols on the Ulysses S. Grant (SSBN-631) blue crew during the cold war and into the post-Soviet era. They were interesting times for a boomer sailor. Thanks for the coverage of the old boomers... they were good solid boats.
My dad started out on a diesel boat (USS Quillback) and then spent the rest of his Navy career in the original “41” boomers as a reactor operator. Miss you dad !
I served as a sonarman on 4 boats in this order: USS Benjamin Franklin SSBN 640 (first boat of it's class, patrolled out of Spain), USS Lafayette SSBN 616 (first boat of it's class and christened by Jackie Kennedy, patrolled out of Scotland), USS Kamehameha SSBN 642, 640 class, Scotland, Last but not least the USS Alexander Hamilton SSBN 619, 616 class, Scotland. 16 missiles per boat, 10 warheads per missile, 41 for freedom = 6560 warheads just on submarines (Not counting the MK45 Astor torpedo's nuclear warheads) Astors went away with the advent of the MK-48 conventional warhead torpedo. Pre MK-48 we also carried MK-14s a crappy unreliable relic from WW II and we carried the 1950s developed crappy unreliable MK-37 as well. All of what I say here can be found on google and is declassified. Several years ago something was declassified that I am sure most people do not know but may find interesting. WW III was possible when the USS James Madison and a Soviet Victor class submarine collided in the Firth of Clyde back in 1974, this happened way inside the UK's territorial waters. Original documentation and reports can be found with google. Scotland is a beautiful country, the Holy Loch and surrounding area are so picturesque and quaint. It used to break my heart that such a beautiful place was marred by this ugly submarine tender anchored in the loch. I am sure the people of Dunoon are happy to get their beautiful view back. Searching on google for the docs and reading them is kind of boring and you can't get the full picture. There is a great video on youtube narrated by a Scotsman that gives much more information than searching for docs. In the video there is an animation of the collision, the animation depicts a Victor III boat. Victor III came out in 1979, 5 years after the incident. The Soviet boat was either a Victor I or II, the V III was the only version that had the pod on top of the rudder, knowing this stuff was part of a sonarman's job. At the time I left the service we still did not know what that pod was for. Here is the video if you are interested in the Cold War or just submarines: ua-cam.com/video/Ck3IVzdTUxw/v-deo.html
41for freedom. Do we still say we got to protect Belgium neutrality in 1914? Or Do you still say the Gulf of Tonkin actually happened? Or incubator babies in Kuwait 1990? You do realise how much false ideas are planted into people. And you not required to repeat them
Thank you for another amazing video. This period of the golden age of American engineering is always a treat, and underappreciated. 3 years for any new weapons platform these days seems sadly unattainable. These stories are proof of what was, and can still be, achievable.
I served aboard SSBN 627 James Madison (blue crew) from 1982 to 1985. That boat got the Trident missile system in 1982, which meant it could hit its targets from being submerged just off the coast of Georgia. They were truly capable machines.
My great-grandfather was captain of a nuclear powered submarine. I do not remember the name of his sub, but I know he was on the History channel when I was a child!
Well, being A Boomer born in 1964. I have that child-like curiosity in Political ideologies and how we haven't really gotten over the Vietnam War. And yes, I do love Submarines ! Thank you ! " HISTORY GUY " !!
Retired E-9 corpsman here. Served on 616 and 640 class boomers. Left sub fleet in 85. Had some good times, and not so good times. Hated refit at Holy Locke during the winter time. All of the boats I served on and was a "Rider" on are gone. The Kam was the the only one left of the 41 for freedom. She was a slow approach, rather than a boomer.
@HM2SGT oh yeah. First boat I rode was the old Grayback outta Subic. My FIRST nuc was the Pintado outta Pearl. My first boomer, the Willie R outta Guam. The last boat I was on was the Hamilton outta Rotten Groton
@@michaelcombs24 I am jealous and envious of you. Sounds like you got to do the full ride and retire. Apparently all those Lucky Strikes and all that Coca-Cola for breakfast didn't agree with me so the Navy declined to invite me back enough times to be a lifer... I wouldn't mind so much if they'd quit screwing around and finding fine print reasons to not give me 100% on my what should be a 100% heart condition! Know anybody that needs a broke down, burned out, used up Corpsman?! 🥴🤪🤣
My first job out of NY Maritime College in 1971 was the Nuclear Engineering Department at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. Only worked for them 18 months, but they were memorable months! Pearl only did overhauls for fast attacks. But for training, along with several co-workers, wound up spending winter 1992 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery Maine. There we worked on the boomer George Bancroft. Moved on to nuke power plant construction. At one point i wound up interviewing for a position at Electric Boat in Rotten Groton… guess if I do a web search i could mention the exact date of that interview. It was the day before the launch of the first Trident sub, USS Ohio
Served onboard the USS ULYSSES S. GRANT (SSBN 631) BLUE. Two patrols and then took her to Decommissioning in Bremerton. It was really sad to see her cut up day by day.
A weapon to surpass Metal Gear. Of course, it's less exciting for a lone soldier to listen to SOSUS readings for hours on end to dispatch a P-3 to investigate potential reactor sounds.
Great video! I remember as a boy back in the early 60's building a model of the George Washington. It was a great symbol of American power back in her day!
Fast Attack sailor here. Served 1964 to 1970. The missile boats were called FBM's. If you try and pronounce those letters you come up with "FaBoom". That is how they got the name Boomers!.
I went thru Truck Driver training with a Navy retiree in 1992. 21 years in Boomers. He said the Sub would be submerged but had to be close enough to receive radio signals. If there was a Storm they would be tossed around.
Great stuff. Has some information not well known to everyone. I was part of the triad in Titan II Missiles. Now I know what the Navy was doing. Thanks.
Mare Island naval shipyard built and repaired both nuclear and conventional submarines. As another poster stated, their quality was amazing. My dad was employed there for 37 years. I attended the launching of the yard's namesake The Mariano G Vallejo as a young child.
Love your videos. Why is the volume so much lower than other videos? When ads start, or the next video from any other channel starts, I get blown away.
Great video! As a Submariner, I thank you. I would counter that from the view of submariners, the cold war wasn't all that cold, which would be a great video to see. The only issues that I noted were pronunciation errors. Polaris- Po-lair-iss Groton- Grah-tun (i.e. the base is called rotten groton)
Great video, as usual. One correction, though, USS Halibut was not a converted diesel boat, but a nuclear sub purpose-built for Regulus. Probably just an editing mistake, since I'm sure you know this.
Fun fact- CDR James B Osborn SSBN 598 CO (blue) for commissioning and the initial Polaris launch was the first guest on the “What’s my Line“ episode airing feb 5 1961.
Certainly a coincidence that the number of the first Navy nuclear sub “571” was also the number of the first production Air Force B-36 bomber - the Navy having fought to cancel the B-36 program five years earlier.
I toured USS Louisville SSN 724 while she was in port Bahrain in 1992-93. Wished i could have gone to sea for a few days to see how it is to be submerged. RIP to the crews of USS Scorpion and USS Thresher. On eternal patrol.
Dr Alvin Radkowsky PhD designed the nuclear power plant . He was an Orthodox Jew and Israeli dual citizenship scientist. I worked for AEC/DOE in nuclear research physics. HAPPY CHANNUKAH 🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️
Corrections (thanks to viewers.) I apologize for the pronunciation of "Groton" and "Polaris." USS Halibut was nuclear powered, not diesel. Polaris was replaced first by Poseidon before Trident.
Some things can never be forgiven! 😉😁 ( There's a town called Groton in Suffolk, UK, and I'll bet they pronounce it Graw-tin or Grah-tin as well)
Property fully pronounced “Rotten Groton”. 😉
@@raccafracca940 Yup. Spent a year there ahead of going to Bremerton for Decom of the GW.
@@jimarmstrong5637 Went to school there (obviously) and TAD on the Toledo out of Groton for 6 weeks.
I can relax now.
I served on the Decommissioning crew of the George Washington, and had the honor of being the last Officer of the Deck during the Decom ceremony in Bremerton, WA. As you said, her last days as an operational submarine she was redesignated as an SSN. We used to call her a "Slow Approach" instead of a "Fast Attack".
Thank you for your service.
I was on the USS Glenard P. Lipscomb which had a somewhat unique propulsion system. After they flashed over one of their generators they had to limit her speed. She truly was a slow approach boat. But she was very quiet. I was on her decommissioning crew.
Very cool! Thanks for your service!
Thank you for your service. (Fellow submarine service veteran: MMN2/ELT, USS Will Rogers, SSNN 659 Gold)
@@ARepublicIfYouCanKeepIt I was an ICC Nuke (one of the last ones), served on USS Pollack (SSN-603, USS Guardfish (SSN-612) as well as the GW.
Thank you as well!
Thanks for including the USS Kamehameha (SSBN/SSN 642) in your video as the final commissioned member of the 41 for Freedom. There is a good reason she lasted 37 years - she was very well built. A product of the Mare Island California public shipyard, the quality of the engineering and construction in the early 60's was a true marvel. I either rode or otherwise associated with this "Boat" for the final 9 years of her life, albeit her role not as a Boomer. As a Seal Delivery Vehicle (SDV) platform, she pioneered many techniques used by her converted Ohio Class Sisters in use today. As a testament to the ship and crews, I proudly say that her tally of dives equaled the number of surfacings, the greatest hope of all Submariners.
Thank you for sharing your story and thank you for your service.
My understanding was that she had a flooding incident in port that wrecked the missile control equipment leading to her "transition."
@@RodneyGraves I caught her in the yards during the conversion. I don't recall any scuttlebutt about anything like that. Not like my previous boat and an electric plant casualty - they talked about that for years. I always understood that there were three things that determined why she was selected:
Recently refueled
Good material condition
SALT II treaty requirements to remove tubes from service as new Ohio's came on line
@@etcss642 I shall defer to you as someone who was there.
Ah yes, the 'Dead Giveaway'! Much fun was had once Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z entered the consciousness of the sailors in Norfolk thanks to the anime club! 😁
Dad was a plank owner on the Francis Scott Key and was a nuke engineer. Unfortunately a lot of asbestos was used to keep the cold depths at bay and many men who build these have died due to exposure from the asbestos. Not to mention all the other hazardous materials used in the construction of subs. One of my favorite stories he use to tell me was when a new guy would come on board. He could tell they were very nervous and he had one new guy ask him. "Don't you get scared when we dive to depth, all that pressure on the hull?" My dad just smiled and said, "Don't worry shipmate we are no more than a mile off shore at any given time." The new seaman would look at my dad with a dumbfounded look..then fire back at him... "Wait most times we don't even know were we are, we are in top secret locations, we can not even tell our families were we are going." My dad would just grin at the sailor and point his finger straight down to the deck, .....1 mile from shore shipmate. I can only imagine the look on the face of that seaman as my dad walked away to the engine room for his watch on the reactor. Miss you dad. Fair winds and following seas!
My brother-in-law was a sonar tech on that submarine and went on to be a Senior Chief. My brother was an STC on fast attacks. He got out after 14 years. I grew up near Groton and even worked at EB when the Ohio Keel was laid in 76. I did an enlistment in a Patrol Squadron. My other brother was in charge QA at United Nuclear where they made the fuel rods.
They used asbestos primarily to insulate steam piping and in seals and gaskets used in the steam system. It was not used to insulate from the cold. They used a cork like material to line the hull and reduce condensation.
Boomer family, lived in housing Groton CT. We had sirens go off at fixed times. One meant ""Leave now, go to meet up place". The other siren meant "Cover in place". No basement. I was informed a closet with no windows was the "best choice". All the wives near my house set up a "Siren sounds play date". We would go outside if the weather was nice, put out blankets and bring our young babies and toddlers outside. We got in trouble as it was felt we were not taking this seriously, and we replied we felt we'd rather not die in a closet and would play with our children so that they would not get upset...as they would in a closet. We were proud of our husbands, and on a mostly submarine base if your husband was home, his job was to be your "husband" also. As in clearing snow and cutting grass (especially as most of us were busy with small children!)
Hi, Kitty, fancy meeting you here, fellow JREF alum!
Hats off to strong military wives!
My step father was on the Omaha, a Fastie, but before that, he had been on a boomer. Mom would have been considered (incorrectly) a 'Cougar', since my step father was 18 months younger than *I* am. More like a good friend to me. They met up at a Christian fellowship in Groton, and eventually moved to Pearl. Mom went to work for PACFAST and my step dad went on patrol. While he was only a Petty Officer, Mom served as a bit of stability and a rock for some of the younger wives of the guys on patrol, helping them out to endure being without a husband for three months or more.
Then again, you also had 'boomer widows', the wives who were only married when their husbands where in port. As a single guy, I ran into a couple of them, and when you found out, it was like 'Good bye!' I had too much respect for the men who were out there on the front line. I felt sorry for the women, they hadn't really any idea what they were getting into, early 20s, husbands gone for more than 3 months at a time, not hearing from them. This was back in the late 70s and early 80s. The wives could send a 'Familygram', but they'd never hear back because when the boats were out, they were radio silent.
Being a submariner's wife is no easy job, and I applaud all of the wives of the men who served back then, your job was as important as those who rode the boats.
@@GaryMCurran in San Diego, we had "Westpac Widows" for sailors on deployment both surface and submarines
@@GaryMCurran
Yeh. And it was always *SO* sad when we'd get back from patrol, and some of the married guys wouldn't have anyone there to greet them.
Right then, they knew...
I have not forgotten the scorpion or the thresher and they do deserve to be remembered!
I'm a retired Senior Chief and navy "Cold Warrior" and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this episode of The History Guy. BZ, Lance!!
I was a repairman on the sub tender uss simon lake in rota spain and we took care of subron 16 boats in the early 70s. Most of the boats were of the ben franklin class with number in the 640 and above range. I went to sea on sea trials on the uss Kamehameha 642. All these boat had the poseidon missles at that time.
Fun fact...JFK wanted to send a GW class SSBN to provide a nuclear deterrent for Turkey...instead of sending the Jupiter missiles to be deployed there...but the Turks did not want an invisible Boomer sitting off their coast, they wanted a VISIBLE show of NATO's commitment to their defense. So JFK deployed the missiles that Ike had announced would be sent back in 1958, and then Khrushchev had his big idea about Cuba, and the rest is history.
Riding a small Vespa motorbike around the island of Lesbos/Mytilini in the 1980s I saw a picturesque harbor with an island that held what looked to be non-descript military facility; signs posted along the nearest road warned in English and Greek that photography of the facility was banned. I'm pretty sure we never ever put nukes on Greek territory but it could have had conventional missiles there and most likely had radar monitoring of Russian and Turkish airspace because the island was located about 5 miles from Turkey.
Khrushchev's deployment of missiles to Cuba wasn't just about the Jupiter missiles in Turkey. It was also about the massive missile imbalance overall. Kennedy was elected on the idea that Ike and Nixon weren't serious enough about developing a nuclear deterrent, that the US had only dozens to a couple of hundred ICBMs to the rumored several hundred Soviet ICBMs. In reality, when JFK took office, the USSR had *four* missiles and only one launcher, and the missiles were unreliable. (Nixon knew this but couldn't talk about it.) The Soviets wouldn't catch up for several years, and placement of nuclear weapons in Cuba was a way of leveling the playing field by putting US targets at much greater risk than they were.
@@JarrodFrates Yes...very true...and when the Cuban Missile Crisis kicked off, the Soviets still only had 40 ICBMs or less...and probably only 10 or those or less were really actually in working order. JFK and LBJ talked a huge game about how far "behind" the US was, when in fact we were hugely superior to the USSR in deliverable nukes.
@@iKvetch558 Kennedy and Johnson were working off of what they had. Even Johnson's role in the Senate didn't give him access to the Intel about the actual missile gap, which was among the most closely held secrets in government. Nixon tried to downplay it and talk about how the US would close any gap, but the public placed less trust in his stated position than in JFK's much clearer drive for greater missile production.
Thanks for a great piece of submariner history, USS Pulaski 633 Blue crew here, 85 to 89
Thank you for your service!
Mr. Geiger, Another great episode! I was a career submariner who spent my days at sea aboard attack submarines, (STURGEON class boats). I did, however do a tour of duty in Holy Loch Scotland refitting and repairing SSBNs. The Navy was incredibly serious about our missile subs. Woe be the person(s) responsible for keeping an SSBN from making her patrol on time and 100% ready. No expense was too great and no effort too extreme. In my years in Holy Loch, I do not believe we ever failed to get a boat out to sea as scheduled. The money the taxpayers spent on those submarines then and now was well spent. Never a shot fired in anger as our adversaries knew the consequences of piquing a fight with the U.S.
"Grawton" is how it's pronounced. Not "growton"
Groton, CT
Also where EBGreen tape was developed. Another great history story.
Grah-tin, like potatoes au gratin...😉
You have not lived until you find a 3 foot tall Godzilla made from EB green in Engine Room Forward..
@goodun2974 wasn't sure how to spell that sound out lol. Yes! That's what I was attempting to get across 😅
@@noneofyourbusiness7600 dude... I wasn't Navy. But I WAS Army. We stuck a guy to the outside of our 113 and drove over an hour back to the motorpool at Ft. Hood with him taped up.
Stuff is legendary
@@noneofyourbusiness7600 🤣🤣🤣🤣👍
Served aboard the last of the "41 for Freedom", USS Will Rogers (SSBN 659) as a MMN/ELT (Machinist's Mate, Nuclear/Engineering Laboratory Technician) during the Cold War. Home ported in Groton, CT. Operated out of Holy Loch, Scotland.
The privilege of a lifetime with a proud heritage, an unparalleled education and so many memories. Set me on a path that no other experience ever could have.
I rode her down the ways. But I was below decks on watch and missed the excitement topside.
I personally dealt the final death blow to the USS Will Rogers. Did the last patrols on board, brought it back to the states to offload the missiles and took her into the shipyard. As a reactor operator, I was the one that disconnected and cut the power cables to the reactor control rod motors so the heart of the ship could never be restarted again. But then I went back to the Groton yards and was the RO when the USS Rhode Island first went critical and came to life. Glad I got to do both ends of the ship life cycle.
Ya fuckin nuke!!!!! Just kidding. I was a 'conehead' as you nuclear power trained guys called us forward pukes. I was a RadioMan. I had the test scores for nuclear power training and RM or ET or STS, basically anything. What kept me out of Naval Aviation and just about everything else was my color acuity. I flunk color vision tests. I wasn't supposed to be an RM, either but, as you know, we do things a bit differently than the standard, skimmer Navy. I'm 62 now. Still fondly remember my days on the two boats I was on, the two submarine squadrons I was at and the days teaching school at SubTraFac, San Diego. I miss those days. Take it easy, Brother.
@@donaldshockley4116 What amazing experiences. I completed prototype on MARF at Ballston Spa. MARF was a water-moderated S3G variant. I was selected for ELT. After training, I participated in fueling and initial low-power testing of S8G. Again, the privilege of a lifetime that I still recommend to young men and women to this day.
I had the pleasure of visiting the James K. Polk and Von Steuben in the 1980s. I've never forgotten the graciousness of the Polk crewmembers just days before Christmas of '83.
@@swathdiver489 I was in new construction with the Polk. Was friends with a few of the crew.. They were still there when we were commissioned.
Thanks for this great video! My father, Senior Chief Petty Officer Lee Yates, USN, was one of the key players in the development and testing of the Polaris missile back in the early/mid 1960's. He's 91 years old now and still enjoys telling stories of some of the crazy things that happened during testing.
Thank you for the lesson.
President 7Jimmy Carter served in the submarine service in the 1950s.
He worked with nuclear reactors and as part of a team shutdown the reactor at Chalk River that had a meltdown.
Rest in peace.
Thank you and all members of the submarine crews for your Silent Service.
Obviously the episode was in production before the announcement of President Carter's passing. Fair winds and following seas submariner.
Thank you.
He was at Chalk River for a month along with 149 other Navy personnel and 850 Atomic Energy of Canada Employees. The disassembly and reconstruction of the reactor there took over 14 months. He was not there for the accident or the shutdown of the reactor which occurred months before his arrival. He never finished the Navy nuclear training pipeline as it existed then. Yes...he served on a diesel electric submarine.
@DuffyF56 The US Navy and the Atomic Energy Commission sent Jimmy Carter and a number of other personel to clean up the Chalj River accident.
He was one of the few people certified to enter a nuclear reactor.
He was there along with 22 other people to clean up and repair the Chalk River reactor.
Building a replica of the reactor they practiced the clean up procedures as each person was only allowed 90 seconds of exposure.
This experience shaped Carters opposition to the Neutron bomb.
@@shawnr771 LOL...DREAMING....Rickover asked the Canadian's if they could send Navy personnel to help to get experience in dealing with contamination. He was but ONE of 150 people sent by the Navy and led a team of 12 in disassembling part of the reactor. There were also 850 Atomic Energy of Canada personnel involved as well as 200 Canadian military members. He was there LESS THAN a month on an effort that took over 14 months to complete. Try sources other than Wikipedia and learn what really happened.
I had the honor of working on the ssn Nautilus, the 571 boat. It was the first operating nuclear powered submarine and I worked the torpedo room at EB in Groton while she was in wet docks before being decommissioned. I worked with a great group of machinists and the crew were first class, too. Miss those days.
Very cool!
I built a scale model (with interior) of the George Washington back in 1966--Revelle had a plastic model kit and building that submarine was a lot of fun.
I had the kit too. I remember the US government came out and said the Kit was too Accurate and giving Secrets away.
@@jamesmurphy9346 I heard the same rumor. Back in the Sixties most things about American submarines were still state secrets--and during the investigation, Revelle's designers demonstrated how they were able to make educated guesses regarding the interior of the George Washington. I also built a scale model of the Nautilus. Disneyland's first submarine fleet was named after the Nautilus (the nuclear boat--Disney made 20,000 Leagues) and other nuclear subs.
I had one of those kits too, but around 1960, from the original manufacturer: Renwal. Renwal had a whole line of "cutaway" kits in which you could view the interior. Most notably, the Visible Man and the Visible Woman, with a transparent outer "skin" so you could view the person's organs, blood vessels, and skeleton underneath. IIRC, Revell then started producing those too after Renwal went out of business.
All of Renwal's kits were highly detailed. If you used a magnifying glass on the interior of the submarine kit, you could see rolls of toilet paper in the boat's head!
@@stevenlitvintchouk3131 I missed the miniature toilet paper in the head--didn't even think to look for it.
@@alancranford3398 Did you notice the hanging meat in the galley? (Yes, that really was there.)
USS Henry Clay SSBN-625B 2-2-78 to 3-85, Nuke MM, 13 patrols. Thanks History Guy. My brother served on the Jefferson and the Lafayette also as a Nuke MM.
I served on two of the original "41 for Freedom" as a sonar technician.
USS Lafayette (SSBN-616)
USS James K. Polk (SSBN-645)
The Polk was also decommissioned as an SSBN and recommisioned as an SSN (slow approach) SEAL platform like the USS Kamehameha.
Now completely decommissioned, you can find the sail at the Nuclear Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque, NM...if interested in a road trip!
As usual an entertaining watch. I was surprised to find a video on the subject of nuclear ballistic missile submarines that didn't mention either Admiral Hyman G. Rickover or John P. Craven. The former is known as "the Father of the Nuclear Navy" and the latter was Chief Scientist of the Special Projects Office of the Navy. In that capacity he was instrumental in making the Polaris program successful as well as implementing SOSUS (Sound Surveillance System to listen to Soviet submarines). And dozens of other projects.
Ryan, some things in here don't react well to bullets...
I understood that reference.
I read your book, Ryan. Your conclusions were all wrong. Halsey acted shtupidly.
@@isaiahoconnor8236 Did Loki turn two of the sharpest men you know into his personal flying monkeys? 😏😉
@@RCAvhstape I wish someone had asked him to say "purple burglar alarm" and recorded the results. 😆
... yeah, like ME!
John P Craven was the Chief-Scientist of the Polaris program, and he told me one day that one of the main engineerinhg problems was creating an impenetrable diaphram that sealed the tube section containing the missle. To solve this problem, within this layer of materials composing the diaphram was a layer of peanut butter, which was used in the initial prototypes to get it to work. Later this substance was replaced with a syntheitic material, but initially, to meet deadlines, they used peanut butter.
He has written a book about subs.
Hey, many of your viewers are from Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island. Electric Boat is the largest employer in Rhode Island. The local newspaper The New London Day employs a number of former navy personnel. The quality of their reporting on such matters is renowned. My father had a model of the George Washington on his dresser, my brother and I eventually broke it. The technical complexity of building nuclear submarines is on par with building a space craft.
Thanks!
Thank you!
I was on the
U.S.S. Francis Scott Key SSBN - 657 / Gold Crew...
Thank you for your service.
Same here 77-80
My brother in law and I both served on the last of the original 41 boats.
The USS Will Rogers SSBN 659. Commissioned in 1966. How did we build 41 boats between 1959 and 1966? That could never happen today.
USS James Monroe SSB(N) 622 gold crew. Multiple deterrent patrols. Nuke. Saw and was briefly aboard the George Washington (visit for technical purposes). By the time the Polaris A3 missiles came along, warhead, range, reliability, and accuracy issues had been substantially addressed... however, things can always be "better."
As a deterrent, the Boomers apparently did their job, and are still doing it despite numerous technical advances aimed at nullifying their stealth.
Note that after the original Scorpion was bisected to make George Washington, a new Scorpion was laid down... and subsequently lost. That event has been UA-camd by several, but all suffer from factuality and completeness issues that are inherent when publicly discussing events in the silent service. I also served on USS Scamp SS(N) 588, the sister ship to the Scorpion SS(N)589.
I do enjoy and appreciate your channel.
Ain't no slack on a fast attack..
More Submarine stories. THANK YOU for posting.
Submarines once, submarines twice, holy jumping... (if you know, you know)
Served on SSBN-611 blue, amazing boat and crew.
Note @ 12:24 the sub in view with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. There's a story behind that:
Going back some 50+ years ago as a kid, I was informed the arched crane at the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, visible from the Bayshore Freeway (Highway 101), was a structure used to test the missile launch mechanism on the ballistic submarines.
Some time later there was a local TV news report that showed a film clip how it was done:
A large steel/concrete cylinder was lowered by cable from a crane into the sub's launch tube, whereupon the launch mechanism was engaged, pushing the steel/concrete cylinder into the air. The cable-tethered cylinder prevented it from falling back onto the submarine.
One of your best videos
Like those Bubblehead (submarine) cuff links. 😊
Inside the boomer when you are in the missile compartment it is referred to as "Sherwood Forest". USN 74-80
Thank you for your service.
I enjoyed this production. Great job as always!
USS Henry Clay 625 & Ohio 726 bubblehead here. 80s & 90s. FTB & MT.
Thank you for your service.
I was on 625 Blue from '80 to '85. Agreed, good general presentation. One, nit however (isn't there always one of us) is that Poseiden missiles replaced Polaris, which were then replaced by Trident. When I left the boat, the missiles were a transition phase between Poseiden and Trident because actual Trident missiles wouldn't fit in our tubes. One of the things I remember was a missile test where in we launched 4 (I think but could have been 5) missiles (dummy warheads) one after the other quickly. I remember the work up and launch consumed the crew for several months both predeployment and patrol time in getting ready. That and refits in Holy Loch and the Dunoon Dollies.
Mk 88 mod 1 FTB here!
I worked at EB when the keel for the Ohio was laid in 1976. Both my brother and brother-in-law were STCs, one on fast attacks and the other on boomers. I was in the Navy and never went to sea on a ship.
Served 8 years on submarines SSBN634 USS Stonewall Jackson/ SSBN657 USS FRANCIS SCOTT KEY I was a Missile Technician. Trident 1 .
An informative and well presented video, nice one.
Bravo Zulu. I served on several of the 41 for freedom, and happily we never had to exercise their might in anger. The boomer cycles were hard on the families. Many made it but it was common they didn't. It's a proud community. Very nice history lesson, thank you
As a US Navy vet serving on an ASW Frigate in the early 1980s, we hunted Soviet subs. Homeported at Norfolk, Va., we saw the SSN attack subs at the "D&S Piers", where Destroyers, Frigates and Submarines were berthed. We had no "boomers" assigned, though they made occasional port visits.
What were u on?
@@davidcampbell4465 I'd hazard a guess it was a Knox class Fast Frigate. I served on two of them. U.S.S Reasoner FF-1063 (west coast), U.S.S. Moinester FF-1097 (east coast).
fun fact, one of that class is pictured at 4:28 in video. Fun fun fact, U.S.S Reasoner is the ship use by the Village People for the In The Navy video.
@@josephconnelly7939 I was on the Richard L. Page (FFG-5).
Served aboard SSBN 655 Henry L. Stimson & SSBN 735 Pennsylvania. Best job ever.
When I was in the Navy back in the 70s, my best friend from boot camp through my last active duty command, was a guy whose father was an engineer on Polaris. He later moved the family to the UK so he could work for a shipbuilding company in Belgium, and my friend and I visited his family in England for Christmas 1975. His dad was a fascinating guy to share a beer with, always having an interesting Navy story to relate.
As an ex boomer sailor (6 patrols, USS Thomas Edison SSBN 610 Blue crew) I was *shocked* that you made no mention of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, generally regarded as the father of both the nuclear navy, as well as the FBMs.
You really might want to do a deep dive into his story. He was quite driven, quite a perfectionist, and quite eccentric --- not necessarily in that order. From his requirement to always have some special English lemon drops wherever he went, to having a special false ID card with a picture of a monkey where his photo was supposed to be, to having a serious problem with sea sickness.
He was *DEFINITELY* "history that deserves to be remembered".
Rickover actually spoke to me. He was riding my SSN on our first sea trials from EB. I was standing in the crews mess, filling a cup with coke and he poked me in the back as said “Move”. I was a nuke EM and he watched each duty section perform a scram drill. He was about 3 feet tall.
As a starting point, you might want to pick up a copy of the book _Blow Negative_ by Edward Carl Stephens. It's a fictionalized story about a Commander Sampson Greice, which was strongly based on Admiral Rickover.
41 boats but only a fraction on patrol at any one time rest in maintanance
@@Eric-kn4yn
There were usually 25 to 30 on patrol, 8 or 10 in refit/restock/sea trials, and around 6 or 8 in the yards for overhaul at any given time.
You had to have an excess to maintain an effective deterrent at sea.
There was no one who rode those boats and SSN's who didn't know his name. He was the father of the nuclear submarine.
My uncle was Levering Smith. He was responsible for much of the development of the Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident missiles that went in those subs. He was a great guy. I still miss him.
So much time has gone by for me. I served from 1962-1966. Some of that was aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, SSBN 600. The Navy trained me to be a reactor operator costing $75,000. ($700,000 in today money). College in 1962 cost $1,000 per year and my family didn't have that kind of money, so the Navy was a wonderful option. But to enter their program required the participant to have an IQ of 120. The Navy tested mine as 158 so I was accepted. Training for parts of the program was 7 days a week, 14 hours a day with a day off infrequently. It was difficult but fun. Computers, calculators, did not exist yet, only slide rules, paper and pencils.
Now i know more about the Albacore. I never heard of it untill i was in Portsmouth NH a few months ago.
Served on the USS Thomas A. Edison SSBN 610. A 608 (Ethan Allen) Class boat designed from the ground up to be a boomer and not a cut up fast attack.
As a local to where the Nautilus was birthed and where it's currently on display... "Groton" is pronounced with a "Grah-tin", not "Grow-tin".. I've been a huge fan of this channel for years now.. love it and keep up the great work!
And you probably think Southerners talk funny.
@@DBAllen, Groton is also the name of a village in Suffolk, UK. I bet they too pronounce it as Graw-tin or Grah-tin......
@@goodun2974 So??????
@@DBAllen , and yes, Southerners DO talk funny!
@@goodun2974 How do you KNOW that it isn't you that's talking funny or is arrogance your only test?
Whenever i ever burnt out or down about my job, maybe I should rewatch to keep myself reminded of why I do what I do as a long-term employee of Electric Boat. I do really appreciate your submarine videos! I can't help but wonder about the timing of this video, coming out the day after the passing of Jimmy Carter. RIP Jimmy. You were a good man!
I served on one of these; the USS Maryland (SSBN 738)
Thank you for your service.
@TheHistoryGuyChannel A great author once wrote, “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”
Something tells me he was a submariner. 😉
I was anti-submarine warfare when on active duty. We used P-3C aircraft. Russian subs were easy to track as they were extremely noisy. Ours were much more difficult but we could do it. We were VP-24 batmen.
I was in AX in VP23 on P-3 B 50 years ago. My oldest brother was a STC on a fast attack and our squadron couldn’t find them in an exercise. A few days later my brother and I met up in Rota and went out drinking together. We got back to his submarine about 2Am and he had the cook make us steak and eggs. A few days later he got to go on a patrol on a P-3.
Informative and entertaining as always sir.
Have seen US and Royal Navy ballistic subs sailing up to their base on the Holy Loch in Scotland, absolutely enormous beasts compared to the subs of WWII. The contrast between the terrifyingly awesome destructive power of these vessels and the surrounding Scottish coastal landscape was not lost on me...
My uncle was knighted by the Queen for his work on the British naval subs/missiles.
Some of the old 41 boats were converted to Trident missiles, but many still carried the Polaris' replacement, the Poseidon missile until their decom. This included all of the submarines that operated out of Squadron 14 in Holy Loch. I did 7 patrols on the Ulysses S. Grant (SSBN-631) blue crew during the cold war and into the post-Soviet era. They were interesting times for a boomer sailor. Thanks for the coverage of the old boomers... they were good solid boats.
My dad started out on a diesel boat (USS Quillback) and then spent the rest of his Navy career in the original “41” boomers as a reactor operator. Miss you dad !
Informative, thank you!
I served as a sonarman on 4 boats in this order: USS Benjamin Franklin SSBN 640 (first boat of it's class, patrolled out of Spain), USS Lafayette SSBN 616 (first boat of it's class and christened by Jackie Kennedy, patrolled out of Scotland), USS Kamehameha SSBN 642, 640 class, Scotland, Last but not least the USS Alexander Hamilton SSBN 619, 616 class, Scotland. 16 missiles per boat, 10 warheads per missile, 41 for freedom = 6560 warheads just on submarines (Not counting the MK45 Astor torpedo's nuclear warheads) Astors went away with the advent of the MK-48 conventional warhead torpedo. Pre MK-48 we also carried MK-14s a crappy unreliable relic from WW II and we carried the 1950s developed crappy unreliable MK-37 as well. All of what I say here can be found on google and is declassified. Several years ago something was declassified that I am sure most people do not know but may find interesting. WW III was possible when the USS James Madison and a Soviet Victor class submarine collided in the Firth of Clyde back in 1974, this happened way inside the UK's territorial waters. Original documentation and reports can be found with google. Scotland is a beautiful country, the Holy Loch and surrounding area are so picturesque and quaint. It used to break my heart that such a beautiful place was marred by this ugly submarine tender anchored in the loch. I am sure the people of Dunoon are happy to get their beautiful view back. Searching on google for the docs and reading them is kind of boring and you can't get the full picture. There is a great video on youtube narrated by a Scotsman that gives much more information than searching for docs. In the video there is an animation of the collision, the animation depicts a Victor III boat. Victor III came out in 1979, 5 years after the incident. The Soviet boat was either a Victor I or II, the V III was the only version that had the pod on top of the rudder, knowing this stuff was part of a sonarman's job. At the time I left the service we still did not know what that pod was for. Here is the video if you are interested in the Cold War or just submarines: ua-cam.com/video/Ck3IVzdTUxw/v-deo.html
41for freedom. Do we still say we got to protect Belgium neutrality in 1914? Or Do you still say the Gulf of Tonkin actually happened? Or incubator babies in Kuwait 1990?
You do realise how much false ideas are planted into people.
And you not required to repeat them
THG, you rock! Thanks for telling us this. Peace
RIP President Carter ❤
Thanks for sounding off some great stories on the silent service!
Well done.
Thank you History Guy
Thank you for another amazing video. This period of the golden age of American engineering is always a treat, and underappreciated. 3 years for any new weapons platform these days seems sadly unattainable. These stories are proof of what was, and can still be, achievable.
Awesome video. Always enjoy watching your work.
I served aboard SSBN 627 James Madison (blue crew) from 1982 to 1985. That boat got the Trident missile system in 1982, which meant it could hit its targets from being submerged just off the coast of Georgia. They were truly capable machines.
Thanks!
I made 8 patrols on JOHN ADAMS (SSBN 620), starting in the late 70s.
What a thing to have participated in.
FULLY enjoyed the upload, Lance. Oh, the memories it brought back. WELL DONE!!!!!🫠🤣😮
My great-grandfather was captain of a nuclear powered submarine. I do not remember the name of his sub, but I know he was on the History channel when I was a child!
Well, being A Boomer born in 1964. I have that child-like curiosity in
Political ideologies and how we haven't really gotten over the Vietnam War. And yes, I do love Submarines ! Thank you !
" HISTORY GUY " !!
SSBN 622 Gold and Blue crews! Miss those days!
Thank you for the thank you, you two! We hope the new year will bring good luck and much love.
Hit the wrong button!
Retired E-9 corpsman here. Served on 616 and 640 class boomers. Left sub fleet in 85. Had some good times, and not so good times. Hated refit at Holy Locke during the winter time. All of the boats I served on and was a "Rider" on are gone. The Kam was the the only one left of the 41 for freedom. She was a slow approach, rather than a boomer.
I forgot about the slow approach designation of the Dead Giveaway.😄
@HM2SGT oh yeah. First boat I rode was the old Grayback outta Subic. My FIRST nuc was the Pintado outta Pearl. My first boomer, the Willie R outta Guam. The last boat I was on was the Hamilton outta Rotten Groton
@@michaelcombs24 I am jealous and envious of you. Sounds like you got to do the full ride and retire. Apparently all those Lucky Strikes and all that Coca-Cola for breakfast didn't agree with me so the Navy declined to invite me back enough times to be a lifer... I wouldn't mind so much if they'd quit screwing around and finding fine print reasons to not give me 100% on my what should be a 100% heart condition! Know anybody that needs a broke down, burned out, used up Corpsman?! 🥴🤪🤣
@HM2SGT I hear ya Doc. Hell Ukraine is looking. There's a guy over there, American, who like 75
@michaelcombs24 😳🤯 Oh hell no! I was a fugitive from the law of averages as it was. Just keep tilting at windmills with the VA 😅
Great video HG
My first job out of NY Maritime College in 1971 was the Nuclear Engineering Department at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. Only worked for them 18 months, but they were memorable months!
Pearl only did overhauls for fast attacks. But for training, along with several co-workers, wound up spending winter 1992 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery Maine. There we worked on the boomer George Bancroft.
Moved on to nuke power plant construction. At one point i wound up interviewing for a position at Electric Boat in Rotten Groton… guess if I do a web search i could mention the exact date of that interview. It was the day before the launch of the first Trident sub, USS Ohio
"we were 100% succesful in completing our mission," retired boomer sailor...
I appreciate you and thank you for making content.
Served onboard the USS ULYSSES S. GRANT (SSBN 631) BLUE. Two patrols and then took her to Decommissioning in Bremerton. It was really sad to see her cut up day by day.
A weapon to surpass Metal Gear. Of course, it's less exciting for a lone soldier to listen to SOSUS readings for hours on end to dispatch a P-3 to investigate potential reactor sounds.
Great video! I remember as a boy back in the early 60's building a model of the George Washington. It was a great symbol of American power back in her day!
Happy New Year
Happy New Year to you, as well.
Fast Attack sailor here. Served 1964 to 1970. The missile boats were called FBM's. If you try and pronounce those letters you come up with "FaBoom". That is how they got the name Boomers!.
I love how you change the shelves up with related figures like Lincoln and "Watchmen" the Comedian...
I went thru Truck Driver training with a Navy retiree in 1992. 21 years in Boomers. He said the Sub would be submerged but had to be close enough to receive radio signals. If there was a Storm they would be tossed around.
Served on the Kamehameha 1982-1985, best boat in the fleet!
Thank you for your service!
The good old _Dead Giveaway_ 😄
Sorry, had to go listen to the theme music for "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", but I'm back now.
Great stuff. Has some information not well known to everyone. I was part of the triad in Titan II Missiles. Now I know what the Navy was doing. Thanks.
The “Twelve O’Clock High” Toby Mug on the shelf in the background…. Well done! A precursor of a future episode perhaps?
My older brother served on both the George Washington and the King Kamahmeha during his twenty years of service.
Mare Island naval shipyard built and repaired both nuclear and conventional submarines. As another poster stated, their quality was amazing. My dad was employed there for 37 years. I attended the launching of the yard's namesake The Mariano G Vallejo as a young child.
The Polaris program was crazy. They had to develop so much stuff including a satellite based navigation system for the weapons platform.
I was on the USS Baltimore and onboard we were the first fast attack boat to successfully launch cruise missiles at sea.
Love your videos. Why is the volume so much lower than other videos? When ads start, or the next video from any other channel starts, I get blown away.
The last submarine I saw was fueled by baking soda and had Captain Crunch on it
I had one. Brings back memories
@@JorgeLopez-wt4gp, yup, I remember it too.
I see you are familiar with the Canadian Navy.
@RexKramer-we9si as long as they have Crunch Barriers
@@constipatedinsincity4424 , isn't that the sub that imploded on a sightseeing tour of the Titanic? 🤔😖☠☠☠
SSGN/SSN 585 was nuclear powered not diesel. Thanks for the history!
Any U.S. Ship with "N" in it's hull code is Nuclear powered.
Great video! As a Submariner, I thank you. I would counter that from the view of submariners, the cold war wasn't all that cold, which would be a great video to see. The only issues that I noted were pronunciation errors.
Polaris- Po-lair-iss
Groton- Grah-tun (i.e. the base is called rotten groton)
Great video, as usual. One correction, though, USS Halibut was not a converted diesel boat, but a nuclear sub purpose-built for Regulus. Probably just an editing mistake, since I'm sure you know this.
Fun fact- CDR James B Osborn SSBN 598 CO (blue) for commissioning and the initial Polaris launch was the first guest on the “What’s my Line“ episode airing feb 5 1961.
Certainly a coincidence that the number of the first Navy nuclear sub “571” was also the number of the first production Air Force B-36 bomber - the Navy having fought to cancel the B-36 program five years earlier.
I toured USS Louisville SSN 724 while she was in port Bahrain in 1992-93. Wished i could have gone to sea for a few days to see how it is to be submerged. RIP to the crews of USS Scorpion and USS Thresher. On eternal patrol.
Submarine Force Museum is really excellent. I can't recommend it enough.
Love your videos
Dr Alvin Radkowsky PhD designed the nuclear power plant . He was an Orthodox Jew and Israeli dual citizenship scientist.
I worked for AEC/DOE in nuclear research physics.
HAPPY CHANNUKAH 🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️