In 1997, I was not yet born, so I'll begin when I was in 2000. 6 Years prior my grandfather passed away from cancer, he was a Korean war vet, 3 years prior my family restored a home near Pittsburgh, built in 1927. My Great uncle owned it and was the driving force behind it, so it was in good shape. After I was born, everything in my family became hectic. We took plenty of vacations even though money was tight. It was then, around 2005 or so, that I walked on my first submarine. It was the U.S.S. Requin, a Tench class boat permanently moored outside the Carnegie science Center. I was astounded at how tight and cramped everything was, and then my dad rented Das Boot on the way home. I remember thinking to myself,
"Wow, that's so small compared to the Requin. And why do they have circular hatches? They're so small and tiny..."
After we finished watching the movie, my dad told me, "You know your great Uncle George worked on submarines during the cold war."
I never knew this and I was so excited to ask him the next time I saw him. That is when he told me that he not only worked ON submarines, HE DESIGNED THEM. He was a chief chemist during the Manhattan Project, and after the war he was a chief design manager of the S2W nuclear reactor that would be placed into the world's first nuclear boat, the Nautilus. He worked at Bettis Atomic Power laboratories under Westinghouse from 1956 to 1989. 11 years later, he passed away last month 5 days after Christmas at the age of 93. I have been interested in planes, submarines, the navy, U boats, tactics, tanks, weapons, and everything world war 2 ever since. I have a minor collection now, even consisting of a sparkplug from a B17, a letter addressed to someone aboard the USS Lexington (later sunk at the battle of the Coral Sea), and a Kriegsmarine document detailing a pension of a world war 1 German navy veteran, bearing the official naval eagle ink stamp.
I hope to continue my collection and continue my interests to this day through games thanks to you subsim. Congrats for the 20 years of service, and here's to another 20 more
