Now comes the tough part- which 637 to build and paint?
Back when I was a pre-Nub in school at Groton, I kept my fingers crossed for the USS Archerfish and her ESM suite. The 637's still carried a lot of cashe in the late 80's. They were the boats you
wanted to go to if you saw yourself as a "hot runner" (which we all did..
) and wanted to jump into the deep end of the pool. The 637's were also the only ticket to ride if you wanted to go under the ice (until the flight III 688i boats came on-line).
More importantly, the Sturgeon class
were the cold war. While the 688's got the press, the 637's were data collection
beasts and were designed to loiter on-station for extended periods of time. It wasn't until the Virginia class came along that the USN regained the ability to hover at All Stop as well as the 637's could.
Anyway, I've also been itching to paint another Pearl Harbor Special.
Seeing a boat at PHNSY that was ready to go back in the water always felt good. The paint jobs just looked B-A with the lower hull painted red, the lower part of the upper hull painted in a unique brown-ish dark purple, and the upper hull and sail in black.
Since I also knew some buds on the USS Cavalla, I think that's what I'm going to build.
