SSN_638
01-17-10, 11:00 AM
Greetings, all!
My name's Bob Williams, and 35 years ago I was a quartermaster aboard the USS Whale (SSN-638). For you non-navy types, that's navigation :03:. I was also qualified for and stood watch at the helm/planes, passive sonar stack and a number of non-underway watches. I volunteered for the ship's machinist position and made a couple of underway repairs to steam valves on the lathe back in the engine room. Once, while we were transiting the North Atlantic, I got permission from the OOD to practice 'bottom contour' navigation - using the fathometer to compare actual ocean depth to what our charted position predicted. During this practice I encountered a previously uncharted feature. I assembled all of the pertinent data and the Skipper submitted it to the Hydrographic Office and, a few months later, I received a letter from them stating that the new feature, an undersea mountain, was now named "Williams Seamount" :D! I still have that letter.
Our home port was New London, Connecticut and while I was on board we made several six month deployments to the Mediterranean Sea and a "Northern Run". Unfortunately, I can't go into any detail about the Northern Run mission, but I can tell you that in the Med our chief function was finding and shadowing Soviet ballistic missile subs. I absolutely loved being a submariner - I'd wanted to be one since reading "Up Periscope" when I was 11 years old.
So, when my friend Gary (Freebird on these forums) bought Silent Hunter 4 with the U-Boat missions for me for Christmas, I was overjoyed! This sim is AWESOME!!! I've been able to apply all of that knowledge about subs and submarine warfare and I've been doing almost nothing but eating, sleeping and laying waste to the Japs since I got it :o. I'm currently in command of the USS Skipjack, on my fifth patrol in the Solomons, and so far we've sent 170,000 tons to the bottom this time out. Last patrol we sunk 212,800 tons in 45 days. I'm running in 'Hard' mode - none of that automatic targeting for me, thank you very much.
I look forward to swapping sea stories with you guys. Good luck and good hunting.
My name's Bob Williams, and 35 years ago I was a quartermaster aboard the USS Whale (SSN-638). For you non-navy types, that's navigation :03:. I was also qualified for and stood watch at the helm/planes, passive sonar stack and a number of non-underway watches. I volunteered for the ship's machinist position and made a couple of underway repairs to steam valves on the lathe back in the engine room. Once, while we were transiting the North Atlantic, I got permission from the OOD to practice 'bottom contour' navigation - using the fathometer to compare actual ocean depth to what our charted position predicted. During this practice I encountered a previously uncharted feature. I assembled all of the pertinent data and the Skipper submitted it to the Hydrographic Office and, a few months later, I received a letter from them stating that the new feature, an undersea mountain, was now named "Williams Seamount" :D! I still have that letter.
Our home port was New London, Connecticut and while I was on board we made several six month deployments to the Mediterranean Sea and a "Northern Run". Unfortunately, I can't go into any detail about the Northern Run mission, but I can tell you that in the Med our chief function was finding and shadowing Soviet ballistic missile subs. I absolutely loved being a submariner - I'd wanted to be one since reading "Up Periscope" when I was 11 years old.
So, when my friend Gary (Freebird on these forums) bought Silent Hunter 4 with the U-Boat missions for me for Christmas, I was overjoyed! This sim is AWESOME!!! I've been able to apply all of that knowledge about subs and submarine warfare and I've been doing almost nothing but eating, sleeping and laying waste to the Japs since I got it :o. I'm currently in command of the USS Skipjack, on my fifth patrol in the Solomons, and so far we've sent 170,000 tons to the bottom this time out. Last patrol we sunk 212,800 tons in 45 days. I'm running in 'Hard' mode - none of that automatic targeting for me, thank you very much.
I look forward to swapping sea stories with you guys. Good luck and good hunting.