April 11th National Submarine Day
 

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Today is National Submarine Day

April 11 is celebrated by the United States submarine community as National Submarine Day because on this day the United States Navy acquired its first modern commissioned submarine the USS Holland.

Sure you can play a sub sim game, but could you name and learn what every valve, every gauge, every duty station is in this picture of the USS Drum control room, plus be able to operate it in case your shipmate was injured or incapable of manning his duty station?

Plus the fwd and aft torpedo room, fwd and aft engine room would have to be your duty to know better that you know your girlfriends body in order to qualify by the COB and then a qualified officer.

That's what you had to do to qualify submarines (they don't give those dolphins away) :o

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/93/bc...9d15416bc1.jpg

The beatings are good for motivation and also give the rest of the crew a hobby. :doh:

I heard a sea story one time about an old USN WWII submarine that went through fram and then was loaned to the Turkish navy.

Seems a seaman forgot to close the hatches one time as the boat was submerging. They surfaced came back to port and hung him :o

About the time when we were decomm-ing the Barbel, there was a plan to sell the Blueback to Argentina. A mixed crew took her out for testing and acceptance trials and it didn't go well. :doh: We backed out of the sale to avoid "an eventual tragedy". :timeout:

Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. If it was, everyone would do it. :yep: Those Dolphins are a point of pride as you already know for submariners for the exhaustive work they did to earn them.


I know ET2SN served with the Submarine force so Happy Submarine day to him and everyone else who served on submarines. :Kaleun_Thumbs_Up:

The morning after the Submarine Ball was the worst. :Kaleun_Wink:

I heard rumor that submarine sailors had to drink their dolphins ... is that true?

Well, there's two ways to look at that. :03:
There's the feel good version where you drink a shot glass or hi-ball glass of whiskey with your fish in them or maybe a glass of beer. There's also the other version where you have to drink a bucket of "whatever" and grab your fish with your teeth before you barf or pass out. :doh:

I got qualified when the Navy was starting to crack down on "traditional hazing" (see the second example). Drinking your fish wasn't as hazardous as getting them tacked on. For 24 hours after the CO pinned on your dolphins, anyone who was qualified could punch your dolphins hard enough to make sure they wouldn't fall off. :doh: I had a quatermaster buddy knock me flat onto the plotting table right after I got mine and by the third day I had learned how to climb the ladder from crew's mess past the wardroom and up to the deck with only one arm. To give an idea of how hard you would get punched, the pins on my fish got knocked through the retaining grommets and into my chest. The scars only faded out a couple of years ago.
The guy who got qualified just before me wasn't too bright about it and told anyone who would listen that they didn't have the ####s to tack his fish. He wound up with a broken collar bone. :doh:

When I would tack a guy's fish, I would tell them I learned how to do it by the A-gangers and MM's on the Barbel and they would really want to brace themselves. Then I would wind up like I was really going to clobber them but at the last second I would pull back and shake their hand. Its a tradition but not all traditions are smart. :up:

When I got my AirBorne Wings?
I requested my DS from Basic and Advanced Infantry training to give me
"Blood Wings".
I still have the 2 scars where the wings were pounded into my chest.
And I'm still proud of them!