Cheese sub surfaces
May 10th, 2011 | Humor Navy Submarines World War II | Posted by Sam Fellman
USS Jallao, a Wisconsin-built attack sub that earned it stripes in World War II, surfaces in pure Wisconsin cheddar. // Angela Hemauer
When submarine vets gathered last Thursday in Manitowoc, Wis., they found an accurate – and edible – tribute to their years of undersea service: a 22-inch-long sculpture of attack submarine Jallao made of pure cheese.
It was the creation of Sarah Kaufmann, a.k.a. the Cheese Lady. You won’t be surprised to know that this “nationally-recognized cheese sculptor,” according to a press release, hails from Wisconsin, the nation’s cheese capital. (Jallao was built with sturdy two-year-old aged Wisconsin cheddar.)
Behind the conning tower of the surfacing sub is its hull number, 368. Jallao was one of 28 subs built by Manitowoc Shipping Co. during World War II. After commissioning it in 1944, Jallao’s crew headed to the Pacific theater and earned four battle stars – also depicted in cheese. The gathering in Wisconsin last weekend was for vets who served aboard the 28 Wisconsin-built subs and their families.
This is not the first naval fromage-homage for Kaufmann. A few years ago, she sculpted a model of carrier Ronald Reagan in Sargento as big as a small boulder.
Homers celebrated with a dive horn
April 27th, 2011 | Submarines Washington | Posted by Sam Fellman
When the Nationals hit a home run, submariners in the stands will hear a familiar sound — a dive klaxon.
It blares three times to celebrate each homer, a signal – as any bubblehead will tell you – for emergency surface.
The Nationals’ newest home run celebration honors their military fans and is a homage to the area’s naval heritage. The Washington Navy Yard, one block east of the stadium, was founded in 1799 and is the Navy’s oldest shore base. The horn also serves as a replacement for fireworks, which used to be fired after every homer.
Its sound can be heard on the D.C. Sports Bog blog of The Washington Post, which first reported the Nationals’ sub horn.
“The military is already part of game presentation and the Navy Yard is right next door,” Nationals’ Chief Operating Officer Andy Feffer told the Post, who said it also helps with the team’s branding. “Not only is it unique and distinctive, but it fit. It fit with our goals, and it fits with what Washington is. It’s ours. Someone else can’t copy it and say we’re gonna do that too. It’s Washington’s.”
The Nats recently purchased the horn and already have put it to plenty of use. As of Tuesday, the team has 20 homers this season.
Silent service turns 111
April 21st, 2011 | Historical Navy Submarines | Posted by Sam Fellman
Happy (belated) birthday, bubbleheads!
It was on April 11, 111 years ago, that the Navy purchased its first fully submersible vessel, Holland VI, from inventor John Holland. The 64-ton sub cost $150,000 and was christened the SS-1 Holland. Powered by a gasoline engine, it could make could make roughly 2 knots submerged, had a crew of six and carried torpedoes, according to the book “Submarine: The Ultimate Naval Weapon – Its Past, Present and Future.”
One hundred and eleven years later, subs are still integral to national defense. Ballistic subs bear more than half of the nation’s nuclear weapons, keeping potential adversaries at bay. And attack submarines serve in a variety of missions, including shielding carrier battle groups from their spookiest threat: diesel boats.
Meanwhile, sub ops are high. As of Thursday, two-thirds of attack subs were away from the pier and nearly half were on deployment. In operations against the Gadhafi regime, two attack subs and one guided-missile sub fired the lion’s share of the cruise missiles. That, too, has a historical precedent.
During World War II, the Barb bombarded Japanese coastal cities with rockets in the first sub-launched strike mission ashore.
The Navy strikes
March 21st, 2011 | Aviation Libya Naval aviation Navy Odyssey Dawn Ships Submarines Tomahawk Video | Posted by Bill McMichael
Navy ships and subs launched a barrage of Tomahawk cruise missiles at Libyan air defenses Saturday, including this one, filmed by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jonathan Sunderman, leaping skyward out of the Norfolk-based destroyer Barry. The strikes, and subsequent bomb attacks by U.S., French and British aircraft, followed the March 17 passage of a U.N. resolution authorizing “all necessary measures” to protect civilians in Libya, particularly rebel fighters, being attacked by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s forces.
The coalition air strikes continued Sunday, with the Associated Press reporting that a line of Libyan tanks south of Benghazi were destroyed. Rebel forces had taken the city before coming under a withering counterattack by Libyan forces. AP also reported that a building in Gadhafi’s residential compound in Tripoli was destroyed late Sunday.
More on the other U.S. and coalition assets taking part in Operation Odyssey Dawn here.
Colombia’s drug lords enter the silent service
February 15th, 2011 | Foreign navies Navy Submarines The Pacific | Posted by Sam Fellman
Colombian soldiers board a submersible narco-sub on a remote jungle river during a raid on Monday. // AP Photo
It’s Pablo Escobar meets John Holland: drug lords built a 99-foot-long submarine, believed to be the first Colombian narco-sub capable of traveling fully submerged, Colombian officials said Monday. It even sported a periscope.
The fiberglass sub, crewed by four, had been designed to haul up to eight tons of narcotics and could travel 9 feet underwater, powered by two diesel engines, Colombian officials told the Associated Press. Tipped off to its existence, the Colombian military seized the sub from its makeshift berth on a jungle river, hundreds of miles off the country’s northwest coast. No one was aboard, however.
Col. Manuel Hurtado, chief of staff of Colombia’s Pacific Command, estimated the sub, outfitted with a 16-foot periscope and air conditioning, had cost $2 million to build and said it could make the roughly 1,300-mile trip to Mexico underwater.
“The engines were already fully installed and ready to go,” he said.
Ensign Seeks Release from Subs on Religious Grounds
November 5th, 2010 | Naval Academy Navy nuclear weapons Officers Submarines | Posted by Sam Fellman
Would you push the button and launch a nuclear missile, if ordered to?
By the time Ensign Michael Izbicki was asked this question in a routine psychological screening at nuclear power school, he had had a religious awakening. He had read the book, Choosing Against War: A Christian View, and had embraced pacifistic Quaker beliefs after periods of intense study and reflection.
Izbicki — a 24-year-old Naval Academy graduate, who holds a master’s degree in computer science from John Hopkins University — answered no, he wouldn’t push the red button.
The Navy, however, rejected two of his requests for an honorable discourage as a conscientious objector. Izbicki, having passed nuke school, is now training to be a submariner at Naval Submarine School in Groton, Conn., while appealing not to be a submariner.
He lives in St. Francis House, a pacifist Christian community in New London, Conn. He rejected promotion to lieutenant junior grade “to reduce his connection to the Navy as much as possible,” and is willing to pay the Navy back for his eduction, according to a suit filed on his behalf.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a petition in federal court seeking Izbicki’s honorable discharge on Wednesday, a development first reported by The Hartford Courant.
Women allowed to join Bulgaria’s vanishing sub force
October 29th, 2010 | Foreign navies Navy Submarines | Posted by Sam Fellman
The U.S. isn’t the only country integrating women into its submarine force.
But the Bulgarian Navy’s new policy comes with a knotty Catch-22: Female sailors are suddenly welcome in the submarine service right as lawmakers decided to scrap the country’s only submarine.
The sole submarine is all-but-extinct Soviet Romeo class diesel named the “Slava,” Bulgarian for “Glory.” The rust-covered boat has been inoperable for at least 10 years.
Women, making up 14 percent of the Bulgarian armed forces, will be able to apply for submarines and the national guard now, as part of a larger military reform effort, the Agence France-Presse reported today. The changes came after two female military cadets, barred from the National Guard, sued the Defense Ministry for discrimination in August.
A rough week for Her Majesty’s navy
October 22nd, 2010 | Foreign navies Royal Navy Submarines | Posted by David Larter
Tugs move in to assist the Royal Navy nuclear submarine Astute, after it ran aground in shallow water off the Isle of Skye. // AP Photo by Danny Lawson
By any measure, the Royal Navy has had a rough week.
In the span of three days, the Brits cut their flagship carrier, the Ark Royal, reduced their fleet to its smallest size in centuries and, now, has run its nearly $5.5 billion nuclear submarine Astute into the mud near Scotland’s Isle of Skye.
Reports broke early this morning that Astute had run aground. Agence France-Presse reports:
A British nuclear submarine ran aground off a Scottish island on Oct. 22, the defense ministry said, adding that there were no immediate signs of any casualties or environmental damage.
HMS Astute – which only entered service in August and is billed as the Royal Navy’s most powerful hunter-killer submarine – got into trouble near the Isle of Skye.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said that the rudder of the 3.5-billion-pound (3.94-billion euro, $5.5 billion) submarine had become “grounded”.
“Whilst conducting a personnel transfer HMS Astute grounded her rudder in the vicinity of the Isle of Skye. She was initially unable to free herself and we are waiting for the next high tide,” the spokesman told AFP.
“No part of the Astute’s nuclear propulsion system is damaged or in danger of being damaged. We can confirm there are no injuries to personnel and there is no environmental damage.”
A YouTube video was posted this morning that shows the Astute, raised up in the water and slightly listing:
This isn’t the first time a British sub has run aground near Skye. In 2002, the HMS Trafalgar ran aground resulting in $9 million of damage.
Report: Submarines continue to exist
August 30th, 2010 | Royal Navy Submarines | Posted by Phil Ewing
Cmdr. Mark Behning, then of the ballistic missile sub Maryland, explained the principles of submarine operations. Rule 1: No water in the people tube. // Cpl. Anthony Ortiz // Marine Corps
So have you heard about how all these different countries out there have ships that can actually go under the water, not just drive, y’know, on top of it? “Submarines,” they’re called, and, apparently, the hot new thing right now is for one navy’s submarines to try to find and follow another navy’s subs. Crazy, right?
Ten years later
August 12th, 2010 | Foreign navies Submarines | Posted by Phil Ewing
A mourner in St. Petersburg paused at a shell filled with dirt from the seabed where the Kursk sank 10 years ago Thursday. // Dmitry Lovetsky / AP
Today marks a decade since the Russian guided missile submarine Kursk sank with all hands during a naval exercise in the Barents Sea. What has the Russian submarine force learned since then? Unfortunately, according to this interview, not very much.
Goes without saying, but just for the record: Sailing under the ocean can be a dangerous business. Worth pausing to think about.