Since today is Veterans Day - and since I am a Veteran - I've been contemplating what the day is all about as it relates to my service.
I served in the US Navy from March 1970 to April 1980. In March of 1970 the war in Vietnam was still going on with casualties enumerated every night on TV by Walter Cronkite. By 1970 the folks back home were getting pretty tired of the war and public support was dropping steadily as the media spent more time showing and encouraging the anti-war protesters than they did reporting on the successes and/or failures of the troops in the field. I did receive the National Defense Medal for my service during the Vietnam War - but certainly nothing I did made one bit of difference to the outcome of that war.
When I enlisted in early 1970 I volunteered for the Nuclear Power Program and also for duty aboard submarines. I knew nothing about either one. I barely had a clue what a nuclear reactor was and lacked any insight into how a submarine was propelled through the water. That was soon to change - and rapidly!
Within 6 months I had completed my basic training (boot camp) in San Diego, CA and my initial training in naval steam propulsion systems at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center - just north of Chicago, IL. From there I was sent directly to Naval Nuclear Power School at Mare Island (Vallejo), CA. Just to complicate matters a bit - Peggy and I decided to get married in the few days I had before the start of Nuclear Power School!
Nuclear Power School was 6 months long and all classroom training. 5 days a week - 10 hours per day of math, chemistry, physics, and nuclear technology subjects. Some of us enlisted guys had bachelor degrees - but most did not. Assuming we successfully passed Nuclear Power School (about 10-15% did not) we had just mastered what most engineering degree college graduates received in 4 years. The officers attending with us were already degreed - usually in math, science, or engineering. They essentially received graduate school level instruction.
After completion of Nuclear Power School I was immediately assigned to Nuclear Prototype Training at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Just because we had passed all the classroom training and written exams didn't mean we were ready to go help run a naval nuclear power plant - not aboard a real ship at sea anyway. Back in the 50s and 60s when naval vessels were first powered by nuclear power plants - the US Navy had land based "prototypes" built first - both to prove that the technology worked - and to work out any construction issues prior to putting the power plant in a real ship. These "prototypes" were also used for initial training of all operating personnel prior to us being assigned to a real ship. So off I went for 6 months more training. About half of this training was more classroom training and the rest was spent running the facility hands-on -- but under the instruction and watchful eye of a qualified operator. Assuming we passed this step (another 10-15% washed out here) most of us were assigned to the fleet. I say "most" of us because a few of us were chosen to stay behind and help train the next groups to come for training. I was one of the fortunate few that stayed on as an instructor for the next 2 or so years. "Fortunate" because for me ... being married and having our first child was a lot easier with me being home every night as compared to months at a time of family separation. That was to come - but I was able to put it off for a couple of years.
In the fall of 1974 I reported aboard for my first sea duty. The USS Ethan Allen - hull number SSBN-608. For those of you not familiar with naval parlance - a "SSBN" is a nuclear powered submarine armed with multiple ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads. Put bluntly -- our job aboard the Ethan Allen was to go to sea, hide in the ocean, and be prepared to fire our missiles - each missile having several warheads that could be independently targeted to different sites to potentially cause unbelievable devastation. Why in the world would we do this? To keep the bad guys (the Soviet Union and Communist China) from doing it first - knowing full well what we could (and would) unleash on them in retaliation. The term of art was Mutual Assured Destruction. It was (and still is) a scary proposition - and it has worked for 50 plus years.
I didn't think about what our big picture job was very often. We all stayed very busy doing all the things that need to be done to keep the submarine and all of it's systems in tip top shape. But what we all thought about from time-to-time was "If we ever shoot one of these things in anger - then what?" The world we might come back to certainly would be different that the world we left! Not just our families - "the world!" How's that for a heavy burden on a bunch of 20-somethings!
So after a few years of that duty and then a few more years of instructor duty at another "prototype" - my naval career was complete.
Am I proud of my service to our country? You bet! I may not have known what I was getting into when I signed up - but it didn't take long to realize that what we were doing was important.
Did the Soviets try and find us and "neutralize" the threat - you bet they did.
Would we have fired those missiles if we were ordered to do so? There is no doubt in my mind that we would have.
Would our mission have been a failure if we ever did fire one in anger? Yes it would have.
As you remember and honor our nation's veterans today - don't forget those that protected our nation by never firing their weapons. And don't forget about the 20-somethings that are out there today - under the ocean - away from their families - no phone calls - no internet - but the missiles are still there.
