Looking For Warmth In All The Wrong Places

Now that we have escaped the bitterly cold northeast ... to arrive here in very cold middle Tennessee ... it's time to catch up.

We awoke at 4 AM on Wednesday morning, finished our final loading, hooked up the Fusion, and we were pulling onto I-295 heading south right on schedule at 0600. The outside temperature was at minus 5 degrees and the inside of Winne The Two (WTT) had been maintained at around 65 degrees using the electric fireplace and the propane heater before we started rolling but I turned them off and tried to maintain that temperature using the engine heat from the front cab heater. It didn't take long to find out that wasn't going to work so I fired up the generator and the electric fireplace for a few miles before we stopped at the Kennebunk Rest Area for a quick check on the towing equipment and a Starbucks break - when I re-started the propane heater and set the thermostat for 67 degrees.

Dawn was just about appearing as we left Kennebunk and continued our trip south. The inside temp situation was better but it was still rather cold in the front of WTT when driving down the highway so we resorted to a couple of fleece throws over our laps for a few hours to help stay warm.

WTT ran great the entire day. We motored through Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and into Pennsylvania before stopping right at sunset - some 520 miles later. Needless to say ... it was a long driving day! But my day wasn't over yet. The freshwater system had to be flushed of its antifreeze and refilled with water before the end-of-day martini could be enjoyed!

We awoke Thursday morning to outside temps right about 10 degrees. WTTs fireplace and propane heater worked all night to keep us at right around 68 degrees inside. We got a bit more leisurely start on Thursday morning - rolling south on I-81 around 0930. WTT ran fine once again and we decided to get as far south as reasonable to try and outrun the frigid weather. We made it another 380 or so miles on Thursday arriving in Fort Chiswell, VA ... but I can't say we really outran the cold! It was around 20 degrees Thursday night in Southern Virginia ... better than the minus 20 degrees back in Maine ... but certainly not short pants weather yet!

Friday we made the 250 or so mile drive to here in Crossville, TN where we plan to hang out for a few days. After getting set up here in Crossville we met up with friends Darrell and Judy Patterson at their house for a great arrival day dinner. Nothing better than a steak and shrimp dinner and fun conversation with good friends after 3 long days of driving.

But we still haven't found warm. And it doesn't look too promising to find it anytime soon!! The lows here in Crossville look to be in the single digits the next few days and the highs not much higher. So ... after a bit of re-provisioning and some more visiting here in Crossville we plan on heading due south from here on New Years Day with a two day run to New Orleans before hanging a right on I-10 towards Texas.

In the meantime - while we await some warm weather - we'll keep burning propane and will keep that electric fireplace burning.

Stay Warm Ya'all!!

And Another Wakeup

This will be a quick update just to let ya'all know that we Maineiacs in Motion remain not-so-much-in-motion. The 3 or so inches of snow on the 22nd, followed by the 1/4 inch or so of ice on the 23rd, and then the 6 inches of snow dumped by the Christmas Day Blizzard was just too much for us Maineiacs to get cleaned up -- while accomplishing all the other preparations.

Regardless of the non-cooperative weather we have had a great few days visiting with all the kids and grandkids, watching the new Star Wars movie, and having a fun Christmas Eve Day with the whole gang over at the Johansen's. 

We accomplished all the snow and ice removal chores yesterday after the storm passed and will complete all the rest of our preps today so we should be heading south at oh dark thirty tomorrow AM.

Now that the storms are passed the bitter cold air is descending from our Canadian neighbors. The low this morning was in the high teens. The low tomorrow morning is forecast at around 0 degrees and we have a HIGH of 2 degrees above zero on store for Thursday.

Really time to head south now!

Whimpering Winter Woes

My plans to leave Maine earlier this winter to avoid mid-winter travel issues is failing miserably. I did get WTT started last Sunday and made the short drive from her storage spot to home - but then the work started. Over the past couple of weeks mid-coast Maine has received about a foot of snow over 3 or so storms. It has also turned pretty darned cold so that snow hasn't melted much. Unfortunately, this meant that Winne had about a foot of snow/ice on her roof that needed to be removed.

I've had to remove snow/ice off of the roof of our previous motorhome in the past and it wasn't fun. In the past this meant climbing up the rear ladder, crawling on top of the motorhome and pushing the snow/ice off the roof with a plastic snow shovel while crawling along the center of the roof to minimize the chances of falling off. This is not recommended in any case but if you do - I recommend having someone you trust on the ground with a cellphone and 911 cued up for speed dialing.

Since WTT doesn't have a rear ladder, but mostly because I am wiser than I used to be, this years' process involved using my 10 foot step ladder and a roof rake to drag the snow/ice off the sides. It took several trips up the ladder - but I did manage to clear the roof.

That's the good news. The not so good news is that we have 2 more storms forecast in the next 4 days before we leave! Old man winter is here, he has me in his icy grip, and he just doesn't want to let me go!! I know -- I am such a wimp!

Around all my snow removal chores we have continued to get ready for Christmas and make progress on getting ready to travel. The gifts are wrapped, the tree and nativity are displayed, the truck is clean and in the garage, Winne is somewhat loaded, and the NJ Gang is starting their trek north this afternoon - through storm #1.

So that's the way it is on this second day of winter 2017/2018. 

Four Evringham's traveling --- Three and a-wake-up --- Two Winter Storms --- and a Mikee ready to head south!

Merry Christmas !

Going To Be A Great Week!

It is four degrees outside this morning! Four whole degrees! That's it -- I can't handle this any longer. I'm a whimp ... I'm heading south.

Today marks 8 days and a-wake-up until our planned departure date. The long range forecast for the day after Christmas is looking OK at the moment so that remains our target. That being the case, it is time to start getting serious about getting ready to go. In spite of the cold I think I'll go over and visit Winne later this morning and see if she is willing to fire up that diesel engine and make the short drive over to the house. Once we get her home we can start the loading process and take care of a few travel preps like getting the tire pressure sensors installed and the tire pressures adjusted to the present cold temps. I'll have to take the additional air out as we travel south but we might as well start out at the right pressures!

I also need to get my truck ready for our travels. It isn't going anywhere but I need to get it cleaned up and ready to sit in the garage for a few months. With Winne taking up half the driveway and snow banks out near the street we will be running out of places to park cars pretty soon! Later in the week the NJ Gang will be arriving to stay here at the Evringham Summer Cottage, Winter Chalet, and RV Resort so we will need even more parking spaces!

Probably my biggest chore this week will be getting Winne's roof cleared of snow and ice prior to travel. I know - I could just leave it up there and hope for the best as we travel down the interstate - but I don't like that option - and I'm sure that Fusion we will be towing doesn't like the idea either.


Our big news this week comes from California. It seems my younger sister and her husband (Jamie and Ernie) have decided to add some travel to their retirement agenda and will be joining us in Texas for a week. They will be making the trip by car and are looking forward to their longest road trip ever. I really hope they have a great trip and we are looking forward to having some good visits and fun times with them in and around San Antonio that week.

Getting ready to travel, visits from the NJ Gang, Christmas Season joy with all the family ... not to mention ... the Evringham Annual Star Wars Night at the movies next Saturday!

It's going to be a great week!

Epilogue and the 12 Days of Christmas - 2017

Epilogue ...

I suppose some explanation is required for the sudden change in direction of my Blog these past few weeks. I will blame my younger sister in-part after she told me of her recent project to write her autobiography as part of a group she is involved with. But mostly I just thought I would record some history for my kids and grandkids. They may have heard some of the stories told in these past chapters but they all need the context of the times in our lives to be really understood.

I intentionally left out many "sea stories." All sailors have sea stories - about situations that happened "on the beach" or "on board ship." Those stories are all great memories of times gone by and most bring a smile to my face from time to time. Some are best not written down for plenty of good reasons. All are available in a private setting for the price of an adult beverage or maybe just a cup of coffee.

The Twelve Days of Christmas - 2017

Today marks 12 days and a-wake-up before we are scheduled to depart for our 2018 Winter Getaway and preparations are in full swing around here.

I visited Winne a couple of days ago, removed her tire covers, and removed the solar charging system for her batteries. I hope to fire up her engine and make the short trip from her storage spot to home here in the driveway next Monday.

Of course, as I suspected, we will not be able to make our get-a-way without having to deal with old man winter. Winne still has several inches of snow/ice on her roof from the storm we got last week and there will be more before we head south I'm sure. As always - we will work around the weather to get her prepared and loaded.

Before all the madness really starts next week with final trip preparations, final Christmas preparations, and final getting ready for NJ company preparations - we have been working on getting all our medical stuff taken care of and getting the house ready.

Bring it all on! We're ready for anything!

After all - it can't be any worse than a 30 day submarine refit followed by a 60 day patrol. Now can it!

Chapter 11 - It Was A Great Ride

It was just a few days before Christmas 1976 when we arrived in Sacramento to spend a couple weeks visiting our California relatives on our way to our next duty station in upstate New York. Our car arrived by ship into Oakland, CA within the next week and I, along with my father, and my father-in-law made the drive over to Oakland to pick it up. Oakland, California is not a place you would want to spend any time checking out the local culture - so I recall being glad to be on the freeway heading back to Sacramento with all three of us safe, sound, and out of jail.

We had a fun visit with the California relatives over those couple of weeks - especially since we had not been there during the "holidays" in a long time. But I remember being somewhat stressed thinking about our upcoming drive. 3,000 some miles across the US - in the dead of winter - in a 1972 Chevrolet Vega hatchback - with 2 small children - and all our luggage. Once again, its a good thing we were young and didn't know any better! My father was worried that we didn't have studded snow tires - so being the good tire-man he was, he purchased a set from one of his local tire store buddies and had them mounted on a couple of correct rims. I remembered that I had a set of chains for the Vega tires in the trunk that I had purchased back in Idaho and had never used so with both - we ought to have no traction problems. We tied the snow tires on top of the Vega's roof rack and took off for our first coast-to-coast road trip!

Since it was January 6th when we took off I decided that we should head south before heading east to avoid any potential snow issues heading over the Sierra Nevada and then Rocky Mountains. I remember driving down through southern California that first day and pulling in to the Holiday Inn in Bakersfield. So far - so good I figured.

Until I watched the local news that evening and heard something about snow being forecast tonight in the Tehachapi Mountains - right along our travel path tomorrow morning! So - out came the jack and I changed over the back tires to those new studded snow tires that first night in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn.

We did see a bit of snow the next day driving over the Tehachapi - but that didn't last long and we were soon cruising through the Mohave Desert heading east on Route 66. Our destination that second day was to be Flagstaff, AZ - where we arrived in the early evening to 5 feet of snow on the ground. Who knew that Flagstaff was at over 7,000 feet elevation and that it snowed in northern Arizona? I was really glad to have those snow tires now!

Our next destination was to Santa Fe, NM to visit some old Navy friends from back in our Idaho Falls days. My friend Fred had finished his tour of duty in the Navy and was working as a Linear Accelerator Operator at the Los Alamos National Laboratory north of Santa Fe. It was sorta on the way - so we thought we would stop for a few days and visit. 

I recall it was an hour or so after dark when it started snowing fairly heavy and we were about 30 miles west of Albuquerque - and about a hundred miles from Santa Fe - when I crested a slight rise on the interstate to view the valley before me. Something wasn't quite right. There were all kinds of red tail lights and they weren't in nice little rows - they were all over the place - in the east bound lanes, in the median, and even in the west bound lanes! Apparently the rise on the other side of this valley was really slick and several 18-wheelers had jack-knifed! Add several police cars with their lights going and you had quite a sight! So we came to a stop - at the bottom of the valley - waiting for some tow trucks to arrive to extricate several trucks. Did I mention that we had two small boys in that small car - and that this was near the end of a long travel day!?

In the middle of all that chaos I decided that I better install those snow chains since it was really slick and it was now snowing hard. So there I was ... it's dark, it's snowing, it's cold, I'm wrestling a car jack, and then I'm wrestling with tire chains. Wasn't I just in sunny Hawaii just a few days ago!? As it turned out - those tire chains did fit the original tires but not the slightly taller snow tires ... so I gave up and threw the chains and jack back into the Vega. Right about now the Police guy blocking the road motions to me to proceed. OK - here we go! Those studded snow tires did a great job and we drove right up that slick hill with no problem! We continued on to Albuquerque and decided we had had enough for the day. We pulled off the interstate at the first sign of a motel, went inside and rented their last room. That storm was bad enough that people who lived in Albuquerque were getting rooms for the night rather than try and make it home!

The rest of that trip was a similar experience. We followed that major storm across southern states like TX, OK, and AR that really didn't have the proper equipment to remove the piles of snow. Our drive from Henryetta, OK to Fort Smith, AR - a distance of only 90 miles took 5 hours. 5 hours of white knuckle driving in a controlled skid. Just me and a few crazy 18 wheelers. Imagine the chatter on the CB radio when those truckers passed that little Vega sporting it's Hawaiian License Plates!

In spite of it all - we made it to Saratoga Springs, NY in a couple of weeks and checked in to the local Holiday Inn to start finding someplace to live.

Within about a week we found a 3 bedroom house to buy in a nice neighborhood, bought the house without being able to see the yard due to all the snow on the ground, and arranged for those 4 huge crates of household goods to be delivered. Time to find the warm clothes and go shopping for some more!

It's now February of 1977 and I've been in the Navy for about 7 years. Due to my various enlistment extensions, my End of Active Service date is now April 12, 1980 -- a little over 3 years from now.

Prototype life in NY was similar to our experience in Idaho except for one major difference - there was no long bus ride to work. We lived only about 5 miles away. At this time there were 3 prototype plants operating at the site with one more completing construction. There was S3G - the prototype I was assigned to, which was the prototype plant for the USS Triton (SSRN-586) built in 1958, D1G  - the prototype for the two nuclear powered Cruisers built in 1962, and MARF - which was a unique prototype of a submarine plant but was used mostly for testing as well as training operators. The prototype under construction was S8G - the prototype power plant for the Los Angeles Class Submarines that would be built in the 1980s. 

I spent the first several months at S3G learning the S3G plant and qualifying as Engineering Watch Supervisor (EWS) and then Engineering Officer of the Watch (EOOW). Once qualified, our job was pretty much the same as back in Idaho - train new enlisted and officer Nukes how to qualify and operate a Nuclear Propulsion Plant. I did that job for a couple of years and then was selected to be the S3G Mechanical Division Materials Chief - responsible less for training and more for maintaining the mechanical equipment at the S3G plant.

It was the practice of the Nuclear Navy not to have personnel leave active service from a shore duty assignment. Typically you would have to extend your enlistment for a couple of years beyond your shore duty assignment so they could get more "at sea" time out of you. For some reason unknown to me to this day I must have fallen between the cracks. It had been my intention when I arrived in NY to leave the Navy after I had completed my prototype shore duty - but it just wasn't done that way - normally. I remember wondering when it would dawn on the powers that be that I would be approaching my EOAS date while still on shore duty at S3G - and it finally did - about 6 months before I was due to finish my enlistment commitment. I remember getting a personal visit from the base Executive Officer asking why I hadn't signed up to take the E-8 (Senior Chief) Exam? When I told him that I intended to leave the Navy at my EOAS date he was shocked. Executive Officers on shore duty didn't have much to do - but I'm pretty sure that keeping up with such things was high on their assigned duties list and I was going to be a black mark on his next fitness report! A short time later I was invited to meet with the Base Commanding Officer to discuss my future. I explained that I liked my job but I liked my family more. I even offered to re-enlist if I could be guaranteed not to ever have to go back to sea. He was a pretty perceptive guy and knew there wasn't anything he could do to change my mind. 

Also about this time the accident at Three Mile Island occurred. The investigation into the cause of that accident revealed some serious flaws in the training of the nations commercial nuclear power plant operators. Training? Nuclear Plant Operators? Hey - I knew how to do that! So the resumes went out that fall. 

I interviewed for a position in Denver with Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation, in Decatur, IL at a Nuclear Power Plant then under construction, and in Maine at the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company who were looking to improve their training program. I even made another trip out to Santa Fe to look into becoming a Linear Accelerator Operator with my friend Fred. When all was said and done that training job in Maine looked like a good fit.

I remember April 12, 1980 pretty well. I remember driving in for my separation interview in my Chief's Khaki uniform. I remember thinking back to that bus ride to Oakland back in March 1970. I remember being thanked for my service and told I was still bound by my oath of secrecy regarding Confidential and Secret material. And I remember taking off that uniform for the last time. 

It was a great ride and I would do it all over again - exactly the same way! 

Chapter 10 - Mike Gets His Anchors

There were lots of things to get re-acclimated with upon my return. Peggy had to get used to having me around again, almost 3 year old Brian had to figure out who this new guy in the house was again, and I had to remember that the salty language of us sailors at sea was no longer appropriate (assuming it was ever appropriate). I also had to acclimate myself to a several month pregnant wife while she was learning all the details of dealing with a planned delivery at the nearby Tripler Army Hospital. Sometime during that summer we also moved into that Navy Housing we were waiting for in Aiea, HI just a few miles away from Pearl Harbor. Our new home was a relatively new two level, two bedroom duplex, with central A/C. Well it had central A/C but the compressor motor failed shortly after we moved in and we would have to wait months for a replacement motor to be obtained from "the mainland." Regardless, it was a pretty nice place and much less expensive for us than what we had been renting.

I recall that off crew period being fairly routine except now that I was qualified - I provided some of the training to others as well as receiving training. Unfortunately Peggy's delivery date was several weeks after the date we were scheduled to fly back to Guam so it was going to be touch and go as to whether I would be in Guam or at sea when the baby was to be born.

I left for Guam again that July and we went through a similar routine. We accomplished the maintenance work, readied the boat for sea, and left for a week of Sea Trials around August 1, 1975. Our son Eric was born on August 4, 1975. I remember being called to the Captains Stateroom sometime that day, being informed of his birth, and that mom and baby were doing fine. We pulled back into Guam a few days later and I had an opportunity to call Peggy and at least talk for awhile. While still recovering from delivery she found a way to have a polaroid picture taken and delivered to people who then had the picture sent with the last bit of of mail going to the Ethan Allen before it was to go out on patrol. At least I had a picture of Eric to look at for the next few months.

Except for me completing qualification as Engineering Watch Supervisor, that second patrol was pretty routine. The best part was coming home to Peggy, Brian, and now 2 month old Eric.

And so it went for another two patrols. By the time my third patrol had ended I had pretty much decided that this family separation stuff was not my cup of tea. I liked doing my job on board that submarine but I didn't like coming home each time and having to restart my relationships with my wife and my kids. It's a tough life and I have great respect for those who can do it for years and years, but I was ready to complete my enlistment on a shore duty assignment. I was eligible for a shore duty assignment after 2 yrs of sea duty but that eligibility is always subject to "the needs of the navy." Fortunately for me, apparently the nuclear navy needed sea returnee prototype instructors and not many were willing to sign up for that duty. So I did - and was told I would be transferred back to one of the prototypes as an instructor following my fourth patrol. 

During the off crew period before that fourth patrol I was eligible to take the exam for Chief Petty Officer (E7). Since I had barely been in the Navy for 6 years and had only been an E6 for 2 years, I didn't really think I had much of a chance to be selected for Chief - but I took the exam anyway.

The Navy wide Chief Petty Officer selection results came out while I was in Guam preparing for that fourth patrol and lo and behold I was selected and was to be promoted in October while we were on patrol. 

Being a Chief was a pretty big deal. Navy Chiefs are generally considered to be the backbone of the Navy. They are the ones with the hands-on experience on how to get things done and are respected by junior enlisted and officers alike. Well, they are generally -- but like anybody else - respect is something that must be earned. Navy Chiefs are also generally "lifers" - those who will make the Navy a career, spending at least 20 years in before retiring. 

On the one hand, I really didn't think I was going to make the Navy my "career." On that same hand - if I was going to accept this promotion I was going to have to extend my enlistment another couple of years. On the other hand, if I accepted I would make significantly more money (significant to me anyway) and I would be higher up the "stuff flows downhill" chain. After weighing all the pluses and minuses - I decided to accept the promotion and the extended enlistment (more on this later).

Being promoted to Chief also meant I would have to walk the gauntlet of the Chiefs Initiation Ceremony. Every Chief has his/her  story of the indignities he/she had to endure during this ceremony and none of the stories I had heard led me to believe it was something to look forward to. Since I was to be promoted while at sea the other Chiefs on board the Ethan Allen participated in 24 hours or so of - we'll call it hazing - on the date of my promotion, opting to save the best stuff for our return to Hawaii where I could be properly initiated at the Submarine Base.

I would only be a Chief for about 6 weeks while my final patrol on the Ethan Allen completed so my normal routine didn't really change  - except where I slept. Chiefs are normally berthed in a separate compartment affectionately known as "The Goat Locker." There were no spare berths available in the Goat Locker so that option was out. I liked my bunk location in the Lower Level Operations Compartment and really didn't want to move but the COB (Chief of the Boat - most senior enlisted person on board each boat) insisted that I couldn't stay there. It just wasn't done! So I was assigned to Stateroom 5 in "Officer's Country" and would share this space with my Division Officer (the "Main Propulsion Assistant" (MPA) and the "Damage Control Assistant" (DCA) - both full Lieutenants. They were both nice guys and we were seldom off watch at the same time so I had Stateroom 5 all to myself much of the time. An officer's stateroom on board a Submarine is really not all that extravagant. Except for the Captain, the officers all shared a stateroom that included a set of bunks, a fold down desk, a fold down sink, and really only enough floor space for 2 men to stand and get dressed at the same time. I'm pretty sure the other Chiefs considered this assignment as another part of my initiation hazing!

So we finished what would be my last patrol aboard the USS Ethan Allen in early December 1976. I recall looking back at the Allen as the buses drove off to the airport in Guam thinking ... "I was done." That was going to be the last time I would set foot on board a submarine. And it was. Well, except maybe for a few historical monuments during these last several years.

I returned once again to Hawaii and got busy getting ready for my transfer back to the mainland. I was hoping to get to go back to Idaho Falls, but once again the Dream Sheet process didn't work out and I was transferred to the S3G Prototype near Saratoga Springs, NY. Peggy and I got the house ready to vacate, got the household goods shipped, got the car and one motorcycle shipped, and then boarded another 747 back to San Francisco. But not before all the Chiefs in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor that wanted to attend got their chance to initiate me and several other Boot Chiefs into their ranks. After a whole afternoon of suffering various sorts of humility building ceremonies and drinking copious amounts of I'm Not Sure What It Was - I was now a properly initiated Chief Petty Officer of the United States Navy.

And we were off to the final chapter.

Chapter 9 - Qualified in Submarines

The mission of a FBM submarine while on Alert status is to travel to a pre-determined patrol area and be prepared to launch some or all of its ballistic missiles at a moments notice. The strategy of the "cold war" era in the 1970s was (and still is to a large extent) one of "Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD)" The strategy of "MAD" is to convince our enemies that any aggression on their part using nuclear weapons would be met by an equal or greater response on our part that would assure their destruction. The FBM submarine force is the key part of this strategy since our land based missiles were fairly easy to target by our enemies and our bombers might be tracked and attacked before they could reach their targets - but an FBM could hide just about anywhere in the vast oceans and fire its missiles with extreme accuracy and short travel times. This strategy required that the bad guys did not know where the FBMs were hiding. In fact, the good guys did not know exactly where the FBMs were either! Not that the bad guys didn't try and find us and track us, we were just better at remaining undetected. Yes, there was that Russian fishing trawler that was always outside the harbor near Guam and was never seen fishing, and there was the occasional Russian submarine that would attempt to follow us, but it didn't take long to give them the slip and lurk away to wherever it was we were going to hang out for the next 60 or so days. On a smaller scale - the mission of we Nukes was to propel the boat wherever it was the captain wanted to go and at the speed he wanted to get there. The rest of the crew (AKA "Forward Pukes") would take care of the rest. I never doubted that we would fire those missiles if we were ordered to do so. But I also knew that our mission would have failed if we did. 

Our basic day consisted of 6 hours on watch, 12 hours "not on watch'" and then back on watch again. During that "not on watch" time we had to perform maintenance, conduct training/drills, find some time to grab a meal or two, and get some sleep. There were 4 scheduled meals per day. Breakfast at 0600, Lunch at 1200, Dinner at 1800, and Midnight Rations or "MidRats," at midnight or 0000. A movie was shown in the Crew's Mess each evening after the Dinner meal. Since some people were always sleeping - the lights were generally off in the berthing area where it was "nightime." It was "daytime" with the lights on just about everywhere else. What time it was - was a relative thing. It may have been noon local time on the surface but it would probably be nearer to midnight according to our on board clocks. We tended to run drills in our morning and afternoon hours which meant we might come closer to the surface and our captain didn't like doing that when the sun was out on the surface. Remember - our basic mission was to remain undetected. Surfacing was out of the question and even sticking a mast above the surface was risky.

I should mention that I provided that description of a basic day for reference purposes only. It seldom worked out that way for me on that first patrol.

As you may recall - I was a NQP when I reported aboard the Allen. As such, I was expected to get qualified as soon as possible on all my in-rate watchstations as well as complete my Submarine Quals. I spent this entire first patrol working on my Quals. Usually a new guy would achieve qualification on an in-rate watchstation so as to become "useful" and then stand that watch while working on his next required watchstation qualification and work on Submarine Quals at the same time. The required rate of achieving watchstation quals was set by the Division Officer and for Submarine Quals by the Executive Officer. If you fell behind you were considered "Delinquent," more lovingly known as "Dink." Dinks didn't watch movies or otherwise own their free time - you were expected to get yourself off the Dink list or suffer the consequences.

The qualification process was similar to that which I experienced at prototype. You were given a Qual Card, you stood watches under the careful watch of a qualified watchstander, studied the material you needed to study, and you were questioned by an experienced person who judged your mastery of the subject. Once all the items on your Qual Card were mastered you would receive a final oral exam by your Division Officer in the case of watchstation quals or  a final oral board in the case of Submarine Quals. Submarine Quals usually took 2 patrols to achieve. Senior watchstation quals for a Machinist Mate usually took 2-3 patrols. I was fortunate in that my division already had sufficient qualified watchstanders to stand all necessary watches so my full qualification wasn't needed until the following patrol. That allowed me to rotate rather quickly through the required training watches and I was able to complete all my watchstation quals in that first patrol. Since I was on a roll - I also completed my Submarine Quals that patrol.

60 days on a submarine continuously submerged is a long time but it does go by faster if you stay busy. I was really busy that first patrol.

With our patrol complete we headed back to Guam, reversed the turnover process with the Blue Crew, boarded those grey navy buses, and made that same 7 hour flight back to Hawaii. But not before a bit of a celebration over at Andy's Hut celebrating our return from patrol and my recent Qualification in Submarines. The Captain would perform a ceremonial pinning on of my Dolphins on the flight home but my shipmates performed the more important ceremony that evening. Earning my Dolphins was one of the prouder moments in my navy career.

I recall landing that night at Honolulu International Airport, I recall it took seemingly forever to clear the customs desk, and I recall seeing Peggy and Brian for the first time in 3 months. The rest is a blur.

Chapter 8 - Making Holes In the Ocean

The Engineering Department of the USS Ethan Allen did a fine job on that ORSE and I managed to stay out of the way. We returned to port after a few days, turned over the boat to the Blue Crew, and started an "off-crew" period.

A normal off-crew period consisted of a 30 day "stand down" followed by a 60 day "training" period. During the stand down period the crew could take leave (vacation) if they wanted or simply show up and "muster" every few days to prove you were alive. During the training period we would arrive at the Halawa Ferry landing daily and take the ferry over to Ford Island where the Squadron Headquarters and boat's office were located. The lower deck of the ferry could take a few dozen vehicles over but most of us rode over on the upper deck as walk-on passengers. Our days on Ford Island would be involved with more training/re-training on various subjects, taking care of medical/dental checkups, and preparing for tasks to be accomplished on the following patrol. Usually we were dismissed in the early afternoon and we rode the ferry back. Since the ferry passed the Arizona Memorial on each leg we got a twice daily reminder of the sacrifices made on that fateful December day just 30 some years earlier.

During this first off crew period Peggy and I got a chance to check out some of Oahu and experience a bit of life in Hawaii. It truly was a beautiful place with some gorgeous beaches and we took some time to enjoy it but we probably spent most of our time acclimating to life in a real Navy community. We used the commissary and "exchange" facilities at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base the most but we had other options at all the other military facilities on Oahu. There was Hickam AFB, Barber's Point NAS, Schofield Barracks Army Base, and the Marine Base in Kanehoe just to name a few. We learned that everything in Hawaii was expensive! But we also learned that we could get by if we did most of our shopping "on base." One thing I did enjoy was playing golf frequently. I recall playing the Hawaiian Country Club Course on one occasion but spent most of my time playing the various military courses that I could play as often as I liked for a measly $7  a month! Now that was a great deal!

But alas, "off-crew" didn't last forever. So sometime in January 1975 it was time for the entire crew to don our dress whites, kiss our loved ones goodbye on the airport tarmac, throw us and our seabags on board that Military Airlift Command 707, and make the 7 hour flight across the international date line to the Island of Guam.  

This was to be Peggy/Brian and my first family separation of any length and we really didn't know what to expect. Peggy now had all the responsibilities for the normal household type things and I had to focus on the work at hand. We would talk a couple of times by phone over the next 30 days while preparing the boat for sea but those international phone calls were very expensive and now Peggy had to pay those $100 phone bills! Once the boat left for its 60 day patrol Peggy would be able to send 7 - 28 word messages (called family-grams) and I would not be able to send any in return. We could receive messages while on patrol but we didn't transmit.

When we finally landed in Guam at Anderson AFB I remember seeing row after row of B-52s. The Vietnam War was still in progress and we would see those B-52s leaving in groups in the mornings and return in the afternoons - and I suspect they were much lighter when they landed.

After we deplaned we found our seabags from within the giant heap on the tarmac and boarded the buses for our ride to "Polaris Point." a small point of land near the US Naval Base reserved for berthing us FBMs (also known as "Boomers"). Polaris Point consisted of a couple of piers, one almost permanently moored Submarine Tender (USS Proteus AS19), a warehouse, and Andy's Hut (the local beer joint). I have no idea who Andy was.

Since our boat was still out at sea when we arrived we were assigned bunks on board the Proteus. I won't comment much on the accommodations provided on the Proteus except to say we couldn't wait to get on board the good ol' Ethan Allen!

Within a couple of days after our arrival our boat arrived and it was time to commence the turnover process. Step one of the turnover process involved 20 or so of us Gold Crew members traveling out on some sort of old landing craft to meet the Allen outside the harbor, somehow scramble down a rope ladder on the flat sides of the landing craft, to clamber aboard the somewhat rounded hull of a wet submarine. I recall being glad they made me wear a life preserver and gladder still that I didn't have to use it.

Once we were on board, the boat re-submerged and we started our work which involved running all the equipment that could be run so we could evaluate the status of each before entering port. This process took several hours and then the Blue Crew brought the boat into the harbor, tied up next to the Proteus, and began the lengthy process to shutdown the engine room systems and shutdown the reactor.

We spent the next several days meeting with our counterparts on the Blue Crew and making preparations to commence all the maintenance work that needed to be accomplished. Early in the morning on the scheduled day, Gold Crew watchstanders relieved the Blue Crew watchstanders, the Blue Crew boarded the buses to the airport, and The USS Ethan Allen SSBN 608 belonged to the Gold Crew. We moved our belongings over from the Proteus and stowed them carefully in the 4 inch space under the bedpan of our assigned bunk.

It was time to get to work.

A 30 day submarine refit period is a real madhouse of activity. The date the boat must go to sea and begin its patrol mission is set. The work to be accomplished has been established. The time necessary to accomplish the work frequently requires long days by everybody (well us Nukes anyway). We typically put in at least 12 hour workdays with an evening off every couple of days. In spite of all this work Andy's hut was busy every night.

When the refit was over we were ready to go to sea in all respects. The boat was physically ready and the crew was ready to get into an "at sea" routine to include a dependable sleep schedule.

So it was. We started up the reactor, we started up the engine room, we pulled away from the tender, exited the harbor, and slipped down into the depths. Down to where submarines belong. And down where we would get into our "on patrol" routine. 

Just making holes in the ocean.

Chapter 7 - Mikee Finally Goes to Sea

After a short stopover in Sacramento, CA to visit with some relatives we finished the drive down to San Diego, checked in at the Naval Training Center and spent a few days finding a place to live for a few months. We ended up finding an apartment in Chula Vista, CA, about a half hour from the Training Center and just a few minutes north on I-5 from Tijuana, Mexico. The finished apartment was really pretty nice. Way more money than we could afford on a long term basis, but it would work for our relatively short stay. 

Our stay in San Diego was ... relatively uneventful. Peggy didn't care for it much since she knew no one, had an almost two year old to deal with, and I was away all day with the car. I found the school interesting but really pretty easy for a guy who had spent the last 3 years surviving and then thriving in Admiral Rickover's Nuclear Training Madhouse. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration School was intended to be specialized training for mostly conventional fleet Machinist Mates. I was the only Nuke in my class and 1 of maybe 3 First Class Petty Officers. I finished the school with a grade average of 99.16 and was provided a special plaque for achieving the highest average of FY 1974. I think I missed 3 questions in 16 weeks of weekly exams. I was told I had the second highest average for as far back as they had records. If there was one thing I had learned in the last 4 years it was how to study and most of all, how to take exams!

But now it was finally time to get busy doing what I had been trained to do. We shipped the rest of our household goods and the Vega to Hawaii, flew back up to Sacramento for a few more days of visiting and then boarded that HUGE Boeing 747 in San Francisco for the 5 hour flight to Hawaii. I remember wondering how that huge airplane was going to get off the ground. We taxied, turned into the wind, felt and heard those big engines roar, and started rolling. When it seemed we couldn't have any more runway left she pointed skyward and we were off.

Landing in Hawaii for the first time was pretty exciting as well. About an hour out the Stewardesses (I'm pretty sure they were still called that at that time!) dressed in Hawaiian dresses passed out fresh pineapple, macadamia nuts, and I even think there was champagne. When the plane landed and they shifted the air conditioning system to receive outside air you immediately felt the humidity and could smell the tropics - flowery and sweet as I remember. We deplaned outside down long stairs and boarded open "Wiki Wiki" buses for our short trip to the terminal, which was mostly open to the outside. I guessed these Hawaiians didn't have to worry about snowy weather!

We were met at the terminal by Patty and Jerry Mello who had been transferred to Hawaii a few months earlier. We received our traditional Aloha Lei's from Patty, found our luggage, rented a car, and were off to spend the night at the Mello's house! It sure was great to have the Mello's around to help us get acclimated those first few weeks!

We spent the next week living in a motel (non-air conditioned I might add), while we checked in with everybody we needed to check in with. We picked up our car and started looking at housing options. We were eligible for Navy housing and there were some available units but they weren't the nice new ones we were hoping for. So we opted to be placed on the waiting list for the nicer housing and found an unfurnished rental "civilian" house in Waipahu, HI - about 15 minutes from the Pearl Harbor Naval Base. I can't recall what it rented for but I do recall it was HIGH. In those days my base pay was about $580 a month with another $160 allowance for quarters. As I recall we received an additional allowance because the costs in Hawaii were so high, but I can't remember how much that was. Regardless, the rent on that house was a lot of $$ to us!

The USS Ethan Allen was not in port when we arrived. The boat (Submarines are classified by the Navy as a ship but are always called a "boat" by submariners) had recently completed an overhaul at the Shipyard in Bremerton, WA and then had traveled to Florida to conduct a missile test to be re-certified. The missile test launch had been successful and they were transiting the Panama Canal on their way to Hawaii. Since I was there before my boat I was assigned by the Submarine Squadron to be a duty driver as a temporary duty. For several weeks my job was to keep the squadron car clean, drive the mail runner from point to point on his mail run, and once in a while - pick up some Senior Officer at the airport. Pretty tough duty for sure!

Sometime in late September my boat pulled in to Pearl Harbor and I was told to report aboard. Finding the right boat was easy. Normally FBMs didn't pull in to Pearl Harbor so the Allen would be the really long one with all the missile tube hatches in the middle! I found my boat, walked across the brow (temporary bridge from the shore to the top of the boat), saluted the flag, saluted the topside watch, and stepped aboard my first sea going duty station.

The topside watch called down and somebody from the Engineering Department came up to escort me down into the sub to "check in." It's a good thing I had somebody to follow in or I may have killed myself figuring out how to swing in through the hatch in the sail, scramble down the ladder into the Control Room, and make my way down another ladder to Middle Level Operations and my first introduction to the Crew's Mess. A good number of the Engineering Department personnel were gathered in the Mess conducting a casualty drill critique. Wow - they were still running drills - even in-port? It turned out that my crew - The Gold Crew - was presently on-board the boat and was scheduled to turn over the boat to the Blue Crew in about a week but first they had to pass their biennial Operational Rector Safeguards Examination (ORSE) conducted by the head Nukes from Washington D.C. "Naval Reactors" - direct representatives from Admiral Rickover himself. These exams were really important. If the crew didn't pass the boat didn't go to sea - and the Captain usually went somewhere else!

So yes - the Engineering crew had been running drills during their transit across the Pacific and would be receiving their ORSE in just a few days. They certainly didn't have much time to deal with the NQP that just reported aboard. My Division Officer decided that he might be able to get some work out of me over the next week - so it was decided that I would go out with the boat in a few days for the ORSE exam - but I was to hide as much as possible and not make it known to the ORSE board members that I was even on board. They didn't want the ORSE Board to start asking me any questions and start thinking I might actually know anything!

So we got underway a few days later with me on board and barely able to find my way from the Engine Room to my bunk. I recall the transit from the pier out to the mouth of the harbor being uneventful and I was excited to hear all the sounds of machinery running and people doing all the things that had to be done to maneuver a big naval vessel through the relatively narrow straights of Pearl Harbor. Once we cleared the mouth of the harbor I noted some rocking motion down below as the waves started getting bigger and the speed of the boat picked up. I remember getting a bit queasy but was able to avoid losing my lunch. About an hour after clearing the harbor I heard the diving Klaxton alarm for the first time and the command to "Dive." 

Soon after, the rocking and rolling stopped and I had joined the ranks of those who had gone before me into the depths on an operational submarine of the US Navy. Boy did I have a lot to learn but this was exciting stuff!

Chapter 6 - E-6, Over 4 years, and Back at the Beginning

I completed my initial qualification at S1W in September of 1971 and spent the next few months standing a few watches and helping out on some maintenance work before I would become a full fledged Staff Instructor after my class graduated in November. Peggy and I upgraded living facilities to another fairly new and much larger trailer in the "nicer" trailer park next door. This one was 10 feet wide and about 45 to 50 feet long. We had a nice kitchen up front with a separated living room, 2 bedrooms, and a huge bathroom/laundry area. Not only that but we had the greatest neighbors ever - Patty and Jerry Mello. Patty and Jerry had been married a few months longer than we had and Jerry and I had graduated from NPS/Prototype in the same class. Jerry had also been picked up as a Staff Instructor at S5G. My steady blog readers may remember Patty and Jerry as fellow RVers who live in Oregon and travel in their 1968 restored Corvair powered Ultravan. They were great friends then and still are!

Actually, we didn't last too long in that trailer. Once the colder weather of November and December hit we found out just how brutal those Idaho winters could be. When it snowed - it snowed hard. When the wind blew - it blew hard. When it snowed and the wind blew - that snow drifted into some pretty significant piles! After the third or so time of having our water pipes freeze in that trailer we decided to find a real house in town to rent. That house may have been fairly old and it may have only had one bedroom but the pipes didn't freeze and the older oil fired furnace worked reliably.

To the best of my feeble memory, I started receiving "proficiency pay" as a Nuclear Qualified Operator at this time. I recall it was $100 per month. Added to my monthly salary of about $350 per month and my Basic Allowance for Quarters (BAQ) of $120 per month - we were movin' on up now! About this time I was eligible to take the exam to become a Petty Officer 2nd Class - so I did, I passed, and I was promoted to MM2 (E5) on March 1, 1972. Yet another $25 per month!!

Things were going so well that I also decided to re-enlist and extend my total commitment to 8 years. For this commitment I was to be offered some advanced training in the future and a re-enlistment bonus of $10,000 before taxes. Half now and the remainder in equal installments over the next 3 years. We now had enough money to buy some extravagant things like a new car and some furniture. I recall ordering that 1972 Vega Kammback Wagon GT with all the options we wanted - what a treat!

Life at work continued on that rotating shift schedule but mostly on 12 hour days counting the bus ride. Staff Instructors could drive their cars out to the site but who wanted to pay for all that gas on a regular basis - even at 40-50 cents a gallon (this was still in the pre - oil embargo days). Our job was to train/qualify students that kept arriving from Nuclear Power School every 3 months. Some were easy to train - some were more difficult, it was our job to train them all. The Navy was investing lots of time and treasure on these guys and they weren't any use to the operating fleet until they completed Prototype training. As I recall the "drop" rate at prototype was around 10% in those days.

In spite of the long hours and cold winters, life in Idaho wasn't all that bad. During the "5 offs" we had time to see some gorgeous country around Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, I got to do a lot of off road motorcycling in the surrounding country, and we even had time to grow our family. Our son Brian was born in August of 1972.

We moved one more time while in Idaho Falls, this time into a two bedroom place that worked much better with a toddler. 

Towards the end of our time in Idaho I was eligible to take the exam to become a Petty Officer First Class (E-6) which I passed and I was promoted again in March of 1974. This was to be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, I made more money and had to take orders from less people. On the other hand, I was soon to report to my first submarine as a First Class Petty Officer with zero experience "at sea." Not only would I step on board as a NQP (Non Qualified Puke) but a Boot First Class Prototype Commando NQP! This was going to require some unique interpersonal skills on my part!

A few months before scheduled for transfer from Idaho it was time to fill out the Navy form where I would request the type of sea duty I would like. This was known as a "Dream Sheet." There were two basic submarine types available to me. A 'Fast Attack" type submarine or a "Fleet Ballistic Missile" (FBM) type submarine. FBMs spent most of their time at sea as an underwater missile firing platform and had 2 crews ("Blue" and "Gold") with each crew alternating every 3 months. Fast Attacks spent their time performing all sorts of missions on a rather inconsistent schedule. They could be gone from their homeport for many months at a time or could spend a lot of time in port with frequent short trips to sea. 

In those days FBMs tended to be homeported in Norfolk, VA, Charleston, SC, or Pearl Harbor, HI but actually operated out of bases in Scotland, Italy, and Guam. My first choice was a FBM homeported in Charleston, SC. My second choice was a Fast Attack homeported in San Diego. My third choice was a FBM homeported in Norfolk, VA. As was frequently the case - I was assigned to "none of the above" and received orders to the USS Ethan Allen SSBN 608 (Gold) homeported at Pearl Harbor, HI.

Before reporting to the Ethan Allen I was to attend the 4 month long Air Conditioning and Refrigeration School in San Diego, CA (remember that training I was offered when I re-enlisted? This was it.). So in May 1974 Peggy and I had most of our belongings shipped to Hawaii, some of them shipped to San Diego, loaded up the Vega with us and our 1.5 year old son and were off to new adventures. First stop was the Naval Training Center, San Diego, CA - right where it first started four short years before. 

Chapter 5 - I R Now a Nuke

Hooray! We have made it past Halloween, had a great Thanksgiving family feast, the leftover turkey is almost gone and NOW we can move on and enjoy the Christmas season! The stores have pretty much cleared their shelves of the scary stuff and the turkey stuff leaving only the Christmas stuff -- so it must be time to get out there and be merry, merry, merry. Ho - Ho - Ho.

Since we are planning to point Winne south the day after Christmas we are a bit ahead of our normal schedule around here. The Christmas tree is already up, the few outside light decorations are up, and we have even gathered a few gifts. We hope to see the NJ Evringhams arrive to share the holiday with us so that ought to be a fun time as well.

Today marks day 27 and a Wake-Up and we have started to get things in order to be ready for travel. Prescriptions to gather, doctor visits to accomplish, start locating the "stuff" that needs to be loaded into Winne ... the normal routine. The plan is to bring Winne over to the house sometime the week before we leave to accomplish the loading.  

Our travel plans remain the same as they were .... Get south to Tennessee as quickly as possible, watch the ball drop in Crossville, TN, get to San Antonio, TX hopefully in time to catch the holiday light display along the Riverwalk, goof off a bit around the Hill Country of Texas for a couple of weeks, travel back east to the Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, AL around the 21st of January, watch the Patriots beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl and enjoy the Mardis Gras festivities in Lower Alabama, travel to central Florida for about a month, and then meander our way home arriving around the 1st of April. I suspect the plan will be adjusted along the way -- except for that Patriots beating the Eagles part!

meanwhile ...

Chapter 5 - Finally Made It - I R Now a Nuke

Peggy and I didn't participate in the race to Idaho Falls that day - which was probably a mistake. Instead, we drove to Sacramento and spent several days visiting with her mom, dad, and sisters. We had loaded all our possessions into our 1964 Malibu SS complete with U-Haul rented car top carrier. Every bit of space in that car and carrier was loaded except for the front bucket seats which were reserved for us. We finally pulled in to Idaho Falls late one night several days behind the rest of my class.

Only a small percentage of my classmates were married. While at NPS most of the class lived in the nearby barracks and us married guys lived off-base. At Prototype in Idaho Falls there was no "base" as such and everybody had to find a place to live off-base. This was great for the local economy of Idaho Falls as every basement, 2 story garage, trailer, and the few apartment complexes were easy to rent out to us sailors that showed up every 3 months to start our training. Easy for them - but hard for us that showed up several days behind the rest. Upon arriving in Idaho Falls we immediately started looking for a place to stay. It didn't take long to figure out that there wasn't much available and what was available in our affordability range (CHEAP) wasn't what you would call "nice." After looking for several days and with time running out before my training was supposed to start we settled for a trailer, about 5 miles west of town in a small trailer park. Our new home was about 8 feet wide and maybe 30 feet long. I know our motorhome is bigger than that trailer was. The trailer had a combination living room/kitchen with a small couch, a dining table, and a couple of chairs at the table. As you walked "aft" through the hallway you passed through the bathroom - shower on the left - toilet on the right. Two more steps ... fall down ... and you are in bed. Very cozy and $65 a month. What a deal! As it turned out I wouldn't be spending much time there while awake anyway. It was a good thing Peggy had a few friends to talk to and a sense of humor!

Prototype training was a very non-Navy-like experience, First of all you are located in the Idaho desert. Not a naval ship for hundreds of miles - not even a military facility nearby with a commissary. They did have a navy doctor in town but that was about it for support services. Our work location was about 60 miles west of town on the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS) (Presently named the Idaho National Laboratory) and the only way for students to get there was by bus. The buses were special purpose buses that picked up folks at several stops around town and then made the trip out to the NRTS. The buses ran on a schedule all day long, every day, 365 days a year (except during a couple of blizzards I remember) and the trip took about 1.5 to 2 hours each way depending on where you caught the bus. We wore our work clothes (demin shirt/pants with ballcap) while at work. We were allowed to wear them at the bus stop, but weren't supposed to wear them anywhere else visibly in town. Dress uniforms were never worn. 

A normal work day while in a training status consisted of a 2 hour bus ride to the work site, a "normal" 8 hour work day, a mandatory 4 hour study period, and then the 2 hour ride home. Total about 16 hours. Except for the first few weeks receiving classroom training on systems specific to our assigned Prototype, we worked a rotating shift schedule. 7 days of dayshift (0800-1600), 1 day off, 7 days of midshift (0000-0800), 2 days off, 7 days of swingshift (1600-2400), 5 days off. Then do it all over again. We all looked forward to the 5 off! The good news was that once we achieved qualification status which was sort of self paced - the 4 hour study period was no longer required. Yippee - only a 12 hour day! But not yet - I still needed to achieve qualification. So you can see why that small trailer didn't bother me much - I slept there - that's about it,

The Nuclear Reactors Facility (NRF) consisted of 3 Naval Nuclear Propulsion Prototypes sited on a small portion of the 900 square mile NRTS. The oldest of these Prototypes was named S1W (Submarine - Core Design 1 - Westinghouse). This reactor plant was built as a "prototype" of the power plant that was to be used in the nations first Nuclear Powered Submarine - The USS Nautilus SSN 571. S1W achieved initial criticality in 1953. After proving the technology would work, the plant was used to train the crew for the Nautilus and thousands of us baby nukes thereafter until it was shut down permanently in 1989. The NRF also consisted of A1W - (a 2 reactor prototype for 1/4 of the propulsion of the first Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carrier USS Enterprise CVN 65 - and S5G another submarine prototype using quiet propulsion technology for the USS Narwhal SSN 671. All three of these prototypes (and 3 more at the time in NY/CT) were used to initially qualify us baby nukes. I was assigned to S1W.

We spent the first several weeks in mostly classroom training learning the systems and controls of the S1W plant. We had some limited access to the actual plant to try and see if we could find the equipment we were learning about but they were pretty busy qualifying the class in front of us. It seems there was always 2 classes around - one "in-hull" under instruction with the Staff Instructors and one doing the initial classroom phase. As usual, we had to pass one to move on to the other. Staff Instructors came in two kinds. Some of the Staff had already spent some time at sea operating a nuclear submarine (or surface nuclear ship in the case of A1W) and had come to the prototype as a Staff Instructor for their shore duty rotation. Some others were "Staff Pickups" - chosen from previous classes of baby nukes to stay on as instructors after they finished their qualification. Staff Pickups served 2 years at the Prototype and then joined the fleet.

And that was my new motivation. Two more years of shore duty before heading out on my next assignment sounded like a pretty good way to start a family. Only a handful of each class of students were asked to remain on as a Staff Instructor and only the top students had a chance. 

Having completed classroom training we moved in-hull, we received our "Qual Cards," and immediately we were introduced to "Point Count." A Qual Card is not really a card but a rather thick book with a thousand plus "checkouts" and "practical factors" that needed to be completed prior to being ready to receive your Oral Board - the final step to being qualified. Each item had to be signed by a Staff Instructor after having demonstrated proficiency and each item was worth "x" points. Each student was on their own to prepare for and obtain these checkouts but at the end of each work week a certain number of points were required. Fall behind Point Count and life would get even more difficult. There were bunks on site for those students who needed even more study time.

Once in-hull I got a fast start on my Qual Card and was soon noted to be a "Hot Runner." The Staff on my particular Crew took great pride in having the first person qualified be from their crew - and thus I became the Chosen One. Being the Chosen One wasn't all good. My unofficial expected weekly point count was probably double everyone else's. Hard work yes - but this was the path to being selected to stay on as a Staff Instructor. So I did it. I got all the checkouts, stood all the training watches, demonstrated proficiency on all the practical factors and several weeks later my Qual Card was all signed off. But then I had to face the dreaded Oral Board. The Oral Board was the final test before Qualification and was conducted by Staff Instructors from another crew, not the ones that selected me be to be the Chosen One. The Oral Board was conducted by 1 Officer, Civilian Supervisor, or Staff Senior Petty Officer who had achieved Engineering Officer of the Watch (EOOW) Qualification, 1 qualified In-Rate Staff Petty Officer (Machinist Mate in my case) , and 1 other qualified Cross-Rate Staff Petty Officer. The board members were free to ask questions about anything I was supposed to have learned during my qualification process. Anything on that Qual Card was fair game. 

I only remember three things about that board. 

After answering all kinds of questions with great confidence - I remember being asked to draw and explain the Geiger-Mueller Gas Amplification Curve.

I remember tap dancing.

I remember they told me I had passed.

I had accomplished my goal to be the first one qualified at S1W in my class. As it turned out I was the first one qualified in my class at any of the Idaho Prototypes. Yippee - only 12 hour days now!

I was also now able to stand a few watches by myself. There I was - 21 years old now and qualified to operate equipment on a real Naval Nuclear Propulsion Plant! Best news of all ... I was asked to stay on as a Staff Instructor! Peggy was happy, I was happy, and maybe now we could move on from that trailer!

Chapter 4 -- Mikee Finds Motivation

My six months at Nuclear Power School was to be another new experience. In addition to the normal issues associated with being newlyweds, Peggy had to learn the complexities of being a Navy wife living on about $350 a month and I had to figure out how to balance a busy work life with a home life. Fortunately - we figured out quickly that the only way to make it through would be as partners. This partnership worked well then and it still works for us today.

We had rented a small, somewhat furnished apartment in an older section of downtown Vallejo. One small bedroom with an even smaller kitchen, a decent sized living room and a huge (to us anyway) bathroom. Actually it's a good thing it wasn't too much bigger as we didn't have much to put in it anyway! Peggy was learning how to get me through the periodic uniform inspections while I was busy completing my courses in reactor physics, chemistry, advanced mathematics, reactor plant systems, radiological health physics, thermodynamics, and electrical machines and power distribution.

I went to school 8-10 hours per day - 5 days a week. Most of the time was spent listening to lectures and studying from Navy Reactor Plant Manuals. In order to successfully complete this school you had to keep up with the pace of the instruction, pass all the periodic exams, and if you made it to the end - you had to face and pass the dreaded end of program Comprehensive Exam. If you fell behind you spent your evenings catching up. The pace of instruction was set and continued with new subjects coming every day. If you fell too far behind and/or couldn't keep up with the pace you were disenrolled, and were reassigned back to the conventional fleet. If you didn't pass the Comprehensive Exam you were similarly disenrolled and reassigned. If you misbehaved or otherwise "demonstated unreliability" - disenrolled and reassigned. There were opportunities to catch up but it wasn't easy and there were not many second chances.  The Comprehensive Exam covered all subjects taught in the last 6 months and was an all day affair.

Just to make it more of a challenge - almost all of the manuals used and any notes you took were "Classified Material" and as such - were not allowed to leave the school building. Even if you weren't assigned extra study time because of poor grades - if you wanted to prep for the major exams you ended up back at school in the evenings.

It's not a stretch to say that successfully completing Nuclear Power School was like earning a BS in Engineering ... in 6 months. I do not recall our actual attrition rate at Nuclear Power School but I think it was 20 - 30 percent.

With all this hassle why would a 20 year old who wasn't motivated  9 months ago in college put up with it? For me, it was because it was a challenge, because it was hard, and because it was a means to an end.

As I recall I finished in the top 10 or so in my class. I had found my motivation. I wanted to be a Nuke.

Or maybe I still didn't like the option of that Ammunition Ship for the next 5 years!

I'm guessing - but I figure about a hundred of us graduated from Nuclear Power School Class 70-04 at Mare Island in late April of 1971. But we still weren't "Nukes." To gain that distinction we would have to survive the next test. Qualify as an operator on a real nuclear propulsion plant at one of the Navy's land based "Prototypes." For most of us that day it would mean travel to Idaho Falls, Idaho - a trip of about 800 miles over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, through the desert in Nevada, and into southern Idaho not far from Yellowstone National Park.

So here's the picture ... Early in the morning at Mare Island in Vallejo, CA, 100 vehicles loaded for travel, 100 20-something year old Wannabe Nukes with orders in hand, and someone says "GO."

I wouldn't have wanted to be out for a leisurely drive on Interstate 80 that day!

Chapter 3 - "A" School and Peggy Joins the Navy Too

After several days back home it was time to don those dress whites, grab my seabag, and board another plane, this time heading east. Back in those days folks dressed up in their Sunday best when flying and we sailors were required to travel in our dress uniform when traveling "under orders." 

This would be my first trip "back east." Up to this point in my life going back east meant traveling anywhere east of Reno, NV. The flight on that Boeing 707 was quite the experience. I'm sure I looked like a "Boot" with my new Fireman stripes on my uniform and my barely grown out boot camp buzz cut under my dixie cup white hat but I didn't care. I was out on a new adventure. Life was even better when the Stewardess (that's what they called those pretty young women in the flight cabin in those days) asked if I would like a drink. Well sure, why not? I didn't have much experience ordering a cocktail but I figured I might as well give it a shot! The fellow in front of me had ordered a scotch so I thought I would give that a try and the Stewardess didn't flinch when I asked for one. I didn't really care for the scotch but after after the second or third it was time to prepare for landing in Chicago.

I was able to find my way to the arrival area to claim my seabag and then managed to locate the military desk where I learned that the bus to the Naval Training Center in North Chicago was to arrive in a few hours. I recall going outside to get some fresh air while I was waiting and then it hit me. Humidity! Apparently I wasn't in sunny dry California anymore! A rain shower had just ended and there was steam rising from the asphalt! It didn't take long before I was back inside enjoying the air conditioned USO lounge!

Several hours later I was on the old rattling US Navy Grey Bus heading for North Chicago about 30 miles north. It was late evening by this time and the temperature/humidity was still high and no, those buses weren't air conditioned! Ultimately I made it to the Naval Training Center, found the correct barracks for us Machinist Mates (MM) and Boiler Technicians (BT) -- also known as Snipes Castle. I was once again provided with a navy issue wool blanket and a couple of sheets and directed to my assigned living space. Snipes Castle consisted of 3 floors of open space berthing separated into cubicles by cinder block walls. Each cubical was designed to be occupied by 2 men. There must have been a huge need for MMs and BTs in those days because 6 men now occupied each cubicle. Three double deck bunks and six lockers around the outside of the cubicle with a small passageway in the middle. Home sweet home for the next 4 or so months.

I was assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center to attend Machinist Mate "A" School. Before heading off to receive any type of "Nuclear" training us "Nukes" had to first be trained in our "Rate." The job of a Machinist Mate is probably not what you think. Although some MMs may operate tools used by a "machinist" the real job of a MM is to operate all the mechanical equipment found in a naval propulsion engine room. We were to learn all about steam turbines, reduction gears, valves, evaporators, pumps, and other such equipment needed to enable a ship to move through the water. I should also note here that these "A" schools were not just for us Nukes. In fact, most of the students at the schools had already been on some conventionally powered ship in the fleet and had earned the privilege of receiving this advanced training as a step in advancing their career. It was here that I learned not to think I was too "special" for being designated as a "Nuke." A couple of my cubemates were Nukes, but most were not.

"A" School was pretty easy for me. I had no real experience with any of the components I was learning about but I must have had an aptitude for mechanical things because I found the subjects interesting and fairly easy to learn. We spent our 8 hour workdays in class receiving lectures, we spent our off-hours studying, doing laundry, visiting the nearby Enlisted Men's club, and whatever else we could find to amuse ourselves. Now remember - I was still only 20 years old and the drinking age on our base and in Illinois was 21. Added to that fact was the threat that if you were caught drinking or otherwise getting in trouble you would be immediately dropped from the Nuclear Program and more than likely sent directly to the conventional fleet. It was not just a threat. I saw many designated nukes become "conventional" MMs either through misbehaving or by not keeping up academically. I didn't really know what a Nuke was yet but I still wanted to be one! 

If that weren't enough incentive to stay out of trouble (well - mostly) I had other plans. Peggy and I were engaged and had planned to be married as soon as I finished "A" School. I was pretty sure she wasn't going to be happy being married one day and waving goodbye the next! Neither was I.

So after 15 weeks of classroom training, 1 week of operating a land based oil fired propulsion plant, and lots of exams I successfully completed Machinist Mate "A" School. Us Nukes received another promotion in rank to Petty Officer 3rd class (E4) and were ready for our next duty station.

This was going to be the tricky part. My next step to becoming a Nuke was to complete the 6 month Naval Nuclear Power School (NPS). In those days there were two Nuclear Power Schools - 1 in Bainbridge, MD and the other in Mare Island, CA. These schools could only take a limited number of students into each class and there were 4 classes starting each year. Most Nukes finishing "A" school had to wait to start NPS for several months and were frequently assigned to a conventional ship while waiting. Your fate was up to some "detailer" at the Bureau of Personnel (BUPERS) in Washington, DC. About a month prior to my "A" School graduation date I received my preliminary orders. I was to be assigned duty aboard the USS Mt Katmai (AE-16) an ammunition ship built in 1945 and presently on station off the shores of Vietnam. This was not what I was hoping for! Peggy was not amused either!

But through some hand of fate or other divine intervention my orders were changed about 2 weeks before graduation day and I was assigned to report to Class 70-04 Naval Nuclear Power School, Mare Island, CA!

I had just enough time (barely) to fly home, get a marriage license, don my newly tailored boot camp issued dress blues (for the only time in my career), get married, one day honeymoon in San Francisco, find an apartment in Vallejo, CA and report for NPS.

Time in the Navy - a little under 7 months, Promotions - 2, and gained a wife. Life was still good but moving really fast!