US Veterans, Inc. – Cincinnati Base

Fall 2021 Volume XVIII- Issue 4 Keel laid down for next SSN –

USS Utah (SSN-801)

The keel for the second ship to be named for the State of "These dolphins, once you pin them on your chest, leave deep Utah was laid down on Sept 1, 2021, at General Dynamics marks, right over your heart, Electric Boat Division at Groton Conn. The Utah will be the last long after the uniforms have been put away.” of the Block IV boats in the Virginia class. The next Virginia class submarine will be the start of Block V design. Keel laying today is not what it used to be, when the ships keel was actually the starting of the building of the ship. Today, fabrication of many ships components are started many months Base Commander David Ashley in advance and the laying of the keel is the initial joining of [email protected] several of the components in a symbolical ceremonial beginning of the ship. Because of this method, the commissioning of the Vice Commander Utah is slated for the fall of 2023 – only two years from now. Tom Fisher The Utah (SSN-801) is the second ship to be named Utah. COB The first was USS Utah BB-31, a battle ship. This Utah was sunk Bob Rogers in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Most of Treasurer the crew was able to escape, but 58 crew members perished Joe Koize Yeoman with the ship. The battle ship remains in the harbor and a Tom Fisher memorial was erected nearby in 1972. Chaplain Earl Wafford

Pride Runs Deep

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Member’s Page

Happy Birthday EDITOR [email protected] October November December i Editor: Tom Fisher

2 – Steve Hayes 4 – Ken Lehmkuhi 5 – Keith Littlepage 14 – Joe Koize 14 – Al Bliss 29 – Charles Rapp 17 – Connie Moore 15 – Walter (Gus) Kraus. 19 – John Wass 31 – Ken Yaden

If you don’t see your birthday please send me an email at [email protected] We would like to thank the We are seeking ways to locate other former submariners in our area who Sailors aboard the USS Ohio, SSGN 726 and the might like to join us. If you know of someone in the Cincinnati area who used to USS Kentucky SSBN 737 serve in (or still does!) please tell them about the USSVI and the for their service to our Cincinnati Base You can direct them to the Base website at country and for protecting www.cincysubvets.com for more information about the Base. our freedoms.

Meetings The Cincinnati Base of the USSVI holds meetings on the 4th Saturday of each month beginning at 1300 hrs. The Base is now having meetings in person and also by Zoom virtual meeting for persons that cannot attend in person. We are in the process of finding a new meeting location and have held meetings at four different locations so far.

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2021 CALENDAR

26 June – Base Meeting at Loveland American Legion Post #256 3 July – Fort Thomas Parade 24 July – Base Meeting – American Legion Post 513, Mt. Healthy 28 Aug – Base Meeting at Loveland American Legion Post #256 9 September – Harvest Home Parade in Cheviot 25 Sept – Base Meeting – American Legion Post 513, Mt. Healthy 23 October – Base Meeting – Site TBD Early December – Christmas Luncheon – Date TBD

ETERNAL PATROL PREPARATIONS

Shipmates, while we hope your day and those of your shipmates is far off in the future, we must nevertheless prepare. Please copy this notice and place it with your will or important papers.

IMPORTANT In the case of my death, please immediately notify the U.S. Submarine Veterans Inc., (USSVI) at 877-542-3483 or 360-337-297and give the person on duty the information regarding my death, funeral, and burial arrangements, plus who they can contact for follow- up and support. This information can alternatively be E-Mailed to the National Office at [email protected].

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Base Commander’s Corner

Greeting Shipmates! I hope this finds you healthy and doing well. I trust your Summer has gone well.

Our meeting location has been in limbo for a while. Hopefully this will change soon. We have been meeting at various American Legions and VFWs since we resumed meeting in person in March. It seems that the two that most have favored is Loveland American Legion Post 256 (Eastside) or Mt. Healthy American Legion Post 513 (Westside). The others have not had good hours, were a difficult location or difficult for our regular Saturday meetings hours. Our September meeting will be at the Mt. Healthy Post on Saturday September 25. Due to Covid, we decided to postpone the cookout we typically do at the September meeting. After the September meeting, I send out for a vote on a location.

I have reviewed all the suggestions that came in on the July 2021 Questionnaire. I was disappointed with the number of responses. There may have been more responses from members that do not regularly come to meetings than the ones that do. I did find that there were several who had moved out of the area that I was not aware. I do appreciate in the input provided. Most of the responses suggested we keep our meetings on Saturday, some wanted Eastside and some Westside. Generally, the suggestion was to meet at the VFWs or American Legion Posts. A couple suggested restaurants. I have reviewed the restaurant idea with the bases that do this. They say it is difficult to have a meaningful meeting as folks are constantly going or coming for food or eating. We can discuss having a couple meetings at restaurants. We currently have the Christmas luncheon as December member still on the agenda.

The biggest take away from the Questionnaire was things to make the meetings more interesting. This was one of my ideas earlier this year also. So, I am working on the topics. The August meeting was the early U Boats by Tom Fisher. I thought this was very interesting. I have been intrigued with some of the technology of the

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German boats. The September meeting is Sonar with our own in-house expert, Dennis Griffith. Everyone is going to have a chance to volunteer so be thinking of what you can share. Fred Heyse “volunteered” for something in the Questionnaire.

We are going to continue to have a Zoom connection for a while. This will help our members that want to join in but not able or are not comfortable attending in person. We now have an unlimited time again so those that want to join virtually can do so.

Dick Young is hosting a reunion for his qual boat, USS Henry Stimson in mid- October. This is at the Holiday Inn Airport in Northern KY. If you have not contacted him and would like to join in for the dinner on Saturday October 16, you need to get him a message at [email protected]. There is a guest speaker you won’t want to miss. It is rumored that Commander Gus Kraus will be there. I am thinking Dick may volunteer to have a video or slide presentation at a future meeting with info on his reunion. Dick - be sure to get some good photos or videos.

There were some ideas on how to add to our membership. Some were to leave brochures or cards at Veterans Hospitals and Veterans organizations. Another was to continue our involvement in parades. At the Harvest Home Parade on September 9, we made contact with 3 sub vets that were not base members. We either gave them cards or information about the base. I believe we need to focus on this. I may be looking for a “volunteer” to work on getting the word out. One person suggested we merge with one of the other bases. I am not in favor of this. There are enough sub vets in the Cincinnati, Dayton, and Northern KY area that we can have and maintain a strong base.

There was a nomination at the August meeting for Secretary to replace Tom Fisher who was elected to Vice Commander. The nomination was Steve Hayes. With the members in attendance, the vote was unanimous to accept. We still need to get a vote from those not at the meeting. Please be alert for an email soliciting your vote.

I ask that each of you do your part to keep the Base thriving and active. Thanks for all that has been done for our Base.

David Ashley Base Commander

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Fort Thomas Parade July 3, 2021

Ready and Waiting

Under Way

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Harvest Home Parade September 9, 2021

Ready to go – just waiting our turn

Another Great Crowd

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Plaque for new Base Logo

My daughter, Katie Daly, is a graphic designer. She redesigned our Base logo in a vector file format that can be increased or decreased in size without losing clarity. The base approved a plaque to reward her and I presented it to her Sept. 11.

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A Different Member(s) and their Boat will be presented Every Issue:

The Skate Class Submarines And the USS Swordfish SSN-579

The Cincinnati Base has three members that qualified submarines on the USS Swordfish (SSN-579), a member of the Skate class of submarines: Galin Brady qualified 1962, Walter Meyer qualified 1974, and Johann Reiter qualified in 1975. The design of the Nautilus was complete by 1953, but the fleet considered her design too large. The size of the Nautilus had been dictated by the size of the reactor plant. A small submarine was still considered the best way to make a fast boat, because it presented the smallest surface area to the water and therefore the least resistance. If nuclear power was going to be the power plant of future submarines, it would have to be reduced in size. The new design was designated SFR (submarine fleet reactor and had half of the power output of the Nautilus’ reactor plant. Two nuclear submarines were designated in FY55. The Nautilus was not completed yet and so the higher speeds she would show in the future were not known yet. The reduced size of the reactor plant would produce slightly more power than the electric motors of the Tang class and speed would be about that of the Tang class at 18 kn submerged, but with the unlimited nuclear endurance. These two submarines would be, in effect, nuclear powered Tangs and were the first two of the Skate class. FY56 plan had three more nuclear submarines that were also slated to be Skates, but the third one ended up being the design for the Skipjack. The Skate class compared very closely to the Tang class. Length of the Skate was almost 268ft. The Tang originally was 268ft before changing-out the original pancake engines. Beam was 25ft, compared to Tang’s 27ft. Displacement for the Skate was quite a bit heavier – 2,900 tons submerged compared to Tang’s original size of 2,300 tons, because of the reactor plant and weight of reactor shielding. Test depth was 700 ft and crew size was the same at 84 officers and enlisted. Armament was similar to the Tang’s – 6 tubes forward and two tubes in aft torpedo room. Like the Tang, the after tubes were shorter and did not have impulse-launching ability. They were for counter-measures and were designed for the Mark 27 and Mark 37 electric torpedoes. The reactor plant did take up more space than the diesel-electric plant of the Tang and this limited the number of torpedo reloads from three to two per tube forward and from two to one per tube aft. Sonars were the SQS-4 and BQR-2 and there was also a torpedo warning sonar,

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QXB-3 that was later replaced by the WLR-2. During construction, modifications were incorporated. First, four of the forward torpedo tubes and both of the after tubes were modified for wire guidance and then power loading of torpedoes was specified, allowing the submarine the freedom of maneuvering while reloading tubes. All four boats were laid down in 1956 in different yards: the Skate (SSN-578) at Electric Boat; the Swordfish (SSN-579) and Seadragon (SSN-584) at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard; and the Sargo (SSN-583) at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Sargo was the first nuclear submarine built at Mare Island. They were commissioned in 1957 thru 1959. The class was decommissioned in the 1980’s with the Swordfish being last in 1989. The USS Skate was the first submarine to surface at the North Pole on 17 March 1959. Sargo and Seadragon also conducted operations in the polar region. The Skate class was the only boats suitable to surface through the ice until Sturgeon class submarines were introduced in 1967 with fairwater planes that could be rotated vertically.

The poster above shows the relative size of different submarines and classes. The middle boat is the Tang and the Skate on the bottom looks to be the same size. The Nautilus definitely looks larger than either the Tang or Skate and is similar in size to the Gato class WWII submarine.

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USS Swordfish SSN-579

USS Swordfish (SSN-579) The Swordfish was built by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard of Kittery, Maine. Laid down on 18 July 1955, she was commissioned on 15 September 1956. After post- shakedown and sea trails along the east coast, Swordfish was assigned to Squadron 1 in Pearl Harbor, , joining sister ship Sargo (SSN-583). Sargo was the first nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean. In that first year, Swordfish journeyed over 35,000 miles of which 80% were underwater. Swordfish would mainly operate from Pearl Harbor, the west coast and western pacific during her life. On 8 March 1968, the Soviet Union submarine, K-129, sank northwest of Oahu, Hawaii. On 17 March 1968, the Swordfish arrived in , Japan, for emergency repairs to a bent periscope. The Soviets suggested that the K-129 was lost after a collision with the Swordfish, but the U.S. stated that the periscope was damaged by an ice pack in the Sea of Japan, 2,000 miles from where the K-129 went down.

For this article, Walter Meyer allowed me to interview him.

Walter Meyer – Originally from North Dakota, with a fresh two-year degree in electronics, and with the draft board breathing down his neck during the crisis, decided to enlist in the Navy. He went to sonar school, and graduated

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as a Surface Sonar Tech and became a STG 3rd class. He was assigned to the USS Prairie AD15, a destroyer tender, in , and was in the R5 Repair division for weapons. The Prairie was an old ship, commissioned in 1939 and this is 1973. The Prairie headed out for a WestPac cruise and went through a Typhon on the way. Walt was very concerned after going through that on an older ship and decided that the submarine service might be better. He put in for submarine duty, thinking that the navy might send him to sub school or another sonar school first; but no - they sent him straight to the Swordfish in 1973, and made him a STS2 (Sonar Tech Submarines – 2nd class). Walt had made 2nd class on the Prairie. The Swordfish was going thru a major overhaul, including a reactor refueling in Pearl Harbor. Just out of the yards, the boat was doing engineering checks, and hosted an Australian submarine at Pearl Harbor. Walt said that both crews about died from drinking. Walt said that anyone who thinks they can keep up with an Aussie drinking is dreaming. They will drink you under the table with no problem. The boat finished the yard period, became operational and Walt qualified submarines in 1974. He was sent TAD from the Swordfish to the USS Pintado (SSN-672) in to help them repair their BQS-13 sonar dome. The boat had collided with a Soviet submarine doing a Crazy-Ivan. He remembers the humidity in Guam was the worse he can remember. Once repairs were made, the Pintado resumed her patrol, found the same submarine, based on its sound signature, and tailed it until the Soviet Yankee class went back into port. Walt went back to the Swordfish and stayed there doing operations around the Hawaiian Islands. He remembers that the space on the boat was tight. The sonar shack was across from the yeoman’s shack and the CO and XO’s staterooms were on the other side of the forward bulkhead. The space was so small the two operators could hear almost everything that the CO or XO was saying. He left the boat for good in 1975. Walt’s career was far from being done. He went to sonar school in San Diego for maintenance of the ANBQQ5 sonar system (sonar for 688 class boats). He was the honor student from his class (his electronic degree from before the navy really helped) and he was asked to stay at the school and provide maintenance of the school sonar systems. While here, he met and married his wife in 1976. In 1979, he went to the east coast, and was on the commissioning crew of the Honolulu (SSN-718) at Newport News. While the boat was being finished, he was sent to the USS Buffalo (SSN-715) in order to maintain his qualification on the sonar system. He rode the Buffalo through the Panama Canal, to Pearl Harbor. Back to the Honolulu for commissioning, the boat later was featured in the movie “The Hunt for the Red October”, doing an emergency surface. Walt says that was

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quite a ride. He made Chief while on board and left the Honolulu. Next assignment was the Baton Rouge (SSN-689), where the boat made a Med cruise. This was six or so months long. After his brief assignment on the Baton Rouge, he was assigned to Sub Training Facility at Norfolk as an instructor and maintenance person. This was a tactics school where a boats sonar, fire control, and ships control teams would be trained for better coordination. While there, he was promoted to Senior Chief and was transferred out. Walt’s last duty station was on the Emery S. Land (AS-39), a submarine tender. He was in the repair department and was Senior Ships Superintendent for Submarine Repair. He had five supervisors and their crews reporting to him. Many times, he would be managing repairs on up to three boats and the five supervisors, reporting to him, could be managing up to three boats each as well. Walt was a busy man. After five years of this, he decided to retire. He was at the top of the pay scale and the chance of making Master Chief was slim because there were few slots available. Walter spent 27 years in navy, leaving in 1997 as a Sonar Tech Senior Chief.

Sources: Wikipedia: Skate-class Submarine Wikipedia: USS Swordfish (SSN-579)

Friedman, Norman, U.S. Submarines Since 1945; Revised Edition

Walter Meyer, Crew member of USS Swordfish (SS-579) and member of Cincinnati Sub Veterans Base

Spent many, many watch hours on EPCP Editor: Tom Fisher EM1(SS)

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EDITORS NOTE

To our fellow submarine sailors on the USS Kentucky and USS Ohio. I would love to post photos and stories from your time on the boat as long as it’s not classified. Please send to Tom Fisher at email: [email protected]. Thanks

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Submarines on Eternal Patrol Spend a moment in silence for these departed shipmates.

October November December USS Seawolf (SS-197) lost 3 Oct. 1944 USS Albacore (SS-218) lost 7 Nov. 1944 USS Capelin (SS-289) lost 2 Dec. 1943 USS S-44 (SS-155) lost 7 Oct.1943 USS Growler (SS-215) lost 8 Nov. 1944 USS Sealion (SS-195) lost 10 Dec. 1941 USS Wahoo (SS-238) lost 11 Oct. 1943 USS Corvina (SS-226) lost 16 Nov.1943 USS F-1 (SS-20) lost 17 Dec 1917 USS Dorado (SS-248) lost 12 Oct, 1943 USS Scamp (SS-277) lost 16 Nov. 1944 USS S-4 (SS-109) lost 17 Dec 1927 USS Escolar (SS-294) lost 17 Oct. 1944 USS Sculpin (SS-191) lost 19 Nov 1943 USS Darter (SS-227) lost 24 Oct. 1944 USS Shark II (SS-314) lost 24 Oct. 1944 USS Tang (SS-306) lost 25 Oct. 1944 USS O-5 (SS-66) lost 29 Oct. 1923

U.S. Submarine Veterans, Inc. Cincinnati Base Tom Fisher – iEditor 1797 Forester Dr. Cincinnati, Ohio 45240 [email protected]

www.cincysubvets.com

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