November 2020 Volume 21, Issue 11 Lest We Forget — Inside This Issue: Meeting minutes 2 “The USSVI Submariner’s Creed” Lost Boats 2 To perpetuate the memory of our shipmates who Undersea Warfare Hist 2 gave their lives in the pursuit of their duties while San Francisco now MTS 3 serving their country. That their dedication, deeds, The quiet NARWHAL 4 and supreme sacrifice be a constant source of New SSN - USS BARB 6 motivation toward greater accomplishments. Pledge loyalty and patriotism to the United States of Contact information 9 America and its Constitution. Application form 10 News Brief 1. Next Meeting: Restrictions on group gatherings related to Coronavirus have caused a temporary suspension of our monthly meetings. One outdoor meeting is scheduled as noted below. November 21 – This will be a virtual meeting using Zoom. December 19 – WATCH E-MAIL FOR AN ANNOUNCEMENT. 2. Duty Cook Roster: a. GET READY TO VOLUNTEER WHEN OUR MEETINGS RESUME. 3. November Birthdays: Gary Walters, 7th; Len Wass 10th; Bill Stannard 15th; Pete Almeroth 18th; David Fitzgerald 23rd; and Manny Garmendez 27th. Happy Birthday Shipmates! 4. Do you shop on Amazon? Remember to use Amazon Smile for the benefit of our Charitable Foundation. 5. Due to being unable to meet in-person, Crash Dive will not sponsor a Toys for Tots collection box this year. Shipmates are encouraged to participate in their own communities. Crash Dive Meeting Minutes Cobia drydocking, remaining funds from October 17, 2020 memorial could be freed up to assist drydock Table discussions on memorial funds & Call to Order elections until quorum can be met Addition to lost boat list. Recommend (difficult with COVID & holidays coming checking with USSVI national. up). Attendance: Meeting Adjourned Clay Hill & Mrs. Hill Maurice Young Frank Voznak Lost Boats Larry Warnke Scott Jaklin USS ALBACORE (SS 218) 11/7/44 Herman Mueller USS GROWLER (SS 215) 11/8/44 Brett Zacher USS SCAMP (SS 277) 11/16/44 Manuel Garmendez USS CORVINA (SS 226) 11/16/43 Herman Mueller donates model USS SCULPIN (SS 191) 11/19/43 submarines to base; will be custodian Larry says KSC is almost back up to full operation. Undersea Warfare History Memorial signage addition, national has approved division of November 1, 1944 | USS Ray (SS funds 271) sank the cargo ship Horai Maru Discussion of appropriating no. 7, landed men and supplies on our portion to Cobia the West Coast of Mindoro, picking o Ideas for how to disperse up 2 downed Navy fliers, 2 Army Chicago Base‟s funds, POW‟s escaped from Corrgidor and (directly/through an escaped Filipino political prisoner. national/joint donation to November 2, 1943 | USS Trigger Cobia) (SS 237) fired three torpedoes at a 7,148 ton transport ship Delagoa o Next step: contact with Maru. All torpedoes hit the ship, and Michelle Delagoa Maru disintegrated. o Frank stays on as project November 3, 1944 | USS Gurnard manager (SS 254) attacks a Japanese convoy and sinks the Japanese freighter Base Elections Taimei Maru west of the Labaun, o No other nominations or Borneo. positions November 4, 1971| USS Nathanael Dues Greene (SSBN 636) launches a o Contact National about Poseidon C-3 Missile in the first dues deadline, still surface launch of the weapon. December? November 5, 1943 | USS Tullibee o Need to finalize roster, get (SS 284) was running submerged invoices sent out near Okinoyerabu Shima when she sighted a large, three-story building Page 2 Crash Dive Base Rondout - Lake Bluff, IL on the island. She surfaced and fired (SS 222) sinks the Japanese 55 shells into the barracks before destroyer Sanae and damages the retiring at full speed. oiler Ondo 90 miles south of Basilan November 6, 1954 | USS Thornback Island. (SS 418) was the first submarine to November 19, 1944 | USS snorkel in the Mississippi River at Pampanito (SS 383) sank the 1,200 New Orleans, Louisiania from the ton cargo ship Shinko Maru No. 1 Industrial Canal to the foot of Canal and damaged another ship. street. November 20, 1943 | USS Harder November 9, 1944 | USS Queenfish (SS 257) radioed her companions (SS 393) attacks a Japanese convoy and closed for attack after sighting and sinks the gunboat Chojusan three Japanese ships. Harder fired Maru about 50 miles west of Kyushu. eight torpedoes, sinking the Udo November 10, 1943 | USS Scamp Maru and Hokho Maru. (SS 277) disabled the 6,481-ton November 30, 1993 | President Tokyo Maru after evading its escorts, William J. Clinton signs legislation and pumped three more torpedoes that lifts the ban on women serving into the target. It later learned that aboard combat ships. Tokyo Maru sank before daybreak. November 11 1943| USS Capelin Norfolk Naval Shipyard (SS 289) sank a 3,127-ton Japanese cargo ship off Ambon Island. (NNSY) successfully November 12, 1943 | USS Harder undocked USS San (SS 257) encountered a target and after promptly dispatching it, Francisco (SSN 711) surfaced and sighted a trawler-escort Michael Brayshaw, NAVSEA.Navy.mil, October 6 damaged by the explosion of one of its own depth charges. Submerging Converting San Francisco into a moored again until sunset, the submarine training ship required NNSY to separate sank the damaged ship with gunfire. the boat into three pieces, the removal of November 13, 1976 | The lead ship and recycling the center section, and then of the newly created Los Angeles- adding three new sections. The new hull class submarine, USS Los Angeles sections arrived from Electric Boat via (SSN 688), is commissioned. barge, which NNSY then craned into the November 16, 1963 | President dock and attached to the San Francisco. John F. Kennedy, aboard USS “We’ve been in dock for 34 months, so it’s Observation Island (EAG 154), been a lot of effort to get to this day, but witnesses the launch of Polaris A-2 it’s exciting to be undocking with more missile by USS Andrew Jackson than 90 percent production work (SSBN 619). complete,” said Project Superintendent November 17, 1944 | USS Sunfish (SS 281) sighted a convoy of eight Charles Brock. “We applied a lot of lessons ships led by escort carrier Jinyo. The learned from the La Jolla in areas such as carrier quickly passed out of range, Engineering Safeguard Features piping but Sunfish fired on and sank installation, component outfitting and Edogawa Maru and Seisho Maru. tank restoration.” November 18, 1943 | USS Bluefish “Over the next year, San Francisco will undergo preparations for the final test Page 3 Crash Dive Base Rondout - Lake Bluff, IL program, grooming of the forward projects has allowed those MILCONs to electrical systems and spaces for turnover execute in parallel with execution of the to the ship,” said Brock. San Francisco is project. This helps pave the way for the expected to be complete its conversion to shipyard to more effectively integrate a full-fledged moored training ship in late with future MILCONs in parallel with summer of 2021. executing our work,” said Brock. San Francisco and La Jolla replace “Congratulations and thank you to former submarines originally everyone who supported getting Norfolk commissioned in 1964 and that have been Naval Shipyard and the San Francisco in use as training platforms for the past team to this important day!” said Shipyard three decades. Commander Rear Admiral Howard Markle. NNSY has been bustling on its “As a vital platform for the Navy's training waterfront, with USS Pasadena (SSN 752) program, this conversion will provide a arriving for a Selected Restricted steady pipeline of fully trained and well- Drydocking Availability (DSRA) Sept. 28 prepared fleet operators. This long-term and USS Wyoming (SSBN 742) finishing its investment will pay great dividends for the Engineered Refueling Overhaul. Navy over the next several decades in Additionally, USS George H.W. Bush (CVN ensuring proficiency and excellence across 77) moved pierside at the end of August the fleet, whenever and wherever our after eighteen months in dock. With a Sailors are called upon.” surge of ship movements and waterfront space at a premium, coordination and This Staggeringly Quiet Sub ingenuity between shipyard project teams has been crucial. Changed The Navy “We have had good Forever. Now, It's All Scrap. communications with Pasadena and our Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, October 6 Temporary Services (Code 990), clearing the dock to allow the team to start their Workers at a shipyard in Puget dry dock build, and reducing what is Sound, Washington recently finished typically a four to six-week build period up scrapping one of the quietest U.S. down to two weeks post undock,” said Navy submarines of all time, despite Brock. attempts to salvage it. The USS Narwhal was a test boat for new Military construction (MILCON) quieting technologies that later projects near San Francisco’s dry dock allowed U.S. subs to become some of required even more coordination. As part the sneakiest in the world. of the Navy’s Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program, a 20-year, $21 The Cold War was a relentless billion program dedicated to refurbishing competition for military supremacy, the nation’s four public shipyards by both in numbers and technology. The modernizing equipment, improving U.S. and Soviet arms race extended all workflow and upgrading dry docks and the way to the bottom of the world’s facilities, the piers adjacent to the drydock oceans, with both sides striving to are being replaced and utility upgrades for build powerful, deep-diving, quiet a neighboring dry dock are also underway. submarines. One of the U.S. Navy’s “Our interface with the restoration boldest forays into building Page 4 Crash Dive Base Rondout - Lake Bluff, IL undetectable submarines was the USS result, the Narwhal was much quieter Narwhal and the technological than her peers—so quiet, in fact, that innovations fitted into her.