The Unhealthy Submarine Agenda
When was the last documented time that the U.S. Submarine service was referred to by the Navy as the elite submarine service? The last document is dated 1970, which ties in with some interesting connections.:
President Richard M. Nixon nominated surface admiral Elmo Zumwalt to Chief of Naval Operations in 1970. As CNO (1970-74), Zumwalt issued a series of directives known as Z-grams. One of his Z-grams curtailed what had been a legitimate isolation perk and recruiting benefit for the U.S. submarine service during the height of Cold War deployments - occasional steaks and lobsters. Another Z-Gram permitted women to serve on ships. Another Z-gram permitted beards and mustaches, which had previously been discouraged by most Navy leaders.
The Surface Warfare Pin was first proposed in 1972, but not until 1980 (under a CNO appointed by ex-submariner, President Jimmy Carter) were such insignia approved for wear. The current Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, served from 1970-1972, yet his U.S. Navy bio originally had claimed he had earned a Surface Warfare designation. A recent check indicates the Navy's overdue retraction.
The decades-old agenda of the surface navy to rewrite history by minimizing the submarine service (no longer elite, and now, like surface ships, open to the vicissitudes of women) may not have always been transparent, but its repercussions are ultimately likely to render one of our nation's premier naval forces just as bankrupt as USS Solyndra.
Submarines are always silent and strange.
Labels: Zumwalt Carter Nixon SWO beards women steaks Mabus Solyndraand lobsters
posted by Vigilis @ 2:02 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Several years ago my wife was shopping and I wandered over to a recruiting station to visit. One was wearing dolphins so I talked to him for awhile. He said the boomer boats were more skimmer than bubblehead nowadays.
Joe Hall STSC(ss)
We were the elite Sub Navy when the Cold War was in full swing! Attack boats made the USSR tremble and stay away from us and were afraid to attack because they understood the meaning of an elite fleet!
I remember having a beard under Zumwalt's Z-gram policies. He was a Viet Nam era admiral and stood up to Washington DC politicians.
On Silversides, 1976, my beard was so long that when I tucked it into an EAB mask, I could just see out over my tucked-up beard!
One story I got from a Navy Seal that served in Nam, one night a tall man entered the seal camp and asked for a bed.
They were cocky and told him the only bed was the top of a picnic table.
He said the man had no visible ID so they had no idea who slept in their camp that night.
The next morning a seal officer recognized Zumwalt, but by then he had crept away. They were sure that Zumwalt would later punish them, but he never did!
Officers did not wear names or insignia for fear of being killed by VC snipers.
By 1980, the new Navy retreated from Zumwalt's bold Z-grams and went down the path of PC world!
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