Cruise Missiles 17 No I am not going aboard? By Craig Johnson I was a Navy Lieutenant within months of retiring and had taken a bunch of technical representatives to Submarine Base New London, Groton, Connecticut to certify the first vertical launch tubes for the TOMAHAWK Cruise Missile systems on a fast attack submarine. The technical representatives had been on the boat working on each of the tubes in succession and we probably had another day or so until they finished. I had stayed on the pier with the vehicle with all of our equipment since there was not room on the submarine for all of us to get in the space designed for the tubes and since I was not a technician in this area I would have just been in the way. My job was to get anything they needed since I was the Deputy Program Manager for the Development and had the priorities and contacts needed to make things happen if needed. Since this was the first fast attack submarine delivered with these vertical launch tubes there was a lot of interest by the local Admiral and his staff plus the executives from General Dynamics Electric Boat Division. So on this sunny day the Admiral and members of his staff and the President of General Dynamics Electric Boat Division came down to visit the boat and see how things were going with the certification. The Admiral recognized me standing on the pier and we discussed how things were going and then he took his group down on the submarine to meet with the submarines Captain. After they had been on the boat for a while one of the Admiral’s staff officers was leaving ahead of everyone else and on his way off the pier he stopped to ask me why I hand not gone down on the submarine and I told him that above information and that I would just be in the way. He was shortly followed by the Admiral and everyone else and as they get to me standing on the pier overlooking the working technicians the Admiral decides it is time to harass me about not going down on the submarine and he wants to know if I am afraid to go down on the submarine even in port since I was a Surface Warfare Office with my pin on my shirt. Now remember I was close to retirement and had been in Washington DC in this job for almost six years and I chaired meetings in DC with Admirals with four stars plus all of the Fleet Commanders from around the world so I was not in awe of this two star lower half who was trying to impress the civilians at my expense. So when he asked, “Lieutenant are you afraid to go down on the submarine?” with intent of embarrassing me he was not prepared for my answer. I responded with, “Admiral I have spent twenty years in support of submarines all over the world and have been down below on most of them currently in service, and yes I am here with a team to fix and certify these vertical launch tubes because I have seen how well these submarines have been built in the past!” There was silence and they all decided to leave me alone and walked off.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 22:46:47 +0000
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