Today is Veterans Day. it is a day to honor all vets, both living and dead.
this diary is for the living vets among KOS readers. There is a good diary on the recommended list to honor the fallen here It also has a lot of good links to resources for veterans. What I want is for KOS vets to tell me their war stories. When you get a couple of Vets together, they always want to tell their "war stories " , I want to hear yours.
Service in the military is not always about dodging IEDs ,slogging through the jungles looking for "Charlie " Most of us were not on the front lines in wars or battles. Some of us were REMF, some working in logistics, others in analysis and intelligence. These jobs were just as important though maybe not as dangerous as front line service . War stories are not always about war , but sometimes anecdotes about amusing stories or experiences unique to military service. I want to hear yours and I will read them all and try to comment when I can.
I served in the U.S. Navy from 1975 - 1979. Technically by some government definitions , I am a Vietnam Era Vet. My enlistment date fell into the "Vietnam Era" category by 1 day , but the Vietnam war was over before I enlisted. I was a "cold war" warrior. I was an operator and technician in the SOSUS network . My job was to detect , classify, analyze and track submarines. I was truly on the front lines in the cold war. During my tour of duty, I was stationed at NAVFACS in Iceland and Bermuda. During the time that I served, woman were just becoming an increasing part of the military. In the Navy at that time, women were not allowed to serve on ships. Since more than 90% of the work in SOSUS was performed from shore based stations, almost 1/2 of the enlisted personnel and most of the junior officers were woman. Our technical school was located in Key West Florida and with the unique mix of male and female sailors, it was more like a big party than military service.
In the 1970's the soviet military capability was exaggerated by the same people who sold us on WMD's in Iraq . During the 1970 s the Soviet Union submarine force outnumbered the U.S. submarine force, but most of these submarines were diesel class submarines whose capabilities were more suited to shore defense than projecting power globally. In modern ASW these ships were sitting ducks. Although very stealthy while running on batteries , they had limited speeds and battery life. Diesel submarines at that time had to surface to charge their batteries and were then very vulnerable to detection (and destruction). During the 1970's the soviet nuclear submarine force mostly consisted of the HEN class. These were called Hotel, Echo and November class submarines based on their mission. Later just the November class was used to describe this class of submarine. This submarine was based on stolen Nautilus plans and like most copies did not quite measure up to the original. It was very easily detected (and destroyed) and not very reliable. It leaked so much radiation that the submariners that served on that ship received sterility pay. The Norwegian government once protested to the Soviet Union about the amount of radiation leaking from the Soviet submarines into their fishery. Later Victor class, and Charlie class were much more capable and still later the Alpha class and Oscar class were even better.
The main mission of the SOSUS systems was to detect SSBN or ballistic missile submarines. The main Soviet Submarines were the Yankee class and later the Delta class. These submarines were more stealthy and capable than the earlier generations, but were limited in numbers. Even these submarines would have to return to dry dock after a 90 day patrol to tighten up all the loose nuts and bolts. Apparently the Soviet Navy never heard of loctite. U.S submarines generally have 2 crews called a blue crew and a gold crew. When a US submariner returns from patrol, it can go right back out with a new crew.
I enjoyed the four years I served in the Navy and I served with many fine men and women. In 1991 the Sosus mission was declassified and I was able to tell my friend and relatives what my mission in the Navy was.
before that, I stuck to the cover story about gathering and analyzing oceanographic data. While dating my wife, I told her my job was to listen to whales make love. True story, one of the hydrophone arrays was located near an area where whales gathered to mate. You could listen in on raw hydrophones and tell they were having a real good time.
Thats my story let me hear yours.