The Cold War Boats Association is limited by its core mission to submarines of the Cold War, which is generally considered bounded by the 1947 Truman Doctrine and the 1991 demise of the former Soviet Union.
For clarity, the Cold War Boats Association defines the beginning of the Cold War as 28 FEB 1946, which encompasses the period following George Kennan's "Long Telegram" that helped articulate the US government's increasingly hard line against the Soviets, which would become the basis for US strategy toward the Soviet Union for the duration of the Cold War.
The end of the Cold War is perhaps more clearly delineated as 26 DEC 1991 which marks the date of the dissolution of the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). (For more information on the Cold War, and to understand how our cut-off dates were determined, click here to read the Wikipedia article "Cold War".)
The criteria for including a submarine in the Cold War Boats Association is rigorously defined. For a submarine to be included in the Cold War Boats Association:
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- It must have been commissioned on or before 26 DEC 1991, AND
- It must either be decommssioned on or after 28 FEB 1946 OR still be in active commission.
If you are reading this, having selected a particular non-Cold War boat, it is because the submarine that you have selected was not in commission during the Cold War period as specified, and consequently is not an active part of the www.coldwarboats.org website.
What does this mean?
That depends. If you served on Cold War submarines in addition to the non-Cold War boat, you can still record your tour on the non-Cold War boat in your User Profile. While your service on the non-Cold War boat will be displayed as part of your profile, there is currently no collection of history or subset of the www.coldwarboats.org website to honor that particular submarine.
If you did not serve on a Cold War boat, don't despair. Plans are in the works to create another organization specifically for those who served following the Cold War. When, who knows? If you are registered with the Cold War Boats Association you will be among the first to know.
In the meantime, grab a cup of joe, visit the other boats of the Cold War Boats Association and learn your way around.
We are pleased to have you here!
