Homeport

For those of you who wondered where I developed my fine sense of ship-handling and my mastery of the submariner's skills, look no further.

I owe much to my years of study and discipline under the steady and uncompromising tutelage of Captain Leon J. Uplinger, and to my interest during both my formative and currently advanced years of comprehensive nautical treatises such as 'Two Years Before the Mast', 'Command at Sea', the Patrick O'Brien 'Aubrey/Maturin' novels, and, of course, as presented here, the infallible and much acclaimed 'You Can Pilot a Submarine!'

1 comments

Found this newsletter in a box of stuff I'd forgotten about. Seems Admiral Rickover visited the Trident (S8G) prototype at the Ballston Spa Nuclear Power Training Unit (Kesselring Site) on Friday, March 14th, 1980. Now by itself this wouldn't be a big deal (unless you were an Admiral Rickover fan) but this is the visit I refer to in the Sea Story, "Admiral Rickover, I Relieve You!", which is a must-read (if I do say so myself) sea story that didn't take place at sea!

When the top photo was taken, I was sitting at the RPCP between the Admiral and the photographer, leaning back against the EOOW's desk, to stay out of the photo (at the photographer's request). Otherwise, I'd have a photo of the Admiral and myself, chillaxin' in Manuevering. The Electrical Operator was Tim Autrey, currently owner and CEO of Practicing Perfection Institute. The Throttleman was Earl Barnes, and the EOOW Doug Bishop if I recall correctly.

Note the Propulsion Plant Status Board, which occupies the bulkhead under the clock behind the Congressman has been edited out of the photo to protect sensitive classified information - must have been quite a project in the days before Photoshop!

But you really need to read the story, to get the full effect!

No comments

Nuclear Power School was in Orlando, Florida after it moved from Mare Island. It shared a base with the Recruit Training Command, Service School Command, and the Naval Regional Medical Center, and was home for the nukes for six months of intense classroom training prior to practical power plant training at Idaho, New York or Connecticut.

Orlando in the late 70's was an idyllic location. Lounging on the 'beach' under the palms, playing tennis, side trips to Daytona, Clearwater, and Cape Kennedy/Canaveral made for a much better duty station than, say, Great Lakes in the winter. It wins my vote for most enjoyable duty station, despite the routinely scheduled 3:30 thunderstorm. Of course, I spent most of my tour in '78 with a broken foot, hobbling around on crutches, as part of the class of 7806.

Today, NPS is in South Carolina, and the base at Orlando is gone. The last NPS class graduated in December 1998, all the other commands were gone by then, and rumor is they locked the gates behind the last student out.  Today it has been replaced by expensive condos, and even the shopping mall is gone. The local green area is named Bluejacket Park, though I doubt any of the residents would even know what a Bluejacket is, or was.

Much like the Bates, we didn't expect it to be around forever, but we thought we'd be a lot older before they both disappeared.

Bennett Road entrance to Nuclear Power School

NPS classroom building from the circle - 1978

NPS classroom building - side view - 1978

Nuclear Power School - Aerial View - 1999
(note the building between the two wye shaped classroom buildings that wasn't there in 1979)

Nuclear Power School (former location) - Aerial View - 2002

3 comments

Quite a few of us did hard time at West Milton in New York. Nuclear Power Training Unit Ballston Spa was one of three sites in the 70's and 80's for prototype training for us nuclear trained personnel. I personally qualified at MARF (S7G) and served on staff at the Trident prototype (S8G).  Others qualified at S3G and D1G, all visible in the photos below.

Kesselring Site, West Milton, New York, July, 1985

Ten years later, in May of 1995, we get the birds eye view.

Kesselring Site, May, 1995

1 comments