POD - SSN 680

On a beautiful morning here in Michigan, in the sunshine and gentle breeze, it could be easy to forget.

On a day full of grilling and picnics, family reunions and baseball games, walks on the beach, boat rides on the lake, and a thousand other good things, we might not remember why we call it Memorial Day.

This day is special not because of the bar-b-cues and beach parties, but because on this particular day, we make a deliberate choice not to forget, but to remember.

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May 5^th, 1973.

It’s been 43 years since the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) was commissioned at Ingalls Shipbuilding Division, Pascagoula, Mississippi. Two years of construction, beginning on August 4, 1969, followed by the launching on December 11, 1971 and subsequent fitting out saw the completion of what would become one of the most sophisticated intelligence gathering tools to serve the U.S. Navy at the time.

In the nearly thirty years that followed, she would see service in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and serve with distinction in such exotic places as the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, and of course, the Sea of None of Your Business!

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Today is the 11th of April. We have reason to celebrate - it’s the 116th birthday of the United States Submarine Service! Today, as throughout history, the U.S. Submarine Service remains the premier submarine force on the planet. The quality of the submarines we sailed and that those who followed us continue to sail is, without question, unequaled.

As good as the iron we drove beneath the sea was and is, the true reason for 116 years of success lies in the men that sailed, and the men and women that continue to sail those silent prowlers of the depths.

There is no character equal to one forged on the anvil of submarine hull metal under the hammer of crisis and conflict, tempered by the depth and breadth of the unforgiving and endless sea..

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