Fleet Plan of the Day
- Details
- Brad Williamson
- POD - Fleet
Date: 02 FEB 22
From: Brad Williamson, Lead Administrator
RE: Current activity on the coldwarboats.org website.
- Four fully functional sites, in addition to the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680). (Located by menu items shaded light orange):
- USS NAUTILUS (SSN 571)
- USS STURGEON (SSN 637)
- USS ASPRO (SSN 648)
- USSVI - USS HADDO Base (Cleveland, TN)
- Two sites currently under development. (Also located by menu items shaded light orange):
- USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (SSBN 600)
- USS LAFAYETTE (SSBN 616)
- Features added:
- File upload capability added for 571, 637, 648, 600, 616 for images and documents. Found at the bottom of each of the four boat menus - The Boat, The Men, The Logroom, The Reunions.
- Historical timelines for 571, 637, and 648, under The Logroom >> History.
- Shipmates Added:
- USS NAUTILUS (SSN 571) All Enlisted Personnel from 1954, registered as MISSING or ETERNAL PATROL, if known.
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- USS NAUTILUS (SSN 571) All Enlisted Personnel from 1954, registered as MISSING or ETERNAL PATROL, if known.
- Details
- Brad Williamson
- POD - SSN 680
This post is for all of you that have been putting off uploading your photos and documents to the SSN 680 website, and even those of you that haven’t!
The SSN 680 website (www.ssn-680.org) continues to develop since it morphed into Cold War Boats. Among the latest improvements is the ability for any registered user (this means you) to upload your precious treasures from back in the day.
Simply point your browser to www.ssn-680.org, or navigate to the site thru www.coldwarboats.org, log in, and you will find, at the bottom of each SSN 680 menu, a new menu item that allows you to upload essentially any digital file to the site. (See the post image above).
- Details
- Brad Williamson
- POD - Fleet
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
~ 1 John 4:9,10
Christmas – 200 feet deep in the South China Sea
Black steel slid silently through the depths. Somewhere, somewhere else, it was Christmas. But here, in the cold and dark, it was combat. The red control room lighting barely revealed the intensity, but it was real, as real as the rising hackles of a suspicious guard dog.
Somewhere else it was Christmas. Our attack sub was rigged for ultra-quiet; no sound would be allowed to reveal our location. This intercept had been too hard won to betray ourselves with a dropped spoon in the galley, a hatch slammed closed, or…even a Christmas carol.
Moving quietly through the boat, underlining the seriousness of our situation with quiet whispers, it was easy to notice the emptiness of our attempts at holiday cheer. The tinsel in the wardroom, a few battered ornaments in the crew’s mess, and a plastic tree that would have embarrassed Charlie Brown were a painful counterpoint to what wasn’t there. No traditional carols, no holiday music, no warm baking smells, no friends sipping cider, no family. There you had it. Something else sacrificed for the mission. This job was tough enough on a good day, but another Christmas away from family made it pretty easy to feel sorry for yourself.
A brief stop by Radio to check message traffic revealed a single strip of flimsy taped to the door:
- Details
- A. C. 'Dean' Macris
- POD - Fleet
Written by USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) submariners Dean Macris (73-75) and Tim Mazza (73-76), Moral Revenge is a work of fiction about family, honor, devotion, and revenge set in the world of fast-attack submarines. When global events, egos, and naval careers drive the United States Navy to use Vice Admiral Alexis Kochenko as a scapegoat it shakes him and his family to its core.
Finding himself inadvertently complicit in a corrupt consortium jeopardizing the safety of the elite submarine service that he and his son have committed their lives to, the Admiral is consumed protecting the family name and the legacy his Lithuanian immigrant parents had so hoped to create.
- Details
- A. C. 'Dean' Macris
- POD - SSN 680
Written by USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) submariners Dean Macris (73-75) and Tim Mazza (73-76), Moral Revenge is a work of fiction about family, honor, devotion, and revenge set in the world of fast-attack submarines. When global events, egos, and naval careers drive the United States Navy to use Vice Admiral Alexis Kochenko as a scapegoat it shakes him and his family to its core.
Finding himself inadvertently complicit in a corrupt consortium jeopardizing the safety of the elite submarine service that he and his son have committed their lives to, the Admiral is consumed protecting the family name and the legacy his Lithuanian immigrant parents had so hoped to create.
- Details
- Brad Williamson
- POD - Fleet
(Originally posted on www.ssn-680.org for Veterans day 2017, and revised for www.coldwarboats.org)
Veterans Day has come and slowly fades into tomorrow.
The “thank you for your service” handshakes, prompted by an SSN-680 dolphin-ed ball cap, are ebbing, like the tide, and the offers of free meals at local restaurants will soon be yesterday's news.
Shortly, on the sidewalk and in the grocery store, I’ll be a non-distinct gray-bearded old guy in a Navy blue baseball cap, not that I really ever anticipated anything else.
Don’t get me wrong. I really do appreciate a heart-felt thank you, and I suppose the free meals are in the same class, though they seem to lack the sincerity of thanks and a hand shake and I admit I’ve never taken advantage of one. I never felt I was owed anything, even a thank you, let alone a meal, but I have taught my kids that accepting the gift honors the giver, so maybe one day I’ll let someone treat me to a nice dinner.
But here and now, as the afternoon fades into twilight, Armistice Day, 1919, and the singular honor of soldiering seem far, far, away.
Why do I feel so bemused this rainy autumn day? After all, they are celebrating me generically, if not specifically. Shouldn’t I find satisfaction in that?
- Details
- Brad Williamson
- POD - Fleet
The USS HADDO Base out of Cleveland, TN, leads the way as the very first USSVI Base to move their base website to coldwarboats.org.
Tom Harriman, their Cold War Boats Site Lead and Base Webmaster, and I started talking about the possibilities about a month ago, and after much discussion, a few sea stories, and careful consideration we decided that hosting base websites would be a good thing for both the USSVI and the Cold War Boats Association.
Among the advantages:
The burden of site design, security, privacy, redundancy, and back up is lifted from the shoulders of the Base Webmaster, and incorporated under the umbrella of the existing Cold War Boats website, allowing total focus on content, rather than design and functionality.
Each Base hosting will enjoy modern site design, with state of the art appearance, customizable with base-related photographs, that is responsive to the device on which it is viewed (mobile devices to be included soon), with robust security and privacy management not previously experienced.
