Michael Hedman
Senior Chief Petty Officer U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Machinist’s Mate-Submarines
Atlantic and Pacific Fleets
June ’81 – June ‘07
Senior Chief Petty Officer U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Machinist’s Mate-Submarines
Atlantic and Pacific Fleets
June ’81 – June ‘07
“The single, most powerful and most capable mobile weapons platform you will never see. Until it’s too late.” unknown
Michael Hedman was a “Navy Brat”. He was born in 1963 on Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. His father was in the Navy for ’21 years but never stepped foot on a ship. He was a flight engineer on Lockhead Orion P-3’s which patrol the oceans searching for submarines. Michael has an older brother and older sister. The family moved often and lived on the island of Oahu and then moved to Patuxent River Maryland. His father left the Navy after four years and went to work at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft for a short period and then went back into the Navy where he made it a career. He was last stationed in Brunswick Maine and retired there and started his own appliance repair business, but that didn’t work out. The family moved back to Connecticut where he returned to Pratt and Whitney in Southington, Connecticut as a jet engine mechanic.
Mike attended Southington High School, but school didn’t interest him. He was a hard worker and had a part-time job in the local IGA supermarket. He didn’t fully apply himself in school and didn’t want to go to college. At that time Mike’s brother was in the Navy and was serving on a submarine. He invited Mike to visit him and gave him a tour of the submarine. Mike was completely enamored with all the engineering packed into the submarine and decided that was where he wanted to be. Mike enlisted in the delayed entry program in December of 1980 with a contract for a submarine guarantee. He graduated from Southington High School in June of 1981 and left for boot camp nine days later for Great Lakes, Illinois.
Mike was in good physical condition, and he didn’t find Boot Camp too difficult. His brother had already told him what to expect, which made it even easier. He felt the hardest part of boot camp was being away from his family. After boot camp Mike headed to Groton, CT for Naval Submarine School. After Submarine School Mike received orders to the USS SAM RAYBURN (SSBN 635). SSBN is the abbreviation for Submersible Ship Ballistic Nuclear.
Mike explained each missile submarine had two crews, a blue crew, and a gold crew. Each crew would serve about seventy days at sea and there was a constant three-month rotation. This allowed the submarine to remain deployed for the maximum amount of time and provide constant coverage of target packages. This is important because the submarine is part of the Nuclear Triad. The Nuclear Triad is a three-pronged system designed to protect America’s national security through its ability to deliver nuclear weapons in three ways. From land-based systems, from submarines and from bombers. Mutually assured destruction in the event of nuclear attack against the U.S. is the deterrent against a nuclear strike.
The USS SAM RAYBURN was capable of carrying 16 nuclear missiles with multiple warheads on each one. Mike was part of the 150-man crew and served as part of the Engineering Department in Auxiliary Division. A-gang as it was called appealed to Mike because it covered a broad range of engineering systems and components from bow to stern. Mike attended numerous schools to learn the various systems. The training didn’t stop there. All submariners were constantly being qualified on different submarines systems. The goal is to earn the Submarine Warfare Insignia, also known as your “Dolphins” or “Fish”.
Submariners are required to demonstrate their knowledge and competence of the full array of systems on the submarine. Generally, a submariner has one year to complete his qualification and failure to pass usually results in transfer to the surface fleet. Achieving these qualifications is important because submariners cross-train amongst jobs onboard. In times of peril their training gives them the best chance at survivability. Operating deep below the ocean’s surface makes it difficult for surface ships to successfully rescue a submarine with problems. Submariners can end up in very complicated situations where knowledge is power. Survivability during wartime hinges on your ability to remain quiet and knowing your training puts you in the best possible position to handle any situation that arises.
When a missile submarine is deployed, it is sent to its ‘box’. “The whole ocean is broken up into boxes and you would go out to the box you were assigned and cover a target package in the North Atlantic.” The submarine would typically cruise at a depth of 150 feet and a very slow speed to remain undetected. The submarines weapons are programmed to launch from inside that box. “If you stray outside of your box your missiles are going to miss their intended target if you ever get the launch order.” A common slogan for boomer sailors is “three knots to nowhere.”
If an enemy submarine were to pass through a box with a US submarine in it, the US sub would quietly move to the point in the box furthest from the enemy. This would require a very slow speed and require everyone on the submarine to be completely quiet. Mike said the crew might be sent to bed to reduce the possibility of noise if operating in “ultra quiet” mode. “Every submarine sounds different. Every submarine has its own sound signature. So, the object is to remain undetected so no one can identify who you are or where you are.”
When a crew turnover takes place, the incoming crew is responsible for repairing equipment and replenishing the supplies. This may not sound complicated, but the idea was to have just enough food inventory to have nothing remaining on the date of turnover. There would be a 30-day period where the crew checked that the systems were all operational and any repairs would be made then if needed. The departing crew would be flown back to the states within a couple days and start their off-crew training period.
After four years and completing six patrols on the RAYBURN, Mike received orders to Groton, CT to be on the crew for a Pre-commissioning Unit (PCU). A Pre-com unit is assigned to a submarine being built in a shipyard. The submarine being built was an Ohio Class Trident submarine, the USS NEVADA (SSBN 733). This submarine would be larger than the USS SAM RAYBURN. It would be 560 feet long, could dive to a deeper depth, and could carry up to 24 ballistic missiles. Mike attended various schools to learn the systems of the new Trident class submarines. During the construction process Mike was responsible for the hydraulic and refrigeration systems. He was responsible for learning every aspect of the systems, review the plans and ensure it was properly installed. This was a painstaking process. “You were to hand-over-hand, every pipe checking everything….and in the process you were learning the boat.” A big part of this process was to make sure all the equipment and components were away from the hull and mounted on rubber to be sure there was nothing that could form a “sound short”. This meant to transmit sound to the hull that would cause a sound “transient” and give away the submarines position to the enemy.
Before a submarine is considered seaworthy it undergoes Sea Trials. There are navigation trials, weapons trials, and engineering trials to name a few. Mike talked about the engineering trials which included a deep dive to ensure the submarine didn’t leak. Everyone on the crew would be awake during the trial and was equipped with a flashlight to look for leaks. Mike explained there were two types of leaks: a controlled leak or flooding. A controlled leak would have less than 300 gallons per minute entering the submarine and could be handled by an internal pump. If the volume of water was more than 300 gallons per minute coming into the sub it was considered flooding. Generally, if water is coming in and you are in fear of your life-you call away flooding. If the word “flooding” is heard over the emergency reporting system- “That’s going to cause a certain reaction with the ships control party.” Meaning, that “key word” will invoke certain emergency actions by the men driving the boat to maximize survivability of the vessel. Speed is increased along with getting the boat as shallow as possible quickly, sometimes conducting an emergency blow to the surface.
After the Sea Trials the gold crew came to take the submarine through the Panama Canal out to the west coast to the submarine base in Bangor, Washington. The blue crew packed up their families and headed west to their new homeport in Washington State.
Mike completed two deterrent patrols in the northern Pacific with the NEVADA before he received orders to report to Navy Recruiting District, Detroit, Michigan, where he would be a recruiter for the Navy. Initially, Mike wasn’t happy about this because he was an introvert as a younger man. He couldn’t think of anything less appealing than talking with people all day long. He attended recruiter training at Naval Training Center, Orlando Florida and found he really enjoyed it. “You’re a recruiter 24/7. If you go to the store in the evening to buy a gallon of milk, you ask the kid at the register, why aren’t you in the Navy?”. Everywhere he went he was asking that question.
Mike was stationed in a recruiting office in Flint, Michigan and later went to a small farming community in Lapeer, Michigan. Mike had a successful recruiting career there. “We really tore it up.” A shipmate he served with on the NEVADA was also recruiting in Grand Rapids, Michigan and invited Mike to his stag party while he was working in Lapeer. During that visit, he met his future wife, Laurie. Another benefit of signing up to be a recruiter was he would be given his choice of assignments after his recruiting tour was completed. Mike requested orders to the USS PARCHE (SSN 683), a modified attack submarine. The Parche was a spy boat and part of Submarine Developmental Group One, and homeported in Vallejo, California. It involved “Real spook stuff”.
Mike’s career with the PARCHE almost ended before it started. Mike was required to take a lie detectors test, complete various interviews and was subject to an extensive background check before he would be given clearance to work on top secret matters. Before he met his wife, Mike had agreed to participate in a bachelor auction for a charity. The woman with the winning bid for his date package, he later learned, was a Russian National working on a Visa in Michigan. Mike told his superiors, and they told him if he went forward with the date, he would not be part of the PARCHE. The woman lost her $700 she paid to go on a date with him and Mike made it to the PARCHE. The submarine would do testing with various ocean engineering systems. That is all Mike would say since much information about the PARCHE is still classified.
In 1994 Mike and 139 other crew members left Mare Island Shipyard in Vallejo, CA on a 5-month voyage on the 401-foot long PARCHE. Mike described the mission as “vital to national security”. There would not be the typical rotation of crew during the five-month deployment as this boat only had one hand picked crew. “It was important that our adversaries not know where we were going”. “We loaded so many cans of food aboard before we left, we were literally walking atop two layers of #10 cans which meant you had to walk through the passageways hunched over so you wouldn’t knock your skull in the overhead.”
While operating under the polar ice cap, the CAMS or Central Atmosphere Monitoring System which monitors the internal environment for carbon monoxide, freon, Hydrogen and other gases harmful to the crew, was alarming for a freon leak into the air the crew was breathing. This was a serious condition, and this was a system Mike was responsible for. The leak was found and fortunately there was spare refrigerant in the inventory. Mike and others successfully eliminated the freon from the submarine atmosphere and Mike was assigned to monitor the system for the duration of the mission. The system kept the chillbox and freezebox cold for food storage and without food, there would be no mission. For his work in addressing this situation Mike was recognized as USS PARCHE’s Sailor of the Year for 1994.
In 1995 Mike received orders to the deep diving submarine, USS DOLPHIN (AGSS-555). The DOLPHIN was a small 164’ long diesel-electric “auxiliary” submarine capable of diving to depths of 4,000 feet. The DOLPHIN’s mission involved scientific research. If the Navy or a scientist needed a platform to test something at sea, the DOLPHIN would do it. Mike was awarded his Deep Submergence pin and promoted to Chief Petty Officer on this tour.
After just a year Mike received orders to Groton to teach at Naval Submarine School. There he was an instructor, teaching sailors about diesel engines. After three years as an instructor Mike received orders to the USS PROVIDENCE (SSN-719} where he was A-Gang Chief with 14 men under him. Mike felt this was a very satisfying assignment. The PROVIDENCE was a 688 Class fast attack submarine homeported in Groton, CT.
On Mike’s second six month deployment with the USS PROVIDENCE, they found themselves in the Red Sea headed toward the Suez Canal to make their way to the Mediterranean Sea. They were headed north to the Suez Canal where they were to have their last port call in Greece after passing through the canal. They would never make it. It was late at night when the ship’s Captain woke everybody up who was sleeping with important news. It was 1AM when they learned of the 9/11 attacks. They reversed course and headed back to the Arabian Sea at flank speed where they waited for the rest of the USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65) battle group to reconvene. It wasn’t until October, when squadron personnel from Groton arrived with a VHS tape of the attacks, that the crew fully understood what had happened.
On October 14th of 2001 the USS PROVIDENCE unleashed a volley of tomahawk missiles at various targets in the middle east. Over a period of several days, they launched 20+ missiles. Their six-month deployment turned into seven months before they were able to get off station. The Providence went back to the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal and to the Island of Sardinia to dock with a submarine tender USS EMORY S. LAND (AS-39) at the submarine base in La Maddalena, Italy. When PROVIDENCE sailed around the mountains and the LAND came into view, they saw the crew of the submarine tender “manning-the-rail” in their dress uniforms as a sign of respect for their actions in the Arabian Sea. Upon mooring it was the first time Mike was able to speak with his wife and children since 9/11. During this deployment Mike was promoted to the rank of Senior Chief Petty Officer.
The next stop for Mike was Shore Duty back in Groton, CT. Mike received orders again to the Engineering Department at Naval Submarine School. Mike served in a capacity similar to a Dean of Students, handling a broad range of student issues. After three years in this role Mike went back to sea duty.
It was the end of 2004 and Mike’s next orders were to the USS ALBUQUERQUE (SSN 706), another 362’ Los Angeles-Class attack submarine. At this point in his career Mike was able to screen for Chief of the Boat (COB). The COB is the top enlisted man on the submarine. Many of his colleagues encouraged him to take his shot. Mike gave it a lot of consideration, but in the end, he decided against it. Mike said he lacked the self-confidence to do this job on the submarine. He really didn’t see himself as a people person which is necessary to be the COB. “I like turning wrenches. Not dealing with people problems.” Instead, Mike took a billet as Maintenance Material Management Coordinator or 3MC. In this role he managed the maintenance aspects of the submarine’s repairs during major upkeep periods.
During this tour Mike started to consider how much longer he wanted to continue his career in the Navy. The pressure of living in such confined quarters was starting to take a toll. “The day he reported aboard ALBUQUEQUE, he had breakfast with his wife and two young sons in the morning, and by late morning was jumping from a tugboat onto the submarine offshore. “I started thinking more and more as I got older and more experienced. I started thinking more and more about the bad things that could happen on a submarine.” And he was growing tired of the crowded spaces aboard the boats.
At the end of his tour on this boat, he retired in ’07. Mike left the Navy the way he wanted to, as part of a submarine crew. As part of Naval tradition there is a ceremony when you retire. Mike’s was held in the Shepard of the Sea Chapel in Groton, CT. In attendance were his crewmates from ALBUQUERQUE and the guest speaker was the former COB of PROVIDENCE during the 9/11 attacks. Mike remembers the day his father retired from the Navy back in 1974 inside of an airplane hangar in Brunswick Maine. “I realized at that moment what my father must have been feeling so many years ago.” “As part of the ceremony there is a flag that is folded by your shipmates and passed from the junior most crew member to you at the very end, complete with a hand salute. His flag is on the mantle in a triangular cherrywood case made by a Master Chief Petty Officer and a friend of his.
I asked Mike if he would do it all again. “In a heartbeat. If they asked me tomorrow to go to sea, I’d go to sea.” I asked what the best part was of being part of a submarine crew. “The camaraderie. The teamwork. Nowhere in civilian life is there anything like that.”
Mike has no regrets and is comfortable with his decision not to screen for the COB position. “I think it set me up for where I am today.”
Mike, we all greatly appreciate the sacrifices you and your family made and the dangers that you endured those many years spent underwater defending the freedom of democracy.
“Of those branches of men in the forces there is none which shows more devotion and faces grimmer perils than the submariners.” Winston Churchill
Michael Hedman was a “Navy Brat”. He was born in 1963 on Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. His father was in the Navy for ’21 years but never stepped foot on a ship. He was a flight engineer on Lockhead Orion P-3’s which patrol the oceans searching for submarines. Michael has an older brother and older sister. The family moved often and lived on the island of Oahu and then moved to Patuxent River Maryland. His father left the Navy after four years and went to work at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft for a short period and then went back into the Navy where he made it a career. He was last stationed in Brunswick Maine and retired there and started his own appliance repair business, but that didn’t work out. The family moved back to Connecticut where he returned to Pratt and Whitney in Southington, Connecticut as a jet engine mechanic.
Mike attended Southington High School, but school didn’t interest him. He was a hard worker and had a part-time job in the local IGA supermarket. He didn’t fully apply himself in school and didn’t want to go to college. At that time Mike’s brother was in the Navy and was serving on a submarine. He invited Mike to visit him and gave him a tour of the submarine. Mike was completely enamored with all the engineering packed into the submarine and decided that was where he wanted to be. Mike enlisted in the delayed entry program in December of 1980 with a contract for a submarine guarantee. He graduated from Southington High School in June of 1981 and left for boot camp nine days later for Great Lakes, Illinois.
Mike was in good physical condition, and he didn’t find Boot Camp too difficult. His brother had already told him what to expect, which made it even easier. He felt the hardest part of boot camp was being away from his family. After boot camp Mike headed to Groton, CT for Naval Submarine School. After Submarine School Mike received orders to the USS SAM RAYBURN (SSBN 635). SSBN is the abbreviation for Submersible Ship Ballistic Nuclear.
Mike explained each missile submarine had two crews, a blue crew, and a gold crew. Each crew would serve about seventy days at sea and there was a constant three-month rotation. This allowed the submarine to remain deployed for the maximum amount of time and provide constant coverage of target packages. This is important because the submarine is part of the Nuclear Triad. The Nuclear Triad is a three-pronged system designed to protect America’s national security through its ability to deliver nuclear weapons in three ways. From land-based systems, from submarines and from bombers. Mutually assured destruction in the event of nuclear attack against the U.S. is the deterrent against a nuclear strike.
The USS SAM RAYBURN was capable of carrying 16 nuclear missiles with multiple warheads on each one. Mike was part of the 150-man crew and served as part of the Engineering Department in Auxiliary Division. A-gang as it was called appealed to Mike because it covered a broad range of engineering systems and components from bow to stern. Mike attended numerous schools to learn the various systems. The training didn’t stop there. All submariners were constantly being qualified on different submarines systems. The goal is to earn the Submarine Warfare Insignia, also known as your “Dolphins” or “Fish”.
Submariners are required to demonstrate their knowledge and competence of the full array of systems on the submarine. Generally, a submariner has one year to complete his qualification and failure to pass usually results in transfer to the surface fleet. Achieving these qualifications is important because submariners cross-train amongst jobs onboard. In times of peril their training gives them the best chance at survivability. Operating deep below the ocean’s surface makes it difficult for surface ships to successfully rescue a submarine with problems. Submariners can end up in very complicated situations where knowledge is power. Survivability during wartime hinges on your ability to remain quiet and knowing your training puts you in the best possible position to handle any situation that arises.
When a missile submarine is deployed, it is sent to its ‘box’. “The whole ocean is broken up into boxes and you would go out to the box you were assigned and cover a target package in the North Atlantic.” The submarine would typically cruise at a depth of 150 feet and a very slow speed to remain undetected. The submarines weapons are programmed to launch from inside that box. “If you stray outside of your box your missiles are going to miss their intended target if you ever get the launch order.” A common slogan for boomer sailors is “three knots to nowhere.”
If an enemy submarine were to pass through a box with a US submarine in it, the US sub would quietly move to the point in the box furthest from the enemy. This would require a very slow speed and require everyone on the submarine to be completely quiet. Mike said the crew might be sent to bed to reduce the possibility of noise if operating in “ultra quiet” mode. “Every submarine sounds different. Every submarine has its own sound signature. So, the object is to remain undetected so no one can identify who you are or where you are.”
When a crew turnover takes place, the incoming crew is responsible for repairing equipment and replenishing the supplies. This may not sound complicated, but the idea was to have just enough food inventory to have nothing remaining on the date of turnover. There would be a 30-day period where the crew checked that the systems were all operational and any repairs would be made then if needed. The departing crew would be flown back to the states within a couple days and start their off-crew training period.
After four years and completing six patrols on the RAYBURN, Mike received orders to Groton, CT to be on the crew for a Pre-commissioning Unit (PCU). A Pre-com unit is assigned to a submarine being built in a shipyard. The submarine being built was an Ohio Class Trident submarine, the USS NEVADA (SSBN 733). This submarine would be larger than the USS SAM RAYBURN. It would be 560 feet long, could dive to a deeper depth, and could carry up to 24 ballistic missiles. Mike attended various schools to learn the systems of the new Trident class submarines. During the construction process Mike was responsible for the hydraulic and refrigeration systems. He was responsible for learning every aspect of the systems, review the plans and ensure it was properly installed. This was a painstaking process. “You were to hand-over-hand, every pipe checking everything….and in the process you were learning the boat.” A big part of this process was to make sure all the equipment and components were away from the hull and mounted on rubber to be sure there was nothing that could form a “sound short”. This meant to transmit sound to the hull that would cause a sound “transient” and give away the submarines position to the enemy.
Before a submarine is considered seaworthy it undergoes Sea Trials. There are navigation trials, weapons trials, and engineering trials to name a few. Mike talked about the engineering trials which included a deep dive to ensure the submarine didn’t leak. Everyone on the crew would be awake during the trial and was equipped with a flashlight to look for leaks. Mike explained there were two types of leaks: a controlled leak or flooding. A controlled leak would have less than 300 gallons per minute entering the submarine and could be handled by an internal pump. If the volume of water was more than 300 gallons per minute coming into the sub it was considered flooding. Generally, if water is coming in and you are in fear of your life-you call away flooding. If the word “flooding” is heard over the emergency reporting system- “That’s going to cause a certain reaction with the ships control party.” Meaning, that “key word” will invoke certain emergency actions by the men driving the boat to maximize survivability of the vessel. Speed is increased along with getting the boat as shallow as possible quickly, sometimes conducting an emergency blow to the surface.
After the Sea Trials the gold crew came to take the submarine through the Panama Canal out to the west coast to the submarine base in Bangor, Washington. The blue crew packed up their families and headed west to their new homeport in Washington State.
Mike completed two deterrent patrols in the northern Pacific with the NEVADA before he received orders to report to Navy Recruiting District, Detroit, Michigan, where he would be a recruiter for the Navy. Initially, Mike wasn’t happy about this because he was an introvert as a younger man. He couldn’t think of anything less appealing than talking with people all day long. He attended recruiter training at Naval Training Center, Orlando Florida and found he really enjoyed it. “You’re a recruiter 24/7. If you go to the store in the evening to buy a gallon of milk, you ask the kid at the register, why aren’t you in the Navy?”. Everywhere he went he was asking that question.
Mike was stationed in a recruiting office in Flint, Michigan and later went to a small farming community in Lapeer, Michigan. Mike had a successful recruiting career there. “We really tore it up.” A shipmate he served with on the NEVADA was also recruiting in Grand Rapids, Michigan and invited Mike to his stag party while he was working in Lapeer. During that visit, he met his future wife, Laurie. Another benefit of signing up to be a recruiter was he would be given his choice of assignments after his recruiting tour was completed. Mike requested orders to the USS PARCHE (SSN 683), a modified attack submarine. The Parche was a spy boat and part of Submarine Developmental Group One, and homeported in Vallejo, California. It involved “Real spook stuff”.
Mike’s career with the PARCHE almost ended before it started. Mike was required to take a lie detectors test, complete various interviews and was subject to an extensive background check before he would be given clearance to work on top secret matters. Before he met his wife, Mike had agreed to participate in a bachelor auction for a charity. The woman with the winning bid for his date package, he later learned, was a Russian National working on a Visa in Michigan. Mike told his superiors, and they told him if he went forward with the date, he would not be part of the PARCHE. The woman lost her $700 she paid to go on a date with him and Mike made it to the PARCHE. The submarine would do testing with various ocean engineering systems. That is all Mike would say since much information about the PARCHE is still classified.
In 1994 Mike and 139 other crew members left Mare Island Shipyard in Vallejo, CA on a 5-month voyage on the 401-foot long PARCHE. Mike described the mission as “vital to national security”. There would not be the typical rotation of crew during the five-month deployment as this boat only had one hand picked crew. “It was important that our adversaries not know where we were going”. “We loaded so many cans of food aboard before we left, we were literally walking atop two layers of #10 cans which meant you had to walk through the passageways hunched over so you wouldn’t knock your skull in the overhead.”
While operating under the polar ice cap, the CAMS or Central Atmosphere Monitoring System which monitors the internal environment for carbon monoxide, freon, Hydrogen and other gases harmful to the crew, was alarming for a freon leak into the air the crew was breathing. This was a serious condition, and this was a system Mike was responsible for. The leak was found and fortunately there was spare refrigerant in the inventory. Mike and others successfully eliminated the freon from the submarine atmosphere and Mike was assigned to monitor the system for the duration of the mission. The system kept the chillbox and freezebox cold for food storage and without food, there would be no mission. For his work in addressing this situation Mike was recognized as USS PARCHE’s Sailor of the Year for 1994.
In 1995 Mike received orders to the deep diving submarine, USS DOLPHIN (AGSS-555). The DOLPHIN was a small 164’ long diesel-electric “auxiliary” submarine capable of diving to depths of 4,000 feet. The DOLPHIN’s mission involved scientific research. If the Navy or a scientist needed a platform to test something at sea, the DOLPHIN would do it. Mike was awarded his Deep Submergence pin and promoted to Chief Petty Officer on this tour.
After just a year Mike received orders to Groton to teach at Naval Submarine School. There he was an instructor, teaching sailors about diesel engines. After three years as an instructor Mike received orders to the USS PROVIDENCE (SSN-719} where he was A-Gang Chief with 14 men under him. Mike felt this was a very satisfying assignment. The PROVIDENCE was a 688 Class fast attack submarine homeported in Groton, CT.
On Mike’s second six month deployment with the USS PROVIDENCE, they found themselves in the Red Sea headed toward the Suez Canal to make their way to the Mediterranean Sea. They were headed north to the Suez Canal where they were to have their last port call in Greece after passing through the canal. They would never make it. It was late at night when the ship’s Captain woke everybody up who was sleeping with important news. It was 1AM when they learned of the 9/11 attacks. They reversed course and headed back to the Arabian Sea at flank speed where they waited for the rest of the USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65) battle group to reconvene. It wasn’t until October, when squadron personnel from Groton arrived with a VHS tape of the attacks, that the crew fully understood what had happened.
On October 14th of 2001 the USS PROVIDENCE unleashed a volley of tomahawk missiles at various targets in the middle east. Over a period of several days, they launched 20+ missiles. Their six-month deployment turned into seven months before they were able to get off station. The Providence went back to the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal and to the Island of Sardinia to dock with a submarine tender USS EMORY S. LAND (AS-39) at the submarine base in La Maddalena, Italy. When PROVIDENCE sailed around the mountains and the LAND came into view, they saw the crew of the submarine tender “manning-the-rail” in their dress uniforms as a sign of respect for their actions in the Arabian Sea. Upon mooring it was the first time Mike was able to speak with his wife and children since 9/11. During this deployment Mike was promoted to the rank of Senior Chief Petty Officer.
The next stop for Mike was Shore Duty back in Groton, CT. Mike received orders again to the Engineering Department at Naval Submarine School. Mike served in a capacity similar to a Dean of Students, handling a broad range of student issues. After three years in this role Mike went back to sea duty.
It was the end of 2004 and Mike’s next orders were to the USS ALBUQUERQUE (SSN 706), another 362’ Los Angeles-Class attack submarine. At this point in his career Mike was able to screen for Chief of the Boat (COB). The COB is the top enlisted man on the submarine. Many of his colleagues encouraged him to take his shot. Mike gave it a lot of consideration, but in the end, he decided against it. Mike said he lacked the self-confidence to do this job on the submarine. He really didn’t see himself as a people person which is necessary to be the COB. “I like turning wrenches. Not dealing with people problems.” Instead, Mike took a billet as Maintenance Material Management Coordinator or 3MC. In this role he managed the maintenance aspects of the submarine’s repairs during major upkeep periods.
During this tour Mike started to consider how much longer he wanted to continue his career in the Navy. The pressure of living in such confined quarters was starting to take a toll. “The day he reported aboard ALBUQUEQUE, he had breakfast with his wife and two young sons in the morning, and by late morning was jumping from a tugboat onto the submarine offshore. “I started thinking more and more as I got older and more experienced. I started thinking more and more about the bad things that could happen on a submarine.” And he was growing tired of the crowded spaces aboard the boats.
At the end of his tour on this boat, he retired in ’07. Mike left the Navy the way he wanted to, as part of a submarine crew. As part of Naval tradition there is a ceremony when you retire. Mike’s was held in the Shepard of the Sea Chapel in Groton, CT. In attendance were his crewmates from ALBUQUERQUE and the guest speaker was the former COB of PROVIDENCE during the 9/11 attacks. Mike remembers the day his father retired from the Navy back in 1974 inside of an airplane hangar in Brunswick Maine. “I realized at that moment what my father must have been feeling so many years ago.” “As part of the ceremony there is a flag that is folded by your shipmates and passed from the junior most crew member to you at the very end, complete with a hand salute. His flag is on the mantle in a triangular cherrywood case made by a Master Chief Petty Officer and a friend of his.
I asked Mike if he would do it all again. “In a heartbeat. If they asked me tomorrow to go to sea, I’d go to sea.” I asked what the best part was of being part of a submarine crew. “The camaraderie. The teamwork. Nowhere in civilian life is there anything like that.”
Mike has no regrets and is comfortable with his decision not to screen for the COB position. “I think it set me up for where I am today.”
Mike, we all greatly appreciate the sacrifices you and your family made and the dangers that you endured those many years spent underwater defending the freedom of democracy.
“Of those branches of men in the forces there is none which shows more devotion and faces grimmer perils than the submariners.” Winston Churchill