For someone who has nothing to do with submarines, I sure have been on a lot of them. This is because Patrick was a submariner for +10 years (now an engineering duty officer) in the Navy, so it’s obviously of interest to him, and I’ve always been willing to indulge him. I put together a curated list of unique and first-of-their-kind submarines throughout the country for military enthusiasts on MilitaryHistoryNow.com.
It started when Patrick was stationed in Groton, Connecticut for several months of training. He and I visited the nearby USS Nautilus and the Submarine Force Museum (With more than 6,000 books about the submarine force, it is also library!). After Patrick’s training, we made a road trip of his move to Portsmouth, Virginia and kept driving through the East Coast down to New Orleans before turning back to Virginia.
In Charleston, South Carolina, we visited the CSS Hunley. In New Orleans, we went to the National World War II Museum and did the “Final Mission: USS Tang Submarine Experience.” In just a few months, I had been on real, replica, and recreated submarines.
A year or so later, as the nuclear engineer on the USS Rhode Island, Patrick brought me aboard the while it was dry docked for repairs in Portsmouth, Virginia. Given the progression of submarines I’d seen so far, from Civil War era to WWII to the 1950s to today, I could appreciate the difference in capabilities, size, and accommodations.
Then, I moved to Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, home to the Museum of Science and Industry that oddly enough is the home to a captured German U-Boat (read the article to learn why). Soon I’ll be moving to San Diego and will obviously need to check out the USS Dolphin at the San Diego Maritime Museum.
Though I had personally visited the majority of these submarines I wanted to feature, I didn’t know much about their history. I turned to books where I could everything I need to know (and of course there was also a lot of Googling). The military buffs can get their tickets, but you came here because you wanted to reading material. Well, you should certainly visit these too to bring your reading to life.
CSS Hunley
USS Nautilus
U-505
*I love that Admiral Gallery turned writer! I found his writing entertaining and witty, so I enjoyed reading about his transition after military service, as much as I did reading the necessary material for the MilitaryHistoryNow.com article.
Chelsey Stone 