FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER Issue 47 599 7 USSVI Golden Corner Base Newsletter Issue 047 MARCH 2024 wel MARCH 25TH – MEDAL OF HONOR DAY IN THIS ISSUE Greetings Shipmates, Wow, a lot going on in March. Daylight Savings Time (now leave it like this!), St. Patrick’s day, Spring Equinox, Medal of Honor day, my wife’s birthday, National Vietnam War Veteran’s day, Easter….whew. And…our March meeting! Don’t forget to respond to Roche’ if you are planning to attend. Be sure to read and respond to the minutes that the base Secretary has emailed out. If you did not receive that email, let him and/or the Treasurer know to update our email records. I appreciate the contributions, one and all that make this newsletter more enjoyable and meaningful to all our base shipmates. Keep it coming! A little longer this issue with a interesting article from, of all places, Vanity Fair. Despite that…it was quite interesting. Our official base charities are having some events in the near future. Be sure to check out what is happening and consider volunteering if you can. Speaking of volunteering, reach out to Walker “T” Bousman of you’re interested the highway trash pickup. Thanks to Luis for the contribution to the base library! See me if you want to check our a book or make a book donation. See you Wednesday! Fair Winds & Calm Seas, Brett Life on a Boomer … page 14 Spring Fundrasier… page 28 A Busy Month…
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 2 • USS Perch (SS-176) Lost on March 3,1942 near Java with no immediate loss of life, while on her 1st war patrol. She survived 2 severe depth chargings in less than 200 feet of water by 3 Japanese destroyers. The crew abandoned ship and scuttled her. Of the 59 officers and men taken prisoner, 53 survived the war and six died as POWs. • USS Grampus (SS-207) Lost on March 5,1943 with the loss of 71 officers and men, on her 6th war patrol. She was lost in Vella Gulf, sunk after engaging 2 Japanese Destroyers. • USS H-1 (SS-28) Lost on March 12, 1920 with the loss of 4 men as they tried to swim to shore after grounding on a shoal off Santa Margarita Island, off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. Vestal (AR-4), pulled H-1 off the rocks in the morning of 24 March, only to have her sink 45 minutes later in some 50 feet of water. She was originally named the USS Seawolf before becoming H-1. • USS Triton (SS-201) Lost on March 15,1943 with the loss of 74 men. She was sunk north of the Admiralty Islands during a fight with 3 Japanese Destroyers. Triton was the 1st boat to engage the enemy in December 1941 off Wake Island, sinking 9 ships, 1 submarine and a destroyer. • USS Kete (SS-369) Lost on March 20,1945 with the loss of 87 officers and men at the end of her 2nd war patrol. Probably sunk near Okinawa, by a Japanese submarine that itself was subsequently lost. • USS F-4 (SS-23) Lost on March 25, 1915 with the loss of 21 men. She foundered 1.5 miles off of Honolulu when acid corrosion of the lead lining of the battery tank let seawater into the battery compartment, causing loss of control. She was raised in August 1915. • USS Tullibee (SS-284) Lost on March 26,1944 with the loss of 79 officers and men, on her 4th war patrol. It's believed she was a victim of a circular run by one of her own torpedoes. The lookout was the only survivor and he survived the war as a Japanese prisoner. • USS Trigger (SS-237) Lost on March 26,1945 with the loss of 89 officers and men, on her 12th war patrol. She was lost during a combined attack by Japanese antisubmarine vessels and aircraft. Trigger ranked 7th in total tonnage sunk and tied for 8th in number of ships sunk. `Honoring our fallen submarine heroes is fundamental to our creed as members of U.S. Submarine Veterans (USSVI), which is… “To perpetuate the memory of our shipmates who gave their lives in the pursuit of their duties while serving their country.” Commemorative photo in honor of the memory of the crew of the Triton (SS201). Photo courtesy of Tom Kermen.
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 3 USSVI NEWS Scam Emails Shipmates, Several scam emails have been circulating pretending to be coming from me. If you look at the email address after my name, it is definitely not my email address. This has happened several times in the past, not only apparently coming from me, but from other USSVI members and Officers. These scams are a direct result of people sending emails to a group of recipients and using “To” instead of “Bcc”. When sending messages to a group of people, always make it a point to use “Bcc”. This prevents the bad guys from getting a list of names and email addresses that they can send scam messages to. If an email message appears to be coming from someone you know, and looks suspicious to you, you can always check it out by contacting that person directly, either by phone or email from your address book, and NOT responding to that particular original message. The world is full of people (bad guys) always trying to scam someone out of money, one way or another. Unfortunately, this will never stop, so be careful, cautious, AND use “Bcc” when sending your emails. V/R Bill Andrea, NC Groton Base 60th Anniversary Shipmates, May 29, 30, 31, and 1 JUNE 2024 Come Home to where your Submarine Career Began Wednesday 29 May 2023 – Early Bird welcome package pick up is at the Groton Base club house at 40 School Street, Groton, CT 06340 from 1300 (1:00 pm) to 1600 (4:00 pm). Stick around for Happy Hour and enjoy chatting with ole shipmates and making new acquaintances. Day one, Thursday 30 May – As you pick up your welcome packet 1100 (11:00 am) to 1600 (4:00 pm) at the only USSVI Club House, enjoy lunch with the officials of National and Groton Base. If GOLF is your game, at 0800 (8:00 am) the 60th Anniversary golf outing with prizes is made available to demonstrate your skills. 1000 (10:00 am) a Wreath laying burial at sea service will be conducted at the Nautilus Submarine Force Museum. Later at 1400 (2:00 pm) you may want to take a Heritage River Cruise. 1700 (5:00 pm) enjoy Happy Hour in the comfort of your club house. At 1800 (6:00 pm) finish this first day at the WELCOME Reception at the club house. Day two, Friday 31 May – Return to Sub School at 0800 (8:00 am) for a Basic Enlisted Submarine School (BESS) graduation followed by tours* of a Virginia Class submarine. Afterwards, come back to your club house for lunch. Later at 1400 (2:00 pm) take a Heritage River Cruise. At 1700 (5:00 pm) head back to the club house for an Anniversary steak dinner for your preferred seating. Round out the day with your favorite libation at the club house. (*) <Boat Tour pending Submarine Operational Commitment> Day Three, Saturday 1 June – This day is a full day starting at 0730 (7:30 am). The Class of 2024, Holland Club Induction Ceremony will be held at Dealey Center on U.S. Submarine Base New London. Later, you can take the Heritage River Cruise at 1400 (2:00 pm). There is enough time to head back to your hotel to freshen up for the evening Grand Banquet at New London’s Port and Starboard banquet facility at Ocean Beach Park. The club house will be open to all who desire to finish the day with friends and shipmates. Sunday 5 May – Before heading home, say farewell after a hardy breakfast with friends and shipmates at SUBVETS, your club house. Brunch is served from 1000 (10:00 am) to Noon. For more details and additional information or to receive and email or USPS registration package, contact the Anniversary Committee at [email protected]. Or to receive your downloadable Registration form, go to USSVI Groton Base website at https://www.ussvigroton.org. Deadline for submittal of registration form for the three-days of events is April 14, 2024. Hurry! Request your registration form today! Steve Ricard, Groton Base Commander [email protected] Time Sensitive Veterans Service Officer Update Shipmates, Pandemic-Related Backlog of 600,000 Veterans Records Requests Finally Cleared https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/01/25/pandemic-relatedbacklog-of-600000-veterans-recordsrequests-finallycleared.html?ESRC=mr_240129.nl&u tm_medium=email&utm_source=mr& utm_campaign=20240129 Marines Can't Count on Navy Ships to Carry Them to Global Emergencies, One of the Service's Top Generals https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/01/25/top-general-saystheres-shortfall-navy-ships-carrymarines-no-clear-solutionsight.html?ESRC=mr_240129.nl&utm _medium=email&utm_source=mr&ut m_campaign=20240129
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 4 Pregnant Troops and New Military Moms Would Get Expanded Mental Health Care Under Lawmakers’ Proposal https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/01/26/pregnant-troopsand-new-military-moms-would-getexpanded-mental-health-care-underlawmakersproposal.html?ESRC=eb_240129.nl& utm_medium=email&utm_source=eb &utm_campaign=20240129 No Diploma? No problem! Navy Again Lowers Requirements as it Struggles to Meet Recruitment Goals https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/01/27/no-diploma-noproblem-navy-again-lowersrequirements-it-struggles-meetrecruitmentgoals.html?ESRC=eb_240129.nl&ut m_medium=email&utm_source=eb&u tm_campaign=20240129 The Military's New Pet Transportation Policy: What It Means to You https://www.military.com/money/pers onal-finance/militarys-new-pettransportation-policy-what-it-meansyou.html?ESRC=eb_240129.nl&utm_ medium=email&utm_source=eb&utm _campaign=20240129 Navy Rolling Out Wi-Fi to 4,000 Sailors in Pilot Program at Norfolk, Portsmouth Barracks https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/01/26/navy-rolling-out-wifi-4000-sailors-pilot-program-norfolkportsmouthbarracks.html?ESRC=eb_240129.nl& utm_medium=email&utm_source=eb &utm_campaign=20240129 Health Net Out as TriWest Prevails in Lawsuit to Claim Tricare West Region Contract https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/01/health-net-outtriwest-prevails-lawsuit-claim-tricarewest-regioncontract.html?ESRC=eb_240202.nl& utm_medium=email&utm_source=eb &utm_campaign=20240202 Survey: More than Half of US Veterans Who Own Guns Store Them Unsafely https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/07/more-half-ofveterans-who-own-firearms-storethem-unsafely-surveyfinds.html?ESRC=eb_240208.nl&utm _medium=email&utm_source=eb&ut m_campaign=20240208 Air Force Eyes Bringing Back Warrant Officers After Decades-Long Absence https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/06/air-force-eyesbringing-back-warrant-officers-afterdecades-longabsence.html?ESRC=eb_240207.nl& utm_medium=email&utm_source=eb &utm_campaign=20240207 New Tricare Contracts to Kick Off in 2025, Promising Improved Quality and Service for Beneficiaries https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/06/new-tricarecontracts-kick-off-2025-promisingimproved-quality-and-servicebeneficiaries.html?ESRC=eb_240207 .nl&utm_medium=email&utm_source =eb&utm_campaign=20240207 Americans Were Never Supposed to Hear Toby Keith's Ass-Kicking Post9/11 Battle Song on the Radio (Celebrating a great American who is no longer with us!) https://www.military.com/offduty/music/2024/02/06/americanswere-never-supposed-hear-tobykeiths-ass-kicking-post-9-11-battlesongradio.html?ESRC=eb_240207.nl&utm _medium=email&utm_source=eb&ut m_campaign=20240207 For Navy Submarines and Norfolk's USS Pasadena, Surfacing for Supplies Is a Matter of Life or Death https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/05/navy-submarinesand-norfolks-uss-pasadenasurfacing-supplies-matter-of-life-ordeath.html?ESRC=navy_240206.nl& utm_medium=email&utm_source=na vy&utm_campaign=20240206 8 Popular Cruise Lines That Offer Military Discounts https://www.military.com/discounts/cr uise-line-militarydiscounts.html?ESRC=navy_240206. nl&utm_medium=email&utm_source= navy&utm_campaign=20240206 Navy's Personnel Boss Argues Dropping High School Diploma Requirement Has 'Minimal' Risk https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/01/31/navys-personnelboss-argues-dropping-high-schooldiploma-requirement-has-minimalrisk.html?ESRC=navy_240206.nl&ut m_medium=email&utm_source=navy &utm_campaign=20240206 The Real 'Popeye the Sailor' Was Actually a Hard-Drinking Bar Brawler with a Heart of Gold https://www.military.com/offduty/2024/02/05/real-popeye-sailorwas-actually-hard-drinking-barbrawler-heart-ofgold.html?ESRC=eb_240206.nl&utm _medium=email&utm_source=eb&ut m_campaign=20240206 Supreme Court Allows West Point to Continue Using Race as a Factor in Admissions, for Now https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/02/supreme-courtallows-west-point-continue-usingrace-factor-admissionsnow.html?ESRC=eb_240205.nl&utm _medium=email&utm_source=eb&ut m_campaign=20240205 Military Veterans Advocacy (MVA) 2024 Winter Newsletter https://www.militaryveteransadvocacy .org/uploads/3/4/1/0/3410338/mva_n ewsletter-winter_2024.pdf Navy Now Forgiving Recruits' Prior Marijuana Use as It Looks to Cut More Losses at Boot Camp https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/08/navy-now-forgivingrecruits-prior-marijuana-use-it-lookscut-more-losses-bootcamp.html?ESRC=eb_240209.nl&ut
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 5 m_medium=email&utm_source=eb&u tm_campaign=20240209 VA Plans to Expand Agent Orange Disability Benefits to Cover Exposure in a Dozen New States + Overseas Locations https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/12/agent-orangebenefits-would-be-expanded-underva-plan-veterans-exposed-12-statesparts-ofcanada.html?ESRC=navy_240213.nl &utm_medium=email&utm_source=n avy&utm_campaign=20240213 Heroes Sail Free on Margaritaville at Sea https://www.military.com/discounts/he roes-sail-free-margaritavillesea?ESRC=navy_240213.nl&utm_m edium=email&utm_source=navy&utm _campaign=20240213 Navy Lifts Ban on Sailors Putting Hands in Pockets, Rolls Out Various New Uniform Changes https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/14/navy-lifts-bansailors-putting-hands-pockets-rollsout-various-new-uniformchanges.html?ESRC=eb_240215.nl& utm_medium=email&utm_source=eb &utm_campaign=20240215 VA Plan to Issue Urns, Memorial Plaques Sparks Concerns Veterans Will Be Barred from Burial with Spouses https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/13/va-plan-issue-urnsmemorial-plaques-sparks-concernsveterans-will-be-barred-burialspouses.html?ESRC=eb_240214.nl& utm_medium=email&utm_source=eb &utm_campaign=20240214 New App to Let Patients at 5 Military Hospitals Get Access to Health Care Through Their Phones https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/13/new-app-letpatients-5-military-hospitals-getaccess-health-care-through-theirphones.html?ESRC=eb_240214.nl&u tm_medium=email&utm_source=eb& utm_campaign=20240214 Just Posted on Monday 12 February 2024 VA Moves to Expand Agent Orange Veterans Benefits VA Moves to Expand Agent Orange Veterans Benefits Using Authorities from Tester’... (senate.gov) Locations in the USA Herbicide Tests and Storage in the U.S. - Public Health (va.gov) Locations Outside the USA Herbicide Tests and Storage Outside the U.S. - Public Health (va.gov) 250,000 VA Patients Are at Risk of Receiving Wrong Medication Due to Electronic Health Records Issue https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/15/250000-va-patientsare-risk-of-receiving-wrongmedication-due-electronic-healthrecordsissue.html?ESRC=eb_240216.nl&ut m_medium=email&utm_source=eb&u tm_campaign=20240216 Skylab's 1979 Crash Provides a Glimpse at the International Space Station's Future https://www.military.com/history/skyla bs-1979-crash-provides-glimpseinternational-space-stationsfuture.html?ESRC=eb_240219.nl&ut m_medium=email&utm_source=eb&u tm_campaign=20240219 New Navy Robotics Job Aimed at Getting Specialized Sailors to Work on Drones https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/22/new-navy-roboticsjob-aimed-getting-specialized-sailorsworkdrones.html?ESRC=eb_240223.nl&ut m_medium=email&utm_source=eb&u tm_campaign=20240223 GI Bill Direct Deposits Must Be to Same Bank Account as Other VA Benefits by April 20 https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/21/gi-bill-directdeposits-must-be-same-bankaccount-other-va-benefits-april20.html?ESRC=eb_240222.nl&utm_ medium=email&utm_source=eb&utm _campaign=20240222 MVA Statement Dated: 02/20/2024 https://app.box.com/s/u2b56dwx3v0fjt 9r243vrmyfd17150de Vets Say Weight Loss Drugs Have Improved Their Health, But New Patients Are Out of Luck https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/22/vets-say-weightloss-drugs-have-improved-theirhealth-new-patients-are-out-ofluck.html?ESRC=mr_240226.nl&utm _medium=email&utm_source=mr&ut m_campaign=20240226 Marine Corps Becomes the First Military Branch to Pass a Financial Audit https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/24/marine-corpsbecomes-first-military-branch-passfinancialaudit.html?ESRC=mr_240226.nl&utm _medium=email&utm_source=mr&ut m_campaign=20240226 Cyberattack Against Commercial Prescription Program Hamstrings Military Pharmacies Around the World https://www.military.com/dailynews/2024/02/23/military-patientsface-delays-filling-prescriptionsbecause-of-cyberattack-againsthealthtech.html?ESRC=mr_240226.nl&utm _medium=email&utm_source=mr&ut m_campaign=20240226 Respectively, John Dudas USSVI VSO
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 6 USSVCF March 2024 Monthly Newsletter Shipmates, This second edition of the USSVCF Newsletter highlights a few stories on the Kap(SS) 4 Kid(SS) Fund, Ambassador program growth, a public service announcement by WRWO about the path the boats took downriver during WWII, the USS Chicago Base building a new memorial honoring them, and the USSV Charitable Foundation. Submarine Service Veterans belonging to USSVI Bases voluntarily visit children in Cancer Hospitals, Children’s Hospitals, Child Psychiatric Units, Ronald McDonald Houses, Medical Camps for Children, Hospices, and other locations. They give sick children caring attention during the visit, and Honorary Submariner Certificates, Embroidered Ball Caps, Challenge Coins and other gifts. After a significant reduction of Kap(SS) 4 Kid(SS) visits due to COVID-19, more and more USSVI Bases are being allowed back into Child Health Care Facilities. To view the USSVCF March 2024 Shipmates Caring About Shipmates Monthly Newsletter, please click the link below: https://ussvcf.my.canva.site/marchnewsletter Robert J. Bachman Vice-President & Executive Director USSV Charitable Foundation [email protected] www.ussvcf.org Links to American Submariner Magazines: Current Issue https://www.ussvi.org/file/americansubmariner/2024-01-AmericanSubmariner.pdf American Submariner Library USSVI History Note: The history of USSVI since 1966 is undergoing research. Should you be able to help, please contact the USSVI HISTORIAN Ron Martini @ [email protected] NATIONAL STOREKEEPER
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 7 MARCH WAYPOINTS USSVI ANNIVERSARY Sam Smucker 2012 David Thomas 2018 Jim Fuller 2019 John Bailey 2023 GOLDEN CORNER BASE ANNIVERSARY David Thomas 2018 Jim Fuller 2019 John Bailey 2023 HAPPY BIRTHDAY! No March birthdays. GOLDEN CORNER OFFICERS: Base Commander: Ed Evering Sr. Vice Commander: Dave Rocheville Secretary: Walker “T” Bousman Treasurer: Brian Morley Chief Of The Boat: Tom Vaughan Storekeeper: Brian Morley Chaplain: Norm Garrett Eagle Scout Chair: Luis Garcia Newsletter Editor: Brett Shone Librarian: Brett Shone FROM THE WARDROOM Mark the date folks 3/20/2024 at 1800 hrs, Golden Corners Base meeting at Merrells's Pizza, 101 NE Main St Easley. We need a head count for the pizza joint so they get the set up correct. Would like to have as many hands on deck as possible. Bring a vet? Good idea? Send me a yea or a nay. Thanks. Roche' Dave Rocheville, aka mygrmpa1 Vice Commander GOLDEN CORNER BASE LIBRARY Thank you to Luis Garcia for donating the following books: “Shadow Divers” “Of Ice and Steel” “Epitaph” “Super Nuke!” CLICK LINK or scan below
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 8 SUBMITTED BY THE COB…. 20 - 27 April After Battery Hog Roast 20 April - field opens for Hog Roast early arrivals (Please call old man Buddha to reserve an area) 23 April - Porta-Potties arrive for the Jane Fonda Memorial Wall construction 27 April... Hog Served ~13:00- 14:00 WWII Vets first served... Combat Vets to follow... And, "Always Act Like A Submarine Sailor" A Veteran died today. Steve "Buddha" Nelms Email [email protected] Cell 843-709-4867 https://theafterbattery.org/ Clickbait: Finally, Sailors Can Put Hands In Their Pockets Under Policy Update (NAVY TIMES 14 FEB 24) ... Diana Stancy The Navy announced a sweeping range of uniform and personal appearance policy updates on Wednesday – including reinstating the female bucket cover and allowing sailors to place their hands in their pockets. The changes are the largest series of Navy uniform and grooming reforms since December 2022, when the service announced the introduction of a new, lightweight safety boot and modifications to the maternity service dress blue coat. The policy update rescinds restrictions barring sailors from placing their hands in their pockets, which the Navy previously claimed is “inappropriate and detracts from a professional military appearance.” “Sailors are authorized to have hands in their pockets when doing so does not compromise safety nor prohibit the proper rendering of honors and courtesies,” the NAVADMIN said. The Navy retired the female combination cover, known as the bucket cover, in 2018. But the service is now permitting all sailors to wear the cover with service dress and dinner dress uniforms, according to a new naval administrative message, or NAVADMIN, released Wednesday. Female officers and chief petty officers are also authorized to wear the cover with service khaki and summer white uniforms. Sailors cannot purchase the bucket cover from Navy Exchange uniform stores, and must instead privately obtain one for wear. Additionally, the Navy is allowing female sailors to wear the tiara as an optional uniform component when wearing dinner dress blue and white jacket uniforms. Sailors may purchase the tiara from the Navy Exchange online as a special-order item. The policy also offers modifications to fitness attire, allowing sailors to wear black or navy-blue leggings with the physical training uniform shorts and fitness suit pants. Likewise, female sailors may now wear t-shirts specifically designed for women, so long as the shirts adhere to the Navy’s color, fabric, and neck configuration standards. “The intent of this policy update is to address expressed dissatisfaction regarding the required wear of male or unisex tshirts that are not designed to fit female bodies,” the NAVADMIN said. Sailors may also wear false eyelashes or eyelash extensions in uniform – provided they are no more than “14 millimeters in length as measured from the eyelid to the tip of the eyelash.” “False eyelash color will match the color of the natural eyelash,” the NAVADMIN said. “Eyelash extensions cannot hinder wear of protective eyewear.”
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 9 The policy changes take effect immediately. ‘Can you tape that?’ Phrases tech has killed off forever BY KIM KOMANDO, KOMANDO.COM•FEBRUARY 15, 2024 Remember this? “You hang up first.” “No, you hang up first.” Not quite as romantic when you fumble for the “End call” button on your iPhone, eh? As times change and our tech changes, so do the phrases we use. Let’s take a little trip down Memory Lane. See how many of these you’ve said at least a few times in your life. • “Roll down the window.” Cars have had automatic windows for ages, making the manual rolling down of windows a thing of the past. I still say this, though, in my 1964 Mustang. • “Check the answering machine.” Voicemail on cellphones has obliterated the need for a physical answering machine. I think it’s super interesting Apple’s iOS 17 lets you listen while someone leaves a voicemail so you can decide to pick up. New? Hardly. • “Dial 411.” My mother designed the 411 directory system for Bell Labs. Now, just look someone up online and you have their digits. • “Page me.” Pagers were all the rage once upon a time. Today, it’s just your doctor (and some other specific professionals) wearing them. • “I’ll tape it.” You no longer “tape” shows with DVR and streaming services. You just hit “Record” on your device or catch it later on demand. • “Rewind” or “Fastforward.” These phrases made perfect sense for cassettes and VHS tapes, and yes, we still use them metaphorically, but you’re not actually winding anything. • “I need to find a pay phone.” My dad used to make me carry a quarter just in case I needed to make a call. With a cellphone in nearly everyone’s pocket, pay phones have become an urban relic. • “Get the film developed” or “Don’t waste the film.” Oh, the good old days of waiting to see a picture you looked horrible in. Hello, smartphones. • “Look it up in the White (or Yellow) Pages.” Online directories have replaced those hefty books. • “I’ll fax it to you.” Fax machines are just about dead. Warren Buffett once told me that’s the only way he’ll do contracts. Why? No one can hack a fax machine, unlike email. Good point, Warren. I bet there are kids and even 20- somethings in your life who would be totally stumped by these phrases. That makes me think about what phrases we use now that will someday be a thing of the past. “Google it” and “swipe your card” come to mind.
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 10 Today in US Submarine Naval History March 2 1945 USS Bowfin (SS 287) sinks Japanese transport Chokai Maru, and patrol bombers PB4Y-2 (VPB 119) sink transport Nichirin Maru in East China Sea. March 3 1942 USS Perch (SS 176), after being depth-charged and irreparably damaged by Japanese destroyers Ushio and Sazanami, is scuttled by her crew in the Java Sea. All hands survive but are taken prisoner. Also on this date, USS Asheville (PG 21) is sunk by gunboat fire of Japanese destroyers Arashi and Nowaki south of Java. March 4 1945 USS Baya (SS 318) sinks merchant tanker Palembang Maru off Cape Varella, French Indochina, and USS Tilefish (SS 307) and sinks Japanese fishing vessel ShikoMaru. March 5 1945 USS Sea Robin (SS 407) sinks three Japanese gunboats and USS Bashaw (SS 241) sinks two Japanese tankers. March 6 1944 USS Nautilus (SS 168) attacks a Japanese convoy approximately 240 miles north-north west of Saipan and sinks transport (exhospital ship) America Maru. March 7 1942 USS Grenadier (SS 210) torpedoes Japanese Asahisan Maru south of Shioya Saki, causing damage to the transport ship. 1958 USS Grayback (SSG 574) is commissioned. She is the first submarine built from the keel up with guided missile capability to fire the Regulus II missile. March 8 1961 USS Patrick Henry (SSBN 599) returns from patrol to become the first ballistic missile submarine to use Holy Loch, Scotland, as a refit and upkeep anchorage. March 9 1944 USS Lapon (SS 260), while pursuing a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, sank two freighters and survived a counterattack by Japanese gunboat. March 10 1945 USS Kete (SS-369) attacks a Japanese convoy and sinks one cargo and two transport ships while dodging counterattacks. March 13 1993 USS Montpelier (SSN 765) is commissioned at Naval Station Norfolk. The boat is the 15th in the Los Angeles-Improved class of attack submarines. March 14 1945 USS Bream (SS 243) sinks the Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser Kihin Maru in the Java Sea, south of Borneo. Also on this date, USS Trepang (SS 412) sinks the Japanese guardboat Kaiko Maru off Inubo Saki, Japan. March 17 1898 John Holland's submarine, Holland IV, performs the first successful diving and surfacing tests off Staten Island, N.Y. 1945 USS Sealion (SS 315) sinks Bangkok-bound Thai oiler Samui off Trengganu coast, while USS Spot (SS 413) attacks a Japanese convoy and sinks army cargo vessel Nanking Maru off Yushiyama Island and damages cargo Ikomasan Maru, beached off Matsu Island. 1959 USS Skate (SSN-578) becomes the first submarine to surface at the North Pole, traveling 3,000 miles in and under Arctic ice for more than a month. March 19 1945 Submarine USS Balao (SS 285) attacks a Japanese convoy and sinks one troopship and three fishing vessels and damages another off the Yangtze estuary about 90 miles north-northwest of Shanghi.
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 11 March 20 1944 USS Angler (SS-240) completes the evacuation of 58 U.S. citizens, including women and children, from the west coast of Panay, Philippine Islands. The sub had been told there were only 20 people, straining the boats supplies until it arrived at Fremantle April 9. 1945 USS Blenny (SS-324) attacks a Japanese convoy off the coast of French Indochina and sinks the merchant tankers No. 21 Nanshin Maru and Hosten Maru, along with fishing boat Yamakuni Maru about 40 miles south of Cam Ranh Bay. March 21 1943 USS Herring (SS 233) sinks the German submarine U 163 off the Bay of Biscay. The sub was responsible for sinking USS Erie (PG 50) on Nov. 14, 1942. 1945 USS Baya (SS 318) sinks the auxiliary netlayer Kainan Maru off Cam Ranh Bay. March 22 1943 USS Gudgeon (SS 211) attacks a Japanese convoy 30 miles north Surabaya, Java, sinking an army cargo ship while surviving the depth charge attack by her escort vessels. Also on this date, USS Tambor (SS 198) damages a Japanese transport in the Sulu Sea, off Negros, Philippines. March 23 1944 USS Tunny (SS 282) sinks the Japanese submarine I 42 off the Palau Islands. 1945 USS Spadefish (SS 411) attacks Japanese Sasebo-to-Ishigaki convoy SAI-05 in the East China Sea about 120 miles northnorthwest of Amami O Shima and sinks transport Doryu Maru. March 24 1944 USS Bowfin (SS 287) attacks a Japanese convoy, sinking both a transport and army cargo ship. March 25 1915 The submarine, F-4 (SS 23) sinks off Honolulu, Hawaii, with the loss of 21 lives. It is the first commissioned submarine loss for the U.S. Navy. March 26 1945 USS Balao (SS-285) sinks Japanese army stores ship No.1 Shinto Maru. March 27 1944 USS Hake (SS 256) torpedoes and sinks Japanese merchant tanker Yamamizu Maru about 75 miles south of Borneo. Also on this date, USS Rasher (SS 269) attacks a Japanese convoy and sinks army cargo ship Nichinan Maru about 50 miles north of Bali. March 28 1944 Submarines USS Barb (SS 220) and USS Silversides (SS 236) sink Japanese cargo freighter Fukusei Maru off Rasa Island and Japanese cargo ship Kairyu Maru off Manokwari, New Guinea, respectively. March 29 1944 USS Haddo (SS 255) torpedoes and sinks Japanese army cargo ship Nichian Maru in South China Sea. Also on this date, USS Tunny (SS 282) torpedoes the Japanese battleship Musashi off Palau, necessitating for her to be repaired in Japan. March 30 1944 USS Darter (SS 227) sinks a Japanese army cargo ship near New Guinea, despite the presence of an escort vessel. Also on this date, USS Picuda (SS 382) attacks a Japanese convoy and sinks a transport ship near Guam while USS Stingray (SS 186) sinks a transport ship near Saipan.
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 12 Connecticut Congressional Delegation Blasts Pentagon Decision to Cut Sub in Upcoming Defense Budget The Hartford Courant | By Edmund H. Mahony Published March 12, 2024 at 2:02pm ET Connecticut's congressional delegation blasted a Pentagon’s decision Monday to cut a Virginia class submarine built by Grotonbased Electric Boat from its proposed fiscal 2025 defense budget as the Navy tries to balance Chinese expansionism in the IndoPacific. “If such a cut is actually enacted, it will remove one more attack submarine from a fleet that is already 17 submarines below the Navy’s long-stated requirement of 66,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2, an influential voice in naval affairs as ranking member of the Seapower Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee and who promised to fight the cut. “This is just the opening bell,” he said. “If such a cut is actually enacted, it will remove one more attack submarine from a fleet that is already 17 submarines below the Navy’s long stated requirement of 66.” The Navy has asked for and Congress has approved two Virginia class attack submarines a year over recent years. The decision to remove one from the 2025 budget shows that the Pentagon has doubts about whether the shipyards building the submarines and the industrial base that supports them can produce the Virginia-class boats at the two-peryear cadence the Navy needs to maintain undersea dominance. Electric Boat, a division of General Dynamics, is the Navy’s primary submarine contractor. It is working on the Virginia class program with the Newport News Shipbuilding division of Huntington Ingalls Industries. The Groton shipyard has increased year over year productivity by spending billions on high-tech shipbuilding capacity and hiring at record rates, 5,300 last year and more than 5,000 more projected to be hired this year. But in their attempts to race back to Cold War production levels, shipbuilders are challenged not only by post-COVID supply chain bottlenecks, but by decades of flat, post-Cold War spending that shrunk the U.S. fleet by half while idling and, eventually, depleting the ranks of welders, shipfitters and riggers who build ships, not to mention the companies that supply materials and components. Compounding pressure on submarine production is the trilateral AUKUS security agreement signed last year by Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S, which authorizes an unprecedented exchange of technology in an effort to contain China. Under the agreement, the U.S. committed to selling between three and five Virginia-class submarines to Australia Reports of an impending reduction in Virginia-class funding have created alarm among the political and military leadership in Australia, which relied on U.S. commitment to AUKUS and support for the country’s massive naval modernization to push treaty approval past domestic opposition. Connecticut’s U.S Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, Democrats, released a joint statement calling the submarine budget cut “a concerning departure from our two-per-year production goals” and they said it puts at risk “U.S. undersea superiority and alliance commitments made under AUKUS to improve Indo-Pacific security.” “For years, Congress, the Department of Defense, and workers and small businesses in Connecticut have been working hard to restore the submarine industrial base, and we cannot afford to take a step backward now,” the senators said. “Dialing back submarine procurement in fiscal year 2025 threatens to slow progress in strengthening our nation’s submarine supplier base and workforce, making it more difficult to upgrade our submarine fleet and meet mounting global threats on the timeframe our national security requires.” Anticipating congressional opposition to the proposed budget cut, the Pentagon tried to mollify critics by including in the fiscal 2025 budget the equivalent of one submarine worth of advance material procurement costs and other long lead time items. In addition, deputy defense secretary Kathleen H. Hicks said the Pentagon was making “an historic investment” of $4 billion in rebuilding the submarine industrial base. SUBMARINES IN THE NEWS [Cite your source here.]
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 13 Courtney wasn’t satisfied. He said the cut sends the wrong signal to shipbuilders, like Electric Boat, and suppliers and subcontractors around the state and country who have been trying to boost productivity by spending heavily on personnel and equipment in the belief that the Navy would be building ships at a steady rate for decades into the future “At a time when the pace of all of Navy shipbuilding—manned and unmanned, including carriers, submarines, destroyers, and frigates—is recovering from the impact of the COVID pandemic and supply chain disruptions, the Navy’s plan to cut a submarine that is already been partially paid for and built, makes little or no sense,” he said. In order to build enough submarines to fill both U.S. and Australian defense needs, the Navy estimates EB and Newport News will need to produce 2.33 Virginiaclass boats a year by 2028. Battered by the COVID pandemic, the Virginia-class build rate was at 1.2 boats a year at the start of 2023 and is approaching 1.5 a year at EB, according to an official with knowledge of the matter. Courtney said he has been told by Electric Boat that the one sub budget reduction won’t affect the shipyard’s aggressive recruitment drive. “My office has also been in close contact with leadership at Electric Boat and they have confirmed that the hiring goal for 2024 of 5,200 new hires will not be affected by this FY25 request,” he said. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last month that EB hiring pushed job growth in the NorwichNew London market up 3.2% in 2023, the second highest rate in New England and one of the highest rates in the country. By comparison, the increase was .3% and .1%, respectively, in the Hartford and Danbury markets. Also in 2023, EB bought $2 billion in materials and services from 351 small Connecticut businesses. USS New Jersey: The Navy's Block IV Virginia-Class Submarine Is a Beast The National Interest | By Peter Suciu Published March 2, 2024 The USS New Jersey, a World War II Iowa-class battleship and floating museum, is set for refurbishment. At the same time, the Block IV Virginia-class attack submarine PCU New Jersey (SSN 796) has completed its initial sea trials. Conducted by Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding, the trials tested the submarine's systems, components, and capabilities, including its first submersion and high-speed maneuvers. The twenty-third Virginia-class submarine, SSN 796, christened in November 2021, is set for Navy delivery and commissioning on September 14, 2024. It represents a significant evolution in submarine technology, designed for gender integration, and enhanced with the Virginia Payload Module for increased armament capacity. The World War II Iowa-class battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) is about to head for a much-needed refurbishment that will ensure the retired warship will continue to serve as a floating museum for decades to come. However, another vessel named for the Garden State completed its initial sea trials. The Block IV Virginia-class attack submarine PCU New Jersey (SSN 796) spent several days at sea to test the boat's systems and components, Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding division announced on Thursday. Testing reportedly included submerging the submarine for the first time and conducting high-speed maneuvers while on the surface and submerged. NNS teams will continue the testing program ahead of delivering the boat to the U.S. Navy. "Taking New Jersey out for the first time is a significant milestone and the first major test of the submarine's capabilities at sea," said Jason Ward, NNS vice president of Virginia-class submarine construction. "Both New Jersey and her crew performed exceptionally well. This was truly a team effort between shipbuilders, thousands of suppliers around the country and the crew. We look forward to delivering New Jersey to the Navy soon so it can begin its service to our nation." The boat, the twenty-third Virginiaclass submarine, was christened in November 2021 and will be the eleventh to be delivered by NNS. The future USS New Jersey is on track to be commissioned on September 14, 2024. She is the third U.S. Navy vessel to be named for New Jersey – after the Virginiaclass battleship and the aforementioned Iowa-class battleship. Block IV Virginia-Class Submarine In addition to being the first attack submarine designed with a modification for gender integration, SSN 796 is one of the ten Block IV submarines of the Virginia-class.
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 14 The submarines displace 7,835 tons, with a hull length of 377 feet and a diameter of 34 feet, and can attain speeds of 25 knots with the power from its nuclear reactor. Each of the Block IV boats can dive to more than 800 feet. The submarines feature Mark 48 advanced capability torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles. The boats are equipped with the Virginia Payload Module, an 84-foot-long, mid-ship section that has four largediameter, vertical launch tubes for keeping and launching more Tomahawks and other payloads. The Block IV boats incorporate design changes that were focused on reduced total ownership cost. By making these smaller-scale design changes to increase the component-level lifecycle of the submarine, the U.S. Navy was able to increase the periodicity between depot maintenance availabilities and increase the number of deployments. The main improvement of the Block IV over the preceding Block III is the reduction of major maintenance periods from four to three, increasing each boat’s total lifetime deployments by one. The Virginia-class boats are currently the U.S. Navy's primary attack submarine for land, surface, and anti-submarine attack missions, and its armaments include cruise missiles and torpedoes. Each is also equipped with a large lockin/lock-out chambers that allow Navy SEALs to operate from the boat, while there are future plans for it to be used to launch underwater drones. Instead of the traditional periscopes this class of submarines utilizes two photonics masts that host visible and infrared digital cameras atop telescoping arms. Exclusive: Life Aboard a Nuclear Submarine as the US Responds to Threats Around the Globe How the Navy prowls today’s uncertain seas— and prepares for possible superpower conflict tomorrow. BY ADAM CIRALSKY | VANITY FAIR PHOTOGRAPHY BY PHILIP MONTGOMERY FEBRUARY 15, 2024 Under cover of darkness, I boarded a Navy vessel at a heavily guarded military base along the Eastern Seaboard. The location and time of departure, as well as the direction and distance of travel, were unknown to me. Adding to the sense of secrecy, a towering sailor in camouflage stood in the rain, examining my belongings for electronics that might leave a digital trail an adversary could intercept and exploit. Buffeted by strong winds and high Atlantic seas, the support ship sailed through the night for more than 15 storm-tossed hours toward a destination somewhere off the continental shelf. Just after dawn, a sleek, inky object appeared in the distance, right above the waterline. It was the protruding bridge of what sailors call a “boomer”—a submarine armed to the gills with nuclear missiles—which is considered the most lethal, stealthy, and survivable weapon in America’s strategic arsenal. Photographer Philip Montgomery and I had been granted permission to chronicle life aboard a boomer—at a perilous time. Our embed was unique: The arms and technology on board, along with the ship’s routines and missions, are among the government’s most closely guarded secrets. We’d been told that the number of civilians who had been given this level of access (carrying cameras, no less) was roughly the same as that who have walked on the moon. Last summer, when I’d placed a request for the voyage, America was confronting two superpower threats: Beijing’s increasingly bold advances in the South China Sea and Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Then, in October, the Israel-Hamas war added new urgency. US warships were drawn to the region, projecting force in case the conflict escalated. In short order, American vessels began intercepting long-range missiles that Iranian-supplied
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 15 Yemeni rebels fired on Israel and on the ships themselves. When other Tehran-backed militias attacked US outposts in Iraq, Syria, and then Jordan, killing three service members in late January, it was apparent the reprisals from American fighter jets had not been a sufficient deterrent. President Biden, with carrier strike groups already in place, decided to retaliate forcefully, on multiple targets. In October, we’d been slated to board a sub in, of all places, the Middle East. But when American vessels came under attack, our trip was scrubbed. “You’d have been out at sea for months,” one of our handlers worried. In November, though, we were given short notice to fly to a Southern city in the US where we would be met, escorted to a ship, and then ferried to a boomer. A senior officer, we were told, was heading out to conduct an evaluation of a rookie submarine captain, and we would be along to observe. The sub would surface for a short time—so as not to draw unwanted attention. We were to climb aboard and the ship would submerge. To prepare, I had interviewed more than two dozen current officials responsible for US nuclear doctrine and warfare. And as I looked at the hulking slash on the horizon, the words of one naval captain resonated with me: “When a single boomer goes out to sea, it does so as the sixthlargest nuclear nation on earth.” Now, literally in the middle of nowhere, we made our rendezvous. A lashing rain seemed to be coming at us sideways. But suddenly, as we approached the sub, the sun broke through. Idling on our starboard like some leviathan loomed the missile deck of the USS Wyoming. A multibilliondollar behemoth that is slightly longer than the Washington Monument is tall, the ship can carry up to 160 thermonuclear warheads, roughly the same firepower as India, a country that has been stockpiling nuclear arms for half a century. As wars—hot and cold, visible and invisible—were being waged on land and at sea, it felt like an opportune time to meet the men, the women, and the weapons system that, in Pentagon terms, “provide 24/7 deterrence to prevent catastrophic actions from our adversaries.” The military’s rationale for offering us access seemed clear. The brass, apparently, wanted to help get Americans accustomed to the increasingly real prospect of conflict with a genuinely powerful opponent. They wanted to humanize the otherwise inhuman—some would say inhumane—reality of nuclear deterrence. And, finally, they wanted to convey a message to China and Russia about US forces and their strategic capabilities, resolve, and, for the moment at least, superiority. Sub Lord As the ominous backstop to America’s national security, the Department of Defense relies on a triad: intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), long-range bombers, and submarines. The latter are considered the triad’s least vulnerable leg and carry 70 percent of all deployed nuclear warheads in the inventory. Boomers are officially known as Ohio-class SSBNs—Navy-speak for “submersible ship, ballistic, nuclear”—and were built, as even the juniormost sailor will tell you (without a hint of irony), to “preserve the peace” and, in the event of strategic attack, to inflict unimaginable destruction. “We are prepared to unleash hell,” Admiral William Houston told me, adding that, of course, “We never want to do it. Those sailors know if their weapon system is ever used, they are probably not coming home to their families. And so they take their business very, very seriously. It’s what we refer to as a no-fail mission. You are working directly for the president when you’re out there.” Starting in 2021, Houston, 55, headed the US submarine force—
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 16 25,000 strong, involved in the operation of 65 subs—and the Allied Submarine Command, which made him the principal undersea-warfare adviser to all of NATO’s strategic commanders. Awarded his fourth star in December, he became director of the Navy and Energy Department’s nuclear naval reactor program, a position once held by Admiral Hyman Rickover, a towering if controversial figure who is considered the father of the nuclear navy. While boomers may be the deadliest ships at sea, the sub command also operates Virginiaclass hunter-killer subs (SSNs), which track and are prepared to sink enemy subs and surface ships, as well as guided-missile subs (SSGNs), among them the USS Florida, which in early November popped up in the Middle East. The Florida’s very public passage through the Suez Canal, Houston insisted, was a “message to remind people that you have an incredible warship right there that you can’t do anything about. We’re telling our adversaries: You have to be aware of its destructive capability if leadership decides to use it.” This was no idle threat. In January, after myriad attacks by the Houthis—the Yemen-based rebel army supported by Iran— against vessels flying a variety of flags, American officials, in a tandem strike with the UK, ordered the Florida to launch Tomahawk missiles at Houthi targets. In February, after the Houthi assaults continued, two destroyers, the USS Carney and Gravely, hit more sites in Yemen. “My predecessors, some of them called themselves Underlord,” Houston explained—a reference to mythic characters in the multiverse—“and that has a dark connotation.” The admiral added with a grin, “I’m just waiting for somebody to give me some respect and call me Sub Lord. I’m a huge Marvel fan.” His staff ribbingly slapped the moniker on his parking spot in front of his Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters. Houston’s path to the Navy was unexpected. In high school in Buffalo, he and some buddies ditched lunch on a hot day to hang out in the college guidance office, the only spot with airconditioning. They pretended to be flipping through ROTC applications when they were called on the carpet by an administrator who, as Houston recalled, told them that they could stay so long as they completed the paperwork. Houston wound up with an ROTC scholarship to Notre Dame and, during a monthlong voyage to Japan, fell in love with submarine culture. “So, yeah, I’m in the Navy because I skipped lunch,” he deadpanned. Later, when we returned to the subject, he observed, “When people ask me why am I in the military, I go, ‘Go to the Holocaust Museum in DC. There is evil in the world. There is pure, unadulterated evil.’ ” Two decades ago, as a deputy squadron commander, he helped integrate women into the all-male submarine service. The Wyoming, he noted, was an obvious early vessel to be chosen since its namesake was the first state to allow women’s suffrage. (The goal, moving forward, is for every ship to be gender-agnostic in its commands and roles.) Nearly all Ohio-class subs are emblazoned with the name of a US state. The admiral spoke admiringly of the boat to which we’d been assigned. “Wyoming is the most powerful warship ever created,” he told me. “It is the ultimate guarantor of our strategic deterrence.” Hidden in its hull are 20 Trident II D5 ballistic missiles tipped with independently targetable warheads, each with many times the destructive power of the bombs dropped on Japan in World War II. Tridents are so accurate, Houston said, they can
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 17 hit a stadium on the other side of the globe. The central mission of the service’s 14 boomers is to clandestinely plumb the world’s oceans, waiting to respond if ever an enemy—for whatever reason, including a fit of pique or miscalculation—initiates a first strike. At that point, the president could decide to order the Wyoming, or one of its fellow subs, to launch in retaliation. For further context, I dropped in on a Navy captain named Dan Packer. His assessment was even more blunt than Houston’s. “My job is to come up with ways to kill people and to find friends to help me kill people,” he said when we first met. Until October, he was the director of plans and policy for the sub force—responsible for writing the playbook for undersea warfare—and has stayed on as a top civilian adviser. During his career, he served on four classes of submarine before returning to his alma mater, the Naval Academy, as dean of math and science. The man is a bit of a legend—a sailor and a scholar who literally grew up in the shadow of the atomic enterprise in a small South Carolina town just down the road from the Savannah River Site, where, since the 1950s, reactors have churned out plutonium and tritium for warheads. On 9/11, Packer, then a lieutenant commander, was the engineer officer on the USS Ohio, an SSBN that was in the Pacific for a worldwide war game. Early that morning, the captain took to the PA to prepare the crew for the drill. Thirty minutes later, Packer said, the commander picked up the mic again to say, “Cancel the exercise. The United States is under attack.” Over the next few hours, the Ohio received fragmentary reports: The twin towers had been hit; the Pentagon had been struck (true) and destroyed (not true). They also understood that the president was airborne—another portentous sign to those who wait on orders from the National Command Authority, which the president directs. The Ohio, Packer recalled, began the march from DEFCON five. To four. To three. “You take actions to make the platform more ready to complete its mission. You open safes and look at and access war plans that are normally not known or accessible.” When I asked how unusual those actions were, he replied, “I’d never seen those things. Ever.” Sailors on the Ohio began to speculate about who was behind the attacks. “The consensus on the boat was that it was Iran. And, as far as we were concerned, they were going to be radioactive glass,” Packer remarked, painting an image of the hellscape that would result if the Tridents were launched. “If you ever wonder if people would be ready to employ these weapons, the answer is yes.” (When I mentioned to a senior national security official that I was meeting with the country’s top nuclear strategists, his eyes went wide. “Get ready for some straight talk,” he advised. “They never let these guys out of the cage. They aren’t supposed to talk to anyone. So if you have them, expect to get an earful.”) Packer, like so many others interviewed for this story, told me he is bracing for a very different battle than the ones fought in the aftermath of 9/11. “2027 is the year Xi Jinping said they need to be ready to go to war,” he noted, referencing China’s president. “We use that as a benchmark.” With that date only three years off, Packer is now the sub force’s civilian lead on AUKUS, a trilateral security pact through which the US and UK are helping Australia field a fleet of nuclear subs in an attempt to check China’s ambitions. He is also working on incorporating AI into aircraft that
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 18 scour the South China Sea for acoustic signatures emanating from Beijing’s subs. While public attention is focused on Ukraine and the Middle East, the Western submarine community is busy analyzing the threat posed by China’s industrial base, which is churning out surface ships and undersea vessels at an astounding clip. The Chinese navy, in fact, is the world’s largest, consisting of more than 370 vessels. American shipyards simply cannot keep pace. The good news, Packer and others believe, is that for all its capacity, Chinese naval prowess, when it comes to submarines and seasoned sailors, is lacking. While that could change, it is unlikely to do so, many experts contend, on Xi’s timeline. That gives America’s so-called Silent Service an advantage. “In the Taiwan fight,” Packer maintained, “we’re prepared to go into the jaws of the Chinese undersea forces and take them all out.” All the surface ships as well. Black Hull, Orange Tubes On the voyage out to the Wyoming, I was accompanied by Commander David Burke, 42, the deputy of Submarine Squadron 20, a seat Houston once occupied. Burke was coming out to conduct a spot inspection to make sure the crew and its new commanding officer (CO) were up to snuff. Burke would know. In February 2022, while in charge of an Atlantic fleet boomer, the USS Rhode Island, he received an urgent message that Russia was invading Ukraine. If the US made certain moves, Vladimir Putin warned, forces might be met with a nuclear response. “That was a turning point,” he recalled, “a serious reminder of why our job is so important on an SSBN.” Months later, when Burke surfaced the Rhode Island in Gibraltar, the meaning was clear: America’s boomers can show up anywhere, any time. Last July, the USS Kentucky, a sister ship assigned to the Pacific, made a port call in Busan, South Korea, the first such visit in more than 40 years. As our support ship approached the Wyoming, Burke, a plainspoken Illinoisan with piercing blue eyes, was candid about the sacrifices submariners make by being out of touch for long stretches. “I have an eightyear-old son and a four-year-old daughter. Through her fourth birthday I was probably gone 50 percent of her life—so it’s tough,” he conceded. “If I’m going to be away from my family, I want it to be both professionally rewarding and challenging.” He was less candid about his accomplishments. Only later did I learn that Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to head naval operations in the service’s 248- year history, had just given him the coveted Stockdale Award, presented annually to the most inspiring leaders in the Navy. In short, the sub force command was sending a golden boy to put the Wyoming through its paces— with a Vanity Fair reporter and photographer in tow. The new CO was about to be tested in real time and on the record. After a night and a morning at sea, our embarkation had arrived. As whitecaps crashed against the Wyoming’s hull, Burke went aboard first. I followed, traversing a rickety drawbridge from ship to ship, aided by a line of sailors fanned out across the sub’s vast deck. Some were toting automatic weapons, a precaution when a boomer is on the surface. A rescue diver was ready if a swell took one of us overboard. The ship’s slightly curved surface, like a giant whale’s, was matte black, covered with special material that absorbs sound waves and masks the craft’s sonar signature. The hull itself was punctuated with two rows of 12 round lids, like giant manhole covers. Upon reaching the hatch, I carefully descended several vertical ladders that were slick with sea spray. Stepping off, it felt like I was stepping back in time. I
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 19 was surrounded by walls with exposed pipes, old-school circuitry, panels full of analog dials, switches, and gauges. It felt part boiler room, part brewery, part mad scientist lab from a 1950s sci-fi film. The explanation: When the devices on this class of sub were devised in the ’70s and ’80s, they were quite modern. Some have been upgraded; others remain unchanged (one uses a crank!) because they’re reliable, durable, and easy to replace at sea. Here and there, I passed men and women in coveralls who were receiving instructions on throwback speakers and talking into vintage telephones. Save for the advanced systems in the control and sonar rooms (bristling with screens labeled “secret” and “top secret”), everything about the boat—down to the Wyoming’s stated mission (to be “on scene and unseen”)—harkened back to the Cold War. Maybe, I thought, we were being cast in the sequel. Or maybe the original never ended. My first impressions were predictable: The ship seemed cramped, with narrow passageways. I was surprised, though, that the boomer’s four decks, with 14-foot ceilings, also made it seem cavernous, even airy, in certain spots. Offsetting the retro-tech vibe were odd trinkets hanging from the walls: cowboy boots, lariats, spurs. This was, after all, the Wyoming, and as a way of paying homage to the state—and providing a touch of home—these voyagers had gone out of their way to set a Western tone to the decor. The ship’s motto, I soon discovered, was “Cowboy Up.” And ever since the boat was commissioned in 1996, crew members have made pilgrimages to the state, meeting officials and supporters and taking in the rodeo. In short order, we were cruising at dozens of miles an hour and depths of several hundred feet. And, unavoidably, the missiles remained front of mind. Every few steps I encountered what looked like curved walls, painted orange. These were the missile tubes, as massive as the trunks of redwoods. (An arms control pact with the Russians dictates that only 20 of the 24 missile tubes can be operable.) I also toured the torpedo room where the Mark 48s—with their 650-pound highexplosive warheads—are stored. The missile tubes were ubiquitous—so much so that the bathrooms and crew quarters were situated right beside them. In fact, the compartment where I would spend the night—which contained six small, curtained-off bunks, as if on a train’s sleeper car—was effectively wedged between two Tridents. Chessmaster Those orange tubes—those missiles—were the reason I was now hours from shore. But to understand their use, I wanted to meet the man who was in day-today control of them. And to that end, a month before my voyage, I paid a visit to landlocked Omaha. There, I was invited into the buzzing corridors of the US Strategic Command (STRATCOM), the nerve center of America’s nuclear arsenal, located at Offutt Air Force Base. This is the place that produced the Enola Gay and Bockscar, the B-29s that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the place where President George W. Bush had taken temporary refuge on 9/11.
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 20 When I arrived, I spotted mechanics attending to two aircraft on the tarmac. One was an E-6B Mercury, a nondescript plane that, if needed, can serve as both a communications relay for ballistic-missile subs like the Wyoming and as an airborne launch control for land-based ICBMs. Nearby was a heavily militarized version of a Boeing 747, the E-4B Nightwatch, which houses the National Airborne Operations Center, which, according to its mission statement, “provides a highly survivable command, control and communications center…in case of national emergency or destruction of ground command and control centers.” Its nickname: the Doomsday Plane. STRATCOM—with its 150,000 service members and civilians—is led by an Air Force four-star, General Anthony Cotton, who ushered me through his sprawling outer office, swarming with airmen, sailors, soldiers, and Marines, before taking me into his inner sanctum, a hushed, woodpaneled oasis in the eye of the storm. Cotton, along with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Charles Brown Jr., is part of a trio of Black leadership atop America’s national-security pyramid. And it was a point of pride, clearly, that of all the Black four-stars, as Cotton told me, “there’s only been 10 in the history of the Air Force, and I’m number 10.” I asked what drew him to the service. “Simple,” he said, walking over to a display case containing a folded flag with a picture next to it. “That’s my dad. He joined in 1942. As you can see, he was a diamond-wearing African American that was in World War II in the Army Air Corps, made the transition to the Air Force, and retired as a chief master sergeant in 1974. So I came out of the womb as a member of the military.” He was emotional as he recalled how, in 2000, his father passed away a month to the day after his mother. “He didn’t see me make lieutenant colonel, but I buried with him my promotion recommendation form.” I found Cotton, from Goldsboro, North Carolina, to be open, gregarious, and quick to laugh— traits that might seem at odds with the solemnity of his mission. “I don’t want to walk the halls of the Pentagon and when people see me, they’re like, ‘Oh, there’s General Cotton, the nuclear guy,’ ” he said. Cotton, 60, recounted how he’d first felt the weight of command as a 22-year-old on his inaugural ride out to a missile field in Minot, North Dakota. “You’re jumping in that Suburban,” he said, “knowing that you’re responsible to execute, under presidential authorities, the most powerful weapon on the face of the globe. You see the humming of the launch control center and you see 10 green lights and know that on the other side of that green light is a Minuteman III, with warheads on board. It all becomes real at that point.” Cotton would eventually hold a string of lofty leadership posts, most recently running the Air Force Global Strike Command, responsible for the country’s bombers and ICBMs. His job as STRATCOM chief: preparing and, if necessary, turning to the tools at his disposal, from conventional long-range strike weapons and multiplatform nuclear arms to joint electromagnetic spectrum operations, which involve exploiting and attacking enemy frequencies (as well as protecting our own). Being able to provide those options to the commander in chief “is what I do,” he explained, before taking stock of the geopolitical moment. “That’s important, especially now as we see the threat vectors to rulesbased international order.” Translation: Over the second half of the last century, Western national security officials were preoccupied with trying to keep one adversary (the USSR) in check, even as the dueling nuclear powers ratified landmark arms control treaties. With those efforts now in eclipse and nuclear proliferation a chilling reality,
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 21 America and its allies are currently contending with two near-peer opponents, Russia and China, as well as their own set of allies with nuclear aspirations, including North Korea, Iran, and, by extension, the Axis of Resistance—a term that encompasses armed groups like the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, and the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq. That’s quite a roster. Who, I wondered, did Cotton have on speed dial? He chortled at the question before turning it back around, “Who do you think?” He then showed me a bank of phones with buttons for, among others, Biden, Austin, Brown, the leadership of the US intelligence community, and the 10 combatant commanders who, along with Cotton, command and deploy the nation’s armed forces. “Are you the guy nobody wants to hear from?” I asked, half in jest. “Yeah, actually it does kind of suck,” he said with a smile. Shortly before my visit, the Florida had made its presence known in the Suez. Only hours after I departed, the B-21 Raider, which will replace the B-2 as a strategic bomber, made its first public flight. Cotton was eager to convey the range of options he can summon if required: missiles, bombers, subs. “For me, being the chessmaster, [and] being able to offer those effects, if warranted, is incredibly important. Because at the end of the day, I’m supposed to be able to hold people at risk, and I can do that with the triad.” Still, the chessmaster doesn’t sleep soundly. “Even at the height of the Cold War, you had conversations with your adversaries,” Cotton said, alluding to the red phone, a hotline set up in 1963 between Washington and Moscow that allowed dialogue and de-escalation in times of crisis. “We’re not seeing that with China. I would love to have my counterpart come visit me to understand what we’re doing so there’s no miscalculation.” (In December, Joint Chiefs chairman Brown spoke with a top Chinese general about reestablishing ad hoc communication, which Beijing had suspended after the US shot down a Chinese spy balloon.) Sub Species In the Wyoming’s wardroom I met Jeremy Garcia, the sub’s new CO. Like others who hold the rank of commander and helm a sub, he is addressed as “captain” on board. Burke was cordial to Garcia, but he was also there to give an unvarnished evaluation. So he hung back a bit. Garcia, 44, tall and bearing an uncanny resemblance to a young Tim Robbins, had not been given much notice about our visit or the decision to pair it with Burke’s drop-by. But he seemed like the kind who rolled with the punches. He’d already had his trial by fire: His first week on active patrol at sea, Hamas and Israel had gone to war, and the Wyoming was prepped in case it might be tagged for duty there, if only to surface and convey a strategic message. Garcia was unflustered and welcoming. Off the bat, he urged me to speak with any of the 163 sailors on board—without any PR minders. I then accompanied him around his ship. A Bellevue, Washington, native, he’d enlisted in 1998 as a nuclear engineering and electronics technician. He made his bones on fast-attack and ballistic-missile subs before finally assuming the Wyoming’s reins. The best part of the gig, he told me, is “growing an amazingly talented and proficient team of warriors.” Talented, indeed. The threshold for a billet on a boomer is, in part, one’s range. Crew members must be comfortable spending months in a confined space (typically 70 to 100 days), pitching in on various assignments, and being knowledgeable about nuclear physics. Before submariners receive their insignia—a patch or pin showing a sub flanked by marine creatures—they must “earn their fish”: demonstrating proficiency as first responders across departments, ever mindful of the threat posed by fire or a breach in the hull. Cooks, for example, can serve as EMTs if a sailor ever needs treatment by the onboard medic, who runs what amounts to an urgent care clinic. The wardroom can be converted into an operating theater. (With elaborate systems for swapping in
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 22 crews and rations, subs, unless they require maintenance, can conceivably remain at sea, indefinitely, during times of heightened tension.) Walking the ship, I met mariners who were Asian, Black, Latino, immigrants, first-generation Americans, third-generation sailors, and so on. This was a point of pride for the captain and the sub force. And yet the culture has become so ingrained that merely inquiring about it—or the 13-year effort to integrate women on subs—was met with eye rolls. A distinct message was coming through to me: The perils and impediments of life underwater trivialized any fissures that might otherwise exist on land. “A submarine is always trying to kill you and our job is trying not to die,” asserted Jonathan Omillian, a salty missile technician, who noted that crew members were united in purpose. “The reason that we are out here is so that we have a place to come home to. We are pretty much the big guys standing up to the bullies saying, ‘Hey’—excuse my language— ‘Fuck off. Don’t fuck with us. We are bigger. We are better.’ ” His ship’s leader has a command philosophy that might seem counterintuitive to those on shore. “I’m a big fan of pushing responsibility down to the lowest level,” Garcia said, “and the lowest level does not mean rank. It means technical expertise and experience. So if that means a very important program can be run by a first-tour individual of any rank, then I’m fine with that—as long as they own it.” The job of diving and steering, for example, is not in the captain’s remit. He has put that chore in the hands of the juniormost people (albeit with a senior officer seated behind them). Garcia, like a dozen other COs I spoke to, takes people who are too young to legally drink, metaphorically drops them in the deep end, and says, “Swim.” True, other branches of the military imbue airmen, soldiers, and Marines with outsize responsibility. But I am hardpressed to think of another mission as daunting as testing a teenager’s mettle underwater with a nuclear reactor in back and thermonuclear warheads in front. Beyond their duties, the Gen Z’ers—and the millennials who supervise them—must contend with a life that is practically monastic. They are completely removed from meaningful connectivity, including social media. Their only contact with the outside world involves infrequent (and heavily monitored) emails with family when the sub is at a depth and a posture that permit it. There is also little privacy beyond the confines of a draped bunk that can feel like a coffin. Deprived of many other creature comforts, sailors can avail themselves of exercise gear, which is spread around the boat, including treadmills and free weights—but not when the sub is running silent so as to evade detection. When I first entered the command-and-control room, called “the conn,” a young ensign named Kirsten Barber was moving with purpose between banks of displays and the sub’s twin periscopes. She was standing watch, scanning for vessels—on the surface or submerged—that might approach the sub or compromise its position. “Knowing that we’re out here basically keeping the entire United States safe,” she told me, “is pretty awesome, actually.” Barber answers to the nickname Chop, a title submariners assign the chief supply officer, a job vital to the ship’s operation and the crew’s morale. “Some of the smartest people I’ve met are younger than me,” Barber said, gesturing toward the stern. “I’m 23 and there are some people back aft running a nuclear reactor that just blow me away every day. They have to be smart to be on this boat.” I was reminded of a conversation I had when I first visited sub force command. Over lunch, a young Annapolis grad—an astrophysicist who evidently has a couple of satellites named after her— discussed her plans to possibly switch gears and become an astronaut. She was reciting, rather than bragging about, her time at school and at sea, when a captain sitting next to her piped in wryly, “I have the same credentials. Other than the satellites.” At one point on the trip, I found myself marveling over, of all things, a biscuit. Not only was it gluten-free, it was delicious. When I shared my surprise with Barber, she beamed. Of all her roles, none looms larger than overseeing the galley. She took me on a tour of the cavernous refrigeration and freezer compartments that are manned by
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 23 “Jack of the Dust,” the sobriquet of the sailor—bedecked in winterized gear—in charge of provisions storage. Virtually everyone I interviewed on the Wyoming raved about the food, which is an atypical reaction when it comes to military chow. There is a reason for that: Among the ship’s secret weapons is Culinary Specialist Chief Petty Officer Earl White. Raised in Granville, Ohio, White followed in his grandfather’s steps, starting his career as a butcher before going to culinary school. In 2009, he joined the Navy and served for six years on Burke’s old boat, the Rhode Island, before taking a land-based assignment. “I did four years at Camp David,” he recounted while kneading dough in the galley. (The Navy also runs the White House dining room, famously referred to as The Mess.) “I did two years of Obama, two years of Trump. It was an incredible experience.” White not only served first families and VIPs, he also earned prestigious gourmet certifications. While we were underway, he whipped up bisques and beignets. For one lunch, we had a Mexican spread; even at sea they called it Taco Tuesday. I shared meals in the wardroom with Burke, Garcia, his deputy Ben Reed, and several junior officers. We dined on oxtail, salmon, and winter vegetables— served on proper Navy china. (After supper, Burke and Garcia teamed up in a fierce, smacktalking game of cribbage against other Navy visitors.) But the main event, as all of us knew, was how Garcia would be judged by his cribbage comrade, Burke. Top officials can issue all the orders they want, but someone has to push the buttons, quite literally. And so the climactic moment aboard the Wyoming came when Garcia and company engaged in a command-andcontrol exercise (CCX), replicating the exact, and exacting, procedures required to deploy the sub’s deadly payload. For much of the voyage, I’d noticed that Burke, silent but affable, would appear and then drift away to assess crew members on their navigation skills, their weapons preparedness, and their engineering prowess. Now, with Burke watching from the wings, the CCX commenced. As planned, a simulated emergency action message (EAM) came in from the National Command Authority. The message was received by the communications team, led by 27- year-old Lieutenant Michael Gomez, whom everyone calls Commo. He was quickly joined by another junior officer and, using their thumbs and forefingers, they jointly grasped the EAM—a plastic object about the size of a playing card—and the men, facing each other, walked sideways across the conn. The reason for this unusual choreography: The nuclear command-and-control process requires two-person integrity, theoretically ensuring that there be redundant affirmation should a worst-case EAM ever be received—until the unimaginable moment a missile might be released. When the pair reached the spot where Garcia was standing, they could see that resting on his hip were scores of keys that were wrapped around his frame like a tangle of Christmas lights. “The CO has lanyards that contain keys needed to carry out very specific processes to support any missile launch,” a senior Navy officer explained. “These keys are part of a nuclear safeguard process and are used in various locations around the SSBN to enable a launch when, and only when, a launch order has been validated to be from the US president—as he or she is the only person that can authorize a launch from an SSBN.” With his executive officer standing beside him, the captain authenticated the message, checking it against a codebook to ensure that neither an outside party nor an onboard subversive had intercepted and changed it in any way. Garcia then uttered a phrase that, were it not a drill, might irrevocably lead to the alteration of some portion of the planet: “I concur with missilization.” Over in the sub’s Missile Control Center, the weapons officer, Lieutenant William Zupke and his deputy, Lieutenant Junior Grade Noelle Gill, were hunched behind sailors who peered at consoles displaying the status of every missile tube. Armed guards milled about. “Standing by for fire order,” someone said. Over the
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 24 loudspeaker came the reply, “Concur with fire order.” The ritual—the call-and-response, the presiding officiant, the two curates holding what amounted to a death wafer—had all the hallmarks and mystery of ceremonies performed in houses of worship or secret societies. In a way, the CCX had the trappings of a sacred rite turned on its head: a military liturgy that reinforced the profound implications of a potentially apocalyptic process. Nothing was fired, of course. The keys inserted were effectively blanks. The entire exercise took only a matter of minutes. But the point was made: Not one of the submariners even flinched. All behaved as if, given the order, they would have had sufficient nerve to perform the task required. A couple of weeks later, I asked Burke for his assessment of Garcia and his team. His response sounded like something Rickover might have said following the maiden 1960 voyage of the very first boomer, the USS George Washington. Burke felt the captain and his sailors performed well, “demonstrated tenacity,” and fulfilled “their mission of strategic deterrence and readiness to execute the president’s orders should deterrence fail.” Before Dawn At 5 a.m. on the day of our departure, I climbed up to the bridge—the highest position on the ship—to join Gomez, who stood watch in the hours before dawn. “Every time we’re on the surface, I come up here,” he said. His father is in US Special Forces; his wife serves on a surface ship. Two flights down, in the conn, Lieutenant Jeanny Sanger, a fellow Annapolis grad (and Ultimate Frisbee club teammate), was on duty. Suddenly, a loud voice squawked from a speaker. The Wyoming’s suite of sophisticated sensors had spotted something. “He’s about 25 miles away,” Gomez said with binoculars at the ready. A surface ship? I inquired. “Yeah, hopefully, it’s not a submarine,” he responded. After we sailed on for a few minutes, he broke the silence and spoke about his peers on the Navy’s other subs: “The fastattacks get out and they get to do all the cool stuff every day. We don’t really get to do any of that. But it kind of does feel like you’re doing your mission when we’re out here and things are getting hot in the world.”
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 25 Retired pay accounts need a regular checkup From DFAS There is an old quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin: “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” And while this can be true of many things—like our health—it’s also true about your retired pay account! You should make a plan to regularly review and update your retired pay account. Keeping your account current will ensure that DFAS can get in touch with you if there is information you need to know about your retired pay and help make sure that outdated information doesn’t cause difficulties for you or your loved ones down the road. Use this handy checklist to do a retired pay checkup at least once a year. A good time to do it is just after you finish your tax preparation, since you’ll have the documents handy. Or, you can do it at any time that is convenient for you by using myPay. Is your mailing address current? You might be surprised to learn DFAS gets a lot of returned mail. If you moved and haven’t told us, we won’t know how to reach you. Let’s keep the lines of communication open! You can easily log in to your myPay account and check “Correspondence Address” under “Pay Changes” on the side menu as part of the annual account checkup. Or, check your mailing address on your Retiree Account Statement to ensure that it is up-to-date. Is your email address in myPay current? Make sure you have an email address in myPay and that it is current. Email is the easiest and fastest way to communicate. If we have an email address, you will hear news faster. Plus, now you can get email status notifications when you submit certain requests for your account if you have a valid email address in myPay. It only takes a minute to check your email address in myPay. At the top of the myPay account menu, select “Personal Settings” and then in the side menu on the left, select “Email Address” to view the email address(es) on file with DFAS. Make sure you indicate the primary email address you want us to use, and check the box to indicate if the address is still valid. Delete any old email addresses you no longer use. If you have a valid email address in myPay, you can receive notification about the DFAS Retiree Newsletter and about your Branch of Service’s retiree newsletter, as well as information about your pay account. Are your allotments correct? Review your allotments at least once a year. Look under “Pay Changes” for “Allotments” in the menu on the left side of the myPay account. Check each allotment and the allotment amounts. Make sure each allotment is current and the amount is correct. You might also consider moving allotments for bill payments to your online bank account where you would have more control and flexibility in the timing and changes to your payments. If you do not monitor your allotment amounts and your pay changes for any reason, it is possible that your pay could be suspended if your allotments exceed your net retired pay — so monitor these closely! Please keep in mind that some allotments cannot be changed using myPay. These include allotments that are paid via paper check, those for your federal benefits, such as FEDVIP, TRICARE and NSGLI, and those that are not voluntary allotments. If you have a question about allotments for your federal benefits, please contact that organization directly. DFAS cannot answer questions about or make changes to your federal benefit allotments. If you have a question about an allotment that cannot be changed in myPay, please contact our Customer Care Center. Is your income tax withholding correct? If your income changes, you move to another state, or there are changes in the tax laws, you should look at the federal or state income tax withholding information in your account. You can verify and update your tax withholding information yourself in myPay. Click on “Federal Withholding” or “State Withholding” under “Pay Changes” in the menu on the left to see if your withholding meets your current need. You may also mail or fax us a new IRS Form
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 26 W-4 to request a change to your federal withholding. DFAS is unable to provide tax advice. If you have tax or withholding questions, we recommend you consult a tax professional or the IRS website here. You can also use the IRS estimator here. Have you had any major life changes? If you get married, lose a spouse, or have a child, that change can affect your account. Changes may need to be made to your Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) information or your Arrears of Pay beneficiary. To make changes to your Survivor Benefit Plan coverage, please send DFAS a copy of the official documentation (marriage license, divorce decree, death certificate or birth certificate), along with the request to update your account. Retirees should always notify DFAS as soon as possible about a major life change. Arrears of Pay beneficiary correct? Retirees should choose a beneficiary for any arrears of retired pay that may be due when they pass away. Make sure the designation is current and confirm that the beneficiary’s address is up to date. You can check this information by clicking on the “Beneficiary for Arrears” link under “Pay Changes” in the menu on the left side of your account in myPay. Beneficiary designation changes can be made through myPay, as well as updating the beneficiary’s address information. DFAS also now has a Form Wizard for the DD Form 2894 (Designation of Beneficiary Information) to help take the “form” out of the form. You can use the Form Wizard to provide updated beneficiary information— and even conveniently submit your document using askDFAS. You can find more information here. Click on Retirees and Annuitants. Are your Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) coverage and beneficiary correct? Your Retiree Account Statement (RAS), available in myPay, has a lot of information on it about pay, deductions, taxes and SBP. The SBP section has five lines for members who participate in SBP. The most important information for you to check: type of coverage, and date of birth of your spouse beneficiary (if applicable). If you divorced since retiring, carefully check your Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) participation status. Under the law, SBP coverage for a spouse ends with a divorce. Coverage for a former spouse does not continue after the divorce unless certain actions are taken. To continue SBP coverage for a former spouse, either (a) the retiree must voluntarily request coverage be continued for the former spouse, or, (b) the former spouse must request the coverage (but she/he may do so only if a court order requires the coverage). Certain time limits and other conditions apply. If those actions were not taken, the coverage for the former spouse has ended. This could have important consequences for your survivors. To check your SBP coverage status, review your Retiree Account Statement (RAS) carefully. Make sure that the “SBP Coverage Type” properly reflects “former spouse” or “spouse” (as applicable to your individual circumstances). Please see our special webpage “How to Identify the Status of Spouse/Former Spouse SBP Coverage on your Retiree Account Statement” for details, click here. Note: If you would like more information about the SBP Open Season that runs from December 23, 2022 to Jan. 1, 2024, visit the special focus webpage for information on eligibility to enroll or discontinue coverage here. Make a plan to review your pay account information Regularly Pick a date to review your retired pay account information. It doesn’t matter if it’s your retirement anniversary date, birthday, first of the year, or tax time. Set a yearly reminder to look over information to make sure your account is up to date. March is Fraud Prevention Month and VA is committed to protecting Veterans’ hard-earned benefits from claims predators by raising awareness among Veterans, their loved ones and advocates about the tactics used by claim predators. Veterans and beneficiaries should be cautious of unaccredited individuals offering to gather evidence in support of a benefits claim because they cannot lawfully assist or charge a fee to do the following:
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 27 • Consult or give advice to VA claimants. • Collect evidence for a claim. • Prepare and file an initial or supplemental claim. • Submit requests for higher level review. • Submit an appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. Everything you need to know about VA urgent care services This outreach kit can help Veterans get the health care benefits they've earned March 5, 2024 Veterans Experience Office Many Veterans may not be aware of life-changing benefits they’ve earned—and deserve—through military service. This outreach kit about VA urgent care services includes flyers, social media graphics and suggested corresponding language, radio public service announcements (PSA), newsletter content and a sample blog post to help you spread the word. Please share this information broadly with your networks, family and friends. URGENT CARE FLYER Veterans enrolled in VA health care can use over 4,000 urgent care locations to treat non-lifethreatening conditions. VA covers urgent care services at VA medical centers and in network community providers, If you’re a Veteran enrolled in VA health care and You received care at a VA or innetwork provider sometime in the past 24 months. Check your eligibility by contacting your local VA health facility. Or call 1-800-MyVA411 (1-800-698-2411) (TTY: 711). Select option 1, then option 3, then option 1. Family members can’t use your urgent care benefit. You can print a copy of the urgent care assistance card or show the card on your mobile device. Download the VA urgent care billing information card. What do to when you arrive at a community urgent care provider: Confirm that the provider is in VA’s network. Check for a posted sign or ask a staff member. If you go to an out-of-network urgent care provider, you may have to pay for the full cost of care. By law, VA can’t pay claims for out-of-network providers. Show your VA Health Identification Card and fill out the provider’s intake form. Tell the provider you want to use your VA urgent care benefit. Show the provider your urgent care assistance card if requested. The provider will call the phone number for your region listed on the card to check your eligibility. Find a VA-approved urgent care provider and pharmacy at VA.gov/find-locations before seeking care. Providers can change over time. Before seeking care, print this VA Billing Information Guide for you, your provider, and your pharmacy. If you need help using your VA urgent care benefit, call: 1- 888-901-6609 if the provider is in Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., or any of these states: AL, AR, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VA, VI, VT, WI, or WV. 1-866-620-2071 if the provider is in any of these states: AK, AS, AZ, CA, CO, GU, HI, ID, MP, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, or WY. When to choose VA urgent care: VA and in-network urgent care providers can meet many of your health care needs. They may be able to provide some diagnostic tests, like certain blood and urine tests. You can often get care for minor illnesses or injuries much faster than in an emergency room. When to call 911 or go to the emergency room: If you need emergency care, you don’t need a VA referral or approval to go to a non-VA emergency room in your community. Choosing VA means getting everything you need in one spot. Learn more about VA urgent care, eligibility requirements and examples of urgent care services by visiting VA’s dedicated urgent care benefit page.
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 28 Support official base charities: Upstate-Carolina Adaptive Golf
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 29 "Bringing friendships to veterans in hospice care" www.veteranlastpatrol.org 864-580-8005 Link to VLP Newsletters Donate to Veteran’s Last Patrol
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 30 BOOK HIGHLIGHT: FICTION Goodreads: 4.01 ·1,612 ratings He was one of the world's most skillful submariners, trained by the best in the business, the Royal Navy. Now, at the peak of his powers and skill, he finally comes into his own. For years, he has been a sleeper for the enemies of the West, now he has been given his orders and will carry them out with brutal efficiency, or die in the attempt. BOOK HIGHLIGHT: NON FICTION Goodreads: 4.30 · 47 ratings In April 1944, the highly decorated submarine USS Gudgeon slipped beneath the waves somewhere in the South China Sea, one of the most dangerous patrol areas in the most dangerous military service during World War II. Neither the Gudgeon nor the crew were ever seen again. MOVIE HIGHLIGHT PG | 1 hr 35 min | 1989 | Drama IMDb: 6.3/10 Reviews: 2.2K The hitherto untold true story of the 1986 nuclear near-disaster off the U.S. coast when a Soviet submarine collided with an American sub. In October 1986, a Soviet submarine carrying nuclear missles collides with an American nuclear submarine off the coast of Bermuda.
FROM THE DEEP: GOLDEN CORNER BASE NEWSLETTER | Issue 47 31 SUBMARINE ART