Good morning dear gentle readers! Last night was the final event, a tribute to 119 years of submarine service. 119 years ago in 1900 the Unites States Navy purchased the Holland built by John Holland in Elizabeth, New Jersey at the Holland Torpedo Boat Company, later named the Electric Boat Company. Our first modern submarine (there were submersibles in the Civil War, but this is the "modern Navy"!). We attended a birthday ball filled with Admirals, Chief petty officers, sailors, Army, the English, other military and our own USSVI (The veteran submariners). Two WWII submariners attended. One qualified in 1939! He won the prize for longest qualified! There were a few Mavericks (one was an Admiral which Chuck said was very unusual… Admirals usually have to come from the Naval college at Annapolis)… Mavaricks are Sailors who qualified as enlisted men and worked their way to warrent officer and qualified again as officers (they wear silver and gold dolphins). The English sailors were here for training and working with the US on "ordinance." There is not a Navy base with boats per se, it is a Naval Ordinance Testing station… where missiles are designed and tested… It is the same base we went to for wings and beer the other night. it is hush hush, hard to find, well guarded, and well… it exists to test missiles. One of the Admirals who spoke talked about maintaining our strength is the only way to maintain our freedom. He said a lot of other things that I didn’t understand about the present and the future. Nuclear submarine talk is way above my training and my paygrade. What I hear from Chuck and his buddies is diesel fuel, torpedos, deck guns, and old train engines!!!! This nuclear world is a whole new bucket of mystery for me!!! It was a beautiful night, men in uniform, ladies in ball gowns, a big birthday cake for submarine service, cut by a saber that a gentleman at our table won in a raffle drawing. Funny thing! a lady at our table won a handful of money in the drawing, and I won $100. That goes into the new house cash jar. I did not wake up in time for church here, so we will be heading for Miami where I will pick up a late Sunday Mass. This herd of turtles will be home in Miami to pick up the litter… and start my search for cash for the new house!!! We used to say when Chuck’s dad needed money, he would dig up another coffee can in the back yard, well, I’ll be out there digging up coffee cans! Pray for me this coming Tuesday when I have CT scan to measure my aneurism…. I’d like to get it repaired; I am not afraid of surgery. I do not like carrying a time bomb around in my chest. Pray for me! God bless us!!! Susie
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