History Of Skip Holbert - Submarine Duty
                                Pt. 3
                    
           HOME              Members Profile                    

I entered the Navy in June of 1956, just before the 4th of July holiday. After completing Navy Boot Camp at Great Lakes, IL in Sept. 1956, I was sent to Electrician's Mate Class A School to learn all about being an electrician. All my life I had wanted to be an electrician and now I was getting to go to school. While in that school, I applied for, and was turned down for, submarine school.

At the time, orders for your next station after school was earned by the position you finished in your class. I finished 4th, out of 15 sailors and I was behind my high school classmate, Billy Watkins, the # 3 finisher. The top two men in the class got automatic orders to serve in White Sands, NM, for a top secret duty. So that meant I would pick 2nd overall. All of the orders were put on the board and I spotted the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier out of Mayport, FL. Mayport is about 125 miles North of my hometown of Daytona Beach, FL. But before I could pick, Billy Watkins selected the carrier. What a letdown! When I got up to select, the instructor informed me that I was going to New London, CT to Submarine School! Of course I stated that they had turned me down for that school weeks ago. The instructor told me he had my orders in his hand and there was nothing I could do about it.

Inside, I was very happy about going to submarines. Although I had never seen one in person, I wanted to go to submarines. While in high school, I had watched "Run Silent, Run Deep" and some other submarine movies and had fallen in love with submarines. When I got to New London, and went down to the docks to visit my first "Boat", I was shocked at the small size of everything. Movies make them look like there is lots of space, but believe me, it was tight! I started having second thoughts about serving on submarines. When we started school, the course was very demanding and they did not play around. Many sailors started the school, but only a few finished. We learned all about the USS Becuna (SS-319) class sub. A WWII guppy conversion sub. We also had to survive the Escape Tower and the Decompression Chamber. Many sailors quit sub school before they ever got a chance to ride on a submarine. Then after the first trip to sea, and that first dive, many more quit.

The Escape Tower was an approximately 150 ft. high, round tower where all sub sailors had to make a mock escape from a submarine using the escape gear that was the latest at that time. You had to make two escapes from 18 ft. to learn how to do it. Then you got two chances to make it from the 50 ft. level. There were qualified divers in the water and at the top to rescue sailors that did not make it. I did OK from 18 ft., but on my first attempt from 50 ft., my hands came apart above my head, which was the signal we were given to let them know you were having trouble, and I was snatched away and put into a safe chamber to watch the rest of my class make their assents. I was more embarrassed than anything else, because there was nothing wrong. The divers and my instructor continuously asked me if I wanted to quit. That would have meant getting out of submarines. I said no, and asked to let me try it one more time. That time I made it. All sub sailors are suppose to re-qualify at the Escape Tank periodically. My next time in the tank was about 15 years later and I could remember that first experience as though it was yesterday. That time I made it on the first try.

After completing submarine school, I was sent to Norfolk, VA to the USS Runner (SS-476). The Runner was a WWII submarine with two batteries, 4 Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines and 4 General Electric motors for propulsion to the two big screws. The "Boat" had ten, 21" torpedo tubes, 6 forward and 4 aft for armament. The Runner had a crew of 72 men and 8 officers. The electrical gang was one of the largest on board, due to the fact we had so much equipment to take care of. My first day on board, as a lowly Fireman Apprentice ("Fireman Deuce"), I was asked by the First Class Electrician if I knew anything about Electrical Machinery History. That is the set of records that all submarine electrical departments are required to keep. I said, "Yes Sir, I learned that in school!". He pointed to about 6 big books, along with some smaller log books and a few other books that I had no idea what they were, and he told me to take they down in the After Battery Well and not to come out until those books were up to date! I discovered that the books were about 6 months behind and the log books were not in any better shape. When I complained about not having all the information that was needed to fill in the books correctly, I was told to "raise the antenna on my pen and fill in the gaps!". Saying that was not legal did not help my acceptance into the gang. After finishing my update of the Machinery History Books, that became my permanent assignment. Those books were never wrong or behind after I took over.

Being sent into the battery well on my first day on board was an introduction to where I would spend the majority of my time on the Runner. That class of submarine had what was called, Closed Ckt. Ventilation. This proved to be one of the worse arrangements for submarine battery ventilation ever designed. The batteries were constantly grounded and had to be cleaned by hand, sometimes daily and sometimes more than once per day. The electricians were responsible for both batteries and no matter what was going on, if a battery was grounded, we had to go down and clean until the ground readings were sufficient to allow the batteries to be charged. The only persons that were exempt was the Chief and First Class Petty Officers.

Electricians were in charge of the Maneuvering Room, where the main propulsion motors were located and the "Sticks" that controlled the 4 diesel generators and the motors to provide propulsion and charge the batteries. It was very exciting to watch the "Controllerman" work while maneuvering the ship. All orders for ships speed and direction came down to the Maneuvering Room from the Bridge or the Control Room from the Officer of the Deck. The two Controllerman worked as a team, each one controlling one propeller, to give the correct speed and direction to the ship. I wanted to be a Controllerman very bad, but only Petty Officers were allowed to be qualified as Controllerman. I use to get up and go back to the Maneuvering Room whenever there was an opportunity to practice, and that was during "Man Overboard!!" drills. I became very good at the "Sticks" which got the attention of the Chief.

When I was detailed to Mess Cook duty, which all non-rated sailors had to do, the Chief went and talked to "The Chief of the Boat", or COB, and he got me off with only one month of the normal three month tour of mess cooking. I had been on board about 18 months at the time, but I was still a Fireman Deuce (E-2). The Chief asked me one day, "When do you go up for 3rd Class (E-4)?" My response was, I can't go up for 3rd until I make Fireman (E-3). The Chief stormed off and when he returned, he told me I was scheduled to take the 3rd Class test next month and oh bye the way, take those Deuce stripes off and put on your Fireman stripes. I did not ask any questions, I just started to study for the E-4 exam. At the time, 3rd Class Electrician was wide open, and everyone that went up, made the rank if you passed the test. I passed my test and became a Petty Officer 3rd Class Electrician's Mate and a qualified Jr. Controllerman on the same day.

When a new person came on submarines, they were given 7 months to become "Qualified in Submarines". I completed my qualifications in 5 months after being assigned to the Runner, and earned my "Dolphins". The Dolphins are the submarine insignia that is proudly worn by all submarine sailors that have completed submarine qualifications. By the time I left the Navy, with the event of larger more complex submarines, sailors were given a year or more to complete their qualifications. I qualified on 7 different submarines.

Qualifications consisted of learning every departments duties, all about each compartment, all the equipment on the ship and how to operated it. You were required to learn all watch stations that are manned in port and at sea, and all of your duties. At the end of learning all of those things, having completed your qual. card by getting it signed by many qualified personnel, you were required to make several walk-through Q&A's with qualified enlisted personnel and officers. Your last requirement is to pass a Qual Board of qualified personnel, selected by the Engineering Officer or Qualification Officer. During the "Board", the persons assigned can ask ANY QUESTION they want about the ship. It does not matter if you are an electrician, torpedoman, cook or officer, we all get the same qualification procedure. When you are designated "Qualified in Submarines", you become eligible to serve on the Qual. Board. On submarines, everybody knows everyone else's job.

Several months before I left the Runner, I was in the normal sailor mode of counting down the days before I got out of the Navy. By then, I had a wife and two children, but I had only been in the Navy for just over 3 years. My Chief, Senior Chief Electrician's Mate Stanfield, asked me if I planned to "Ship Over", Navy slang for re-enlist. I told him, "No Way"! The Chief asked what I planned to do when I got out. I said I was going back to Daytona Beach and find something. I know I won't be in the Navy! The Chief offered me a free week of vacation to go home and look for a job and then come back and tell him what I found. I packed up the wife and kids and headed home. My father had been a Lieutenant on the police force in Daytona Beach and had retired. At that time he was teaching history at the local high school. When I got home, Daddy told me he could get me on with the police force. I wanted no part of law enforcement. I looked for a job that would support my family and could only find positions in the hotel & motel and service industries in Daytona Beach. None of that was very satisfying to me. So after a week, I went back to the ship and started to think about re-enlistment.

Now Chief Stanfield was very smart when it came to getting the most out of the Navy. He informed me that I should never re-enlist for nothing. Always make the Navy give me something above the money that they pay for re-enlistment bonus, such as a special school or a very good assignment. He also informed me that as a qualified submarine electrician, I could go to Interior Communications Class "B" School, which was 42 weeks long and I would learn a lot of things that other electricians did not know. The school taught electronics, gyroscope theory and repair, intercom system theory, installation and repair, automatic phonograph players, dead reckoning analyzer indicator (tracking systems) and much, much more. The Chief had done this himself. When I left USS Runner (SS-476) in 1959, I was a Petty Officer 2nd Class (E5). I had 3 years and three months service.

I followed the Chief's advice and re-enlisted for IC "B" School. The things I learned in this advanced electronics and communications training school built a strong foundation for solving many problems that I encountered in the ships I served on and even later in my civilian career. Before completing that school, with just under 4 years in the Navy, I was promoted to Petty Officer First Class (Slick Arm First)! Upon graduation, I was assigned to my second submarine, USS Argonaut (SS-475). I served almost three years on that ship before going off to another advance training school. In 1962 I applied for Nuclear Power School and was sent to Bainbridge, MD for "Nuc. School".

It may seem as though I spent a lot of time in schools, which was true, but I also got to see a lot of the world. One of the first trips I took was to LaHarve, France, where we were allowed to take a 4 day trip to Paris. One of the most beautiful cities in the world. I have been to many of the islands of the Caribbean, and I have a daughter that was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

I spent a year in San Juan during 1957-58 as a part of the crew of a missile guidance submarine. The USS Runner (SS-476) was outfitted with missile guidance equipment and this was my introduction to high technology systems. Our guided missile submarines would launch a Regulas Missile and it took two other submarines to guide the missile 300 miles down range to the target. Back then, the missiles were not very accurate and very short range. Today, submarines launch and guide their missiles more that ten times the range of the old Regulas and can hit a target the size of a postage stamp.

While in San Juan, I also served in one of my most enjoyable tours of duty in my Navy career. Playing softball on the base softball team. It started out when our ships softball team played against the base team. After the game, in which I had several hits and made some good plays in the infield, the coach of the base team asked if I would like to play for his team. I told him that was impossible because I was on the submarine and not allowed to play because of my duties on the ship. The next day, the Captain of the base (an Admiral) called the Captain of my ship (a Commander) and asked him to assign me to the base so I could play softball for his team. That same day I was transferred to the base recreation department for the duration of softball season. This was just the first time that my softball skills got me some good duty, or out of hot water.

Back at home, during my high school days, I played on the baseball team. I played 1st Base, and was a fairly good hitter. I played well enough to play for a team in a small semi-pro league. Another of my high school teammates, Clifford Taylor, played for the same team. At the time, two or three of our much better players played for the local black baseball league (sort of the big leagues too us). One of my best friends, Eldridge Jeter, was a fireballing left hander that got a try-out with a Cleveland Indians farm team. Clifford and I were not as good as those guys, but we were just one step away.

When I went to Interior Communications Class "B" School, I had never studied any electronics. The first 8 weeks of IC "B" School was electronics. I passed he first three weeks of school and failed week 4 and week 5. When I failed week 5, the Chief Warrant Officer over the school called me in for a talk. In the past, most sailors failing two weeks were sent back to a sea duty assignment. But in my case, the Chief Warrant Officer was also in charge of the IC "B" softball team, and I was his star 2nd baseman! He agreed to send me back to week #2 in the school and I would repeat weeks 2-5. After that time the season would be close to complete and if I failed one more week, I had to go back to sea. The school was 42 weeks long and I never failed another week! I was number 13 out of 13 that finished. Twenty sailors started the class.

I spent almost three years on the USS Argonaut (SS-475), another missile guidance submarine, before going to Nuclear Power School in 1962.

After completing Nuclear Power School I was assigned to my first and only Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine, USS Von Stueben (SSBN-632). After new construction in Newport News, Virginia and commissioning, I made two missile patrols. That was enough for me. I did not like leaving home and returning to the same place without visiting any ports! After all those years on the old submarines and going to all those good ports and having lots of fun in different ports, missile sub duty was very boring.

My next 5 submarines were all Fast Attack Submarines. One on the West Coast, USS Snook (SSN-592) and three on the East Coast, USS Shark (SSN-591) twice, USS Sculpin (SSN-590) and I served in the commissioning crew of the USS Parche (SSN-683) before the Navy sent me to Pensacola Jr. College to get my Associates Degree in 1976. While serving on the Shark for the 2nd time, I made Master Chief Electrician's Mate. It was the first time I took the test and I was the number one selectee of all E-9 electricians selected in 1978.

Let's go back a few years to Submarine School. As a young Fireman Apprentice, I was assigned to clean up the chapel on the submarine base. The chapel has 52 pews (at that time), each dedicated to a submarine that was lost during WWII. There are two pews named for submarines named Shark, USS Shark (SS-174) and USS Shark II (SS-314) . After the loss of Shark II, the Navy decided not to name any more submarines Shark. I said to myself, I would not want to serve on any submarine named Shark and promptly forgot about it. That was 1957.

In the early 60's, the Navy decided to build another Shark, and in 1968 I was sent to the USS Shark (SSN 591). I only spent about 6 months on the boat before getting ordered to go the Maintenance Training Group (MTG) in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

MTG was quite an experience. When I was ordered to go there, I told the Executive Officer that I was comfortable, I liked the ship and my family had just settled down. I was told that I could not turn down the orders. He did not know why, but I had to go out to the Nuclear Power Training Unit (NPTU), where MTG was to be located, in Idaho. When I arrived at NPTU, the people in the personnel office did not know much more than the Executive Officer on the Shark. All they knew was, I was suppose to start qualifying at on the the three nuclear plants on the site. Since I was from submarines, I decided to qualify at A1W, the aircraft carrier nuclear site, something I had never done.

NPTU is where they train sailors for engineering duty on nuclear power submarines after they complete their first 6 mos. of classroom training. They have 6 additional months of training before they can be assigned to a submarine or a surface nuclear power ship (if they complete the training successfully). After a while, I found out that I was a part of a hand picked unit of 35 sailors that would teach the trainees how to do maintenance on the ships. I was to be in charge of the electrical division. When I arrived I had taken the test for Chief Electrician (E-7), but had not gotten any results. After being their about a week, I was informed that I had been selected for Chief Electrician's Mate! Oh Happy Day!

The three years I spent in Idaho was very rewarding. The Maintenance Training Group was made up of the most elite group of individuals I had ever worked with, before or since. Each of us was one of the best at their position in the Navy. If you did not know it before coming there, you certainly found out quickly. A lot was expected from us and all of us gave a lot. We not only trained sailors, but we performed all the maintenance and repairs on the three nuclear power plants on the site. I was in charge of a group of 7 nuclear trained electrical and electronic technicians. None lower than the rank of 2nd Class Petty Officer, and I only had one of them. I had one Chief Electronics Technician, 2 First Class Electricians and 2 First Class Interior Communications Technicians, and the lone 2nd Class Electrician. There was nothing we could not do. We were given our own building, with state-of-the-art equipment and any resources that we needed to get the job done.

If you liked to fish and hunt, Idaho was the place to do that. There was not much of anything else to do. My family did not like it at all. There were only 55 black persons in Idaho Falls, and 7 of those were in my family! My wife and kids had a very hard time up there. Since all members of MTG had arrived at about the same time, we were given the option to start leaving from two and one-half years to 4 years of service. I opted to leave after two and one-half years.

The next three years was a very mixed situation for me. I was stationed in San Diego, CA, which is one of the best cities in the USA. Being stationed on the USS Snook (SSN-590) was not any fun. The ship was old and in bad shape, we operated all the time and the crews moral was very bad. We failed a Nuclear Power Operational Readiness Inspection and out of three years, the ship was only in San Diego for 54 days. I got my first divorce in California. While on the Snook, we visited many nice ports, Hong Kong, Hawaii, Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Philippines, Taiwan and Alaska to name a few. We hit many of these ports multiple times. The normal trip was 7 months long and we took 3 of these "Westpak" trips. When the ship was not in the Western Pacific, we were somewhere along the West Coast in a shipyard being repaired or refueled. All of this away time had a major influence on my marriage. My wife ran off with a Marine and she is still married to him. But God has a way of fixing things...

After completing the tour of duty on USS Snook (SS-590), I was sent to Pensacola, Florida to get my Associates Degree at Pensacola Junior College. That only took me 18 months. While there I was selected to make Senior Chief Electricians Mate (E-8). That had taken me approximately 7 years.

After leaving PJC, I was sent back to the USS Shark (SS-591) for the second time. This time I just knew my time had run out. The only ship that I had been assigned to twice and the only one that I said I never wanted to serve on! My time on the Shark this time presented one of the happiest times in my career, I made E-9 (the first time up), traveled to South America and got to go to Uruguay, Brazil (Rio de Janeiro and Ipanema Beach), Venezuela, Trinidad and Curacao. That was a part of a UNITAS operation, joint operations between the South American Navy and the U. S. Navy. My Electrical Division Officer, LT. Phil Graham, would later play a major role in my career as a civilian. I left the Shark in 1977.

After a brief tour of duty at Commander Submarine Squadron 6 in New London, CT, I was asked to take over the electrical division on USS Sculpin (SSN- 590). This would be the 3rd of the four submarines in that class that I had served on. During my duty at COMSUBRON 6, I worked for Commander Bud Collier, who would also play a major role in my career after the Navy.

The last submarine that I served on was USS Sculpin (SSN-592). When I went on board, the ship had a green "C" for communications excellence, a red "E" for engineering excellence and a white "E" for battle efficiency! Talk about good operating ships, this was one. The crew moral was excellent and it was one of the best ships I ever served on. I made my first and only Mediterranean Sea trip on the USS Sculpin in 1978. I got to see Barcelona, Spain, Athens, Greece and Rome, Italy. I retired from the Navy, after serving two years at the Naval Safety Center in Norfolk, VA on October 31, 1980. I served 24 years and 4 months, day for day.

HOME            Skip's Home Page                 Members Profile