Last night Ifinished re-reading the story, Making of a Submarine Officer. The story of theUSS San Francisco (SSN 711) by Alex Fleming, who served on her for about twoyears.

Knowing whathappened to her at the end of the book, I really paid attention to the detailof how bad a shape she was in and how the crew had to fight every day againstall the material defects in 711 to get her ready for sea. All the inspectors thatcame aboard at almost, so it seems, to fail her for something so small, I wouldn’tthink it would make a difference. One extreme example was, a leaking oil sightglass. It was leaking 3 drops a minute. Being a non nuke, and an engineman, 3drops a minute of any leaking substance was, “set the maneuvering watch”, goodto go. So, I was trying to rap my head around these, what was to meinconsequential troubles. But I realize we are talking about apples and oranges.Many of the problems they were experiencing was on equipment I had no idea whatit was and what it did, so much of what I thought about anything, was based onnothing, other then, a feeling of sorrow for what the crew was going through,whether officers or enlisted.

How theauthor, Fleming had problems “Rigging for Dive” in almost every compartment hewas assigned to. How over worked all these men were trying to open a new homeport in Guam, because the Navy Brass thought it would be beneficial to the Navy.However, they didn’t realize how bad a shape the 711 was in. How they Navy getsscrewed by the shipyards who does overhauls on our subs, to the point that theyinstalled a screw on 711 that was not designed for a 688 boat, which was one oftheir sources of noise while she was running at sea. I missed that item in myfirst reading of this book.

In spite ofall they’re problems, this is a book about the crew. How they persevered underconditions I am very glad I was never under. And how in almost unbelievable circumstancesthey persevered when they finally got a new skipper who believed they could accomplishwhat the Navy expected of them.

I’m glad Ire-read this book. It gives me a better appreciation for what these fellowsubmariners went through in spite of the stupidity of the brass sitting incomfortable office’s put them through.