CommentsWell positioned in the BLOODLINE OF HEROES, which is what this submarinejournal.com Web Site is all about, we will honor the brave crew and spectacular early submarine, the Hunley: Memorializing the Raising of the Hunley, a Confederate Submarine, from where it lay resting on the Ocean Bottom since Civil War days; and, also honoring the recovery of the bodies of the crew of this the first submarine to sink a target ship, occasioned a Mammoth Celebration, parades, and Civil War reenactments in Charleston, South Carolina over the past weekend. A comprehensively detailed article about the Hunley and associated matters will be included in the forthcoming Spring edition.
CommentsSUBMARINES AND THE CAPITALIZATION Of LABOR "The euphemistic expression, "Productivity Gains" has all the irresistible attraction and confusing lack of specificity of the word "Love." But the average citizen of our time understands much more about the latter expression than the former. So let us devote more attention here to "Productivity Gains" and let the poets, both ethereal and erotic, address the other. The undifferentiated concept, "Productivity Gains" is practically never divided into its two main components by either Politicians or Greenspan. Although understanding its bifurcation is almost as important as is the critical one for "Love," about which no one is ever, ever confused. The two components of "Productivity Gains" are 1.) the increased efficiency or duration of human labor; and 2.) The improvement in technology or Capitalization of Labor. The only way to increase real wealth is by cheapening the cost of producing it. And the only way to do this, other than by limited labor efficiencies or quasi-sweat shop techniques in the employment of human work, is by the Capitalization of Labor; that is, by having machines do the work formerly done by human beings. The most notable application of this in our times is, of course, the introduction of computers into the work place. It is probably true to say that more jobs are lost— and happily so — by the accelerating advance of the Capitalization of Labor than by off-shore job replacements. But what is to be done about this method of cheapening the cost of the production of wealth—— thus, raising the standard of living of everyone in our country? The resolution of this matter is without question the most important economic task that lies before our people. The urgent timeliness for the solution to this problem/opportunity lies in the effect it will inexorably and radically have in stemming the loss of our jobs and livelihoods from the practice of off-shore job transfers. And how do submarines figure in all of this?..." ——From the writings of Edwin Arnold Kiefer. Read all about this in a not so dry coming issue of Submarine Journals.
CommentsSubmarine Journal takes note of the eerie paralleling of the furious struggle of the Jewish Insurrectionists against the Roman Empire immediately before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and the present struggle of the Iraqi insurrectionists against America. Vide Josephus.
CommentsI just went through all of the sections of your website and will add it to my favorites list. My name is Fred D. Wagner. I enlisted into the Navy on July 12, 1946 -went to Submarine School Jul of 1948. USS REDFISH(SS-395) until 1955 (During that time I made QM1 Pushed boots for 3 years, then USS VOLADOR (SS-395). Commissioned in 1960 stayed in the submarine force in ASR s, Tenders, and different staffs. Retired in 1973 as LCDR. Am now thesec/treasurer of the INTERNATIONAL SUBMARINE ASSOCIATION. My e-mail fwagner73@earthlink.net Tel (208) 939-6495 Great site!!!
CommentsFred Wagner again USS VOLADOR is (SS-490) vice (395), Was typing too fast.
CommentsFree Submarine History Book!!! Whoever provides, in the sole opinion of the editor of the Submarine Journal, in an entry posted to this New Comments Section, the best reason why he or she should receive it before midnight of July 4, 2004, will receive a free copy of "FREMANTLE'S SECRET FLEETS" BY LYNNE CAIRNS.
CommentsThe Submarine World has fundamentally changed with the introduction of the Virginia into our submarine fleet! Firstly, the USS VIRGINIA is optimized for littoral warfare. Biogeographic, it perceptively anticipates the melding of Sea and Land in future military struggles. In this seminal switching, the Virginia looks0 to trumping the ancient Geopolitical vs Naval warfare emphases of competing military theories. Reminiscent of the first crawl-out of sea creatures to the land, the new precursor, boasts interchangeability between task missions on land and undersea by making the Torpedo Room — now located under the Control Room — and modular quarters for Special Forces troops. And this is real modularity. The Torpedo Room may be physicall removed like an alternative circuit board in a computer and replaced by a new structurally complete insert in its stead. Additionally, and fleshing out the vision of "Mush" Morton on the legendary WAHOO in WWII, the periscope of the VIRGINIA is not only demoted to just another Captain-Unattended Sensor to being entirely eliminated. But more later. Keeping watching following pages in this New Comments Section. Edwin Arnold Kiefer
CommentsThe New Attack Submarine, USS Virginia(SSN-774), arrives with a particular nicety on the contemporary Geopolitical scene. Some years ago, at the commissioning of the big boomer first of class, USS Ohio, I was present at the associated ceremony when the featured speaker, Admiral Rickover, pronounced a question which he represented as having been frequently asked of him, "What is the reason for having constructed such a thing as this monstrous weapon of war (Or, words very similarly phrased to the same effect.)" Rickover then answered that question by saying,"—To strike fear and terror in the hearts of our enemies." The case now, however, is militarily very different. No other nation or combination of nations, as did Communist Russia and/or her surrogates have the resources or will to field a competitive array of military forces. This is not to say, however, that the inimical circumstances that currently confront us are in every way different. They are not. The cultural, religious, and economic pressures that made Communist Russia an attractive alternative to the normative values of Western Capitalism are, if anything, in Islam-dominated nations rawly exacerbated in intensity because of a doubled frustration: Doubled because of the denial to them of a credible countervailing military force as well as to an operationally active opposition to anciently hated and hostile religions. What is the historically well-beaten path taken in the face of such frustrations? Recent history provides us with persuasive examples. Germany, denied her "manifest" destiny in the affairs of the world by her defeat in World War I, needed to quickly find an alternative, at sea, to the overwhelming superiority of British and American Naval power as a logistics—intensive denial until the acquisition of comparable resources in the heartland of Eurasia was achieved by virtue of her then superiority in land and air power. Timing, as in all military matters is the key to success. What was needed was a "new" and unstoppable weapon. In the hands of one's enemy, such a device is known as a "terror" weapon. And the user thereof as a "terrorist." Germany's use of the submarine in World War I was a well-remembered taste of what such a weapon of "terror" seemed to promise if given the status of weapon of choice against vastly superior and "in place" elements of their enemies' surface fleets. This was to become only more clearly needed in the face of the early humiliation of the Italian Navy and the neutralization of French Sea Power. Instead of simply an element of naval power, the Germans decided to make the submarine the central emphasis of the early stages of their planned one thousand year. hegemony. The early and stunning victories of these centrally controlled fleets of German submarines well established the "terrorist," i.e, the innovative employment they represented, well establish the potential success of such methods. Culturally, the Germans looked deeply into their past and, disillusioned by the patent failures they saw inherent in the "Gott mit uns" religiosity of World War I, adopted an exotic and intoxicating heresy comprising an admixture of ancient Teutonic legends coined in the more contemporary influences of pre-Socratic Greeks, Wagner and Nietzsche. Similarly,the variant and heretical, quasi-Islamic "Terrorists" which currently threaten the norms of Western Civilization, have gone deeply into the past of the followers of Hassan Sabba making his appearance on the stage of history toward the end of the 11th century, still remembered by many as "The Old Man of the Mountain." Hassan gained unquestioning domination of the minds of his followers. Employing a chemical intoxicant called "hashish," He persuaded his followers that he could instantly open the gates to all the joys of paradise to them. And the etymology and uses to which "Hashish" had been put still survive in the contemporary word "assassins." So the unstoppable terrorist weapon of al Queda, promising instant access to paradisaical delights from suicidal attacks conducted by his adherents. Terrorist attacks to deny resources, primarily oil, to the West until enough resource-rich Islamic nations can be brought under their control. It is in this context that the invasion of Iraq should be viewed. To deny this oil rich and the proven atomic scientific know-how of this pivotal nation and others like it to the operational inculcation of Western Capitalistic Democracy is critical to the long term strategies of the al Qaeda and fast growing look alikes.So much for German and Arabic historic parallels. There is nothing endemic to these two cultures that produced these results. Rather they are a socio-political given in their circumstances. In some smaller but not insignificant ways similar to the providential conjunction of printing and the Reformation, the revolutionary capabilities of the USS Virginia and its class of attack submarines bears importantly on the probable outcome of the War in which we are currently involved. This contribution will be more definitively dealt with in the follow-on posting to this Comments Section. Edwin Arnold Kiefer
CommentsTHEY STOOD IN LONG LINES... They stood in long lines—waiting. They walked for miles to get to the election polls. They came in wheelchairs. They carried elderly parents and grandparents. They braved car suicidal bombings, threats, even death. They ignored those who said the elections should be delayed: other countries, the U.N., some American politicians. They knew that freedom was not free. But with courage and hope in their hearts, they came. They voted. And danced in the streets with joy. by Marian Kiefer
CommentsThe cobias toughest patrol
CommentsWere you on the Cobias? What was its toughest patrol? Edwin Kiefer
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