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Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas



We're busy these days delivering presents, working or socializing. Well... hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Thanksgiving








Or Turkey Day to some of you out there. Hope you all have a happy one!


USS Kittyhawk is trying to get into Hong Kong's port but apparently something is holding them up. Some of the crew are going to be celebrating with American families over there. Will check back later for updates.


Here's something you might want to do - there's a webpage that gives thanks to the troops. Kudos to Xerox for sponsoring a much needed idea.


Saying Thanks to everyone for checking out this blog, and a special thanks to the person who sent me the link. Gotta love spam from the 'fam (just kidding).

DPG


Sunday, November 11, 2007

Veterans Day

Veterans Day. God Bless.









Friday, October 05, 2007

2005 Pictures of Dolphin




Big thanks to Troy Prince for these 2 pictures of the Dolphin.
Clicking on the picture will take you to the Midway Sailor site. Enjoy.
DPG




Thursday, October 04, 2007

Programs 1 of 2

I have now the commissioning and decommissioning pamphlets. DPG

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Gotland Homeward Bound


NEWSFLASH: DATELINE - JULY 11, 2007 from the Navy Dispatch :The HMS Gotland, the diesel electric submarine that was loaned to the United States by Sweden has finished her 2 year stint and is going home. (U.S. Navy photo by MC3 Jennifer S. Kimball). According to the Navy Times article , "US and Swedish officials decided [in February] to end the agreement and work with other countries to provide similar training to the pacific fleet..."
Other participating countries in negotiation: Chile , Peru and Columbia (which have been participating since '01, just not in the pacific) and Brazil.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Finding Nemo Submarine Salute by Navy

Steve Perez, from the OC Register did a great article on the OC's blog about the ceremony and
the history of the submarine ride. What was interesting was for those who were handicapped and 'closterphobic' there is a room that resembles the insides of the sub and you can watch it on the big portal (screen). Go to this link and click on the link to "navy salutes nemo" (yes, bypass the write-up about the celebs being at the opening) and watch the video.

Myself and the OS will be going there as the OS says 'one of these days' when I'm free to report
to review the ride, personally.

Going deep,
DPG

Monday, July 16, 2007

This blog investigates: History of the DBF insignia

The DBF Pin

In 1969, in one of those heated discussions on who is superior - diesel vs nukes- someone on the USS Barbel suggested that there should be a pin specifically for the diesel submarines who have to fill in for a nuclear submarine because it needed to be repaired. So, there was a contest to commission a design of the pin. ETR3(SS) Leon Figurido had the winning design. When the Barbel was docked in Yokosuka, the pins were made and sold at cost. Now, you decide which
source of information to read: wikipedia and/or submarine sailor.com . I like submarinesailor.com's version.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

USS DOLPHIN SAILOR DOING COLORS

We wish everyone a safe and happy independence day.


Vintage photo of sailor on Dolphin.

Update: We believe that the Dolphin sailor is John Riemensehender... DPG




Sunday, July 01, 2007

Website Found

Go to this website and see for yourself. It has a community just for those who served in the services. So far, the Marines and Navy webpages work. You can look up and hook up with your ol'e buddies from waaay back. Take a gander. Its called TOGETHERWESERVED.COM

Watching out,
DPG

(thanks "JD" for the heads up)

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Attack on Glasgow

This is the airport at Glasgow, Scotland where a Jeep crashed into the main terminal. The authorities believe that this vehicle bombing and the two other vehicles that were found in London are linked. Two men were arrested. Five bystanders injured, but not seriously.

There were people screaming and running from the SUV, including one of the assailants. One [assailant] was reported to have poured gasoline under the vehicle and set it on fire after crashing it through the glass doors.

The airport was evacuated and all of the flights were suspended - for how long, we're not sure. Other airports in the UK were also suspending their flights on Saturday. The United States' response was to increase its security in some airports, but not the threat level for now. Expect more security in the airports for a while.


Some links - here and here about the story.



Don't tread on me,
DPG





Saturday, June 23, 2007

This Blog Investigates:Dolphin Donation

Picture taken from Signonsandiego.com photo by H.Lipin

February, 22, 2007, Jack Innis, a columnist of the Log - a boating and fishing newspaper, wrote an article about the donation of the Dolphin. As you know, the Dolphin was on the NAVSEA Donations program website before it disappeared due to "reconstruction" of the website. It still hasn't appeared on the website, however, there is an email address if you would like more information on the ships donation program. I'm not going to spoil what the article says, you'll just have to read it yourself.

I tried to contact NAVSEA and recieved this response to my question about the donation of the Dolphin in June. Their response was "...the Dolphin is on donation hold." .


I was contacted by a reporter from the San Diego Tribune. He wrote an article about the Maritime Museum bidding for the Dolphin. Hopefully, the Dolphin will be docked and open for business in the near future.

Another question arose while researching for this post: Has anyone contacted the Navy League and if so, does any entity want to "sponsor" the Dolphin?

Will update again,


DPG




Wednesday, May 30, 2007

NAVSEA webpage under construction

NAVSEA 's website for the public is now being reconstructed. Well, better late than never!

DPG

Sunday, May 27, 2007

USS DOLPHIN'S day of decommissioning

The "Union Tribune" created a fantastic slide show for the decommissioning of the USS DOLPHIN.

If your a USS DOLPHIN crew member you will want to watch it. It is less than 5 minutes long. Notice the "commissioning pendent" just removed from the flag pole. Thats a sad sight to see for us crew members. I was there for the two days of decommissioning activitys. Both days were magical. Wish I got a hundred pictures, but I ended up with just a dozen.

Click on the link below and enjoy the great slide show provided by the "Union Tribune".

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Wanted: Sea Stories for new BLOG

I created another blog for sea stories. Here's the link to the new blog. I am hoping that this NEW blog will generate some interest.

Going overboard,
DPG

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Navy seeks new owner for San Diego sub. aka "USS DOLPHIN"

Based on a February 2, 2007 article in the news, the mighty USS DOLPHIN AGSS-555 may be saved from a torpedo exercise ( thank god!). There is a couple of other news articles reporting the same thing. This blog will be reporting
the latest on this great news as it pans out. I hope to be stepping on board "USS DOLPHIN" once again soon. Perhaps I will be giving tours as a volunteer? The listed article is from "Boston.com". If I had a few million dollors I would take "Dolphin" under my wing myself.

Here is the link to what I read myself. Here's the NAVSEA Navy Ship Donation Program site as well.
The other articles basically said the same. I have a straight board. Going to dive into some sleep.

David

Saturday, January 27, 2007

BAD, BAD SAILOR



This is the article that "Bubblehead" has mentioned. http:http://www.sdreader.com/php/cover.php?mode=article&showpg=1&id=20070118. Personally I experinced a couple of bad drinkers on the "Baton Rouge" but nothing like the drug crazy sailors mentioned in the "Reader". I will bring up a drug story from the "Baton Rouge" and the "Dolphin" while I was on board. There is many, but these two are quite amazing and absolutly true.


99 % of us have memorys of crew members using and abusing drugs. These are two of mine.


While decoming the "Baton Rouge" in Vallejo, CA we had a standard floating office barge to take over for crew use during the decom. We had come over from Norfolk, Va for the decom. I reported for duty to take over as "barge watch" around 9 am on a weekday. No barge watch was to be found and a known heavy drinker was loged in as "on watch". I reported his absents to the "COB" after about ten minutes of searching for this sailor. The "COB" had me do a complete search of the barge for "the watch", so off I went. Can you imagine how amusing this was. This guy was ripe for seeing the captain at this time. I came to the last possible space he could be in "lower level deck 2". Behind the ladder in that space I found MM3 playing a hand held video game. I just went and got the COB and took over the watch. After a few months of alcohol counseling he was discharged from the navy. This guy was known by the crew as being "shit faced" one hour after getting off duty on the weekend. Definatly one of the bigger drinkers. Isn"t that amazing? He was also known as the guy for evacuationing half of tender in San Diego after over pressurizing the san tank hose while berthed off the tender on route to Vallejo. Shit was literally everywhere. I was on board the tender at the time and methane just infused half the tender. Cannot remember the name of the tender at this time.


Did two tours on USS DOLPHIN and on my first tour we had a "mess specialist" on his first and last hitch do a amazing departure. After a couple years of sea duty, a cook on board "Dolphin" had enough of the navy. The duty days where just to much for him he said. The total navy thing was too much for him. He smoked pot many of his weekends off and decided to use pot as a exit out of the navy. While the "Dolphin" was inport in San Diego this MS decided to smoke a joint and go to work the next day. After morning muster he went to our HMC and told him he smoked a joint the night before. His intention was to get out of the navy. Within 30 days he was discharged, "dishonorably" of course. Amazing! Good guy otherwise. I remember him just hating the watches at night. To those of you that know of watches for cooks, "USS DOLPHIN" was different. Our cooks stood "POOD" and other watches inport. We had a crew under 50 crew members, so this was just the way it was. I realize the nuke subs did not have their cooks stand watches as POOD. "USS DOLPHIN" had a totally different way of operating as a submarine.

Friday, January 05, 2007

So? Where is the Dolphin now?

Anyone hear anything about the Dolphin recently? I've been trying to get some information, but to no avail.
So, if you know where the USS DOLPHIN is... please let this blogger know - we're hoping she hasn't been used as a
"sinkex".

DPG