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.

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

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)

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

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

NAVSEA webpage under construction

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

DPG

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".

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

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

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.

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

The Editorial Page - 10 News

Ok, I get it. The Dolphin being decommissioned ruffled some feathers out there. Here's a television stations editorial about the decommissioning. Someone should give them a glimpse on how the government is going to "dispose" of the ol'e girl. So, without further ado, I give you the link to the 10news editorial. Maybe we can leave some feedback too!

The Gotland

Here's a glimpse of the Swedish Submarine - The Gotland and a graphic of one.

If you're interested - there will be a tour of the Gotland on October 18th and November 28th
of 2006. Go to the United States Submarine Veterans website for more information on how to sign up.

Now, who could this be?

This famous photo that has been floating around the internet for a while was used for a cover on
a memorial DVD. What my SO noticed is that the person circled seems familiar. Who could this be? Anyone want to guess?


I'll answer that in a later post.

UPDATE:
The picture in question was taken circa 1995 I believe. The person who is circled, well, its me. I recall the photographer taking pictures that day.

Now this guy is Famous!

(Storekeeper Seaman (SS) Daniel A. Rody)
The Navy Compass on September 15th, 2006 wrote an article with the subject heading of:
"USS Dolphin Pins Last Silver Dolphin". HERE IS A BLURB:

The 23-year old Philadelphia native was the last USS Dolphin (AGSS 555) crew member ever to earn the highly sought-after qualification Sept. 12, 2006 during a Naval Submarine League luncheon at Naval Base Point Loma, Calif. Rody will report to USS Springfield (SSN 761) this fall and hopes to finish his Associate of Arts degree soon after.


After 38 years of active service, Dolphin will decommission later this month with 100 percent enlisted submarine warfare qualified Sailors.

The San Diego-based submarine, Dolphin is the Navy's only diesel-electric, deep-diving, research and development submarine employed by both the Navy and civilian personnel.

I'm choking......back......tears............

Lets have a moment of silence whilst I do some upkeeping on the blog. Until then America..........

UPDATE

The subreport.com has audio and a film slide show of the Dolphin decommissioning if anyone is interested.

Thanks again to the U-T for this article and slideshow.

Some people have money riding on what happens to the Dolphin after the decommissioning. Others want it as a museum. As we heard through sources, there are two groups who are actively trying to get the Dolphin and make her a museum. But where would you put her? How about back into the San Diego bay right next to the Midway as a floating museum? Heck, I'd go see her!

The Reunion of All Reunions

Well, here's where the "reunion" was taking place. "Family". Thats what we represented that night. Young and old alike agreed. Many "sea tales" were orated. Others were acted out.


Overall, we had a good time. Oh yeah, the food and the service was good too.

On the inside, there were displays of old pictures of yesteryear and what the Dolphin had accomplished during its tour of duty. Unfortunately, the pictures are a wee bit out of focus. The funny thing was that these two guys before they shut down the shin-dig took them away.

After the official shin-digger, the next stop was to Desi 'n Friends - the ol'e Horse and Cow where some took it up a notch. Or did I say too much....

And last, what I would like to say is - for all those who are PC about words, please don't read this. Here is the "submariners song" which the younger generation were singing :

submarines once submarines twice

holy jumpin' jesus christ

we go up and we go down

we don't even **** around

Aoooga Aoooga dive dive

diveratshit batshit dirty ole **** 69

*******s tied in a knot cumsucker mother****er

gobble gobble chew

i'm a submariner who the **** are you?

If you can read that, your eyes are better than average!

What you can see and what you can't.....

Found a video from the Navy News desk that takes a quick peek at the newly reconditioned insides.

DPG

Decomming the Dolphin

Since 1968, the USS Dolphin has faithfully served the United States Navy. Its with sadness that we must report that the Dolphin is being decommissioned this year. Some would say finally, considering that it was supposed to be decomm'd a while ago. We will miss her.






Here is a photograph taken when the Dolphin was in Canada/Washington.

UPDATE

The San Diego Union Tribune and 10News.com both have articles about the Dolphin
being decommissioned. Would like to thank the author of the Trib's article and Bubblehead's
posting. Thanks fellas!

There are other people to thank, just can't find the links yet. More to come.

UPDATE

Here's one from the Strategy Page about the Dolphin by J. Dunnigan entitled "Old Subs Do Eventually Die".

Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day!
Hope everyone enjoys the day off, and please don't drink and drive. We've had a lot of crackdowns lately on unruly partiers as well. So enjoy yourself, just don't go overboard.