Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box

I attended a birthday and a wake, of sorts, on Saturday in Groton. Practically under the Gold Star Bridge in Groton, besides the Thames River, is a small but very well-kept bridge of a submarine, USS Flasher, which forms the centerpiece for the World War II Submarine Veterans Memorial. It's surrounded by polished granite tablets listing every US Navy submarine Sailor who lost his life during World War II, thousands of names etched into the cool stone to be preserved forever or for as long as human memory permits. It is quite beautiful and an oasis, of sorts, along a very busy stretch of road that runs to and through Electric Boat and Pfizer in Groton. You can see the Thames from behind the memorial and while I didn't see any of the submarines stationed up river at the base returning or departing on Saturday, it wasn't hard to imagine sixty-five years ago when that happened on practically a daily basis.

I didn't have to strain too hard to see those ghost ships and Sailors on the Thames as many of their shipmates, now in much older clothes, were reminiscing together in the sudden sunshine of an April midday. It had rained over night and into the early morning, but it was warming and dry by the time the two hundred or so submarine Sailors and their family and friends took an hour to observe the 108th birthday of the US Submarine Force, when the US Navy purchased USS Holland (making it the first USN submarine) and, sadly, a grim reminder of what every submariner of every nation knows can happen, the 45th anniversary of the loss of USS THRESHER.

There were Sailors of practically every decade for the last six or so to include a man I met briefly a number of years, LT Ernie Plantz, who had been captured by the Japanese after his submarine, USS PERCH was so badly damaged that the crew had scuttled it. He survived the Bataan Death March and 1,297 days as a prisoner of war. He was among friends from what I saw on Saturday, because he was among shipmates.

There were fine and kind words from senior leaders, officer and enlisted, still on active duty at the base, and a large contingent of very young Sailors from the Submarine School, each holding a flag of a submarine still on 'Eternal Patrol.' It was interesting to watch the old submariners look at the kids and see themselves as they were back when, and the junior Sailors, looking at those who had gone down to the sea long ago, some so long ago their parents hadn't yet been born, and realizing perhaps for the first time that they were the latest link in a chain of service to country that stretched back 108 years.

For the submarine veterans, they know far more about the life and times aboard a sub like THRESHER than will ever be spoken about in a speech on an anniversary and many of them served aboard submarines commissioned decades before the advent of nuclear power. For them, "DBF", Diesel Boats Forever, isn't just a slogan, it's an affirmation. And all the while, the eyes on the youngest Sailors grew larger as all this history, in their blue vests, some (the World War II Sailors) with their hats with large plumes, sat and sunned themselves more in the warmth of memory and remembrance than in the early April rays.

Each year, the dual commemoration is held and as the years have passed, the number of World War II veterans has declined for sad and obvious reasons. But the memorial continues and, I suspect, will always continue as long as there are submariners to stand the watch until relieved.
"They tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe."
-bill kenny