Peoria Base United
States Submarine Veterans
Vol 02/04 American
Submarines – there is no 
stitute! April 2002
Base Commander Dave Schuck drschuck@bwsys.net 9628 W. Littlefield Dr.
Mapleton,
IL 61547
(309)
697-5344
Vice Commander “Ernie” Crowl mercrdc@home.com 6111 N. Devonshire Dr.
Peoria, IL 61615
(309) 691-5813
Secretary Jim Welch welchkins76@yahoo.com P.O. Box 181
Cuba, IL 61427
(309) 785-2661
Treasure John Sauer sauerj@mtco.com RR2 Box 232A
Metamora,
IL 61548
(309)383-2848
Chaplain Sam Eddy ssbn619gold@yahoo.com 500 E. Warren
LeRoy, IL 61752
(309) 962-2509
Chief of the Boat Bill Boone omr34@hotmail.com 107 N. 2nd St.
McLean, IL 61754
(309) 874-2230
Historian David Smith david.smith@ronsmith.com 25 Devon Rd
Bloomington, IL 61704
(309) 664-7877
Membership Phil
Philipps phil-ops@elmnet.net
P.O. Box 275
Yates City, IL 61572
(309) 358-1307
www.peoaribase.homestead.com
THE USSVI CREED
To perpetuate the memory
of our shipmates who gave their lives in the pursuit of their duties while
serving their country. That their dedication, deeds and supreme sacrifice be a
constant source of motivation toward greater accomplishments. Pledge loyalty
and patriotism to the United States Government.
Happy
Birthday to the Submarine Force! On 11
April the force will be 102 years old.
I’d say we’re doing pretty good for being over 100. Don’t forget to get your tickets for the
ball on 13 April. You must have your
money to Ernie by 9 April.
On 11 &
12 May the air show will be here in Peoria.
We’ve agreed to work a food booth both days from which we will get part
of the proceeds. Shifts are from
0900–1300 and 1300-1700 both days. If
you can work one of these times, call or e-mail Phil. Due to us working the booth, we will not have a scheduled meeting
in May since the 11th is one of our scheduled meeting days. Our next meeting at the Navy-Marine Club is
8 June.
Hope to see
you at the Ball, it will be a great evening!
Membership
If you
haven’t had a chance to pay your dues yet, pony up. It’s that time again.
Phil Philipps is our membership king, so send him your greenbacks. Annual Members owe $20 ($10 to National
& $10 for our Base) and Life Members owe $10 (for Base dues).
Holland club
members, you’re paid up, but we are more than happy to accept a donation (for
that matter, we’ll take donations from anyone).
--- In
order to ensure our membership roster is up to date, please e-mail (or regular
mail) Phil Philipps or myself with your current address, phone number and
e-mail address. ---
Donations
The
following members have provided a donation to the Base. Make sure you tell them thanks!
Don Ascher
Archie Holte
Dale Scott
George Wrightam
Dates in
Naval History
April 11, 1900 - John P. Holland sells his
internal combustion, gasoline powered submarine, Holland VI, to
the Navy for $160,000, after demonstration trials off Mount Vernon, VA, marking
the official birthdate of the U.S. Navy's submarine force.
April 10, 1963 - USS Thresher
(SSN-593) is reported overdue and presumed lost during a test dive 220 miles
east of Boston. SUBSAFE program initiated as a result of this accident.
April 1, 1967 - USS Will Rogers
(SSBN-659) is commissioned. This completes the building of the "41 for
Freedom" FBM submarines, two years ahead of schedule.
April 5, 1969 - The 100th Polaris
patrol in the Pacific is completed when USS Stonewall Jackson
(SSBN-634) returns to Apra Harbor, Guam.
April 7, 1997 - Newport News Shipbuilding is
awarded a $71.9 million contract to provide design and planning yard services
for Seawolf class submarines.
VA Corner
- Bronze markers with the USSVI emblem for
gravesites may be ordered from Murray Lewis at (631) 269-5571. For more information, please contact Don
Douglas at (217) 687-2684.
- The president
signed a bill in January that all veterans may have a government grave marker
even if they already have a family marker. The government marker may now
be placed at the foot of the grave. This is not retro-active .
Prior December of 2001 if there was a grave marker on the grave you could not
apply for a government marker. All government markers had to be placed at
the head of the grave.
- Expanded Coverage
for Vets Exposed to Radiation.
Secretary of
Veterans Affairs (VA) Anthony Principi announced the addition of five new
cancers to the list of disease presumed to be connected to veterans' exposure
to radiation during their military service. Veterans who participated in
"radiation-risk activities" while on active duty or as members of a
Reserve component, and are diagnosed worth bone, brain, colon, lung or ovary
cancer may establish their eligibility for VA compensation beginning 26 March
2002.
Veterans or their
survivors can file claims for VA compensation by contacting a VA regional
office at 1-800-827-1000 or visiting WWW.va.gov
on the Internet.
Submarine News
The new Master Chief
Petty Officer of the Navy has just been appointed. He is (SS/AW) Terry D
Scott. He is relieving (SS/SW/AW) James L. Herdt. The last
two to hold this position have been Submarine Chiefs.
New London (CT) Day
March 20, 2002
Plan For New Sub Development Outlined
Congressional report lists most inexpensive
ways to boost the fleet
By Robert A. Hamilton
A new congressional report concludes that
basing more submarines in Guam, using multiple crews to operate submarines and
converting four Trident missile submarines to an attack submarine role are the
cheapest options to fill a shortfall in the number of submarines that will
develop over the next two decades.
But the report issued Tuesday also notes that
even if operational alternatives are adopted, the Navy must increase submarine
production soon. Given the current rate of production, the attack submarine
fleet will drop to 36 by 2025 and 28 by 2030, as older boats are retired, the
report states.
The Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff has said
a minimum of 68 submarines will be needed in 2015, and 76 in 2025, and anything
less than 55 would compromise national security.
The report, "Increasing the Mission
Capability of the Attack Submarine Force" by Eric J. Labs of the
Congressional Budget Office, National Security Division, notes that the Navy
currently operates 54 attack submarines, and is not building enough to meet the
Joint Chiefs requirement.
"The gap between the Navy's long-term
procurement plan and its current funding and construction levels is especially
important because attack submarines represent the largest shortfall in the
Navy's shipbuilding account," Labs wrote.
Labs' options have been under consideration
by the Navy, and officials say there are advantages and drawbacks to each of
the alternatives- using multiple crews, for instance, will yield a greater
efficiency of use, but will also wear submarines out faster, and only delays
the shipbuilding requirements, for instance.
But the report comes as the House and Senate
armed services committees are taking up the shipbuilding budget, and is
expected to provide ammunition to advocates for the submarine force, who have
said for years that the undersea warfare community needs more support.
Any increase in the production rate of
submarines would benefit Electric Boat in Groton, which has teamed up with
Newport News (Va.) Shipbuilding to co-produce the next-generation Virginia
class of submarine.
Labs notes that to meet the submarine force
level goal for 2015 with only new construction, the Navy would have to build 24
submarines between 2002 and 2009, a period in which the Navy plans, at best, to
build only 10. To meet the 2025 boat, "the Navy would need to order 58
submarines between 2002 and 2019, an average of 3.2 per year."
Even the most optimistic projection has the
Navy building, at best, two a year, because building 3.2 per year would cost an
average of $6.1 billion per year in 2002 dollars on submarine construction, or
approximately 58 percent of the shipbuilding budget, leaving just 42 percent to
pay for all the other classes of ships that make up more than 80 percent of the
fleet. "By comparison, the Navy devoted 14 percent of its shipbuilding
budget to attack submarines in the 1990s and 24 percent in 2002," Labs
wrote.
There are 54 attack submarines in the current
fleet (51 of the Los Angeles class, two Seawolfs, and the Parche, a converted
Sturgeon-class submarine) but because of training and maintenance requirements,
the time spent traveling from their home port to mission areas, and other
considerations, the typical attack submarine is only available for 36 mission
days per year on average, Labs said.
Conversion may be better Labs said the
quickest option to increase submarine availability is to convert four older
Trident submarines to attack submarine roles. Because Tridents already operate
with two crews and spend most of their time deployed, they could be available
for 142 mission days per year, at a lower cost - $2.2 million, versus $2.7
million - per mission day. That would enable the Navy to meet its 2015
submarine force goal, but unless the pace of new construction increases, it
would fall short of the 2025 goal, Labs said.
Though the Navy has won funding to convert
those submarines to fire conventional missiles, they would primarily be used to
provide firepower in areas where they might be needed, and they would not be
routinely available for other attack submarine roles such as surveillance.
Multiple crews an option Another option would
be to use multiple crews for attack submarines, either assigning two crews to
each boat, similar to what is done now with missile submarines, or rotating
three crews between two boats. That would boost the availability to 65 mission
days per year, and reduce the cost per mission day to $2.2 million.
A final option laid out in the Labs report
would be to homeport more submarines in Guam. Basing the submarines in the
western Pacific has two advantages: the submarines would spend much less time
deploying to their operating areas; and it would allow for two two-month
deployments per year, instead of one six-month deployment every two years for
submarines based in Pearl Harbor and San Diego.
Basing the submarines in Guam would require a
$200 million investment in the shore support infrastructure, Labs wrote, but would
increase their availability to between 88 and 123 mission days per year, and
reduce the cost per mission day to $2 million, the cheapest of any of the
options.
