April 2nd, Monday – Time for Family and a Tour of the Base

Today would be a time for family, and a time to see some of the Navel Submarine Base Kings Bay.  We were in no rush this morning, not only us but Marti.  Our little furry friend actually slept until 8 am before he got me up to go out.  I looked at the clock and could not believe my eyes.  Thanks Marti it was nice to sleep in this morning.

Once awake we both made our way to the kitchen for breakfast.  Eggs, toast, juice, fried spam and coffee.  A great breakfast for the start of a great day.  This will be our last day in this area since tomorrow we move a little further north.  Hey folks up to the north, can you begin to dial-up some warm weather and have it ready for us when we get there.  Stories of snow send chills down our spines.  I really don’t need to see another snow flake, not even one, if ever in my lifetime.

Breakfast done it was time to visit with Barbara’s cousin who she hasn’t seen in three

years.  This is Walter and Barbara in the driveway of his home.  Walter is a retired submariner and now lives adjacent to the base in his own home.  He spent 23 years in the Navy and retired as a chief engineer.  Today he would be our escort and the only one who would be able to get us on the submarine base.  Into the car we piled and off we went.  This is the main gate through which all traffic passes that wants to access the base.

All trucks making delivers on the base also have to go through a huge x-ray machine.

The base is really a world onto itself.  Totally self-contained it has everything one needs.  It has several recreational fields, a huge gym and a bowling alley.

These are some of the quarters available to the enlisted personal who live on base.  Not quite like the barracks that I once lived in when I was in the army!  In addition, there is also a subdivision of duplex houses assigned based on rank and the size of your family.

This is the Trident training facility.  This is where future submariners come to learn how to be submariners.  Within this facility are actual sub simulators that the instructors can

use to create almost any possible scenario from an attack on the sub, to a fire on board, to a rupture in a water line and the flooding of the sub, and the list goes on.  Those who

graduate from here are highly trained and highly organized.  They are the best of the best.  There are two crews – the blue and the gold – for each sub. Typically, one of these teams will patrol for around 3-months and then come back to port where the sub is resupplied and the other crew goes directly back out to sea.  What it means is, these subs (with the exception of re-supply time) are operating underwater year-round.

Here is one of those submarines from the naval base making its way on the surface.  Naturally they are a lot quicker under water then when they are on the surface.  There are a total of 18 of these Ohio class submarines packing one whale of a punch.  Take a look, there are 24 missile silos that make up the back of the sub.

Where does the crew sleep?  In among all that firepower.  When a commander was once asked how many subs it would take to eliminate all the hostile territories in the Middle East he was said to reply just one.

These 18 Ohio class subs are also known as Trident subs because they are part of our nuclear triad.  That triad consists of our bombers capable of delivering a nuclear payload

and land based Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs such as the Minuteman III