Stephen Makk
Birth of a Boat
The couple were locked in an embrace, they stood and kissed, off to one side of the departure lounge at Lynden Pindling airport. At last they unlocked.
“Yana, when are we going to meet again?”
“Soon Nathan, soon.” Their normally fair hair was sun-bleached after the two week vacation.
She was a strikingly attractive woman with blue eyes and an intelligent gaze.
“How are you traveling home?”
“I’m flying,” she grinned. He punched her softly in the ribs.
Still wearing his shorts, he was a ruffled looking handsome boyish young man.
“I fly to Houston, then it’s Air France to Kiev via Paris. You’ll be tied up for months, yes?”
He nodded. “A flight to Philly and then it’s on to Groton, Connecticut. Naval Submarine school for the Prospective Commanding Officer course.”
She looked at the flight board. “They’re calling my flight, I have to go.” They kissed again then separated.
“See you Nathan.”
“You too.” He watched her walk off toward the gate, her body had a wow factor of nine plus. Nathan sighed, it had been a heck of a vacation.
It wasn’t long before his flight was called.
Nathan stopped at the main gate of the USN Submarine base Groton and showed his pass and documentation. He wore his dark blue uniform.
“Morning sir,” he took the documents and compared them to the screen display in front of him.
“Lieutenant Commander Nathan Blake, PCO course. Ok sir, down the thoroughfare first on the left, double doors to the North.”
“Thanks.” He set off toward the school, entered the building and signed in at reception. He filled in his application, handed it over and was waved through.
The first few months were shore based. Plenty of time in the classroom covering the SSN they’d be using at sea for the course. They’d been allocated USS Oklahoma City. The course moved on to tactics, personnel management. Then came Enemy studies.
This became Nathan’s favorite, study your foe. Sun Tzu had said, “Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.”
There were few examinations, it was mostly a series of interviews and verbal tests.
“Your Fleet command orders you to follow a Kilo class into an area were several enemy surface vessels are at sea. A master computer error renders all your weapons inoperative. What do you do?”
After a few months they moved on to what they called USS Impossible. It was a room set out like a boat’s control room, the four candidates and other crewmembers stood in as officers on deck. Navigation, Weapons, Engineering, XO, Sonar, Communications. Chief of the Boat was the most popular, as you were able to club and arrest the CO if he transgressed during a nuclear release. They set the exercise so that it forced the Command candidate to do this occasionally.
Each candidate took on the role of Commander of the boat and had to react to situations set by the examiners. Officers under his command were assigned to carry out mistakes to cause the Command candidate problems. There were many no-win situations set for them. Nathan struggled at first handling surface combatants.
“Blake stop it there. Stop it now, you’re all dead. You have a boat heading for the bottom, you’ve killed all one hundred and twenty of them. That’s the second time today Blake, you’re not fit to drive my Auntie’s Buick, never mind the CNO’s boat.”
He tried hard, studied and asked for advice. He got better and solved it. One day he’d got it.
“That’s it Blake. Enough, I said take out the amphibious assault ship, not the fucking escorts too. You’re showing off.”
One November day two days early, it came to an end. They were told to retire to their rooms and wait. Nathan sat and waited, and waited. It dragged. Had he screwed up too many times? All he could do was think about what he would have done. He’d always have done things differently, well most of the time. It went on so long it became torture. There was a knock at the door. A female PO looked in. “This way sir, they’re waiting.”
She led him to an office door and entered.
“Sir, candidate Blake.” The three senior Officers sat impassively.
“Sit please Lieutenant Commander.”
Nathan sat straight and tried not to look at the three examiners.
“Blake, you’ve waited long enough. You struggled with surface opposition, didn’t you?”
“Yes sir.” No, this was it, he knew it. He’d screwed up on the issue.
“But you learned and overcame. You became good at it.” He opened the folder in front of him.
“Lieutenant Commander Blake. When you arrived, you applied for this course’s approval as commanding officer of a United States Navy Submarine. For this role your application is approved.” He leaned over to shake Blake’s hand.
“Well done. You’ll get your own boat.” Nathan was amazed, he shook his head and grinned.
“We feel that you’ll benefit by spending six months as XO with one of our most experienced Captains. You’ll serve until 1st of June under Captain Greenaway on board USS Columbia. Dismissed.”
Finally, his time on board Columbia came to an end. He’d learned much from Captain Greenaway and was sorry to leave.
Nathan reported to Admiral Cernio. Officer in Command of USN Submarines.
“Blake. You come with good reports. I put most importance on Captain Greenaway’s report, he’s a good man.” The Admiral stared at him intensely. “I take it you’ll be hoping for an SSN?”
“Yes sir.”
“I’m not going to give you one.” Nathan’s heart sank, what would he get? A DOD position? Commanding a desk. Training?
“We have a new boat almost ready to commission. She’s a new type to the Navy. A diesel electric boat.” Nathan had heard of her, a new type, she was a collaborative venture with the Japanese. She was a variant of the Soryu class, an exciting new type powered by Detroit diesels and Lithium Ion batteries. She was state of the art and equipped with the latest sensors and weapons.
“A new boat, a new type, she needs new blood. She needs a young aggressive man to take her to sea. You’re going to be a plank owner, one her first crew. You’ll be the first to command her. What do you think Blake?”
“I’m delighted, I knew of her, but I thought her first commander would be an experienced hand.”
“He’d bring too much baggage. She’s your boat now, she has no name yet just her code name Legend. You can request a name, it’ll be considered.” He signed the order and passed it to him.
“You’ll see when you read it that you’ve been promoted. You’re now a Commander.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“She’s going through her final fitting out down the road at Electric Boat company. I expect you’ll be wanting to take a look at her?” Admiral Cernio smiled.
“Yes sir.”
“Off you go Commander. Make us proud of her.”
“Yes sir.”
Commander Nathan Blake climbed down the ladder in her sail and stood on her deck at four fifteen on a Wednesday afternoon. He walked around and inspected his boat Legend, whilst the boatyard staff worked on her. He tried hard, but no one could have wiped the silly grin from his face. He didn’t sleep too well and that night, maybe three or four in the morning he thought of her name. The next day he filled in the necessary request papers, it was out of his hands now.
He spent the next two days going through naval personnel records and picked his requested crew. He started with the Executive Officer, next was the Chief of the Boat. Nathan worked down the list.
Three days later he spoke by phone to the Admiral commanding the Pacific Fleet, his assigned attachment.