I’m the only male in my family who was not in the U.S. Military, but I worked at Grumman for 17 years and helped win the Cold War.
Devil Christian suggests that I kinda built a high rise in the one bedroom of my 650 square foot luxury apartment when I lived in Madhattan. Pretty much he says I went “vertical” by building out space.
The bedroom was kinda set up like a submarine where every square inch mattered. Then again “woman-factor” and worse woman-factor of a fashion blogger who kinda used my studio space as her “closet” enough to open a small boutique of woman’s shoes, bags, coats, and accessories.
Pretty much the room was booby-trapped where one could easily be crushed by woman’s wear.
So in these “good old days” where I had my floor standing 24 inch Epson printer I called “the Jersey Barrier” a 27 inch EIZO calibrated monitor, and storage of thousands of dollars worth of paper, inks, supplies and of course my monster sized prints (24x36).
So I’m cool with having a printing workspace that is small and very submarine like.
If you think I’m weird/odd/crazy, perhaps you should know my second oldest brother who affectionately is known as my rich brother.
He is a Capricorn like me, Jesus, and Elvis. He is also like me, kinda gifted as far as intelligence, so know that in 1968 he attended Brooklyn College on a full scholarship. He only attended for a year, but living in poverty of course sucked. He only attended college for a year before quitting, and then he joined the Navy and got into their Nuclear program.
He ended up getting stationed in Hawaii and served on two nuclear attack subs: the Tautog (Blackfish); and the Porgy. He was the “Nuclear Operator” in the Navy for 5 years, and because he saved every penny during those 5 years he ended up with $30K worth of capitol in 1973 that he invested in small electronic companies that specialized in communications before they invented cell phones.
He ended up being the Nuclear Operator for Shoream the failed Nuclear Power plant that was dismantled because it failed to have an evacuation plan. The cost/waste was about 2.2 Billion dollars with a capitol “B.”
So even though it made no power, and was decommissioned, he still had the job as Nuclear Operator because they needed someone with the qualifications and the license. Did you know as a Cyclotron Engineer I was licensed?
Submarine duty is called “The Silent Service” and operations are highly secret, but I discovered a book with the same title that used declassified information to reveal all these secretes we are not suppose to know about, like Navy divers taping into Russian military communication lines not far or within their territorial waters. Some subs were modified for such missions.
”Don’t tell anyone.”
The way submarine duty works is that there are two full crews, and a cruise typically is for 6 months. My brother told me the limitation is the amount of food that can fit in a sub. Pretty much when loaded for a cruise the submariners are walking in halls that have low ceilings because they are walking on number 10 sized cans of food that are being stored.
So pretty much the same as in my digital printing studio.
So there was an incident involving my brothers “boat” (Navy jargon for a vessel that can fit in or on a larger “Ship”) named the Tautog.
Nuclear attack subs stalk each other, and there is a blind spot in the rear in the prop wash that the sonar cannot see. The Russians do this violent turning that is unpredictable to try and detect if they are being “shadowed,” and these maneuvers are called a “Crazy Ivan.”
Understand that underwater collisions occur, and pretty much it is standard procedure to scout out the situation, and then get out of there. No rescue, and pretty much leave them for dead. Oh-well…
So pretty much a collision happened between the Tautog and a Russian sub. I do not know if my brother was on duty (6-months) or (6 months off). The Tautog suffered a bent sail (Conning tower).
Evidently the Conning Tower punched a hole in the Russian sub, it took on water and was sinking. Know that at a certain depth water which weighs about 8 pounds per gallon experts enough pressure to crush a hull.
The crew of the Tautog heard all kinds of horrible sounds, and then the worse sound: silence.
For decades it was thought that the Russian hull imploded and the entire crew was lost, but the Russian Captain avoided crush depth (the nose of the sub was stuck in a dive with the added ballast of taken on water) and could not surface, he ordered the engines into full reverse, and was able to surface.
The Russian sub then listened and heard silence believing he had killed an American crew and sank an American sub.
Today my rich brother is married, has two kids, and is living in Hong Kong. He is an American, but his wife and children are Chinese.
The Straight of Taiwan is a bottleneck not too far from the China coast, a choke point of sorts. You should know that all American subs are Nuclear, and the Chinese only have a few. Diesel electric subs are very quiet, that is an advantage, but the weakness is that they have to either expose themselves or use snorkel depth to run Diesel engines to recharge batteries that reveal position.
The losses in any war would be horrific on both sides, but studies suggest the U.S. would militarily would win, but also militarily would be rather crippled.
My feeling though is that a war is brewing and almost is unavoidable, but the expression ”Time is the best weapon” I believe favors the U.S.
Also know my brother mentioned while stationed in Hawaii he and others would send up helium balloons with aluminum foil tails to reflect radar to get F-4 Phantom Jets to scramble.
The nonsense going on right now of testing NORAD is plan stupid and dangerous. Our response is being tested. Might be a time to play dirty or do something covert that we won’t hear about.
BTW did you know that Obama used a lot of Black Ops during his 8 years?
Cal
