A Tragic Anniversary: The Loss of USS Scorpion (SSN 589)

By Zach Smyers and Mark Freeman
HRNM Staff

In May 1968, the nuclear attack submarine USS Scorpion (SSN 589) was 350 feet below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea traveling at a speed of 15 knots. Commander Francis A. Slattery, commanding officer of Scorpion, sent a message to COMSUBLANT (Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic). In the message, Slattery said that Scorpion was closing in on a Soviet submarine and research group “to begin surveillance of the Soviets.” This would be the last message ever sent by Scorpion.

Commander Francis Slattery, CO of the Scorpion (NHHC)

Ten years earlier, in August 1958, the keel was laid for Scorpion, which was built at the Electric Boat Division, General Dynamics Corporation, Groton, Connecticut. Scorpion was the second submarine to be built as part of the U.S. Navy’s Skipjack-class. The Skipjacks had the latest in technology in terms of armament, sonar, and nuclear propulsion. Capable of speeds in excess of 30 knots while submerged, Scorpion would be ideal for covert observations of Soviet naval activity during the busy years of the Cold War.

Launching of the Scorpion (Navsource.org)

Commissioned on July 29, 1960, USS Scorpion (SSN 589) would be the sixth U.S. Navy vessel of that name. The previous USS Scorpion (SS 278) was a Gato-class diesel submarine that served during World War II and was lost with all hands in 1944. First assigned to Submarine Squadron 6, Division 62 out of New London, Connecticut, Scorpion’s first deployment was participating in exercises in Europe working with units from the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet and other NATO allies. In September 1961, it changed homeports, moving to Norfolk, Virginia, where Scorpion operated for the rest of its short career.

Sailors disembark from USS Scorpion in Norfolk (NavSource.org)

In February 1967, Scorpion went to Norfolk Naval Shipyard for a scheduled overhaul. At the time, the Navy required a 36-month overhaul period to determine that the submarine maintained all safety standards, including watertight integrity of the hull. However, during Scorpion’s time at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, the 36-month period was reduced to one year, and Scorpion received only emergency repairs in order to return to sea faster.

On February 15, 1968, Scorpion left Norfolk for what would be its final deployment. Working with the Sixth Fleet, Scorpion headed west, making the return trip for home in May. However, on May 20, 1968, Vice Admiral Arnold Schade issued orders for Scorpion to make its way toward the Canary Islands.[i] Scorpion’s tasking was to observe and track Soviet warships operating in the area, which included an Echo II Class submarine, a submarine, rescue vessel, and two hydrographic survey ships. A Soviet guided-missile destroyer and an oiler joined the group three days later. On May 21, 1968, Scorpion was 250 miles south of the Azores, and was making its way back to Norfolk with an estimated time of arrival of 1pm on May 27. That day, Scorpion was reported as overdue for returning to Norfolk. Scorpion had failed to respond to a series of classified message traffic. The Navy made multiple attempts to communicate with Scorpion, but the crew never responded. Scorpion was declared missing, and the U.S. Navy began searching for the lost sub using aircraft, ships, submarines, and aircraft from the Coast Guard and U.S. Air Force. The size of the search area was 2,100 miles, which is almost equivalent to all seven cities that make up the region referred to as Hampton Roads.

On June 5, 1968, the U.S. Navy officially declared Scorpion lost and the crew dead. The Navy established a formal Court of Inquiry regarding the loss of Scorpion. The court convened from June 1968 through most of July 1968. During this time, the court learned that in December 1967, Scorpion did have an unarmed MK-37 training torpedo start up accidentally while still inside the tube. During this particular incident, the crew was able to jettison the torpedo. The court considered that the activation of the torpedo’s battery while the torpedo was still in the tube could have sunk the Scorpion. On July 25, 1968, the court reached the conclusion that there was no proof of the exact cause of the boat’s loss.

The last known picture of Scorpion (NHHC)

In October 1968, the oceanographic research ship Mizar (T AGOR 11) located Scorpion. Sections of its hull were found 400 miles southwest of the Azores in water deeper than 10,000 feet. Pictures and data were collected from the wreck site, but the question remained: what caused the submarine to sink? In 1969, the deep surveillance vessel Trieste II made nine dives surveying the wreckage of Scorpion. These dives confirmed that the Scorpion had broken into three separate sections.

Map showing location of USS Scorpion's wreck (Wikimedia)

While we may never know the precise reason Scorpion sank, there are several theories about this event. In the 1998 issue of Proceedings, author Mark A. Bradley concluded that Scorpion sank due to lack of necessary safety improvements. In the 1998 book Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage, the authors conclude that the battery used to power the MK-37 torpedo aboard Scorpion could have caught on fire, which in turn would cause the torpedo’s warhead section to explode and sink the submarine. Another popular theory is that Scorpion was attacked and sunk by the Russian navy. While this theory may seem far-fetched, there is some evidence to support it in a letter Scorpion crewmember MMC Robert Bryan wrote to his son, Samual Bryan, about the Scorpion’s final mission. Bryan wrote, “Russians followed us with guns down the entire time.” Regardless of the cause, Scorpion went down with all of its crew and will forever remain on eternal patrol.

This year marks the 56th anniversary of the loss of USS Scorpion (SSN 589). To this day, any submarine entering Naval Station Norfolk will pause to render honors to Scorpion and the boat’s fallen Sailors. Current submariners do this by sounding the ship’s whistle as submarines pull into port from a long deployment. It is a somber yet respectful way to keep the memory of that crew alive. Along with the tribute from current active submarine Sailors, there are several monuments throughout the country commemorating the loss of USS Scorpion, one of which is pictured below. We may never know with total certainty why Scorpion sank. We should, however, stop to remember the crew’s sacrifice over fifty years later.

USS Scorpion monument in Newport News, VA (hmdb.org)

[i] The Admiral’s orders for Scorpion remain classified to this day.

Navy Fliers in the Berlin Airlift

By Zac Cunningham
School Programs Educator

In the late 1940s, Germany was the front line in the new global Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. The U.S., Great Britain, and France occupied the country’s west while the Soviet Union occupied its east. One hundred miles inside the Soviet-controlled east, the city of Berlin was similarly split. Divided Germany and Berlin became battlegrounds where military power was used first to deny and then to provide civilians the necessities of life.

Aerial view of World War II destruction in Berlin around the Brandenburg Gate (Wikipedia)

In 1948, the Western Powers took steps to transform their occupation zones into a new German state. The Soviets responded by blocking roads, railways, and canals into Berlin’s western zones, cutting off electricity, food, and coal supplies to the 2.5 million residents in that half of the city.[1]

American, British, and French occupation authorities launched an airlift of supplies into West Berlin codenamed “Operation Vittles.” Initially, the Allies had to airlift 3,500 tons of supplies per day. With the need for coal in winter, that increased to 4,500 tons daily. Over the next several weeks, the U.S. Air Force poured hundreds of C-54 Skymaster and C-47 Dakota transport aircraft into Europe for the airlift.[2]

U.S. Naval Aviation became involved during a late summer and autumn push to stockpile winter supplies in Berlin. Naval Air Transport Squadrons Six (VR-6) based in Guam and Eight (VR-8) based in Hawaii received orders to join the airlift at the end of October. VR-8 layover crews and personnel were collected from Johnston Atoll, Kwajalein, and Guam. VR-6 fliers winged their way back across the Pacific from Shanghai, Tokyo, and Manila.[3]

Just two days after receiving orders, both squadrons converged on California’s Moffett Field for inspections, repairs, and winterization. After radars were installed at Florida’s Naval Air Station Jacksonville, the 24 Douglas R5D Skymasters of VR-6 and VR-8 departed for Rhein-Main Air Base near Frankfurt, Germany.[4]

At Rhein-Main, VR-6 located its home on the base’s outskirts in a Quonset hut for operations, engineering, and administration and another for supply while “perforated steel plating hard stands became the squadron’s parking ramps.” Comforts were minimal. VR-8 ground personnel reported facing unreliable electricity, no fresh water, an outhouse for a head, and living quarters 10 miles away by bus.[5]

Left: Rhein-Main Air Base (US Army); Right: Ground crew warm their hands between engine checks (NHHC)

Nevertheless, the squadrons immediately began their mission “to establish and maintain the highest possible efficiency of personnel and equipment to allow a maximum lift of supplies to the blockaded city of Berlin.” Late on November 9, the same day he and his plane arrived in Germany, Lieutenant Richard Gerszeuski flew VR-8’s first mission from Frankfurt, over the Soviet-occupied east, to West Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport. Lieutenant Joseph L. Norris made VR-6’s first flight on November 12. This was 75 years ago this month.[6]

Navy fliers in the Berlin Airlift (NHHC)

The ad hoc nature of the airlift’s early days was demonstrated on December 19 when loading crews mistakenly put an extra 5,730 pounds of flour—nearly three tons more than normal—on a VR-6 plane. Through strained, the aircraft managed to fly all 26,730 pounds to Berlin. Such a mistake was understandable since “loads of flour, coal, and other supplies were started aboard [planes] at Rhein/Main before the engines were cut.” As the airlift settled into a routine, however, loading and unloading improved. On March 10, a Tempelhof ground crew, which was often made up of civilian Berliners and displaced persons, unloaded a VR-6 aircraft in a record six minutes. While on the ground in Berlin, a mobile snack bar kept flight crews near their planes ready to depart as fast as they were emptied.[7]

Airman Apprentice Robert H. Davidson is shown checking the lashings on the load of flour in his R5D and then directing the unloading of the flour at Berlin's Tempelhof Airport (NHHC)

The airlift’s dangers quickly became apparent to the Navy’s fliers. That winter’s weather was infamously poor, requiring constant use of instrument-only flying and ground-controlled approaches. The danger was particularly acute when landing at Tempelhof, where planes approached one runway between two rows of six-story apartment buildings. Visibility was so poor when the Navy’s squadrons started flying that it was three weeks before crews saw the apartment blocks they were flying between. Aviation Machinist Mate 3rd Class Louis Marconi exclaimed, “My God! I just saw someone’s house go by!”[8]

The fog, rain, and snow caused casualties. On November 15, VR-6 Lieutenant Commander Stephen Lukacik’s plane overran Tempelhof’s runway, crashed, and caught fire. The flames seriously burned Air Force Captain Armand I. Grenadier, a check pilot. Chief Aviation Machinist Mate Sidney D. Pointer, also seriously burned, saved Grenadier’s life. Pointer received a letter of commendation from General Lucius D. Clay, commander of U.S. forces in Europe. Lukacik received similar commendation. Co-pilot Lieutenant William O. Kuencer was also burned and broke his hand.[9]

A month later, just after midnight on December 11, VR-6 suffered a death. Aviation Machinist Mate 3rd Class Harry R. Crite was killed on the return flight from Berlin when the plane “struck terrain extending above 1,000 feet” and slid 1,100 feet through an apple orchard. Trees crumpled the nose, severed parts of the wings and horizontal stabilizers, and broke the plane in two. Pilots Lieutenant Joseph L. Norris and Ensign George H. Blackwood plus Air Force 1st Lieutenant Kenneth Sanger were seriously injured. Army hostess Dianna D. Day and Air Force 1st Lieutenant Frank J. Heffernan were uninjured.[10]

The Navy’s airlift crews tried to make themselves at home in West Germany. Far from the coast, these flying Sailors found they were novelties to many Germans. In one instance, VR-8’s Lieutenant Commander Eugene L. Lowrance was sightseeing in Frankfurt when he overheard two West Germans, unfamiliar with his aviation greens, worry that he was a “Russkie.” To ease their minds, he showed them his U.S. Navy id card.[11]

On December 22, VR-6 and VR-8 personnel threw a Christmas party for children at an orphanage near Frankfurt. They brought the kids “a truckload of clothing, food, candy, and toys” and enjoyed “a Christmas play presented by the 70 children.” Another group “assembled food which they had purchased and any candy and nuts they could scrounge from the [Bachelor Officers’ Quarters] into nine Christmas packages” delivered to “destitute German families.”[12]

The same day as the holiday party, Lieutenant Margaret Carver became VR-8’s personnel officer. Among the first women to join the regular Navy after the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act passed six months earlier, Carver was the first female Navy officer to serve in Europe. VR-8 also had the airlift’s only all-enlisted plane crew, Chief Aviation Pilot Wesley T. Christiensen, Aviation Pilot First Class Joseph A. Popp, and Chief Aviation Machinist Mate Ira Fox.[13]

Lieutenant Margaret E. Carver became VR-8's personnel officer on December 22, 1948, becoming the first women Navy officer stationed in Europe (NHHC)

The Navy’s squadrons quickly became the best in the airlift. During 24 hours on December 16, VR-8 set a single day sortie record when it made 51 flights in a day.[14] “By the end of December [1948],” Naval Aviation News summarized:

VR-8 under Cdr. James O. Vosseller, was leading all squadrons in the Airlift in every measurable phase of air transport operation. It won first honors in aircraft utilization, total cargo carried, payload efficiency and tons per plane. For several weeks, VR-6, commanded by Cdr. Harry P. Badger, was engaged in a spirited battle for second honors with the two top Air Force units. By the end of February [1949,] it forged to the front, equalling [sic] and frequently exceeding VR-8 in operational accomplishments. Performance records unparalleled in the history of air transport were established by the Navy planes and crews in April when the two squadrons flew 8,234 hours in delivering 23,550 tons of food and coal.[15]

VR-6 matched VR-8’s 24 hour record on April 12, 1949, and then broke it with 60 flights on April 18. Meanwhile, VR-8 continued to lead the airlift force in efficiency every month from December to May.[16]

Two R5Ds of VR-8 sandwich an Air Force C-54 as they await their turn for takeoff from Rhein-Main Air Base in January 1949 (USNI)

On May 12, 1949, the Soviet authorities in East Germany lifted their blockade. The airlift continued during the summer months to stockpile a surplus in case the Soviets reinstituted the cordon. July 1949 marked the final month of VR-6 and VR-8’s participation with both squadrons ending operations on the 31st. VR-6 took up its new home base at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts while VR-8 returned to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.[17]

The Cold War was the 20th century’s third world war, a total war in which the main belligerents pursued whole of society mobilizations to compete globally, not in direct combat, but in political, diplomatic, military, economic, and cultural realms. Divided Germany and Berlin became battlegrounds in this global war where military power was used first to deny and then to provide civilians the necessities of life. Air Transport Squadrons Six and Eight of the United States Navy were called from halfway around the world to serve in this struggle. They excelled in that service as did the Berlin Airlift itself, achieving not a military victory but a political, diplomatic, and economic victory that bolstered the U.S. anti-Soviet alliance and helped give birth to a free and democratic West Germany.



Notes:
[1] “The Berlin Airlift, 1948-1949,” Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations, Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/berlin-airlift [accessed June 27, 2023].
[2] Milestones; Jeffery G. Barlow, “The U.S. Navy’s Participation in the Berlin Airlift,” Naval History and Heritage Command, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift/us-navys-participation-in-the-berlin-airlift.html [accessed June 27, 2023].
[3] Barlow; Lieutenant Maurice B. Jackson, “History of Air Transport Squadron Six for period 30 October 1948 to 31, January 1949,” U.S. Department of the Navy, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift/squadron-history-reports/vr-6/vr-6-historical-report-30-oct-1948-31-jan-1949.html [accessed June 27, 2023], 4; “Navy Wings Over Berlin,” Naval Aviation News, March 1949, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift/articles-on-the-berlin-airlift/articles-published-in-naval-aviation-news/navy-wings-over-berlin.html [accessed October 31, 2023], 2.
[4] Barlow; Jackson, 31 January 1949, 5; “Navy Wings Over Berlin,” 2-3.
[5] Jackson, 31 January 1949, 5; “Berlin Airlift Rugged,” Naval Aviation News, June 1949, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift/articles-on-the-berlin-airlift/articles-published-in-naval-aviation-news/berlin-airlift-rugged.html [accessed November 2, 2023].
[6] Jackson, 31 January 1949, 1, 3; “Navy Wings Over Berlin,” 3.
[7] Jackson, 31 January 1949, 2,6; Lieutenant Maurice B. Jackson, “History of the Military Air Transport Squadron Six from 1 March 1949 to 31 March 1949,” U.S. Department of the Navy, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift/squadron-history-reports/vr-6/vr-6-historical-report-1-mar-31-mar-1949.html [accessed November 3, 2023], 3; “Navy Wings Over Berlin,” 3.
[8] “Navy Wings Over Berlin,” 3; “Berlin Airlift Rugged.”
[9] Jackson, 31 January 1949, 6, 8.
[10] Jackson, 31 January 1949, 4, 6.
[11] “Navy Wings Over Berlin,” 3.
[12] Jackson, 31 January 1949, 7; “Navy Wings Over Berlin,” 4.
[13] “Navy Wings Over Berlin,” 4; James L. Leuci, Navy Women in Ships: A Deployment to Equality, 1942-1982, Hampton Roads Naval Museum, https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/museums/hrnm/Education/Women%20in%20Ships%201978%2020160207.pdf [accessed October 31, 2023], 5; Captain Daniel W. Christensen, “Navy Air in the Berlin Airlift,” Naval Aviation News, January-February 1996, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift/articles-on-the-berlin-airlift/articles-published-in-naval-aviation-news/navy-air-in-the-berlin-airlift.html [accessed November 8, 2023], 36.
[14] “Navy Squadrons Lead Pack,” Naval Aviation News, May 1949, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift/articles-on-the-berlin-airlift/articles-published-in-naval-aviation-news/navy-squadrons-lead-pack.html [accessed November 2, 2023].
[15] “Navy Wins Airlift Honors,” Naval Aviation News, November 1949, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift/articles-on-the-berlin-airlift/articles-published-in-naval-aviation-news/navy-wins-airlift-honors.html [accessed November 3, 2023].
[16] “Navy Squadrons Lead Pack;” “2 Navy Air Transport Squadrons Flying Record Loads to Berlin Airlift,” All Hands, August 1949, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift/articles-on-the-berlin-airlift/articles-published-in-all-hands/2-navy-air-transport-squadrons-fly-record-loads-into-berlin-via-airlift.html [accessed November 2, 2023].
[17] Lieutenant Maurice B. Jackson, “History of Military Air Transport Squadron Six for period 1 May 1949 to 31 May 1949,” U.S. Department of the Navy, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift/squadron-history-reports/vr-6/vr-6-historical-report-1-may-31-may-1949.html [accessed October 31, 2023], 4; “Historical Report for period 1 July 1949 to 31 December 1949,” U.S. Department of the Navy, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift/squadron-history-reports/vr-6/vr-6-semi-annual-report-1-jul-31-dec-1949.html [accessed November 3, 2023], 2; “History of Air Transport Squadron Eight, 1 July 1949 through 31 December 1949,” U.S. Department of the Navy, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift/squadron-history-reports/vr-8/vr-8-air-transport-squadron-8.html [accessed November 8, 2023], 3; “Airlift Over, MATS Resumes World-Wide Schedules,” All Hands, December 1949, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift/articles-on-the-berlin-airlift/articles-published-in-all-hands/airlift-over-mats-resumes-world-wide-schedules.html [accessed November 3, 2023].

No Longer the Enemy: The Pro-German Message of The Enemy Below

By Zac Cunningham
School Programs Educator

A classic of the submarine film genre, The Enemy Below depicts an intense battle between the U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Haynes and a German U-boat in the South Atlantic during World War II. Robert Mitchum plays the destroyer’s captain, Lieutenant Commander Murrell, and Curt Jurgens portrays the U-boat’s commander, Kapitän zur See Von Stolberg. The fictional USS Haynes is portrayed in the movie by the real life USS Whitehurst (DE 634), a Buckley-class destroyer escort that saw substantial action in the Pacific during the war. Based on the 1956 novel of the same name by British naval officer Denys Rayner, the film was directed by Dick Powell and released by 20th Century-Fox on Christmas Day 1957.

The Enemy Below theatrical poster (20th Century-Fox)

USS Whitehurst (DE 634) portrayed USS Haynes in the film (NHHC)

In the film, the veteran officers portrayed by Mitchum and Jurgens ferociously fight to destroy each other and their ships but, during the battle, each man gains a respect for the other's courage, audacity, and intellect. Both men hate war and what it forces them to do. (Jurgens’ character has no sympathy for Hitler and the Nazis.) Nevertheless, they wage their war to the best of their abilities because they have no other choice.

Robert Mitchum as Murrell and Carl Jurgens as Von Stolberg (cosmicreflections.skythisweek.info)

The Enemy Below has proven fairly influential as a submarine film and features some of the genre’s familiar tropes. Haynes ramming the German submarine echoes the ramming a Q-ship by the American sub in the 1951 John Wayne movie Operation Pacific. The German crew’s singing overheard on sonar is echoed when the Russian crew is similarly heard singing in The Hunt for Red October. Most notably, The Enemy Below inspired a foundational Original Series episode of Star Trek. Titled “Balance of Terror,” the episode aired in 1966 and featured the Enterprise and Captain Kirk in the destroyer role and the Romulans (in their first appearance in the series) with their cloaking device in the role of the U-boat.

What’s more interesting than The Enemy Below’s influence on the submarine film genre is the movie’s decidedly Cold War-era pro-German message.

In the mid-1950s, the U.S. and its allies were ending their punitive postwar occupation of West Germany and working to integrate the country into their anti-Soviet alliance. In 1955, West Germany once again became a sovereign nation officially recognized by the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, and other Western European nations. At that same time, West Germany joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Then, in 1957 – the same year that The Enemy Below was released – West Germany joined with France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg to form the European Economic Community, the forerunner of today’s European Union.

Symbols of and allusions to the Cold War-driven rehabilitation and integration of West Germany are prevalent in The Enemy Below, especially in the movie’s final ten minutes.

As the film moves towards its close, the destroyer and U-boat are both fatally wounded and the two crews, Americans and Germans together, end up in a shared lifeboat. They leave the battle behind them and are now all safe even though the sea burns around them. The subtext here is that the United States and West Germany must put the Second World War behind them and become allies in a dangerous world where the fire of communism is spreading everywhere.

A lifeboat full of American and German crew members flees the sinking destroyer and U-boat as the sea burns around them. (20th Century-Fox)

As the crews escape, Murrell literally throws a rope to Von Stolberg and the American and German captains unite to try and save the German's executive officer and best friend. The friend dies anyway, symbolizing the Soviet Union’s subjugation of East Germany.

After rescue, the German and American crews are shown together again and all wearing the same uniforms (Hey, we're on the same side now!) as they bury the dead German officer at sea. The American ship's doctor sees this cooperation as a reason to hope that the world is not destined for total destruction and death.

German and American crews come together to bury a German officer. (20th Century-Fox)

In the movie’s final scene, the Mitchum and Jurgens characters share a cigarette as Von Stolberg observes, "I should have died many times, Captain, but I continue to survive somehow. This time it was your fault." West Germany survives thanks to the United States. Murrell suggests, "Next time, I won't throw you the rope," but the German knowingly replies, "I think you will." The film is saying that the U.S will save West Germany if the Russians invade because Americans are a decent people who would honor their promises.

Von Stolberg (Jurgens) and Murrell (Mitchum) share a cigarette (20th Century-Fox)

Ultimately, The Enemy Below is as action-filled and suspenseful a movie as you'll find among submarine films. More importantly, it is an excellent artifact – and a decently sophisticated one at that – of Cold War cultural efforts to rehabilitate the Germans and Germany in the eyes of the American people.

A New “Great White Fleet”: Harnessing Navy Humanitarianism for the Cold War

By Zac Cunningham
School Programs Educator

On December 16, 1907, the Great White Fleet sailed from Hampton Roads on its voyage around the world. Among this fleet of U.S. Navy warships were 16 new steel battleships, all painted white.[1] With this fleet, the United States demonstrated its new naval technology and its new status as a global imperial power. The U.S. also sought to win the goodwill of the nations the fleet visited.[2] The most notable way the fleet tried to win goodwill was through humanitarian assistance provided to the victims of a catastrophic earthquake on Sicily. The goodwill mission and humanitarian actions of the Great White Fleet were long remembered and, half a century later, inspired a call for “A New Kind of Great White Fleet.”

USS Connecticut (BB 18) leading the original Great White Fleet (NHHC)

Street in Messina, Sicily, photographed in January 1909 and showing damage caused by the December 28, 1908 earthquake. (NHHC)

USS Culgoa, stores ship for the Great White Fleet, at Messina, Italy (Sicily) in January 1909 to render assistance to the victims of the December 28, 1908 earthquake. (NHHC)

On July 27, 1959, Life magazine enthusiastically announced a “Bold Proposal for Peace.” Explicitly harkening back to the early 20th-century’s Great White Fleet, Life’s editors called for “a ‘New White Fleet’ . . . with a new mission.” As dramatically illustrated on the magazine’s cover, this new fleet’s unarmed, white-painted ships “would sail around the world with food for the hungry, medical facilities for the sick and injured, and technicians to help underprivileged peoples improve their own lot.” The fleet would “harness America’s productive goodwill and energies to help ensure peace and combat the spread of Communism.”[3]

Cover of the July 27, 1959 issue of Life. (Time Inc.)

On the next eight pages, Life outlined how the fleet could be created and how it would work. Linking the new to the old once again, the article imagined the fleet responding to a natural disaster like an earthquake, just as the original Great White Fleet did. In a color drawing stretching across two of the magazine’s oversized pages, earthquake victims are cared for on the fleet’s hospital ship. In the background, helicopters conducting rescue operations take off from a small aircraft carrier and landing craft make their way to shore where a large fire can be seen.[4]

A two-page Illustration in the July 27, 1959 issue of Life imagines how a New White Fleet might respond to an earthquake in Southeast Asia. (Time Inc.)

Life’s New White Fleet plan called for:

“six ships to start with—the hospital ship, complete with operating room, X-ray facilities and medical wards; the carrier; a small destroyer escort to provide coastal communities with emergency power; a cargo vessel loaded with stores of food and clothing; a transport converted into a floating technical school to help improve the local standard of living; and a supply vessel to replenish the fleet.”[5]

In ports of call on regular voyages, local patients and doctors would come aboard for treatment and training in illnesses and diseases beyond the capabilities of the local medical system. If a disaster struck elsewhere, the fleet would abandon its planned schedule of port visits to sail immediately to the site of the disaster.

While its ships would come from the U.S. Navy, Life cautioned that the New White Fleet would not be a military fleet. By limiting its military nature, the magazine hoped the world’s non-aligned nations that were hesitant to choose between the United States and the Soviet Union might still welcome the fleet’s assistance.[6]

Military connections were part of the proposal from the very beginning, however. In fact, a U.S. Navy officer first suggested the need for a New White Fleet. This officer, Commander Frank Manson, shared his non-official views about the fleet as part of Life’s story.[7]

Commander Frank Manson (Life)

The idea came to Commander Manson while serving as Special Research Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations. In December 1957, he happened upon some photos of World War II hospital and auxiliary ships and then he talked with a Navy doctor just back from Southeast Asia. Regarding that region’s medical conditions, Manson asked the doctor, “Would hospital ships help?” After an enthusiastic yes, the commander drove home, expanding the idea beyond hospital ships into a fleet of humanitarian vessels “designed to make the benefits of the free enterprise system available to the entire human race.”[8]

He shared the idea with leaders in industry, labor, politics, and the military, including a retired admiral, at least two U.S. senators, and other assorted congressmen, all unnamed. In the article, Life reported separately that Senators George Aiken (D-Vermont) and Hubert Humphrey (D-Minnesota) plus Representatives William Bates (R-Massachusetts) and Ed Edmondson (D-Oklahoma) were calling for the Eisenhower administration to provide surplus government vessels to the fleet.[9]

Humanitarianism motivated Manson and Life only so far. Manson felt that showcasing the material well-being of the U.S. could help it catch back up to the Soviets in the Cold War’s propaganda contest. Ultimately, he believed the New White Fleet would help build peace on a people-to-people level beyond governments.[10] For its part, Life ambitiously dreamed the fleet could win more goodwill for the U.S. than even the Marshall Plan.[11]

The New Great White Fleet, however, would remain just a dream. It was never formed. Only the hospital ship SS Hope, which the Life article cast as the first ship in the fleet, became operational.

SS Hope (Library of Congress)

As recounted in a previous blog post, the Eisenhower administration gave former Navy hospital ship USS Consolation (AH 15) to the non-governmental organization Project HOPE. Renamed the Hope, it sailed to several non-aligned nations in the 1960s and early 1970s and carried on—not on the scale of the dreamed of New White Fleet—the legacy of the original Great White Fleet’s goodwill mission.

Notes:
[1] “The Great White Fleet,” Naval History and Heritage Command, https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/the-great-white-fleet.html [accessed June 30, 2022].
[2] John E. Moser, “Theodore Roosevelt Launches the Great White Fleet,” Teaching American History website, https://teachingamericanhistory.org/blog/theodore-roosevelt-launches-the-great-white-fleet/ [accessed June 30, 2022].
[3] “A New ‘Great White Fleet,’” Life, July 27, 1959, 17.
[4] Life, 17-19.
[5] Life, 19.
[6] Ibid.
[7] “Manson, Frank A., Capt., USN (Ret.),” U.S. Naval Institute, https://www.usni.org/press/oral-histories/manson-frank [accessed June 30, 2022]; Life, 20.
[8] Life, 21.
[9] Life, 21, 24-25.
[10] Life, 21.
[11] Life, 19.

Please Petty Officer Third Class, Don’t Hurt ‘Em

By William Clarkson
HRNM Educator

Album cover for MC Hammer’s 1990 album Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em (Image from xxlmag.com)

In the olden days of the year 1990, amidst the breakup of the Soviet Union, reunification of East and West Germany, release of Nelson Mandela from prison in South Africa, and the leadup to the First Gulf War, hip-hop was enjoying what many considered to be its golden era. Numerous artists from this time have become household names. People and groups such as Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Run D-M-C, and Snoop Dogg enjoyed growing success and international acclaim. Among these titans of the industry, one Stanley Kirk Burrell (aka MC Hammer) was reaching the height of his music career. With the release of Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em in 1990, which contained the hit “U Can’t Touch This,” MC Hammer joined the ranks of the top hip-hop artists. Both the album and single reached top spots on U.S. and international charts, catapulting Hammer to a level of unparalleled success. However, before his stellar rise to fame and fortune, MC Hammer had other aspirations and careers, including service in the United Stated Navy.

Young Stanley Burrell (MC Hammer) with “Hammerin’” Hank Aaron. (twitter.com/MCHammer)

Stanley Kirk Burrell was born on March 30, 1962, in Oakland, California, and is the youngest of seven siblings. From his youth, Stanley Burrell pursued his dual interests of music and baseball. He spent much of his time watching the Oakland Athletics baseball team and was even hired as a batboy by the Athletics’ owner, Charles O. Finley. Finley was impressed by the young Burrell and assigned him additional duties around the team’s clubhouse. It is there that Burrell acquired the moniker “Hammer.” Players and staff began calling him “Hammer” due to his resemblance to the legendary baseball player, “Hammerin’” Hank Aaron. After graduating high school in 1980, Burrell attended community college briefly and participated in try-outs for the San Francisco Giants baseball team. When he was not selected to join the team as a player, Burrell found himself at a crossroads. At this critical moment, Stanley Burrell enlisted in the United States Navy.

A P3c Orion flies past Mount Fuji, Japan. VP-47 operated these types of planes while MC Hammer (AK3 Burrell) was a member of the squadron. (Navytimes.com)

In the Navy, Burrell’s rating was AK, or Aviation Storekeeper.[i] He served as a member of P3 Orion Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Squadron VP-47, known as “The Golden Swordsman.” As an Aviation Storekeeper, AK3 Burrell oversaw maintaining parts and equipment stocks, ordering, and dispensing all that was needed for the successful operation of the squadron. As an ASW squadron, VP-47 conducted antisubmarine and maritime surveillance duties. These duties brought AK3 Burrell, along with the squadron, to Naval Air Station Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, where the squadron was permanently stationed from 1965-1993. AK3 Burrell deployed with V-47 to Japan in support of Task Group 72 and Patrol and Reconnaissance Force in 7th Fleet, where the squadron received praise from commanders of both organizations. After completing his three-year enlistment, and returning to NAS Moffett Field, AK3 Burrell was honorably discharged in 1984.

MC Hammer today continues his music career, as well as invests in A.I. and tech companies. (Image from deezer.com)

After his Navy service, Burrell, now going by the moniker “MC Hammer,” renewed his pursuit of a career in music, and started his own record label called Bust It Records. He eventually started recording for Capitol Records, where his meteoric rise truly began, and he became a household name. Despite some controversy and financial problems during the early 1990s, Hammer has continued his music career with numerous releases from his own Bust It Records and other labels. While many today remember or grew up with MC Hammer’s music, his time in the US Navy is not so well known. Like many other celebrities, Hammer made a choice at a pivotal point in his life to enter military service. While many will only know MC Hammer from his career in entertainment, the people with whom he served in the Navy will probably always remember him as AK3 Stanley Burrell.



Notes:
[i] The AK rating has since been merged, along with the SK (Storekeeper) and the PC (Postal Clerk) ratings, into the LS (Logistics Specialist) rating.

Operation Urgent Fury

A map showing the invasion plan for Grenada (Wikimedia Commons)

By Zachary Smyers
HRNM Educator

The small island nation of Grenada, also referred to as the “island of spice,” is located 100 miles north of Venezuela. In 1983, Grenada became a legitimate concern for President Ronald Reagan, who feared that the island was becoming a communist client state. Starting in 1979, Grenadian leadership had started developing close ties with the Soviet Union and Cuba. These ties continued to grow over time, as the leadership of Grenada had communist values. With both Soviet and Cuban support, Grenada was in the process of constructing a modern airport with a sizeable runway.

Aerial reconnaissance photo showing the runway and other key areas of the airport. (nara.getarchive.net)

The size of the airstrip under construction was much larger than what was usually required for commercial aircraft use. President Reagan was alarmed by the airport construction as he was concerned that the runway would be used in a military capacity, allowing for the possibility of Soviet military aircraft operating 1,500 miles from Florida. Compounding Reagan’s concerns was the fact that 600 American students were attending medical school on the island. The U.S. State Department had serious concerns about the lives of the Americans on Grenada. Reagan did not want another scenario playing out similar to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and more importantly, he did not want another situation like the Iran hostage crisis a few years prior. After the bombing of the Marine barracks and the death of 241 US service members on October 23, 1983, the majority of American citizens thought that the US might invade Lebanon. Instead, Reagan chose to invade Grenada on October 25, 1983.

President Reagan meeting with Congress on October 25, 1983. (Wikimedia Commons)

USS Guam (LPH 9) seen off of Grenada in October 1983 (Navsource)

The majority of U.S. Naval support for the operation came from Hampton Roads. USS Guam (LPH 9), served as the flagship for Vice Admiral Joseph Metcalf III, who was commander of the American forces designated Joint Task Force 120.  Aboard Guam with Admiral Metcalf was then Major General Norman Schwarzkopf who was initially the Army liaison, but later during the operation became Admiral Metcalf’s Deputy Commander. The aircraft carrier USS Independence (CV 62) provided the bulk of the close air support. In addition to the Navy ships from the 2nd Fleet were SEAL Teams 4 and 6. Joint Task Force 120 also included US Army Rangers, the 82nd Airborne Division, the 160th SOAR, Delta Force, various Air Force units, and the 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit. 

A CH-46 prepares for a flight  off of USS Guam (LPH 9) (Navsource)

Operation Urgent Fury was the first time that US military forces had operated together since the Vietnam War. This interservice mission led to several problems. One was the multiple communication issues between the various units operating in the field. There were interservice rivalries that delayed key decisions from being made. The intelligence for planning purposes was limited at best and also outdated.  The Marine Corps was using maps of the island that had been produced in 1936. They excluded the time zone of Grenada, which would prove to be a fatal error as the mission progressed. The operation as a whole was also planned on very short notice.  

Rangers advancing in Grenada (defensemedianetwork.com)

Despite the flaws, Urgent Fury commenced on the morning of October 25. The mission objectives were to restore order, neutralize Grenadian and Cuban Forces, and protect American civilians. Army Rangers secured the Point Salines International Airport on the first day, while Navy SEALs and Delta Force carried out missions to acquire better intelligence and secure additional objectives like the island’s radio station. The Marines landed on the northeastern side of Grenada and captured Pearls Airport. The goal of the second day of the operation was to secure the perimeter around Point Salines and rescue American medical students. By the third day of the operation, all of the American medical students had been rescued, and organized resistance on Grenada ended.

American medical students being evacuated from Grenada (defensemedianetwork.com)

International response to Urgent Fury was not favorable. The United Nations considered it to be a violation of international law, while privately England’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was upset about the short notice she received of the operation taking place. However, she supported the operation in a public capacity.  In the United States, public support was favorable, and in Grenada itself, the date of the invasion is now recognized as a national holiday.  
  
The branches of the American armed forces involved in the operation conducted a careful analysis of what went right and what went wrong with Urgent Fury. This led to a restructuring of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, an increase of power for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the creation of the Joint Special Operations Command. Changes this thorough had not been made since the Department of Defense was established in 1947. Operation Urgent Fury proved to be a much-needed confidence boost for the American military after the long war in Vietnam.   

First in Peace: USS George Washington (SSBN 598) and the Polaris Missile

USS George Washington (SSBN 598) crest, with the ship's motto "First in Peace" reinforced by the Polaris missile for nuclear deterrence. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

Thomas Grubbs

Guest Contributor

As the nation’s first president, George Washington has long been remembered through the practice of naming various places, from high schools to the forty second state, after him. This fact, combined with President Washington’s early and vocal support for the establishment and maintenance of the United States Navy, led to no fewer than sixteen American ships being named after him.  Four, including a pair of battleships, have been named for the state named for him. Of all of these ships, perhaps the most powerful, and least well known, is the ballistic missile submarine with the pennant number SSBN 598. 

USS George Washington on the surface while on patrol (Wikimedia Commons)

The first use of sea-based missiles came immediately after the end of the Second World War, utilizing captured German technology. Such weapons were not confined to the surface fleet. Beginning in the early 1950s, advances in missile technology gave submarines the capability to launch surface to surface missiles.  At first simply armed with conventional high explosive warheads, these missiles were soon paired with a far more terrifying weapon: the atomic bomb.  

A Regulus missile fired from USS Tunny (SSG 282) (Wikimedia Commons)

Given the submarine’s inherent ability to remain both mobile and hidden, both the United States and the  Soviet Union began to base a proportion of their nuclear arsenals aboard submarines.  It took less than fifteen years for science and technology to realize their full potential, and by the 1950s, missile boat technology had reached a point where a single nuclear armed missile submarine could launch up to five nuclear warheads from more than five hundred miles away. Beginning in 1957, the United States Navy conducted nuclear deterrence patrols using a pair of World War II-era diesel submarines modified to carry a pair of Regulus nuclear-capable cruise missiles.  They were soon supplemented by a pair of purpose-built Greyback-class vessels and the nuclear-powered USS Halibut (SSGN 587). These five boats provided valuable real-world experience in operating a seaborne nuclear deterrent.  However, the effectiveness of the subsonic Regulus missile, with its limited range, a host of guidance limitations, and vulnerabilities to enemy defenses and countermeasures (both the missile in flight and the submarine having to surface to fire), was soon outpaced by technology.  To overcome these drawbacks, the Navy turned to a new and more advanced weapon, the ballistic missile.    

Polaris missile launch in July 1960 (Naval History and Heritage Command)

The first workable submarine-launched ballistic missile used by the United States Navy was introduced in 1960. Named Polaris, after the North Star, the missile grew from experiments by noted physicist Edward Teller that allowed for miniature hydrogen bombs to be fitted on missiles for anti-submarine warfare as part of Project Nobska in 1956. Drawing on experimental experience with the Army’s liquid-fueled Jupiter missiles, the two-stage solid fueled Polaris made its operational debut for the United States Navy in February 1960 after just four years of testing and development.  Found in thirty-one of the forty-one ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) that were in commission for the United States Navy between 1960 and 1990, it proved both a long lasting and valuable component of the United States nuclear triad during the Cold War. Larger (32ft 4in) and heavier (35,700lb) than the previous cruise missiles, Polaris could deliver three W58 thermonuclear warheads with a total yield of 600kt out to a distance of 2,500 nautical miles. Surprisingly accurate, each 200kt W58 warhead could land within 3,000 feet of its intended target, impressive for 1960s technology. Launched from a mobile and submerged platform and possessing a top speed of 8,000 miles an hour, Polaris was all but utterly immune to interception prior to launch and impossible to hit afterwards with the technology available at the time. The more powerful and longer ranged Trident and Trident II missiles eventually replaced the Polaris missile, and are currently carried by the Ohio-class SSBNs.

A view of the missile compartment "Sherwood Forest" aboard USS George Washington (Naval History and Heritage Command) 

Polaris first went to sea aboard the world’s first purpose-built SSBN, the USS George Washington, which was built at the Electric Boat Corporation of Groton, Connecticut. On the morning of November 1, 1958, workers laid down the keel of a new attack submarine to be named USS Scorpion (SSN 589). Modified while under construction by the addition of a 130-foot-long missile compartment and renamed USS George Washington (SSBN 598), the former Scorpion, now the world’s first ballistic missile submarine, slid into the water on June 9, 1959. It formally joined the fleet on December 30 of that year. A true underwater leviathan, Washington, affectionately nicknamed “Georgefish,” displaced 6,800 tons, measured 381 feet long, with a beam of 33 feet, and required a crew of 112 officers and men. Armed with sixteen Polaris missiles and six  torpedo tubes, George Washington would be the first of a planned five Washington-class ballistic missile submarines.  

Loading a Polaris missile aboard George Washington for testing in July 1960. Pictured is the outer fiberglass "sleeve" around the missile. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

After sea trials and under the command of Commander James Osborn, the boat set course for Cape Canaveral, Florida in June 1960, where the crew took on a pair of Polaris missiles for testing purposes. On July 20, 1960, USS George Washington became the first submarine to launch a ballistic missile while submerged on the Atlantic Test Range. At 12:39 PM, Osborn sent the message “POLARIS - FROM OUT OF THE DEEP TO TARGET. PERFECT” to President Eisenhower. Less than two hours later, the missiles hit their target some 1,300 miles away. The successful test, carried out under the personal supervision of Polaris project director Rear Admiral William Raborn, marked a new, and more terrifying, world order.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Rear Admiral Raborn (center) aboard the submarine after the successful Polaris test launch in July 1960 (Naval History and Heritage Command)

After this brief flirtation with fame, USS George Washington settled into the repetitive duty of deterrence patrols near the coastline of the Soviet Union.  In 1970, the submarine reported for a refueling at Charleston, South Carolina in 1970 after having traveled some 100,000 nautical miles the previous decade. Next, George Washington reported to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for service with the Pacific Fleet. The submarine concluded its final deterrence patrol in 1982 prior to disarmament as a SSBN the next year in compliance with the terms of the SALT I Treaty.  It briefly served as an attack submarine after the removal of its Polaris missiles. 

Sail from SSBN 598 at U.S. Navy Submarine Force Museum (Wikimedia Commons)

USS George Washington was decommissioned on January 24, 1985, and later scrapped at Puget Sound Naval Yard.  The submarine’s sail, or conning tower, is on display in Groton, Connecticut, at the Submarine Force Museum, where it can be seen today.  Preserving peace, yet constantly prepared for war, USS George Washington carried some of the deadliest weapons ever devised by man. Similarly, the current submarine fleet, as well as future Columbia-class SSBNs being built will be charged with maintaining the sea-based nuclear deterrent for the United States of America and with it, the balance of terror that has kept the peace for the last seventy-five years.