Launch

After months lurking I have finally decided to dive into the Blogosphere and start posting my own thoughts and the things that interest me. So here they'll be for praise, ridicule, agreement, rejection or review. I expect this will be an adventure of sort as if putting to sea on a new voyage. So in that spirit I'm going to post this poem by John Oxenhan.

WE BREAK NEW SEAS TODAY

Each man is Captain of his Soul,
And each man his own Crew,
But the Pilot knows the Unknown Seas,
And he will bring us through.

We break new seas today ---
Our eager keels quest unaccustomed waters,
And, from the vast uncharted waste in front,
The mystic circles leap
To greet our prows with mightiest possibilities,
Bringing us --- What?

Dread shoals and shifting banks?
And calms and storms?
And clouds and biting gales?
And wreck and loss?
And valiant fighting times?
And, maybe, death? --- and so, the Larger life!

For, should the Pilot deem it best
To cut the voyage short,
He sees beyond the sky-line, and
He'll bring us into Port!

JOHN OXENHAM

About me:
I'm Married with two young children a boy age 5 and a girl age 3. I also have Chesapeake Bay Retriever age 13.

I was born on an Navy base in Yokosuka Japan and have grown up in and around US Naval installations. My father is a retired Navy Seabee with 22 years of service. I admire his service, he served in both the Korean war and three tours in Vietnam '67-'69. My early working career has put me in and around submarines for 12 years. I worked three years for Electric Boat as a machinist (Yardbird). In 1980 I joined the Navy and volunteered for a program that put me on Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarines (SSBN or Boomers). I was a Navigation Electronic Technician on SSBN submarines. I found Navy schools to be challenging and making deterrent patrols hard work but boring and left the Navy as an E6 after a 6 year enlistment. After leaving the Navy I worked for three years for a defense contractor (Sandcrab) that supported submarine systems.

With the fall of Soviet communism and Congress looking to create a peace dividend I left defense contracting for the Information Technology (IT) world. I worked for a major Ivy League university for 7 years in their IT department. After leaving the university environment I worked as a computer consultant for a few years. Currently I'm a Systems Administrator for a healthcare company.

Blog Purpose: My primary purpose is to comment on Military and Submarine issues but I'm not going to limit the blog to those topics. As with most blogs I read, I'll probably do some commenting on current events or even the general nonsense we see in our everyday lives. Basiclly I'm just trying to find my own voice and add my humble opinion.

Blog Title and My Moniker: Hunderds of Fathoms is my attempt at a little double meaning. Fathom being a unit of measure of water depth (6 feet) but also meaning to comprehend. Lubber's Line, is a line or point in the compass case indicating the head of the ship, and consequently the course which the ship is steering. Hopfully the line of course I steer for this blog will be one of good passage.