Volunteer for the Soviet Submarine Service!!!

Ok ok, I know Comrades the Soviet Navy is now the Russia Navy but, you can still volunteer to work on a Soviet 1960’s era submarine.

The Juliett 484 (K-77) in Providence, RI is looking for volunteers to help restore and maintain this Cold War relic. Former and current submariners are particularly valuable as volunteers but anyone with an interest in helping is welcome. Maintenance includes tracing out systems, restoring paint to original colors, wiring indicators panels, general cleaning, etc. We’re even looking for knuckle dragging TMs to restore a torpedo in the after torpedo room, I think the warhead was previously removed!?

Ric Hedman who helped restore the Soviet Foxtrot submarine named “Cobra” is currently the manager of the Juliett's restoration. Ric is a fellow submariner (USS Flasher SSN613 Plankowner) and former USSVI Seattle Base commander. The Saratoga Museum Foundation has Ric aboard initially for the three month summer season.

Curious about what a ruskie sub looks like up close and personal here’s a little taste:

Topside View from the pier.
Forward part of the sail you can see the missile telemetry radar. The deck is covered with rubber sound dampening tiles.

Stern View forward standing on the aft escape trunk.
Aft set of two SS-N-3 Shaddock or SS-N-12 Sandbox missile tubs are visable. Another set is foward of the sail.

Looking forward into the Torpedo room from Officer Country.

Part of the Missile Fire Control system (Missile Guidance)

Ships Control Station.

Sonar? (One single ping if you please comrade.)

Radar? (Range and bearing to the P-3 Orion )

So, Comrade Jim (AKA Lubber’s Line) has volunteered to trek to the northern port of Providence, RI each weekend to help restore the Soviet Project 651 vintage 1960’s cruise missile diesel submarine. I have to admit this is going to be a field day from HELL if ever I saw one. The ballast tanks leak, there's paint where there shouldn't be any or it is the wrong color, rust rust and more rust. This is one boat load of work so it 's got to be rewarding. Anyway how many cold war era bubbleheads can say they worked on a Soviet missile boat?

If your interested in volunteering as well then go to this link that has the contact information or you can contact me via email.

Propulsion Systems - Non Submarine Type

On Fathers Day I took my son to the Rhode Island Air National Guard Air Show. With my digital camera I did a short photo essay of propulsion systems, non-submarine types.

C-130J Hercules Allison AE2100D3 turboprop engines with an all composite six-blade Dowty Aerospace R391 propeller system.

C5 Galaxy General Electric TF-39 engine rated at 43,000 pounds of thrust.

Coast Guard Boston Whaler patrol craft with twin Evinrude 175 MX engines.

Shockwave Jet Truck with 3 Pratt & Whitney J34-48 jet engines. The ShockWave Jet Truck with a Peterbuilt body does over 300 mph.

North American F-86 Saber with a single General Electric J-47 jet engine delivering 5,200 lbs of thrust.

The US Navy Blue Angles flying the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet with Two F414-GE-400 turbofan engines delivering 22,000 pounds per engine.

If your looking for a nostalgic submarine propulsion system the upcoming International Submarine Races June 27 - July 1, 2005 may be a place to look.

Safety Concerns Over Two Royal Navy Submarines

According to this TIMESONLINE article two Trafalgar-class British Royal Navy Submarines the HMS Tireless and the HMS Torbay have been banned from operating at sea. Both submarines have had problems with their nuclear reactor’s primary coolant circuit pipes over the last few years with the HMS Tireless having their coolant circuit pipes replaced.

I've crossposted the rest to the "Ultraquiet No More" submarine group blog at this link.

Peek-a-boo

Peek-A-Boo (Source: US Navy)

Ok, I haven't posted anything in a few days. Two things have drawn me away from this blog, first I really don't post but once every two or three days and have been posting to the new submarine group blog Ultraquite No More.

Secondly is my job, or should I say soon to be lack of one! My company is going through a merger and their operations here in Rhode Island are being moved to Minnesota. I was offered a position in MN with some good tentative numbers for a relocation allowance, raise and bonus, but after a couple of weeks of thinking it over I declined the offer. I have too many ties to Rhode Island friends, family and none to Minneapolis, Minnesota except maybe that I have seen an episode of Mary Tyler Moore. Besides RI may be cold and damp in the winter but Minnesota, I don't own a snowmobile. Don't get me wrong Minneapolis is probably a great city but I've always lived within 10 minutes of the ocean and a lake no matter many or how big just aren't going to cut it.

Enough of the rambling, back to the resume. Thought - Maybe I'll see what sandcrab positions are available over at the Sub Base in New London.... Naaa think I'll wait on that one.

See Ya - LL

The New London Commute

By The Race and through The Slot look out Dive Point ready or not.

Submarines and Whales are no strangers as evidenced in this archived image of a 1911 The World Magazine on the subject. So helping the commute for whales in Block Island Sound by closing the New London Submarine Base CT could end up threatening the North Atlantic right whale off Kings Bay GA. Of course whales are intelligent creatures and could avoid the traffic by being prepared with a map of alternate routes.

Unsanitary Ballistics

Another crappy sea story…

With all the sea stories over at “Ultraquite No More” about intentional and unintentional mishaps involving blowing sanitary tanks I thought I would add my own. This one did not happen aboard my boat but I did witness it from a relatively save distance.

I was mustering on the fantail helo deck of the Sub Tender Simon Lake in Kings Bay for a stores loading party. As in the photo below, the Simon Lake had four SSBNs moored along side. My boat was the USS Simon Bolivar and we were on the port side of the tender. On the opposite side outboard was an un-named 640 class SSBN going through refit like us.

Unsanitary Ballistics outboard AS33 Simion Lake
(Source: US Navy Photo via - Lubber's Basement)

While standing on the tender’s fantail I was watching a diver over on the un-named boat preparing to do some hydro testing. He had a bucket of green die and was standing on the turtleback a few feet from the sanitary connection. All of a sudden, the sanitary hose connection to the Sub let go with the sound of a cannon going off. Like following a tennis ball at a match the group assembled for stores loading watched a large brass coupling the size of a coffee mug take a ballistic trajectory over the tender over the pier and land somewhere in the swamp near the pier’s parking lot (under construction in the Photo). All I could say was “Holy sh*t that thing had to have gone 200ft in the air and 200 yards”.

When I looked back the hose that the coupling WAS attached to was wrapped around the tender’s service boom like a pretzel. The diver had done what divers do and dove into the drink bucket and all. So the water aft outboard the sub was a nice florescent green. There was a SH*T geyser topside and people were running around like a Chinese Fire drill. The topside watch was hunkered down behind his meager aluminum watch stand franticly trying to get the sanitary blow secured. He was successful a few seconds later.

The diver was picked up in short order by a security launch and was screaming profanities to anyone topside in earshot. Within minutes the duty officer off the tender was doing an Ensign Pulver run/walk across the inboard boat to the poop deck of the outboard offender. He threatened not to allow them to blow sanitaries to the tender or pier for the rest of their upkeep.

I don't know who that SSBN was but that was one hell of a secondary ballistic missile system they had.

Sestak on the Submarine's Value to the Navy

Yesterdays post to the group Submarine Blog was about Adm. Joseph A. Sestak Jr. views on the Navy's future requirements as they relate to Submarines.

Visit - Ultraquiet No More - or link - Sestak on the Submarine's Value to the Navy

Protesters breach Faslane Trident Base - almost

It looks as though the anti-war and anti-nuke protestors are at it again in Scotland. This excerpt from the Scotsman "MoD denies protesters reached berth of submarine" says:

Thirteen campaigners were arrested, one of whom had climbed 30ft up a tree, after cutting through a perimeter fence and entering HM Naval Base Clyde. One campaigner remained up the tree last night.

The protesters entered the Faslane base, home to the Trident nuclear submarine fleet, at about 11pm on Monday.

The base was closed for several hours while MoD police rounded up the intruders. They were arrested on suspicion of malicious mischief and bailed.

Police then attempted to coax two campaigners down from a tree inside the complex. A spokesman for the MoD police said one man climbed down and was arrested. "The other man still remains up the tree," he added.

(My emphasis above)

Their main protest is against the British Trident submarine fleet based at Faslane.
But not everyone in Great Britain is in agreement with the protesters as witnessed at The Weekly Grip weblog.

I never knew Scotland had nut trees or is that nuts in the trees. Then again nuts are an ingredent of Scottish Fruitcake.

Crossposted to "Ultraquite No More"

Going Vertical on builders trials

I posted a sea story over at "Ultraquite No More" about an impromptu emergency blow during builders trials.

Emergency Blow (Source: US Navy)

It was a wild ride.

Taming the BST

Taming the BST buoy

Rescue buoy painted orange on the USS Skipjack
(Photo source: US Navy and Navsource.org)

The submarine rescue buoy has saved lives in the past. The later BST buoy will probably just mark the location of a tragedy, that is if it not welded to the deck. But I'm afraid there is another beast that lives in the ocean's depths that we should look to tame.

In 1953, unwelded by an atomic blast in the arctic, "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" made Manhattan it's own little project.

This other beast from the deep started all those Atomic sized monsters of the 1950's and 60's "B" movies.

Of course what's in a name anyway BST or beast, to me it's no reason to go nuclear.

New Submarine Group Blog -crosslink

Bubblehead has started a new group blog for submarine enthusiasts called "Ultraquite No More"
I've posted about the new Virtual Periscope system in development over at the new site.

USS Chicago at PD (Source: US Navy - PH1 Kevin Tierney)

If you want to read more here's the link to my posting.

Submariner in Space?

I was looking at technology news this evening and ran across a piece of local RI interest relating to NASA doing tours of schools nationwide to promote science, technology and math. The NASA representative that spoke to the local RI schools was Navy Cmdr. Stephen Bowen a MA native and the first Submariner to become an Astronaut. The Commander has quite an impressive career so far, here's the link to his bio at NASA. He also appears to be putting his nuke quals to work there as well.

Navy Cmdr. Stephen Bowen (Source: NASA)

USS Parche (SSN 683), USS POGY (SSN 647), USS Augusta (SSN 710) and the Pre-Comm Unit for the Virginia (SSN 774) for a total of 14 years in the Submarine Service before becoming a Mission Specialist at NASA.

I have to say those gold Dolphins do make the NASA uniform look good.

RI locals stunned by the obvious.

When I heard the news of the possable closing of the New London Sub Base I made the immediate connection to the local RI economy and Electric Boat. Not so with the RI politicians. I seem to recall hearing on the radio that a RI Democrat, sorry I mean still Republican, Senator Lincoln Chaffee as well as other RI politicians were initially saying that the BRAC recommendations were good for RI. Their reasoning at the time was the state would gain about 500 jobs due to realignments from other installations nation wide. I believe they have refined their thinking since that first statement.

Saying RI is a small state is well, an understatement, and much of what happens in CT or MA has a direct impact on this State. Economic impact does not stop at the CT border and many people in southern RI make the 30 to 45 minute commute to work in Groton. Now the premere local business publication The Providence Business News has reported the obvious as well: Groton submarine base closure makes waves in the Ocean state (hat tip: TheSubReport).

The closing of the New London Sub Base would remove one of the incentives the Navy has to award Submarine contracts to Electric Boat. After all where would you keep all the PCU and overhaul crews as well as the Navy's shipyard detachment personnel, a hour plus away in Newport?

Engineering Heavy Weight

When there's no room to maneuver in Maneuvering perhaps Shipshape is the answer!

A Submariner's favorite - Sticky Buns.

They go really well with a tall glass of bulls milk and some powdered eggs about day 60 of patrol, NOT. I did like the sticky buns at breakfast though.

***** Lubber's Comic *****
I'm not much of an artist but I do like to doodle some. So I thought I would add a Sunday comic to my Blog just for fun. Sort of in the above format, an obscure submarine reference or bad pun in a doodle followed by some additional obscure or bad referenced information. Did the same last week. We'll see how it works out.

Sub Base New London Closing Criteria?

Connecticut politicians and advocates for keeping the New London Submarine Base open are going to have a tough time convincing the BRAC Commission not to close the Sub Base. The task ahead for them is not only to address every point the DOD and Navy has made for closure but also to demonstrate the continued value of keeping the installation open. Focusing on politics is not going to make much of a difference to the Navy planners.

Much of what the DOD and Navy has provided to date lacks detailed justification but does fit the broad outline of the Under Secretary Of Defense Jan 2004 memorandum Subject: 2005 Base Closure and Selection Criteria. The following is a list of those Criteria:

Military value

1. The current and future mission capabilities and the impact on operational readiness of the Defense Department’s total force, including the impact on joint warfighting, training, and readiness.
2. The availability and condition of land, facilities, and associated airspace (including training areas suitable for maneuver by ground, naval, or air forces throughout diversity of climate and terrain areas and staging areas for the use of the Armed Forces in homeland defense missions) at both existing and potential receiving locations.
3. The ability to accommodate contingency, mobilization, surge, and future total force requirements at both existing and potential receiving locations to support operations and training.
4. The cost of operations and the manpower implications.

All of the above criteria speaks to me of consolidation to even larger military multi-branch and multi-discipline installations. The more remote the area, free of congested sea lanes and air space, the better. Additionally the costs associated the local economy such as cost of living, per diem, facility maintenance and heating/AC costs all contribute to the bottom line in cost savings to the military and its personnel.

How do the New London Sub Base supporters counter the consolidation and better local economic climate justifications? One method I’ve seen is to use the simplistic “is it really that much better” argument. Basically the argument says that Norfolk and eastern VA are economically similar and just as congested to eastern CT. Not a very good standpoint to take, sort of like saying my house is just as ugly as yours only smaller. Another point that has been made is to cite history, partially the Pearl Harbor Attack as a reason not concentrate too much of the military to one region or at one base. A fair point to make but when someone is concentrating on the bottom line of a spreadsheet it’s hard to get them away from the dollars mindset.

The real arguments should be attacking the driving forces behind the DOD and Navy’s rational in the base closing recommendation, those being cost saving, projected submarine force structure requirements and military force transformation. Already some of the cost estimates have been put into question such as what a full environmental cleanup of the Sub Base would require. Additionally much of the facilities at the New London Sub Base, such as the Sub School, do not exist elsewhere and would have to be built. Facilities that do exist in Kings Bay or Norfolk would also have to be expanded. Indeed Norfolk may or may not have a current excess of piers and office space due to a reduced fleet size but the Brac Commission is already reviewing other space in VA to accommodate the closing of both New London Sub Base and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

The Navy’s projected force structure requirements are also being called into question. Essentially a recent Navy study has revised upward the number of operational Submarines it needs from between 37 and 41 to as many as 45 to 50. That’s only 4 boats less than 54 in service today. Numbers wise there are currently 21 subs based out of Groton including 1 PCU, 13 out of Norfolk including 2 PCUs and 8 SSBNs out of Kings Bay, thats relocating nearly half the submarines on the east coast. If Groton represents such excess capacity why are more than half the SUBLANT Fast Attacks based there? At face value excess pier space in Norfolk doesn't look like a very good reason to move over half the boats and supporting facilities south.

Transformation and network centric warfare are the current go to concepts that the DOD is working on. Basing a number of different services and types of units in one place may help facilitate training for those locally based units but doesn't it also defeat the overall purpose of those concepts? Namely being able to take different units that may be based across a wide geographic area and cross multiple disciplines and have them work together seamlessly.

Other considerations

• The extent and timing of potential costs and savings, including the number of years, beginning with the date of completion of the closure or realignment, for the savings to exceed the costs.
• The economic impact on existing communities in the vicinity of military installations.
• The ability of the infrastructure of both the existing and potential receiving communities to support forces, missions, and personnel.
• The environmental impact, including the impact of costs related to potential environmental restoration, waste management, and environmental compliance activities.

These other considerations are where the politicians seem to focus their attention, mainly the economic impact. This means votes to them because their constituencies demand they defend the status quo. It’s a no brainer to cite the fact that an employer with a multi-million payroll leaving is going to effect the local economy. Placing too much attention to the lower priorities of the selection criteria and not enough to the Navy’s main justifications could prove fatal. The Navy will defend its position by citing the overall saving the closures will provide to the DOD and additionally cite other communities that have recovered after their bases have closed. For example a Navy Times editorial points to a recent GAO report (PDF) as such an economic justifaction.

If you look close though at the above referenced GAO report you’ll find that many communities that had significant naval base closures have not recovered very well. Here are three examples of facilities that had provided submarine support activity at one time.

Charleston Naval Complex, S.C. -BRAC 1993 -EST jobs lost 6,272 -Recovered jobs 2,797 -Recovery 45%
Guam Naval Complex BRAC 1993 EST jobs lost 2,193 -Recovered jobs 552 -Recovery 25 %
Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Calif. 1993 -EST jobs lost 7,567 -Recovered jobs 1,363 -Recovery 18%

What is Going Where? Below is from the Navy’s Analyses and Recommendations VOL IV (PDF) page 65.

Recommendation for Closure
Submarine Base New London, CT

Recommendation:
Close Naval Submarine Base New London, CT. Relocate its assigned submarines, Auxiliary Repair Dock 4 (ARDM-4), and Nuclear Research Submarine 1 (NR-1) along with their dedicated personnel, equipment and support to Submarine Base Kings Bay, GA, and Naval Station Norfolk, VA. Relocate the intermediate submarine repair function to Shore Intermediate Repair Activity Norfolk, at Naval Shipyard Norfolk, VA, and Trident Refit Facility Kings Bay, GA. Relocate the Naval Submarine School and Center for Submarine Learning to Submarine Base Kings Bay, GA. Consolidate the Naval Security Group Activity Groton, CT with Naval Security Group Activity Norfolk, VA at Naval Station Norfolk, VA. Consolidate Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory Groton, CT, with Naval Medical Research Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center Forest Glenn Annex, MD. Relocate Naval Undersea Medical Institute Groton, CT to Naval Air Station Pensacola, FL, and Fort Sam Houston, TX. Consolidate Navy Region Northeast, New London, CT, with Navy Region, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, VA.

Justification:
The existing berthing capacity at surface/subsurface installations exceeds the capacity required to support the Force Structure Plan. The closure of Submarine Base New London materially contributes to the maximum reduction of excess capacity while increasing the average military value of the remaining bases in this functional area. Sufficient capacity and fleet dispersal is maintained with the East Coast submarine fleet homeports of Naval Station Norfolk and Submarine Base Kings Bay, without affecting operational capability. The intermediate submarine repair function is relocated to Shore Intermediate Maintenance Activity Norfolk at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and the Trident Refit Facility Kings Bay, GA, in support of the relocating submarines. Consolidating the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory.

The Navy spent 1.3 Billion over 10 years to develop the Submarine Base in Kings Bay GA. and now plans a major expansion to save the Navy of $1.6 billion over 20 years. Also you can't spit in the Tidewater area of VA without hitting something with a MILSPEC tag on it. So this all makes sense to me, how about you?

Update 5/27/05 8:30- Former Submariners Bubblehead and PigBoatSalior have been covering the Sub Base New London closing news pretty heavy lately and have some good posts on the subject. You should swing by their Blogs for some additional info.

USS Alabama SSBN731 - 20 Years Today

The USS Alabama SSBN 731 is 20 years old today. That's about half way through the expected life of a Trident submarine hull. I found a couple of items from that day to share.

First is the commissioning program book below. It's about 20 pages and includes description of the commissioning of the ship, history of other ships named after the state of Alabama, individual photos of crew members and profiles on the Commissioning Officials and each crews Senior Officers and Enlisted. I've only included the cover and program page.

Commissioning Program Cover

Commissioning Program Agenda (Source: a dusty sea bag in the attic)

The second is this souvenir envelop from that day.

Commissioning Souvenir Envelop (Source: that same sea bag)

The Commissioning of a ship is when it officially becomes a "United States Ship" and can hold the prefix "USS". Until that time it can only be called a Precomm Unit (such as precomm unit Alabama) or by it's hull number (such as the 731 boat).

The inside cover of the commissioning program also has this description.

The Commissioning ceremony marks the acceptance of a ship as a unit of operating forces of the United States Navy. At the moment the commission pennant is broken, USS ALABAMA (SSBN731) becomes the responsibility of the Commanding Officer, who, together with the ship's officers and men, has the duty of making and keeping her ready for any service required by our nation, whether we be at peace or at war.

Before Commissioning the Officers and Crew work hard to put the ship through a series of builder trials and acceptance testing, as shown in this Alpha Trials photo. We did our sea trails in mid winter hence the orange foul whether gear on the bridge.

The Alabama on Alpha Trials (Source: US Navy Photo)

The USS Alabama has served the United States Navy well for the past 20 years and will do so for perhaps another 20.

The Official State and Ship's Motto"AUDEMUS JURA NOSTRA DEFENDERE"

Lubber's Line - USS Alabama (Plankowner)

Snorkel Mask

Snorkel Mask or Snorkel Mast?

A little sound to bring back some bubblehead memories (wav).

There's a great web site USS Caiman (SS-323) Association where I found a whole series of control room and sonar shack sound bites. I liked this one which may be why STS's prefer passive sonar.

Men of Integrity and Courage

The grounding of the USS San Francisco has been a curiosity to the general public, a failure of procedure and informational systems to the Navy and a true tragedy for the crew of SSN 711 and the family of one brave and dedicated sailor. I’ve watched the 60 Minutes segment, read the reporting of both Christopher Drew of the New York Times, Robert Hamilton of the New London Day and finally read the Navy’s unclassified investigation report. One thing I have always come away with is that the Officers and Crew of the USS San Francisco are men of integrity and courage.

Cmdr. Mooney has done what many a Commanding Officer before him has done and taken full responsibility for what has happened aboard his ship. In doing so the Commander has demonstrated integrity that is rare outside of the military and seems almost non-existent among our captains of industry. A letter of reprimand has essentially dead ended his naval career. But Cmdr. Mooney should know that he has done what few men would or could do, that is, taken on the responsibilities of command of a U.S. Navy nuclear fast attack submarine.

The crew’s actions to save their crippled ship, to tend to their injured shipmates and attempt to save the life of critically injured MM2(SS) Joseph Allen Ashley demonstrated the courage that is only found in dedicated and confident men. Throughout the grounding’s investigation the crew of the USS San Francisco has stuck together and only asked that the truth lead where it may to benefit others who operate in a similar submerged environment. Therefore the crew has shown additional courage in voicing their belief that the grounding’s responsibility must also include those who provide the systems and information that every submarine relies on.

You may think I’m glossing over any failures that caused the grounding but what I wanted to provide here was only my observations on the demonstrated character of the men of the USS San Francisco SSN 711. These observations are why I still proudly say “I once wore the silver dolphins of the US Submarine Service”.

Lubber’s Line
Former NavET ET1(SS)
SSBN 641, SSBN 731

Cookiecutter Sharks and Submarines

Here's something I never knew.

I was watching a show about sharks with my son recently and a strange little shark was mentioned, the Cookiecutter shark. A small species of deep ocean dogfish the Cookiecutter shark has a bioluminescent underbelly and short, powerful jaws.


This shark also has a reputation for it's distinctive bite.

Bite damage (Source: NOAA)

It is known for biting out small plugs of flesh from large fish and whales as well as damaging undersea cables. But the thing I found interesting is that it has been known to attack nuclear submarine sonar domes. Here's a conversation from an Australian website on the topic.

I have to say the sea is full of some strange creatures, including the ones outside the pressure hull.

Friday the 13th BRAC ATTACK

The BRAC commission has released their recommendations (pdf link)and it came as no surprise New England and it's Submarine community were one of the biggest losers. Topping the hit list is Connecticut with a loss of 8,586 jobs of which 8,460 are at the Submarine Base New London. Second place goes to Maine with a loss of 6,938 jobs of which 4,510 are at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

BRAC net totals both Military and Civilian jobs by State.
(Click on Image to enlarge)

So who are the big winners as a result of Sub base NL and PNS closing (Not Realigned)? Georgia has one of the biggest numbers in the plus column with 7,423 of which 3,367 go to the Submarine Base Kings Bay.

The other State where the Sub Base NL and PNS jobs are going is likely to be Virginia with gain of 2,036 to Naval Shipyard Norfolk and 2,807 to Naval Base Norfolk , but Virginia shows a net loss. I found a single line item that throws the numbers off for Virginia (Leased Space -VA Close/Realign -22,925). Thats a lot of "leased space" in VA seeing how all the other states combined have "leased space" totaling -3094 positions. If you take the -22,925 out of the equation Virginia gains 21,351 jobs. I guess the military leases a lot of administrative office space outside of DC. But if that were so why is it that VA has -22,925 lost jobs and MD only -175 attributed to "leased space"?

Let's look at the Brac Commission members and how the States they hail from did.

• Anthony J. Principi, former secretary of veterans affairs, from CA, chairman. ( -2,018 not bad for a big State)
• Former Rep. James H. Bilbray of NV. ( 1,059 in the plus side)
• Former Assistant Defense Secretary Philip Coyle of CA. ( -2,018 can't show any bias there's two from CA)
• Retired Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr. of VA. ( - 1,574 or is that +21,351 I'm not sure...)
• Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Sue Ellen Turner of TX. ( 6,150 and the boss will probably say OK)
• Former Rep. James V. Hansen of UT. ( -446 didn't hurt that much)
• Retired Army Gen. James T. Hill of FL. ( 2,727 another one on the plus side)
• Samuel Skinner of IL, former chief of staff for President George H.W. Bush. ( -2,698 mostly Naval Station Great Lakes)
• Retired Air Force Gen. Lloyd Warren Newton of CT. ( -8,586 whatever the Adm. says is OK)

There are the numbers and how I see them.

Some would say the New London Sub Base and Naval Shipyard Portsmouth closures are a good thing such as linked here or here and others a bad thing as linked here or here. But there's something to be said for Yankee toughness and the people in the Northeast who support these installations aren't going to go away.
Then again Norfolk is such a much nicer place that Groton and Kings Bay is a great place to be in August.

By the way, did I say I'm from Rhode Island about half way between where the Navy once had all types of large installations and that Submarine Base in CT they're going to close. I don't really have a dog in this fight just an interested party that lives nearby.