USS Scorpion (SSN-589) - 39 years ago

Posted so we do not forget that the dangers of the sea and how the service of submariners during hot wars and cold conflicts can exact a toll that still remains a mystery.




















USS Scorpion SSN-589 (US Navy photo)
Photo location was Naples Italy and was taken a little over 1 month before her loss.

The following officers and men were lost with Scorpion (SSN-589).

Officers	Chief Petty Officers
Commander Francis Atwood Slattery, Commanding Officer Lieutenant Commander David B. Lloyd, Executive Officer Lieutenant Commander Daniel P. Stephens Lieutenant John Patrick Burke Lieutenant George Patrick Farrin, Lieutenant Robert Walter Flesch Lieutenant William Clarke Harwi Lieutenant Charles Lee Lamberth Lieutenant John C. Sweet Lieutenant (j.g.) James W. Forrester, Jr. Lieutenant (j.g.) Michael A. Odening Lieutenant (j.g.) Laughton D. Smith	TMC Walter William Bishop, Chief of the Boat (COB) MMC(SS) Robert Eugene Bryan RMC(SS) Garlin Ray Denney RMCS(SS) Robert Johnson MMCS(SS) Richard Allen Kerntke QMCS(SS) Frank Patsy Mazzuchi EMC(SS) Daniel Christopher Peterson HMC(SS) Lynn Thompson Saville ETC(SS) George Elmer Smith, Jr. YNCS(SS) Leo Williazm Weinbeck MMC(SS) James Mitchell Wells
Enlisted Men
FTG3(SS) Keith Alexander M. Allen IC2 Thomas Edward Amtower MM2 George Gile Annable FN(SS) Joseph Anthony Barr, Jr. RM2(SS) Michael Jon Bailey IC3 Michael Reid Blake MM1(SS) Robert Harold Blocker MM2(SS) Kenneth Ray Brocker MM1(SS) James K. Brueggeman RMSN Daniel Paul Burns, Jr. IC2(SS) Ronald Lee Byers MM2(SS) Douglas Leroy Campbell MM3(SS) Samuel J. Cardullo MM2(SS) Francis King Carey SN Gary James Carpenter MM1(SS) Robert Lee Chandler MM1(SS) Mark Helton Christiansen SD1(SS) Romeo Constantino MM1(SS) Robert James Cowan SD1(SS) Joseph Cross FA Michael Edward Dunn ETR2 Richard Philip Engelhart FTGSN William Ralph Fennick IC3(SS) Vernon Mark Foli SN Ronald Anthony Frank CSSN(SS) Michael David Gibson IC2 Steven Dean Gleason STS2(SS) Michael Edward Henry SK1(SS) Larry Leroy Hess ETR1(SS) Richard Curtis Hogeland MM1(SS) John Richard Houge EM2 Ralph Robert Huber TM2(SS) Harry David Huckelberry EM3 John Frank Johnson IC3(SS) Steven Leroy Johnson QM2(SS) Julius Johnston, III FN Patrick Charles Kahanek TM2(SS) Donald Terry Karmasek ETR3(SS) Rodney Joseph Kipp MM3 Dennis Charles Knapp	MM1(SS) Max Franklin Lanier ET1(SS) John Weichert Livingston ETN2 Kenneth Robert Martin ET1(SS) Michael Lee McGuire TMSN Steven Charles Miksad TMSN Joseph Francis Miller, Jr. MM2(SS) Cecil Frederick Mobley QM1(SS) Raymond Dale Morrison QM3(SS) Dennis Paul Pferrer EM1(SS) Gerald Stanley Psopisil IC3 Donald Richard Powell MM2 Earl Lester Ray, Jr. CS1(SS) Jorge Luis Santana ETN2(SS) Richard George Schaffer SN William Newman Schoonover SN Phillip Allan Seifert MM2(SS) Robert Bernard Smith ST1(SS) Harold Robert Snapp, Jr. ETM2(SS) Joel Candler Stephens MM2(SS) David Burton Stone EM2 John Phillip Sturgill YN3 Richard Norman Summers TMSN John Driscoll Sweeney, Jr. ETM2(SS) James Frank Tindol, III CSSN Johnny Gerald Veerhusen TM3 Robert Paul Violeiti ST3 Ronald James Voss FTG1(SS) John Michael Wallace MM1(SS) Joel Kurt Watkins MMFN Robert Westley Watson TM2 James Edwin Webb SN Ronald Richard Williams MM3 Robert Alan Willis IC1(SS) Virgil Alexander Wright, III TM1(SS) Donald H. Yarsbrough ETR2(SS) Clarence Otto Young, Jr.

The Alvin On-Line Simulator

Have you ever wanted to pilot a submersible into the depths of the Ocean?

Not many of us will ever get that chance but if a cyber-space version will pass then check out the Woods Hole Oceanographic Insititution's Alvin Simulator. Used as a training tool for scientists it has standalone session mode as well as a joined session mode for collaborative missions.

(Screen shot of Alvin simulator.)

WHOI website provides this description as to the use of the simulator:

"In addition to full mission planning for WHOI scientists, the Alvin simulator was intended to provide applicability as a public relations tool so that users at home would be able to find out about WHOI research.

One of the sumulator's outstanding features is its full functionality as a stand-alone session once the interface is downloaded. All the meters and devices reflect real data that is calculated by the underlying algorithms. Furthermore, scientists as well as public users are allowed to collaborate in teams of up to three persons - just as in the real Alvin cockpit where a team consists of one pilot and two scientists.

Every member's actions in a joined session will influence the virtual dive and will be reflected on all the remote team members displays. In addition, an optional chat tool was provided for communication and surveillance purposes. Since scientists might be separated, the simulator is configured for distributive network-based session management which is supported by a Java 1.3 servlet."

There is a link on the site to an instructional video.

You won't be shooting sea monsters, this is primarily a technical training tool full of device controls and system gages used for mission tasks rehearsals.

If the simulator is to techie for you then here is some video footage from Alvin at a depth of 7644 feet.

Scientists do get excited when they see something unusual or unexpected, such as a lake at the bottom of the ocean.

Blog Changes

Thought it was time for some updating. Changes will be on-going for a few days.

Women, Guitars and Submarine Acoustics

Could the video be a valid argument to have women on submarines?


Artist: Mia Johnson - Style: Folk/Rock - Song Title: Sailor
Here's another sample of her music.

Submarines not the place for a low cut evening dress, except if you're the XO on halfway night. But as long as its a museum like the USS Ling I'm all for "Women, Guitars an Submarine Acoustics".

What's in a Name - Honor the Monitor

If you follow the submarine blogs you'll see the topic of ship naming surface now and again. There is usually a debate on the best names for submarines which range from fish to States to historic leaders such as Presidents.

There is now a movement to have one of the new Virginia class attack submarines named after a famous naval vessel of the civil war, Lincoln's secret weapon, the USS Monitor.

USS Monitor vs CSS Virginia (Source: National Archives)

The introduction of the innovative USS Monitor could be argued as the end of sailing warships and the beginning of the big iron warships domination of Naval efforts for the next 100 years.

The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable has started a grassroots campaign to have the memory of the USS Monitor honored "For the sake of history, tradition, and symmetry".

USS Virginia "Monitor?" (Photo Source: US Navy)

Now if only the Navy could put a naval rail gun turret in the sail the "USS Monitor" name would be a sure thing. ;-)

Sub arrives for Fleet week in South Florida

News Video: USS Memphis Arrives at Port Everglades

The USS Memphis arrives for Fleet week in Southern Florida.

Why do reporters always seemed to be fixated on creature comforts, like personal hygiene and sleeping arrangements?

Next report high drama with mess cooking and movie night.


Additional unedited video: Surface transit to port.

Update 5/2/07: A much better report on the USS Memphis while they're in port for fleet week. Disregard the previous snarky comment on mess cooking and movie night.

NAVY - it's not just a job, it's a musical video adventure!

Official - Accelerate Your Life


Unofficial - Ha Ya Ya

Long skimmer deployments in the hot Middle Eastern sun will do that to you, I guess.

Most of my deployments were in the cold deep Atlantic, different time, different adversary, different music.

The Bonefish Fire - recommend read

xformed at ChaoticSynapticActivity has an excellent piece on the USS Bonefish (SS582) fire in 1988. Lots of first hand accounts of the rescue efforts by the USS Carr (FFG52).

USS Bonefish (SS582)
(Photo credit: Navsource.org - Courtesy of Paul Perris, CSG-7 retired)

The Bonefish was one of the B-Girls: USS Barbel (SS580), USS Blueback (SS581) and the USS Bonefish (SS582). In 1980 I took a tour on the one of the B-Girls in Norfolk while I was at NAVET C school in Damn Neck, Va. I thought she was a Nuke until the crewmember showing me the boat said otherwise.

Затопленный = SUBMERGED; SUNKEN

A New England nor'easter sank the Russian Juliett 484 museum submarine today.
The news reported as of yesterday 4/17 that the boat was taking on water aft.

Juliett 484 Summer 2006 (Photo by Lubbers Line)
Then local news today 4/18 had this report on the sinking.

Specifications
Type: Guided Missile Submarine
Class: Project 651 (NATO designation Juliett)
Launched: 11 March 1965
At: Krasnaya Sormova Works, Gorky, Russia
Commissioned: 31 October 1965
Length: 297 feet
Beam: 32 feet, 10 inches
Draft: 23 feet
Displacement: 3,174 tons (surfaced)
Currently - 4,137 tons (submerged)

Juliett 484 April 18, 2007 (Photo by Lubbers Line)
(Click on photo for a larger view)

I volunteered for a while at the sub museum and it was a sad sight when I stopped by today and took the above photo. She wasn't water-tight having been modified with access doors in the forward and aft torpedo compartments. The hatches were the oval surface ship type that could be dogged shut. Because of the subs age the ballast tanks were a constant maintenance issue requiring repairs to sections where they were rusting through.

Today I spoke to the Duty Officer from the Sunday before Monday's storm; he felt the boat was in good shape to ride out the storm when he left. The problem was that the city closed the hurricane barrier adjecent to the sub for the storm surge. The storm surge caused the sub to ride high on its mooring lines and shift in its normal berth. When the water receded the bow rested high on a shoal area and the stern sank deeper. As I recall the aft ballast tanks were the ones in worst shape and the free flood area aft below the superstructure has lots of areas for water to collect. We always had to pump these pockets out after a big rain.

Once the stern water level reached the access hatch the aft torpedo room started to slowly flood. As evidanced in the photo the boat is now on the bottom at the pier and the Coast Guard has ordered the area closed off to visitors. The mooring lines are stressed to the breaking point and one has already parted. A salvage company was on-site evaluating the effort required to re-float her.

Let's just hope that with all submarines surfacing equal dives.

Headline of the Day

From the Wired News Blog: Navy Chief to Shipbuilders: You Suck!

Has a sort of blue collar shipyard ring to it, don't you think?

Iran's Territorial Duplicity - back story

Everyone knows the story by now of the Iranian capture and eventual release of the 15 British sailors and Marines. But the back story or real story I believe is that the Iranians have been acting agressively and the Brits and Americas have been keeping close watch on them. A little news video timeline to demonstrate:

1) Iran back in Feb was violating Iraqi waters in runs to Iraq's main oil export terminal.

So they are asked to leave Iraq's waters with no repercussions but we're left wondering what there up to.

2) Iran's forces a month later ambush and take 15 Brit Naval personnel hostage.

First the Iranians say they don't want to escalate the situation, but immediately make the Sailors and Marines political pawns.

3) Finally the 15 Brits are released.

Framed by the first and last news video stories you can see that the Brits were oviously watching the Iranians closely. They were also doing their duty in protecting the Iraqi oil facilities and looking for smugglers.

To me the Iranians only managed to raise suspicions of there activities even further despite their, all is forgiven, politically calculated pardon.

As for the conduct of the Brit sailors while captive, different topic and no comment.

Australian Submarine Crew Retention Trouble

The Australian Navy has been having some submarine crew retention problems lately and the government has a solution.

(Source: AU Navy Photo -Collins Class)

From the theage.com.au: Defence to get big spending boost

The Federal Government is planning a huge increase in defence spending to overcome deficiencies in areas such as the submarine service.

Defence sources say the money, to be made available in the May budget, will be used to recruit thousands more defence personnel and offer incentives for existing staff to stay.

Numbers in the submarine service are 25 to 30 per cent below requirements. As a result, the number of days at sea per boat has been cut from a planned 127 this year to 87.

Sources said the navy was having problems retaining WA-based submarine crew members, who were being offered $135,000 to work in the private sector, particularly in the mining industry, almost double their usual pay.

The situation has become so serious that defence is "cold calling" former submarine crews and asking them to return.

Although increases in pay and retention bonuses are an incentive it doesn't help when your only Submarine Rescue system the Remora has been sitting at the bottom of ocean off Western Australia's Rottnest Island since December. I blogged a little about the Remora's problems here back in September 2005.

To the North Pole

A couple of interesting news items recently relating to the submarines operating at and under the north pole.

First TheSubReport links to an article about the upcoming Ice Exercise 2007 (ICEX-2007). Submarine Force Announces This Year's Ice Exercise Participants

(USS Salt Lake City (SSN 716} north pole 2006 - US Navy Photo)

The USS ALEXANDRIA (SSN 757), home ported in Groton, Conn. will particapate with a Royal Navy Trafalgar class submarine in classified arctic operations in March and April 2007. But if you're not a submariner on SSN 757 or that un-named Royal Navy Trafalgar class submarine you can still reach and submerge at the north pole either this summer or in 2008.

A group called Deep Ocean Expeditions ,that operates science expeditions using the Russian MIR submersibles and support ships, is planning the first ever descent to the Amundsen Plain on the ocean floor of the north pole. From a Russian new service Russian Submersible To Reach 5 Km Depth.

(Russian MIR Submersible - NOAA Photo)

Here is the link to the expedition website "Submersible Dive to the Real North Pole". It's a little rich for me at $80,000USD to dive in the MIR to a 14,500 feet depth at the north pole. As a non-diver it will cost $15,000 to stay aboard the support ship for the duration of the expedition. A lot cheaper than the Russian equivalent to space tourism.

It is a once a lifetime event and an adventure in making history riding a nuclear icebreaker to the north pole and diving in a submersible to the bottom on the arctic ocean at the top of the world.

(Gulf of Alaska seamounts 2002 - NOAA & WHOI Alvin Submersible Video)

The closest I could find to wet the appetite for deep sea exploration is the above video from the Gulf of Alaska.

If anyone wants to fund a blogger on the Expedition I'm willing to go and write about the experience. I'll try not to say it was "way cool".

First Day Back

I've been away from the Submarine Blogosphere for a few months and have missed it. Not to take things too seriously I thought this was appropriate. Enjoy...



And Admiral Stupid on the T-shirt is not my doing, so from one bubblehead to another no disrespect intended.

Navy over UConn 41-17

Damn I missed it, got invited by one of my USSVI friends to go see the Navy - UConn game and took the kids apple picking instead.

Oh well dad duty has its own reward - Fresh Apple Pie!

A New Army College Program?

When the U.S. Army airs recruiting commercials they usually say something about earning money for college or getting quality training you can get no where else. This usually requires some level of commitment of service to get that education benefit, fair enough. But Captain Mary Hanna of the Army Reserve seems to be trying a creative way of getting that education benefit without the service obligation.

From the Boston Globe Doctor's call-up by Army is Halted

The US Army paid $184,000 for Mary Hanna to go to Tufts University School of Medicine for four years, and in exchange she agreed to serve four years of active duty and another four in the reserve after becoming a doctor.

But just before Christmas, as she was nearing the end of her anesthesiology residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Hanna, 30, of Somerville notified the Army that her religious beliefs were now ``incompatible with military service."

Mary says she rediscovered her religion as a devout Coptic Orthodox Christian and "cannot participate in war in any form.". She is asking to be discharged as a conscientious objector. But the Army is not sending her to Iraq or Afghanistan no she is to be stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas.

Of course the Army Reserve Captain and her lawyer say she's willing to pay back the $184,000 government investment in her education. Not that a qualified anesthesiologist in the Boston healthcare market would have much trouble with paying that back in a couple of years.

What I don't understand is how a doctor who took a Hippocratic oath and knew that joining the Army would mean treating injured soldiers in wartime could all of a sudden find both in opposision to her faith at the very moment she get orders to report for duty. Timing seems odd to me.

I think that Ms Hanna needs to take a lesson from the life of another conscientious objector, Desmond Doss, WWII U.S Army Medic and Congressional Metal of Honor recipcient.

Citation: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Medical Detachment, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division. He was a company aid man when the lst Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet high. As our troops gained the summit, a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar and machinegun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Pfc. Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying them 1 by 1 to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands. On 2 May, he exposed himself to heavy rifle and mortar fire in rescuing a wounded man 200 yards forward of the lines on the same escarpment; and 2 days later he treated 4 men who had been cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave, advancing through a shower of grenades to within 8 yards of enemy forces in a cave's mouth, where he dressed his comrades' wounds before making 4 separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety. On 5 May, he unhesitatingly braved enemy shelling and small arms fire to assist an artillery officer. He applied bandages, moved his patient to a spot that offered protection from small arms fire and, while artillery and mortar shells fell close by, painstakingly administered plasma. Later that day, when an American was severely wounded by fire from a cave, Pfc. Doss crawled to him where he had fallen 25 feet from the enemy position, rendered aid, and carried him 100 yards to safety while continually exposed to enemy fire. On 21 May, in a night attack on high ground near Shuri, he remained in exposed territory while the rest of his company took cover, fearlessly risking the chance that he would be mistaken for an infiltrating Japanese and giving aid to the injured until he was himself seriously wounded in the legs by the explosion of a grenade. Rather than call another aid man from cover, he cared for his own injuries and waited 5 hours before litter bearers reached him and started carrying him to cover. The trio was caught in an enemy tank attack and Pfc. Doss, seeing a more critically wounded man nearby, crawled off the litter; and directed the bearers to give their first attention to the other man. Awaiting the litter bearers' return, he was again struck, this time suffering a compound fracture of 1 arm. With magnificent fortitude he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a splint and then crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station. Through his outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of desperately dangerous conditions Pfc. Doss saved the lives of many soldiers. His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty.

Desmond Doss was a devout member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and refused to kill or carry a gun. Mr. Doss died earlier this year

Read War Hero Without a Gun to understand the true meaning of a conscientious objector and how religious beliefs can be compatible with military service.

Ms Hanna put whatever political beliefs you have aside and look to your faith and medical oath to fill your obligations. In refusing to serve you are waging war against those who protect your freedom to be a conscientious objector.

Soviet AGIs and DASOs Remembered

A little news film entertainment for us old Boomer weenies.

Yes, the Soviet AGIs were a pain in the butt back then. Station the AGI tracking party, and remember no ship's ball caps topside.

NIE Intel and motivated Terrorists

Tom Barnett blogs on the recent debate generated by the Washington Post and NYT reporting of now Iraq is making us less safe.

"This analysis is typical intell stuff: obvious, useless, and playing into a do-nothing mind-set that here says, "Do nothing to piss off the terrorists!"

Duh! When we engage the security situation--any security situation--in the Middle East, we piss off (and create more) terrorists. We do it when we're pro-active, like in Iraq. We do it when we're passive, like our military support to Israel. And we do it when we're behind the scenes, like our intell co-op with regimes throughout the region.

So it's never been a question of whether or not we piss off terrorists (who live to be pissed off, and when there's not enough going on, they'll get jacked over a film (e.g., Van Gogh), a book (Rushdie), a speech (Benedict)--whatever)."

Capitan Ed at Captain Quarters also argues that the conclusion reached "makes the classic logical fallacy of confusing correlation with causation" citing how "Islamist radicalism didn't just start expanding in 2003" and concludes by saying "fighting terrorists and upsetting their plans for regional domination will make them mad".

Then the Counterterroism blog notes that "The 1997 NIE, the last one before the 9/11 attacks on global terrorism, mentioned bin Laden in only three sentences as a "terrorist financier" and didn't reference al-Qaeda at all". So much for historical credibility.

This debate won't get political will it?

Deployed

“Deployed” in a word that is what I’ve felt like over the last few months and why I’ve been absent from this blog since early July. Deployed also describes the software I’ve been the Project Manager (PM) for during that time as well. Let me explain my analogy to a submarine deployment and work environment.

My experience running a software project and outsourcing the development work to off-shore (India) has been a bit like being at sea, long hours under difficult conditions. Typically I worked a 12 to 18 hour day with, on average, four hours of sleep. On a good day I could go down for six, on a bad day it was about two hours in the rack. Muster for the India developer team was 11:00 pm EST (8:30 IST Bangalore) with a 1 hour conference call. Action items from that call resulted in another one to two hours of work for me and setting the day’s priorities for the developers. Roll out of the rack at 06:30 to be on watch at the client site at 07:30 am.

Each day at my client’s site involved a standard set of work expectations interrupted by a set of disaster drills. The delivered software would either blowup, meltdown or some sort of anomaly would occur to make me wish the previous deployment of the software was my last. The reality was I had a job to do and the client and my boss were dependent on me to drive through the issues and finish.

The primary responsibility I had as the PM was to ensure that the deliverables; specifications, U/I design prototypes and finally the production software were completed on time and on budget. It didn’t happen and went over on time and budget. Although I was impressed by the work ethic of my team in India, they were constantly delinquent “dink” on my project milestones. Walkthroughs of the specifications from the off-shore team required two to five passes before the client would signoff. The business knowledge and quality control of my off-shore team became a major concern. I eventually was standing in as a Business Analyst, QA Engineer and Technical Writer in addition to the PM role I signed on for. Not where I wanted to be on a fixed bid contract that had lost its entire on-site technical staff to another larger project.

Then a real causality happened. Leaving station and heading back to home port one evening I had a head on collision when another driver who decided that with limited visibility he would chance crossing two lanes of city traffic during rush hour. His gamble with a left hand turn in front of a stopped truck resulted in me finding my air bags deployed and not knowing what had just happened.

That coincided with the low point in the project. User Acceptance Testing UAT was ongoing and the level of software bugs was excessive.

Things tuned around when I as able to get my on-site technical team back from the other project. These guys put the extra effort forward to get the project back on track doing midnight calls with me and the developers in India and working extra hours at the client’s site. We identified inefficiencies and errors in the developed code and communicated them back to the off-shore developers.

Working with a team of qualified people started to become fun again. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not down on Indian programmers, two of my best on-site resources were from India. But my first deployment involving off-shore developed software created some hard lessons learned about capabilities and managing a project of this type.

Word to the wise; be prepared for some rough water when you’re deployed to a different ocean.

It’s good to be back. - LL

Participating in a Tradition

This past week I had the honor to participate in the oldest Fourth of July parade in the country, the 221st Bristol 4th of July parade in Bristol, RI. I volunteered to drive some of my Subvet friends in the parade. Here's a little photo essay of my day with some shipmates.
(Click on each Photo for a larger view)

My vehicle in its dress red white and blues and ready for patrol.

Lead unit for the SUBVETS contingent with its hybrid boat model in tow.

One of the senior WWII Subvets and wife in attendance.
He served aboard the USS Batfish SS-310 during a number of War patrols including the patrol where they pulled a hat trick and sank three Japanese subs in three consecutive days during their sixth war patrol.

RI Senator Jack Reed and Representative Patrick Kennedy were there talking to the assembled veteran groups.

Midshipmen mustering in the hot sun before the parade.

Of course, the Air Force unit is mustering in the shade.

Marine color guard ready for action.

Unknown military unit. By the look of the uniforms possibly from Europe?

Three corner hat types were in abundance.

Marching bands in our staging area were too many to count.

Time for the Subvets to man battle stations.

Preparing to get underway!

I'm at the rudder and staying in the baffles, my elder Subvets taking point in front of our lead vehicle.

Don't give up the ship flag decorating the house above, point taken.

The sign in the photo above reads:
"America Home of the Free and Protected by the Brave"
Many people along the parade route had hand-made signs like the one above others just applauded us and said thank you.

There were only six of us US Submarine Veterans in attendance, one WWII veteran, three Diesel boat veterans, and two cold war Nuke boat veterans. We all had great day celebrating the founding of this great country.