European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 23, 1963, Darmstadt, Hesse It All look is though it could be whisked away in n matter of hours and leave the Loch to its seagulls and its legends. And thai is exactly the Cense. During the cuban crisis with British Bim the bom bom cry-1 ing out that holy Loch wan n frontline target the submarines swiftly disappeared to action stations presumably off Tho Crast of Russia. The depot ship also sped out to n secret rendezvous Point i a. Before the show Down came there was nothing left in the Loch to Daniw an enemy s fire nor will there Ever be in any future crisis. It May be the realization of this the explain Why hostile demonstrations against the Polaris submarines by incl f flit groups so frequent when the base Wensi established in 1961. Have become insignificant a widely proclaimed Alt night Vigil to protest the arrival of the depot ship Hun Ley attracted a grand total of six for demonstrators. Be Iler ply impressed by poli Irh. On this Point 1 Sec Eye to Eye with the Russia dictator. I have just spent Many hour examining tie Robert e. Leo from i he in Side out and 1 in pc been Nho Wirtl the John Marshall. The Nivy ii so a hip me to Nam rec la Deti rent operation of Simton u under tin in mind of Cap Tuin div a k. Ijar la of new London. Conn. Despite my department of defense Ere debut nos Thi a pinned Blue Anil yellow Ings on me which dirt uncleared must be is Security Thi so engineering in ref a is 0 strict Hinl i was checked in and out of vol no areas of the Robert k. Lee even though i was personally Csc sorted by cmdr Charles Churk Griffiths of in nuns City who Heads the Gold Crew. There in n futuristic irony in the fact that it lakes two Crews a sold and Blue to get the maximum use from n Polaris. It in the human machine rather than Tho nuclear one which needs the most Clear Power program and studied in Washington for a year under adm hymn i Gold Crew Hod just taken Over the Rohrt e. Lre was in what he described in an Indrei lilo slate of Readl permission from Wash-11i d to make any repair More than 24 hours a so Rurh Crew inks Over thp3ut the Calm of the loan is deceptive. Us Marin or. Month. no Udo the Hulcy the flirt Phlp built from i Rill Nii. Sea trials and n go any us. ,_ _ men i a Lrol. Than the Crew i flown Home to Tho . For Irve ind n a fresher to urn it the Insp it new London Conn while its replacement Al Levi into near try Prestwick Airport. Griffiths met me on the deck of the Robert e. Lee is i climbed Down from the Hunley below us Wax the Section of the submarine known to the Crew a Sherwood Forest or Birdland the Home of the mis Sile hinged eight along each Side of the ship under trapdoor six feet across. The tour slim in world War ii including the 30-foot tubes extend Down through All atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and three decks of the submarine to the pads him rom which they Are launched by jets of written into the electronic entrails compressed air. Each is the obituary notice of half a like All the other Polaris skip Peri i flu the Cal the Loch deceptive Hunley firs Shi in keel up to handle Polaris Craft is t Mother ship for 10 missile armed sub 1 marines on Nellve duty. Six or seven sub i marines Are always away on silent 60-Day patrols never communicating by radio so la not to hive away their positions each with 16 missiles ready to fire in a int tar of May flex its Muscles but this thumb shaped Haven 3,000 Miles r Sway is the clenched fist.,. Each submarine s missile Load is More i powerful than All the bombs dropped by a russian targets a threat of instant terrible revenge which Polaris sub _1ners firmly believe figures painfully a the strategy of the Elk la s. Khrushchev is said to met there is an enormous competence about Griffiths. He was graduated from Annapolis with a Bachelor of science degree i Polaris captains Are As much scientists As mariners went into the no i d to 11-i Nylon if 1 in would like i ill. Griffith said Ullh Inlet humor that he realized then were fringe groups the feared a Polaris Captain might go berserk and fire nuclear missiles All Over the place. The exact procedure leading up to an actual firing is naturally secret but the or Ders would have to come from president Kennedy. A minimum of three officers aboard the Craft would have to agree that a message to prepare to fire or to fire meant exactly what it wild presumably the Cap Tain the missile control officer and the executive officer. And if any of the officers disagreed with the others about the interpretation of a signal they would be authorized to withhold their cooperation. Put it this Way said Griffiths. We arc in constant communication with our Headquarters. We would get a coded Mes Sage extremely Well authenticated from the president through Steps in the Ore All kinds of built in safeguards. And there is not the slightest possibility of a missile being fired without an unmistakable and specific order to do 1mentioned a report that Russia Wasso worried about Polaris it might Nissl gnome of its Fleet of killer submarines to Shadow each one permanently As soon As it was be got killer submarines too Griffiths chuckled. The Ocean is a mighty big area and we Are mighty silent the Robert e. Lee is 389 feet Long 33feet in the beam and displaces about 5.900 tons. Its Speed and Tho depth at which a Niles carried by Polaris submarine is loaded aboard at Charleston Poloris base. Law i firing. A Polar i submarine comes to Anel Hor alongside submarine depot ship of holy Loch Scotland. The stars and stripes it can operate Are secret but it con prob ably move faster and travel deeper than any other submarine before it. The John Marshall is bigger410 feet Long and 6,900tons. And the class Polaris sub marines Are bigger still. Griffiths been on four go any sub merged patrols one of them during the cuban crisis when. Nil of sub Ron 14 missiles were Rudy to strike at multiple targets if so ordered. He said the worst thing about Chr Long submerged Jour Neys is that the men cannot Contact theirfatnlllc.4 although they can receive Mes wires from there s no real morale Factor be cause the men feel they Are doing some thing important he said. They Are All volunteers 1 consider the resources of Vij the Robein e. Lee. For a successful miss ii launch two positions must be known the submarine s and the target s. So it is imperative that the navigation of Fleer knows within n few Hundred Yards exactly where the submarine is at All times. As soon As the Robert e. Lee moves along holy Loch and clamps Down it hatches where the Firth Broadens into these not to surface again for two months its inertial navigation computers Conan rally calculate is position from its move ment in All directions. In addition then is a Rad Lometric Sextant to fix position by measuring the radio Waves emitted by the Sun. A special Periscope to take Star sightings an Antenna for radio navigation. And radar and Echo sounding equipment. There is no pretence that Polar i sub marines Are the most comfortable place for 130 crewmen and officers to spend two months. Some bunks Are Slung among the torpedoes and among the missiles and every Square Inch of space in either for sleeping or working. But there is a Uny mesh Hall where Ore served the Best food in the Navy and a new film is shown nearly every a Man completes his eight hours of duty he usually Heads for his bunk and if he wants any privacy he i is it in an elite service and anyone eligible to Wear the dolphins insignia of the sub Mariner is proud of it Griffiths introduced me to two Young officers who he said were among the first to go. Right into the nuclear program from Annapolis it William Cicala of Buffalo . And it Jerome Rosen Berger of new Castle a. I got them out of school a week Early for this trip he went Back on deck to watch the John Marshall leave under cmdr Robert Donovan of Mason City. Ii who Heads its Gold Crew. It was going out to practice firing torpedoes and submerging and sur be got to practice the said Beli because the Sumn runes Atay Down so Long. Imagine n plane Pilot who Only gota Chance to land i plane once every two months the Polaris submarines obviously cruise within 1.200 or 1,500 Miles of their russian targets depending on the Type of submarine and the Range of us missiles. Eventually it is hoped to extend the Range of the missiles so that depend ence on foreign buses will diminish or cease and the submarines will be Noble to operate from the United the l&300-ton Hunley an officer was considering requests from crewmen to marry scottish were 130 marriages aboard the proteus in the two years of its duty Here and the Hunley carries More men. There one disconsolate crewman. Stewart Mclaren left his native Edinburgh because he did t like the climate emigrated to subtropical key West ha., got called up Lor National service and was posted to of nil places. Holy was suffering from a cold. Seaman Ronald Locandro of new Brunt Wick. . One of the Hunley s Crew watched the John marshal fade into the Are their he said giving Point to the Hunley s role of Mother ship to the the Royal Marine hotel a group of Navy wives was discussing the Lack of living accommodation in crowded Dunoon and the acute Inck of Central heating along the Bleak Argyllshire wife mid she Hud been thinking of n Holiday Lour which included Leningrad hut her Hus hand s superiors vetoed this. The Navy would he very unhappy if any relative of n Man in the pol urls pro slim fell into re Sian hands. Cover Tolar nut Narline Sam Houston return to holy Loch Bane after patrol in Mediterranean. Poo u
