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Many companies have used Haskell for a range of projects, including:ABN AMRO Amsterdam, The NetherlandsABN AMRO is an international bank headquartered in Amsterdam. For its investment banking activities it needs to measure the counterparty risk on portfolios of financial derivatives.ABN AMRO's CUFP talk.Aetion Technologies LLC, Columbus, OhioAetion was a defense contractor in operation from 1999 to 2011, whose applications use artificial intelligence. Rapidly changing priorities make it important to minimize the code impact of changes, which suits Haskell well. Aetion developed three main projects in Haskell, all successful. Haskell's concise code was perhaps most important for rewriting: it made it practicable to throw away old code occasionally. DSELs allowed the AI to be specified very declaratively.Aetion's CUFP talk.Alcatel-LucentA consortium of groups, including Alcatel-Lucent, have used Haskell to prototype narrowband software radio systems, running in (soft) real-time.Alcatel-Lucent's CUFP talkAllston TradingHeadquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Allston Trading, LLC is a premier high frequency market maker in over 40 financial exchanges, in 20 countries, and in nearly every conceivable product class. Allston makes some use of Haskell for their trading infrastructure.Alpha Heavy IndustriesAlpha Heavy Industries is an alternative asset manager dedicated to producing superior returns through quantitative methods. They use Haskell as their primary implementation language.Amgen Thousand Oaks, CaliforniaAmgen is a human therapeutics company in the biotechnology industry. Amgen pioneered the development of novel products based on advances in recombinant DNA and molecular biology and launched the biotechnology industry’s first blockbuster medicines. Amgen uses Haskell;To rapidly build software to implement mathematical models and other complex, mathematically oriented applicationsProvide a more mathematically rigorous validation of softwareTo break developers out of their software development rut by giving them a new way to think about software.Amgen's CUFP talk.Ansemond LLC"Find It! Keep It! is a Mac Web Browser that lets you keep the pages you visit in a database. A list of these pages is shown in the 'database view'. "Antiope Fair Haven, New JerseyAntiope Associates provides custom solutions for wireless communication and networking problems. Our team has expertise in all aspects of wireless system design, from the physical and protocol layers to complex networked applications. Antiope Associates relies on a number of advanced techniques to ensure that the communication systems we design are reliable and free from error. We use custom simulation tools developed in Haskell, to model our hardware designs..Antiope's CUFP talk.AT&THaskell is being used in the Network Security division to automate processing of internet abuse complaints. Haskell has allowed us to easily meet very tight deadlines with reliable results.Bank of America Merril LynchHaskell is being used for backend data transformation and loading.Barclays Capital Quantitative Analytics GroupBarclays Capital's Quantitative Analytics group is using Haskell to develop an embedded domain-specific functional language (called FPF) which is used to specify exotic equity derivatives. These derivatives, which are naturally best described in terms of mathematical functions, and constructed compositionally, map well to being expressed in an embedded functional language. This language is now regularly being used by people who had no previous functional language experience.Simon Frankau et al's JFP paper on their use of HaskellRead their 2013 job advertisementBAE SystemsAs part of the SAFE project, BAE has built a collection of compilers, interpreters, simulators, and EDSLs almost entirely in Haskell.CUFP 2013 talkBazQux ReaderBazQux Reader is a commercial RSS reader. Its feeds and comments crawler and a part of web-server are implemented in Haskell.BetterBetter, formerly known as Erudify, is a learning company built around the mission of making people better. We are an unusual mix of a software company, a consulting firm, and a creative agency. This tight integration enables us to deliver innovative, high-quality courses to our customers. Founded in 2012, Better is based in Zurich, Switzerland and New York, USA. Better is fully invested in Haskell; Most parts of our back-end system (web-servers and learning logic) are written in Haskell. Haskell is also used in most parts of our front-end system.bCODE Pty Ltd Sydney AustraliabCode Pty Ltd is a small venture capital-funded startup using Ocaml and a bit of Haskell in Sydney Australia.Bdellium Hawaii, United StatesBdellium develops software systems that enable companies in the financial industry to deliver new customer services that grow their business. Bdellium uses Haskell for heavy lifting analysis in back end infrastructure.Bluespec, Inc. Waltham, MassachusettsDeveloping a modern integrated circuit (ASIC or FPGA) is an enormously expensive process involving specification, modeling (to choose and fix the architecture), design (to describe what will become silicon) and verification (to ensure that it meets the specs), all before actually committing anything to silicon (where the cost of a failure can be tens of millions of dollars). Bluespec, Inc. is a three year-old company that provides language facilities, methodologies, and tools for this purpose, within the framework of the IEEE standard languages SystemVerilog and SystemC, but borrowing ideas heavily from Term Rewriting Systems and functional programming languages like Haskell. In this talk, after a brief technical overview to set the context, we will describe our tactics and strategies, and the challenges we face, in introducing declarative programming ideas into this field, both externally (convincing customers about the value of these ideas) and internally (using Haskell for our tool implementation).Bluespec's CUFP talk.BumpBump use a Haskell-based server, Angel, for process supervisor for all their backend systems, and for other infrastructure tasks.Haskell at BumpCapital IQWe have been using functional programming here at S&P Capital IQ in Scala, Haskell, and our homegrown reporting language Ermine, since 2008 for financial analytics.Capital IQ's CUFP 2013 talkChordifyChordify is a free online music service that transforms music, from YouTube, Deezer, SoundCloud or uploaded files, into chords. There's an ICFP experience report explaining how Haskell is used for this: José Pedro Magalhães and W. Bas de Haas. Functional Modelling of Musical Harmony: an Experience Report. In Proceedings of the 16th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming (ICFP'11), pp. 156–162, ACM, 2011.Circos Brand Karma SingaporeBrand Karma provides services to brand owners to measure online sentiments towards their brands. Haskell is used in building parts of the product, specifically for back-end job scheduling and brand matching.CircuitHubCircuitHub aims to be the AWS for manufacturing, enabling hardware companies and makers to instantly quote designs and scale from prototype to production. We are also proud to host a large collection of open hardware designs. CircuitHub uses Haskell for our core services and algorithms.Credit Suisse Global Modeling and Analytics Group London, UK; New York City, New YorkGMAG, the quantitative modeling group at Credit Suisse, has been using Haskell for various projects since the beginning of 2006, with the twin aims of improving the productivity of modelers and making it easier for other people within the bank to use GMAG models. Current projects include: Further work on tools for checking, manipulating and transforming spreadsheets; a domain-specific language embedded in Haskell for implementing reusable components that can be compiled into various target forms (see the video presentation: Paradise, a DSEL for Derivatives Pricing).Credit Suisse's CUFP talk.DetexifyDetexify is an online handwriting recognition system, whose backend is written in Haskell.FynderFynder is an online booking platform. We use Haskell and clojurescript, all stitched together with nixosSee more in their original job posting.Deutsche Bank Equity Proprietary Trading, Directional Credit TradingThe Directional Credit Trading group uses Haskell as the primary implementation language for all its software infrastructure.Deutsche Bank's CUFP talk.Eaton Cleveland, OhioDesign and verification of hydraulic hybrid vehicle systemsEaton's CUFP talkEaton's experiences using a Haskell DSL[Ericsson AB]Ericsson uses Haskell for the implementation of Feldspar, an EDSL for digital signal processing algorithms.Ericsson's Feldspar compilerextensiblNew Zealand-based company. Provides a variety of software development, consulting, operational support services worldwide. Both Haskell and Ur/Web are actively used for commercial projects.FacebookFacebook uses some Haskell internally for tools. lex-pass is a tool for programmatically manipulating a PHP code base via Haskell.Facebook's CUFP talkFacebook's HaXL system is open sourceFactis ResearchFactis research, located in Freiburg, Germany, develops reliable and user-friendly mobile solutions. Our client software runs under J2ME, Symbian, iPhone OS, Android, and Blackberry. The server components are implemented in Python and Haskell. We are actively using Haskell for a number of projects, most of which are released under an open-source license.Factis' HCAR submissionfortytools gmbhLocated in Hamburg, Germany, we are developing web-based productivity tools for invoicing, customer management, resource scheduling and time tracking. While using Javascript for building rich frontend application in the browser, we use Haskell to implement the REST backends. Additionally, we do occasional project/client work as well.Oh, and of course we develop and maintain Hayoo! :)Functor AB, Stockholm, SwedenFunctor AB offers new tools for ground-breaking static analysis with pre-test case generation of programs to eliminate defects and bugs in software very early in development. Functor collaborates with the JET fusion reactor run by EFDA CCFE. JET is currently the largest reactor in the world of its kind. At Functor, almost all development is done in Haskell but also to some extent also C and Scala.See more in the Functor AB job advertisementFunktionale Programmierung Dr. Heinrich Hördegen, Munich, GermanyWe develop software prototypes according to the Pareto principle: After spending only 20 percent of budget, we aim to provide already 80 percent of the software's functionality. We can realize this by constructing a 2080-software-prototype that we can further develop into a full-fledged solution...Galois, Inc Portland, OregonGalois designs and develops high confidence software for critical applications. Our innovative approach to software development provides high levels of assurance, yet its scalability enables us to address the most complex problems. We have successfully engineered projects under contract for corporations and government clients in the demanding application areas of security, information assurance and cryptography.Galois' 2007 CUFP talkGalois' 2011 CUFP talkGalois' retrospective on 10 years of industrial Haskell useGoogleHaskell is used on a small number of internal projects in Google, for internal IT infrastructure support, and the open-source Ganeti project. Ganeti is a tool for managing clusters of virtual servers built on top of Xen and KVM.Google's ICFP 2010 experience report on HaskellVideo from ICFP Project Ganeti at GoogleGlydeGlyde uses OCaml and Haskell for a few projects. Glyde uses Haskell for our client-side template source-to-source translator, which converts HAML-like view templates into JS code.Group CommerceGroup Commerce uses Haskell to drive the main component of their advertising infrastructure: a Snap Framework based web server. Haskell enabled quicker development, higher reliability, and better maintainability than other languages, without having to sacrifice performance.HasuraHasura is a BaaS/PaaS focussed on keeping things DRY and letting you write custom code with the tools you love. We're building a micro-service platform christened Instant APIs for web & mobile apps (alpha release scheduled in summer 2015), and we used Haskell as the core programming language to build it.Humane SoftwareWe develop enterprise systems with de-coupled, asynchronous Haskell backends and Javascript UIs.For our current customer, an Internet connectivity provider, we wrote a solution for monitoring multiple remote machines and analyzing gigabytes of traffic samples. Haskell proved an excellent tool for the job. We were able to replace legacy systems in a granular, piece-by-piece manner, while delivering new features.Hustler Turf Equipment Hesston, KansasDesigns, builds, and sells lawn mowers. We use quite a bit of Haskell, especially as a "glue language" for tying together data from different manufacturing-related systems. We also use it for some web apps that are deployed to our dealer network. There are also some uses for it doing sysadmin automation, such as adding/removing people from LDAP servers and the likeiba Consulting Gesellschaft - Intelligent business architecture for you. Leipzig, Germanyiba CG develops software for large companies:risk analysis and reporting solution for power supply company;contract management, assert management, booking and budgeting software for one of the worldwide leading accounting firm.IMVU, IncIMVU, Inc. is a social entertainment company connecting users through 3D avatar-based experiences. See the blog article What it's like to use HaskellInformatik Consulting Systems AGICS AG developed a simulation and testing tool which based on a DSL (Domain Specific Language). The DSL is used for the description of architecture and behavior of distributed system components (event/message based, reactive). The compiler was written in Haskell (with target language Ada). The test system is used in some industrial projects.IntelIntel has developed a Haskell compiler as part of their research on multicore parallelism at scale.Read the Intel Research paper on compilerIVU Traffic Technologies AGThe rostering group at IVU Traffic Technologies AG has been using Haskell to check rosters for compliance with EC regulations. Our implementation is based on an embedded DSL to combine the regulation’s single rules into a solver that not only decides on instances but, in the case of a faulty roster, finds an interpretation of the roster that is “favorable” in the sense that the error messages it entails are “helpful” in leading the dispatcher to the resolution of the issue at hand. The solver is both reliable (due to strong static typing and referential transparency — we have not experienced a failure in three years) and efficient (due to constraint propagation, a custom search strategy, and lazy evaluation). Our EC 561/2006 component is part of the IVU.crew software suite and as such is in wide-spread use all over Europe, both in planning and dispatch. So the next time you enter a regional bus, chances are that the driver’s roster was checked by Haskell.JanRainJanRain uses Haskell for network and web software. Read more about Haskell at JanRain and in theirtech talk at Galois. JanRain's "Capture" user API product is built on Haskell's Snap webframework.See Janrain's technical talk about their use of SnapJoyride LaboratoriesJoyride Laboratories is an independent game development studio, founded in 2009 by Florian Hofer and Sönke Hahn. Their first game, "Nikki and the Robots" was released in 2011.Keera StudiosKeera Studios Ltd is a European game development studio that develops mobile, desktop and web apps.Games: The Android game Magic Cookies! was written in Haskell and released in 2015. Other games include Haskanoid, now being developed for Android, and a multi-platform Graphic Adventure library and engine with Android support and an IDE.Reactive Programming and GUIs: Keera Studios is also the maintainer of Keera Hails, an Open-Source reactive rapid application development framework, which has been used in Gale IDE and other desktop applications. Backends exist for Gtk+, Qt, Wx, Android's native GUI toolkit and Web DOM via GHCJS. Keera Posture is an open-source posture monitor written in Haskell using Keera Hails and Gtk+.Web: Keera Studios also develops web applications in Yesod.See the Facebook page for details on Android games and ongoing development.LinkqloLinkqlo Inc is a Palo Alto-based technology startup that is building a pioneering mobile community to connect people with better fitting clothes. We’re solving an industry-wide pain point for both consumers and fashion brands in retail shopping, sizing and fitting, just like Paypal took on the online payment challenge in 1999. We started deploying Haskell as the backend language recently in August 2015, in an effort to eventually replace all PHP endpoint APIs with Haskell ones.Linkqlo's iOS app from App StoreLinspireLinspire, Inc. has used functional programming since its inception in 2001, beginning with extensive use of O'Caml, with a steady shift to Haskell as its implementations and libraries have matured. Hardware detection, software packaging and CGI web page generation are all areas where we have used functional programming extensively. Haskell's feature set lets us replace much of our use of little languages (e.g., bash or awk) and two-level languages (C or C++ bound to an interpreted language), allowing for faster development, better code sharing and ultimately faster implementations. Above all, we value static type checking for minimizing runtime errors in applications that run in unknown environments and for wrapping legacy programs in strongly typed functions to ensure that we pass valid arguments.Linspire's CUFP talkLinspire's experience report on using functional programming to manage a Linux distributionLumiGuideLumiGuide is an innovative software company which specialises in smart parking and guidance systems for both bicycles and cars. LumiGuide developed and installed the P-route Bicycle system for the City of Utrecht in 2015. This system guides cyclists via digital, street-level displays to available parking space in a number of parking facilities in the city centre. Utrecht is the first city in the world that has a system like this. The detection technology is based on optical sensors which are independent of the bicycle stands. The sensors are mounted to the ceiling in indoor facilities and mounted to poles in outdoor facilities. Every minute, one sensor detects 40 to 60 parking places at the same time in either single- or two-tier bicycle stands as well as (stand-less) free parking places. Bicycles that exceed the maximum parking duration ('orphaned' bicycles) are also detected and the system will automatically keep a log of pictures of the orphaned bicycle which can be used as evidence when the orphaned bicycle is removed by a facility operator. The usage of the facility can be monitored with web-based control software. LumiGuide also develops the indoor and outdoor digital displays which can be controlled using the web-based control software. We are extensively using Haskell and NixOS.MicrosoftMicrosoft uses Haskell for its production serialization system, Bond. Bond is broadly used at Microsoft in high scale services. Microsoft Research has, separately, been a key sponsor of Haskell development since the late 1990s.MITREMITRE uses Haskell for, amongst other things, the analysis of cryptographic protocols.The New York TimesA team at the New York Times used Haskell's parallel array library to process images from 2013 New York Fashion Week. Haskell was chosen based on its fast numerical arrays packages, and ease of parallelization.Model analysisHaskell in the NewsroomNICTANICTA has used Haskell as part of a project to verify the L4 microkernel.Read the Dr. Dobbs article on using Haskell and formal methods to verify a kernelNRAONRAO has used Haskell to implement the core science algorithms for the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) Dynamic Scheduling System (DSS).Source code available on GitHub.NS Solutions(NSSOL) Tokyo, JapanNS Solutions has employed Haskell since 2008 to develop its software packages including "BancMeasure", a mark-to-market accounting software package for financial institutions, "BancMeasure for IFRS" and "Mamecif", a data analysis package. "BancMeasure" and "Mamecif" are registered trademarks of NS Solutions Corporation in JAPAN.NVIDIAAt NVIDIA, we have a handful of in-house tools that are written in HaskellOpenomyOpenomy's API v2.0 is developed in Haskell, using the HAppS web platform.OblomovOblomov Systems is a one-person software company based in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Founded in 2009, Oblomov has since then been working on a number of Haskell-related projects. The main focus lies on web-applications and (web-based) editors. Haskell has turned out to be extremely useful for implementing web servers that communicate with JavaScript clients or iPhone apps.Oblomov's HCAR submission.Patch-Tag: hosting for DarcsNeed somewhere to put your Darcs code? Try us. Patch-Tag is built with happstack, the continuation of the project formerly known as HAppS.Peerium, Inc Cambridge, MassachusettsAt Peerium, we're striving to bring a new level of quality and efficiency to online communication and collaboration within virtual communities, social networks, and business environments. We believe that a new environment that supports the effortless sharing of both information and software will enable a level of online cooperation far beyond current Web-based technologies -- modern programming techniques will enable the creation of more robust and more powerful programs within these environments. To this end, we're building a new software platform for direct, real-time communication and collaboration within graphically rich environments. Peerium is located in the heart of Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.PlanIt9PlanIt9 is a Yesod-based web application for defining, planning, scheduling and tracking tasks. It's designed to be fast, simple, collaborative and cost effective. We're currently signing up users for our beta program.PlumlifePlum is replacing light switches with Lightpads; a capacitive touch dimmer that is internet connected, clusters with other Lightpads in the home for group control... Haskell composes our cloud services and Erlang is used for the embedded software in the Lightpads (hot-code reloading, easy node clustering, etc...). ... We use Haskell extensively for all of our cloud services software at Plumlife ... Amazing language and ecosystem.Qualcomm, IncQualcomm uses Haskell to generate Lua bindings to the BREW platformSQreamAt SQream, we use Haskell for a large part of our code. We use Haskell for the compiler, which takes SQL statements and turns them into low level instructions for the high performance CUDA runtime. We also use Haskell for rapid prototyping and for many auxiliary utilities.Parallel Scientific, Boulder, Colorado.We are using Haskell to develop an ultra-scalable high-availability resource management system for big clusters (millions of nodes). A key element of the design is to provide scalable and reliable mechanisms for communicating failures and coordinating recovery transitions.See Parallel Scientific's CUFP talkRenaissaince Computing Institute, Chapel Hill, North CarolinaThe Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), a multi-institutional organization, brings together multidisciplinary experts and advanced technological capabilities to address pressing research issues and to find solutions to complex problems that affect the quality of life in North Carolina, our nation and the world. Research scientists at RENCI have used Haskell for a number of projects, including The Big Board.RENCI's CUFP talk.SamplecountSamplecount develops mobile, location-aware sound and music applications. They are currently using Haskell for prototyping their server-side soundscape streaming components and as a cross-platform build tool for their mobile applications and frameworks.Sankel Software Albuquerque, New MexicoSankel Software has been using Haskell since 2002 for both prototyping and deployment for technologies ranging from CAD/CAM to gaming and computer animation. We specialize in the development of user-friendly, large, long-term applications that solve difficult and conceptually intricate problems.ScriveScrive is a service for e-signing tenders, contracts, and other documents. We help our clients close deals faster, decrease their administrative burden, and improve their customers’ experience.Siemens Convergence Creators GmbH AustriaSiemens CVC uses Haskell since a few years in the space domain. Starting with small tools like data conversion and automation of scripting tasks over installers we use Haskell currently for Space Protocol Proxies to allow connect different space systems (e.g. Cortex to NCTRS or SLE to NCTRS with COP-1 handling). The main use is currently a Simulator implemented in Haskell which handles parts of NCTRS (or SSB), the ground station and parts of the satellite to be able to make closed-loop tests for the SCOS-2000 based Mission Control System. It is in use for testing and debugging of the Mission Control System and for checking implementation of new features. It has served for various, currently active missions and also is in use for some missions to come.Signali Portland, OregonSignali Corp is a new custom hardware design company. Our chief products are custom IP cores targeted for embedded DSP and cryptographic applications. Our specialty is the design and implementation of computationally intensive, complex algorithms. The interfaces to each core are modular and can be very efficiently modified for your specific application. System-level integration and validation is crucial and is the majority of investment in a product.Soostone New York, NYSoostone is an advanced analytics technology provider specializing in algorithmic optimization opportunities in marketing, pricing, advertising, sales and product management. As the preferred language, Haskell is used intensively at Soostone in numerous applications including customized machine learning algorithms, models/simulations, real-time decision-making engines, DSL/EDSLs, web applications and high volume APIs.Standard CharteredStandard Chartered has a large group using Haskell for all aspects of its wholesale banking business.Starling Software Tokyo, JapanStarling Software are developing a commercial automated options trading system in Haskell, and are migrating other parts of their software suite to Haskell.Starling Software's experience building real time trading systems in HaskellSensor Sense Nijmegen, The NetherlandsSensor Sense is offering high technology systems for gas measurements in the ppbv down to pptvrange. We use Haskell for the embedded control software of our trace gas detectors.For more information see Senor Sense's position advertisementSilk Amsterdam, The NetherlandsSilk investigates and develops new ways of creating and consuming online content. Their Silkapplication makes it easy to filter and visualize large amounts of information.Silk's blog on why they use HaskellA review of SilkSkedge Meskedge.me is an online scheduling platform that allows businesses to completely automate the process of making appointments, such as customer visits, job interviews, and tutoring sessions.See more in their CUFP talkSee their 2014 job advertisementSuite SolutionsSuite Solutions provides products and solutions in support of large sets of technical documentation based on DITA for general technical documentation, and other more specialized XML and SGML formats for specific industries such as the aerospace industry. Many of Suite Solutions' products and solutions, such as the featured products SuiteHelp and SuiteShare, are written in Haskell.SumAll New York, New YorkSumAll aggregates various public streams of data such as various social network data into useful analytics, reports and insights. We are in process of rewriting our entire data-processing backend in Haskell. What attracted us to the language is its disciplined and uncompromising approach to solving hard problems and managing complexity. We truly believe that the language and ecosystem is ready for prime time and will give us competitive advantage in the industry.Tabula.comTabula is a privately held fabless semiconductor company developing 3-D Programmable Logic Devices. Haskell is used for internal compiler toolchains related to hardware design.Tsuru Capital Tokyo, JapanTsuru Capital is operating an automated options trading system written in Haskell.Tsuru Capital's HCAR submissionTupil Utrecht, The NetherlandsTupil is a Dutch company that built software for clients, written in Haskell. Tupil used Haskell for the speed in development and resulting software quality. The company is founded by Chris Eidhof and Eelco Lempsink. Currently they build iPhone/iPad applications in Objective-C.Tupil's experience building commercial web apps in HaskellWagon San Francisco, CaliforniaWagon is a modern SQL editor: a better way for analysts and engineers to write queries, visualize results, and share data & charts.We’re a team of functional programmers writing apps and services in Haskell (and Javascript). We love to teach and learn functional programming; our team is humble, hard working, and fun. Read our engineering blog to learn more about our stack, how we combine Haskell, React, and Electron, and what it’s like working at a Haskell-powered startup.We're hiring Haskell engineers based in San Francisco, learn more about the roles and our team!WeedreporterPage on weedreporter.com is a news site in the up and coming cannabis industry, featuring news stories from around the world and USA. This includes news stories about legalization and medical Marijuana. The site is built using Haskell and Postgres. Haskell has allowed us to build a site with fast load times.

“If you were in the military, what were your duties and when and where did you serve?”At first, I was going to bypass this question as being too bulky, but then I decided OK, what the heck. Why not? I’ve answered it, partially, in the past, in various questions, so we’ll see how long it takes, this time. Hours, I’m sure.This is covering nearly 14–1/2 years, longer than the resume of many younger-generation workers. I’ll start with the “when and where” because it’s a lot easier.12/76–3/77. Recruit training, RTC/NTC (Recruit Training Command/Naval Training Center) San Diego, CA. I spent Christmas in my first week of boot camp, on purpose, because I didn’t like having to go to Christmas Dinner at my sister’s In-Laws (upper-crust jerks). I was 18, 5′7″ and 118 lbs (That’s not a typo. I was starving to death, living on my own.)3/77–4/77. Home on leave.4/77–6/77. FLEASWTRACENPAC (Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center, Pacific), San Diego, CA. A-School to become an STG (Sonar Technician, Surface), even though I had volunteered for Submarine Service. The all-knowing, never-wrong, Navy decided that was where they needed me, in the surface fleet. Specifically, operating the SQS-26CX active sonar system and MK 114 ASROC (Anti-Submarine Rocket) Fire Control System. While there, in the course of various phases of the training, I was advanced from SR (Seaman Recruit) (E1), to SA (Seaman Apprentice) (E2), SN (Seaman) (E3), STGSN (Sonar Technician, Surface, Seaman) to STG3 (Sonar Technician, Surface, Third Class) (E4).7/77. FTG (Fleet Training Group) San Diego. Fire Fighting, Damage Control, and First Aid training. My first Independence Day in the Navy, I had Barracks Petty Officer duty, and watched the fireworks from the door to the barracks. Part of the transfer period was spent at Treasure Island, CA. Went to San Francisco to stand in a three-block-long line to watch Star Wars.8/77–9/77. FLTACTS (Fleet Activities), Yokosuka, Japan. Cultural Awareness Training while waiting for my first ship to return from sea.9/77–4/78. USS Lockwood (FF-1064), 3rd Division (The ASW division, which had Sonar Technicians, ASROC Missile Gunner’s Mates, and Torpedomen), a Knox-class frigate, forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan. The First Responders for international events in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Most of the time was spent at sea. Much of the time was in and out of the Navy base in Chinhae, South Korea. In my first six months, we deployed with the USS Midway (CV-41) Carrier Task Group to the Indian Ocean. We visited Singapore, The Philippines, Bunbury, Australia, Diego Garcia (British Royal Navy base), and Bandar Abbas, Iran, Navy base (Under the Shah, before the Iranian Revolution). The last three months were spent in drydock, for a mini-refit, which included installation of a new passive towed array sonar system (SQR-18). I was transferred to another ship in the squadron, as a trade. The other ship had an extra VDS technician, and mine didn’t have any. They transferred me one week before my birthday, which really sucked. The first ship gave birthday-boys a day off. The new one didn’t.4/78–7/79. USS Francis Hammond (FF-1067), AS Division (same thing as 3rd Division, just a different name). We visited Chinhae, of course, Hong Kong, Taiwan (before the US broke diplomatic ties to Taiwan, in deference to the People’s Republic of China), The Philippines, and Pattaya Beach, Thailand. While enroute to Thailand, we rescued two boat-loads of Vietnam “Boat People” refugees (77 men, women and children). Our visit was extended while the US negotiated with Thailand to allow the refugees to go ashore. The end result, as I remember, was that the US had to guarantee they would give them refugee status in the US, and pay for their transport. Thus began Operation Boat People over the next few years, looking for, and rescuing them at sea, hopefully before the pirates got to them. The crew was awarded the Humanitarian Service Medal. My last four months was spent in drydock, doing another mini refit, identical to the first one. During my final year, after a lot of pestering the Chain-of-Command, writing an essay, and having an interview with the Commodore in command of the submarines in Japan, my request for transfer to submarines was approved. While there, Star Wars was released in Japan. The actor Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) was there, and visited the Base. It turns out that he’s a Navy Brat, and graduated from high school at the Yokosuka base High School. He visited his school, got a tour of the base, and a tour of our ship. When done, he visited with the crew in the Crew’s Mess. He told us he was proud of us, that WE were the REAL Star Wars, and then signed autographs. I was surprised at how short he was, when he shook my hand. A great guy!While there, I nearly finished PQS (Personnel Qualification Standards) for the new ESWS (Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist) designation (What submariners derisively called “Skimmer Dolphins”), but didn’t have enough time. I DID qualify as an In-Port Repair Locker Leader. I also was advanced to STG2 (E5), after my first advancement exam.7/79–9/79. At home on leave, and transiting to my next duty station.9/79–10/79. Submarine School, New London, CT. Learning all the basics about submarines and, in my case, unlearning all of my surface-ship “bad habits”. LOL Most of my classmates were fresh out of boot camp, and I was a PO2 (E5). In fact, I found out later, most of them were afraid of me, since their only experience with Petty Officers were their boot camp Company Commanders (a Navy Drill Instructor). I thought it was pretty funny.After graduation, I was given the SU (Submarines, Unqualified) designation, STG2(SU)10/79–11/79. BEE/NTC (Basic Electricity and Electronics/Naval Training Center) San Diego, CA. An 8-week “Independent Study” course, that I finished in 4-weeks, just to get out of that training-base hell hole. Watched the World Series for the first time in my life. I remember watching Kent Tekulve, and his crazy pitching style.11/79–5/80. FLEASWTRACENPAC, San Diego, CA. C-School, for an STS (Sonar Technician, Submarine). Before starting the technical training, I had to beg for some submarine sonar operational training. In their infinite wisdom, the Navy said I already GOT my A-School, back in ‘77, and they couldn’t give me a student billet. I argued that me SURFACE operational training was useless on a submarine, because submarines don’t use an active sonar. They compromised, by allowing me to monitor an STS A-School class in my off-time, and loaned me tapes to listen to, to learn the sounds of the sea and learn how to do a turn-count (timing, by ear, the speed of a ship). So, I was doing training about 17 hours per day, M-F. Fortunately, my technical training was on the swing shift, and the operational training was day shift. I had zero social life.The C-School training was for the 0421 job code, making me a SPACE-Tech (Special Purpose Auxiliary Combined Equipment), which meant I could be assigned to any submarine. Everybody else got a C-School that locked them in to either a Boomer (SSBN) or Fast Attack (SSN), with nearly zero cross-over. That fact served me well, later. The equipment I trained on did everything EXCEPT detecting anything on sonar. Tape recorders, spectrum analyzers, underwater communications, navigation equipment, oceanographic measurement equipment, you name it, I fixed it all. And, in a pinch, I could figure out how the main sonar systems worked, and help fix them, too.After I graduated, I converted from STG2(SU) to STS(SU)6/80–8/80. SUBRON (Submarine Squadron) 15, Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, HI. Waiting for the submarine crew I was assigned to. They were on patrol and, later, in training, while somebody decided who I would actually go to. My job was working in the abandoned hanger where single men on patrol could store their cars. Every week, a crew would return from patrol and get their cars. That took one or two days. I had a little cart with several charged car batteries I used to give a jump start, and some gasoline to prime an empty carburetor (no fuel injection, back then). The rest of the time was roving security, and shooting the shit with the Senior Chief in charge. Finally, I was called in to Squadron at lunch, and told to pack my sea-bag with deployment clothes, don a travel uniform (Summer White), and catch a Pan Am flight to Guam. I was finally going to the boat and crew I had original orders for!8/80–3/81. USS Patrick Henry (SSBN-599) Blue, a George Washington-class Polaris SSBN operating out of Guam. This was the first class of SSBNs, built in the ‘50s. This boat was the second one, and, together with the USS George Washington, did all of the trial launched of the first A1 Polaris missiles. This class was the boats where they took a Skipjack SSN, and stuck a missile compartment in the middle. This particular one carried the Polaris A3 missiles. Later boats carried the Poseidon missile, which was too big to fit in our smaller missile tubes. On my first patrol, we got a rare mid-patrol break, and visited (guess it) Chinhae, South Korea! My old stomping ground! In fact, my old frigate was there, and I visited with some of my old shipmates, who had arrived just before I left, 18 months earlier. For off-crew, we flew back to Ford Island on an Air Force MAC flight. I re-enlisted then, and used my re-enlistment bonus to pay six months advance rent on an apartment on the other side of Oahu, on a secluded golf course near Kahuku. In the middle of our next patrol, I qualified submarines, four weeks ahead of schedule. No quals for a couple of weeks was a dream come true, then they handed me a binder of watch-stander qual cards, and told me to “turn-to” (from the surface ship announcement, “All Hands Turn-to, Commence Ship’s Work’). While on patrol, we got word that our boat had been selected to be the next SSBN to be converted into an SSN (due to the SALT treaties with the USSR, reducing the nuclear arsenals). So, when we got back from patrol, they would be consolidating the two crews, and transferring the rest to the rest of the fleet. One of my shipmates, the other SPACE Tech in our crew, had orders to an old, archaic SSN, and DIDN’T want to go. I did, so we swapped orders. Another good choice for me. Once again, I was transferred just before my birthday.3/81–3/83. USS Seadragon (SSN-584), an ancient Skate-class SSN, built in the ‘50s, the first SSN class in the US Navy, Pearl Harbor, HI. The pier where she usually moored, next to the Sub-Base Enlisted Club, was generally known as the Seadragon Pier, because she spent a lot of time there, broken. The boat was 25 years old, in a unique class of 4 boats, with two different first-generation reactor designs, so repair parts were scarce. That included sonar, so maintenance and repair was a challenge. I LOVED it! Work-arounds were the Order of the Day.Before reporting aboard, I was given orders to a special sonar school, SSSA (Submarine Sonar Subjective Analysis). It is, in my opinion, the hardest school in the Navy, because it’s entirely subjective. This is where we learned to distinguish exactly what contact we were listening to, by class of ship/sub, sometimes down to the exact hull. Is that a Victor I or a Victor III SSN? Is it a Yankee or a Delta II SSBN? Is it a Kashin destroyer or a Krivak frigate ? Is it a Permit or a Sturgeon? Is it a Knox FF or a Spruance DD? Nothing is written in stone, because they’re all similar, and sound conditions may obliterate part of the expected signal. That’s why it’s “subjective” and that’s why AI, to date, won’t work. It’s not like the movies, at all. You can’t just feed it into a computer and get a print-out.Once I reported aboard, came a huge surprise. Just before I arrived, nearly the entire sonar crew was discharged from the Navy for illegal drug use. The only survivors were the top two, the Chief and the STS1. And I was the replacement for the First Class. I suddenly went from being a junior nub STS2 on my first boat, to the senior non-Chief on the new one. The Chief did all the paperwork, and left the rest of the leadership to me, to figure out on my own. More about that later, when I discuss duties.While on Seadragon, in addition to myriad short deployments (the other reason they called it the Seadragon Pier was because most of our sea-time was M-F, being a training target for the skimmers and airedales), we made two WestPac deployments. We visited Hong Kong, the Philippines, Hobart, Australia, Midway, Guam (another old stomping ground) and a short visit in Yokosuka, Japan (all the skimmers were deployed, so we were alone). Interesting note about Yokosuka. Unlike all of the other submarines in the fleet, our topside sentries weren’t armed with a pistol. Our Captain had us armed with a shotgun. When we arrived in Japan for some maintenance, none of the shipyard workers would set foot on the boat, because of the shotgun. The base Admiral ordered our Captain to ditch the shotgun and arm us with a .45, instead, or go back to sea, broken. Most of our deployed time was doing Special Operations in sundry places near Japan.While there, I met my wife in the Philippines, got married, and got a new apartment near the Laie Mormon Temple and Brigham Young University, where most of my friends were. It was in Hanohano Hale, on the beach, next to the Pat’s at Punalu’u condos in Hau’ula. (I LOVE those Hawaiian names!!). I chose that location, and didn’t own a car, because my Division Officer was a jerk who liked to wake me up in the middle of the night, to work on stuff that could wait until the next morning. When I was single, it was OK, but as a newlywed, it was unacceptable. The bus didn’t run all night, and I always caught the first one in the morning, arriving on the boat just after 7:00. One time, he wanted to call me at 11:00 at night, so the Senior Chief had a little talk with him. “Sir, you know he rides the bus to work every morning, right? And he gets here at 7:00 every morning, right? Is it so important that you want to send the Duty Driver to Hau’ula, a two-hour round trip, to get him here, now?” “No.” “Then sir, why call him, now? Why don’t you let him get some sleep? He’ll fix it in the morning.” And I did.While on Seadragon, I spent a lot of time wrangling orders to my next school, to the newest top-of-the-line part of the submarine service, TRIDENT SSBNs. I was eventually told that I would be receiving orders, soon, to go to school for a year in Bangor, WA, a few miles from my home. One of the best aspects was that the Trident program was different from all previous submarine programs. There was just one base (eventually, two), where EVERYTHING was done. The boats were there, the refit facility was there, the training was there, all afloat and ashore administration was there, all family housing was there, on one base. Consolidation made this program popular with the crews, because you could put down roots, knowing that your family never had to move, and popular with Congress, because it saved so much money.BUT. We were short-handed, and the boat kept postponing my transfer. Until we were about to leave Hobart, Australia. We got an urgent message, directing the boat to transfer me ASAP, because I had a school to go to, and they wouldn’t reschedule it. So, the night before we were supposed to leave and return to Pearl, the boat’s Yeoman had to stay aboard, while everybody else was partying, writing my orders and arranging my flight home, and my flight, with my wife, to Bangor, and my move out of my apartment (actually easy, because our apartment was fully furnished, so we had no household goods.).While there, I was advanced to STS1 (E6), after my first advancement exam, about one year before transfer. Also while there, a new, more senior STS1 arrived, as the Chief’s replacement. So I maintained my position as ALPO (Assistant Leading Petty Officer), and gained a friend and better mentor.3/83–4/83. On leave at home and transferring to new duty station.4/83–3/84. TRITRAFAC (Trident Training Facility) Bangor, WA. Another C-School, getting the 0426 Level III job code, fixing EVERYTHING on an Ohio-class SSBN. Not just the detection sonar systems, but all of the auxiliaries, too. My wife and I initially got an apartment in Bremerton, near the Shipyard, but, after a few months, got a base-housing unit, a five-minute walk to the school building. While going through class, we all got orders to the same boat, then under construction, following the class that left six months before us, going to the same boat.3/84–5/84. On leave and transiting (driving) to the Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, CT.5/84–10/84. PCU (Pre-Commissioning Unit) Henry M. Jackson (ex-PCU Rhode Island) (SSBN-730), Groton, CT. I say “ex-Rhode Island” because the name of the boat was changed after Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA) died of an aortic aneurysm. He was one of my Senators, and instrumental in authorizing the TRIDENT system and getting the base built in Washington.Out of the 24 of us, I was, again, the senior sonar white-hat (non-Chief). We had three Chiefs. After commissioning and splitting the crew, one crew (Blue) would have two Chiefs, and the other would have one, with me being, again, the ALPO.Out of the 24, only one other had been to sea before. During construction, we sent one of the first 12 TDY to an earlier boat (USS Michigan, IIRC) to go on patrol and get some sea experience. So, when we went on our first sea-trials, there were six experienced guys, enough for two complete watch sections. I, personally, went on every trial, first as a Sonar Operator, then, on the longest (two weeks) one, as a Sonar Supervisor, so one of the Chiefs could stay home with his family.Before commissioning, half of the Gold crew (those with families) were given the option to transit to our home port (Bangor, WA) one month before Commissioning. Most of those chose to drive to the West Coast, including me.10/84–12/84. Leave and transiting to Bangor, WA.12/84–1/87. USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN-730) Gold. Home port was NSB Bangor, Silverdale, WA, but, initially, the boat itself was still operating out of NSB New London, Groton, CT, for post-commissioning modifications in Groton, and missile testing and certification in the Bahamas. While in Bangor, my crew went through a lot of training, including some factory training on a new sonar system, at the Rockwell factory in Anaheim, CA. We elected to drive there, using the excess travel time as leave, and brought our wives. They had a GREAT time, sight-seeing while we sat in the classroom or went on the factory floor.After the missile testing, our crew had the opportunity to take the boat through the Panama Canal, and dip below the equator, to initiate a new batch of polliwogs into the Order of Shellbacks. This was my third excursion (after USS Lockwood and USS Seadragon). Good times were had by all!Once in Bangor, over the next several months, both crew did tests of the new sonar system, then our crew loaded 24 missiles, and took the boat out on patrol (The other crew got the honor of the First Patrol, after we did the hard work loading the missiles LOL). Just before our 2nd patrol, our Chief was suddenly transferred (don’t know why, specifically), we couldn’t get a new Chief on short notice, so we went on patrol with me as the LPO. I made another patrol, with a new Senior Chief.In that period, I passed my Chief’s Exam the first time, and was board-selected for advancement to Chief.At the end of the patrol, I re-enlisted, was advanced to Chief, participated in my CPO Initiation (At the Keyport CPO Club), and was transferred. It’s traditional to transfer a new Chief immediately, so he has an open slate in his new leadership role.1/87–2/90. TRITRAFAC Bangor. Instructor duty. Four weeks of Instructor training, earning the 9502 job code of Navy Instructor. Lead Instructor for the Level III portion of NEC 0426 (BQQ-6 maintenance), the Sonar Supervisor course, and the TSOT (Trident Sonar Operational Trainer) simulator, teaching new tactics to all of the sonar crews. Later, put in charge of the maintenance of all of the sonar lab equipment (an entire operational sonar system and two simulators, plus lab-only equipment).2/90–2/91. USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN-730) Blue. CPO of Sonar Division.2/91–5/91. NSB Bangor Public Relations Department. Discharge processing. Discharged after two patrols, for being overweight.Over 14 years of outstanding service and advancement, gone because I didn’t look like Tom Cruise (Actor in Top Gun) and couldn’t lose weight. I say “couldn’t”, they said “wouldn’t”. Turns out I was right, “couldn’t” due to a hormone imbalance issue not diagnosed until 1995. Note that, with the exception of the PBF (Percentage of Body Fat) measurement, I was in excellent physical condition, outperforming my students in the PRT (Physical Readiness Test), and the PBF measurements were bogus because of the hormone imbalance shifting the distribution of fatty tissue.Now, for duties. The list is long and variable, depending on duty station (sea duty, vessel type, shore duty) time in service (experience), rate (rank), rating (general job description), collateral duties (morale, secret publications librarian, etc.), NEC (similar to Army MOS, a specific job category), training (operational, technical, leadership, administrative), assigned watch stations (underway, in-port, shore), warfare specialty (Surface, Submarine, Aviation, Special Operations, etc.), and others (religious, supply, service, construction, etc.). I’ll list mine in the various categories, starting with the universal and generic, and going deeper from there.I’ll start with shore duty, because I didn’t have much.Recruit Training.Student.Marching.Exercise.Sentry.Special Company (Specializing in PR performances). Mine is in bold. It’s all voluntary, chosen on the first day.Drum and Bugle Corps. Musical performancesPrecision Rifle Team. Skilled rifle manipulation.50 Flags Team. Precision marching with National, State, and Organization flags.Bluejacket Choir. Musical performances.Collateral Duties.RCPO (Recruit CPO). Recruit in charge of Company.(RPO1) Recruit PO1. Assists RCPO.Yeoman. Administrative.Master-At-Arms. Company security.Supply Petty Officer. Orders supplies.Religious PO. Religious/moral support. Leads voluntary evening prayers. Mine happened because our first evening was just before Christmas, and I joined the group going to evening Christmas service without getting permission first, or telling anybody. Everyone started to panic when I missed the evening bunk check. Fortunately, I was marching with the Christmas group when we returned, proving where I had been. They all thought I had “gone over the fence” (desertion). Naturally, the next day, my CC (Company Commander, i.e. DI) asked if I was interested in volunteering.Training commands.Student.SentryStaff.Command Duty Officer (Monthly, overnight, supervising security, CO representative). Our officers didn’t do diddly-squat, so the Chiefs had to take-up the slack.Lead Instructor. In addition to being an instructor (which includes instructing, examination, lesson preparation, lab preparation, test preparation, and contributing to the exam data bank), supervising and in-class monitoring the group of instructors assigned to your particular course(s). Mine were an advanced maintenance course, Sonar Supervisor course, and the tactical simulator (training all of the region submarine sonar crews, both as the individual sonar crews, and, together with the officers in THEIR tactical simulator, as a weapon-control team.Supervisor of Sonar Division lab equipment (sonar systems, simulators, stimulators, special equipment, etc.) maintenance and repair, supervising several junior technicians. Doing all maintenance administration and division budgets. Yearly personnel performance evaluations.Collateral duties. Secret Material Librarian. MARS (Military Affiliate Radio System) radio station Chief Operator, building, maintaining, operating and supervising operations of the volunteers.Sea Duty.Surface ships (much different from submarines).Eight-hour work day, both underway and in-port.Cleaning. If you’re not doing anything specific, clean. Twice a day, for 15–30 minutes, EVERYBODY cleans. "Sweepers, Sweepers, man your brooms. Give the ship a clean sweep down both fore and aft! Sweep down all decks, ladders and passageways! Dump all garbage clear of the stern. Sweepers."Collateral duty. Damage Control Petty Officer. Did PMS (Preventive Maintenance System), AKA planned maintenance, on all damage control equipment in our divisional spaces, every week. This included fire extinguishers, fire hoses, submersible pump hoses, etc.. The equipment all belonged to the Damage Control Division, but they didn’t have the manpower to do it all, themselves. They did the administration, so we had to annotate their weekly maintenance schedule when we completed a task (such as the monthly weighing/inspection of all CO2 fire extinguishers). Everybody else in the division hated doing it, because you had to get dirty. I loved it, because I grew-up fixing old cars. If there was something going on in the division, and I wanted out of it, or if I just wanted to wander the ship without somebody telling me what to do, I’d grab one of my DC gear MRCs (Maintenance Requirement Card, a laminated card that detailed all of the steps to do the task, plus a list of tools and material needed to do it), stick it in my back pocket, visible, hang a greasy rag out of another pocket, or tuck it into my belt, put a tool of some sort, such as a spanner-wrench, hanging out of another pocket, and wander the ship. If somebody saw me, it was obvious I was doing useful work, somewhere, so they never bothered me. As long as I got my assigned work (both sonar work and DC stuff) finished every week, they didn’t care, and they never told me to go clean something. Besides, would you send a guy with a greasy rag in his belt somewhere to clean?Other duties. “Fire Watch Division” Assistant LPO. When we were in extended refit, with lots of shipyard welders needing a fire-watch (somebody with a fire extinguisher, looking for stuff the welder accidentally set fire to, putting it out), the damage control guys were short-handed, plus some divisions didn’t have ANY welding in their spaces, while others had lots. So, to be fair, every division had to contribute some junior guys, on a proportionate basis (larger divisions contributed more people). These people were formed into a special division, working for the Engineer. They mustered every day, as a division, with the DCA (Damage Control Assistant) as the Division Officer, and the leading HT1 (Hull Technician) as the LPO (Leading Petty Officer). He was really busy, so I was volunteered to be his ALPO (Assistant LPO). My only duty was to assign a fire watch to every shipyard welder who showed-up. Sometimes, we ran out of people. When that happened, I called the LPO of the affected division and told them to send another guy. I was only an STG3 (an E4), and they were all First Class (E6), so I got a lot of static, at first. I got things like “You already have three of my guys, use one of them.” Or “You’re not doing anything. YOU do it!” I would tell them where their other guys were (usually in their own space, already), and for the last one, a simple “If I do that, the next time a welder comes along to weld in your space, there won’t be anybody to find a fire watch for him. He’ll go back to the shop, tell his supervisor, and the Ship Supe will come running to the ship, find you, and demand to know why the hell you’re holding-up the work! Maybe you should go talk it over with Petty Officer Case (the HT1) or the DCA.” After a week of me being a hard-ass, they quit whining, and PO Case LOVED me! He had too much work to do, without listening to a bunch of whiners. Yeah, First Classes whine just as much as anybody else, but only when there’s nobody else in ear-shot! They can’t let the junior guys hear it. A Filipino Chief drilled that into my head, once, soon after I made Second Class. Pissed me off, but he was right.In-port.Sentry Duty. Because I was a PO3, I stood POOW (Petty Officer Of the Watch), armed with a .45 pistol, assisting the OOD at the Quarterdeck. I controlled access (ID cards), made 1MC (ship-wide PA system) announcements (Reveille, Quarters, Turn-to, Sweepers, etc.), kept the official Ship Log, raised/lowered the Ensign for Colors (8:00 AM and sunset), watched for approaching senior officers on the pier (Captain and Squadron Chief of Staff most common) to make the appropriate announcement (<ding-ding ding-ding> on ship’s bell “Lockwood, Arriving” <ding>), alarms (General Alarm for fires, with an announcement), calling various spaces on the phone (call AS Division for the Duty Sonar Tech to come to greet a visiting ST). When at anchor, watch for approaching boats, and make appropriate announcements (especially if it’s something like another ship’s Captain’s Gig, so the CO can greet him).Damage Control Party. Once qualified, I had various assignments, for fighting fires, flooding, etc. (hoseman, P250 pump operator, submersible pump hose, etc.).Underway.Sonar Watch. Operating various sonar consoles, fire control consoles, communications phone talker.Battlestations. At different times, in addition to sonar operation, operated other systems, such as the VDS (Variable Depth Sonar) hoist, the T-Mk-6 torpedo countermeasures hoist, XBT (Expendable BathyThermograph) launcher, Torpedo Tube loader.UNREP (Underway Replenishment, receiving fuel and stores from other ships). Working the Phone and Distance Line, a line going from the ship to the other ship, which had a telephone line in it (so each bridge could talk to the other) and a series of flags at set intervals, to let the OOD know the distance between the ships, 100 feet or so).Sea and Anchor Detail. Being part of Weapons Department, AS Division was responsible for one or two mooring lines on the fantail. In addition to faking the lines on deck, in preparation, after mooring, the lines are doubled, frapped (wrapped with a cord to keep the three line portions together) and rat guards installed. To do the last two, one person, wearing a life preserver, straddles the line, frapping it as he inches to the other end. Once done, he installs the rat guard in a position where a rat couldn’t jump over it, from the pier.Now to the Sonar Technician (ST) Rating. That’s my specific job. An ST is both a technician (maintenance and repair) and an operator. Historically, when the rating was first invented, there were technicians (ST) and operators (SO). As time went on, big differences developed, between sonar on ships (active pinging) and sonar on subs (passive listening). It was considered too difficult for junior men to learn all about both (I disagree, but I’m weird), so they were split. There were four kinds of soundmen (the original phrase before the term “sonar” was applied to the crew), Two for submarine (STS and SOS) and two for surface ships (STG and SOG). There has always been debate about why “G” was chosen for the surface-ship rating. When I was in STG A-School in 1979, we were told that STG stood for “Guns” because one ASW weapon, then, was the depth-charge K-Gun. Members of the National Sonar Association (https://sonarshack.org) have made many searches, and have not been able to find credible evidence about the origin.The difference between the rating badge for ST and SO was only in the direction of the arrow. The ST arrow pointed left, and the SO arrow pointed right. Since the ST was a left-arm rating and the SO a right-arm rating (IIRC, right-arm ratings were operational, and left-arm ratings were administrative and technical), in both cases, the arrow pointed forward. When the left-arm/right-arm distinction was eliminated throughout the Navy, the SO rating was eliminated and absorbed into the ST rating.Initially, the two ratings were combined into one ST rating, at the PO1 level. Then, it was done at the CPO level. When I joined the Navy, it was at the Senior Chief level, and by the time I was studying for advancement to Chief, it was split all the way to the Master Chief Level, where it is, today. This is interesting, because today, there are few differences between the two, operationally. All Sonar Technicians now use both active and passive sonar systems, all use towed arrays, and all conduct passive TMA (Target Motion Analysis). The biggest difference is in equipment, where submarine equipment is more sophisticated (spherical arrays, backless bow arrays (with NO hydrophones… amazing!), line arrays, flank arrays, sail arrays, chin arrays, mast arrays, ice and bottom sounders), and surface ships can use air-dropped sonobuoys and low-frequency ACTIVE towed arrays (to dig-out bottomed submarines in littoral regions).Operationally, the duties are sonar system operators, external equipment operators (VDS hoists, towed array reels, countermeasure reels, XBT/SSXBT launchers, etc.), torpedo/rocket fire control operators (surface ships), communications phone talkers, and manual plotters on paper (DRT, geographic plot, contact evaluation plot, time-bearing plot, expanded bearing plot, frequency plot, all used to manually evaluate the target of interest) and external computation devices, to do things like sound propagation analysis, sound path ray analysis, etc., plus other new things I have no clue about, but can imagine.Technically, the duties varied by training and experience. For all maintenance ratings there are the PMS schedules. At the bottom is the maintenance worker, who looks at a weekly schedule to see what needs to be done each day. When a job is completed, it is x’d out. If it’s partially done, it’s circled, if not done, not annotated. The next level is the Work Center Supervisor, who monitors the workers’ activities and originates the weekly schedule, based on a monthly schedule. From this point, who does what, administratively, depends on the individual command. The people above the Work Center Supervisor are ALPO, LO, LCPO, Division Officer, and Department Head. For schedules, the monthly schedule is derived from a quarterly schedule, the quarterly schedule is derived from the annual schedule, and the annual schedule is derived from the cycle schedule. After each schedule is completed, the exceptions are annotated on the back, the originator signs it, and sends it up the chain for review and signature.Other administrative items include things like the Equipment Status Log (every malfunction or issue is logged, updated at least weekly with status or completion, and reviewed (and signed) by the Division Officer and (sometimes) the Department Head.Other maintenance paperwork includes includes casualty reports, repair assistance requests, etc., with names like 2-Kilo (2K) and 2-Lima (2L).For parts, a junior petty officer is assigned the duty of RPPO (Repair Parts Petty Officer) who maintains the parts logs, orders whatever repair parts that are need, and goes to Supply to get them when they arrive (if on order) or are picked from stock on board. This isn’t just repair parts. It’s anything the division needs from Supply. If the division runs out of pens, the RPPO can order a box.Another administrative duty is training. A more senior person may be designated as the Training Petty Officer, whose job is to schedule individual and classroom training for all members of the division.Then, there is career planning. Somebody, usually the Chief, with assistance from the Department and Command Career Counselors, monitors and guides each division members progress in advancement, future career planning and milestones, what each person wants to do, and where to go, in the future, and either talks with the career detailers (the people in Washington who decide where everybody goes) or arranges for the individual to talk with them.Finally, there’s service record administration, specifically periodic evaluations. The LPO or Chief interviews each person, writes an evaluation, and sends it to the Division Officer, then Department Head, and XO (Executive Officer, the Second in Command,beneath the CO.) At each level, changes are made and, in some cases, interviews happen. Eventually, it’s done, and goes to the CO for final signature.I’ve had all of those jobs, except for the RPPO. I missed that one when I was thrust into leadership at a young age.Other collateral duties included things such as Ship’s Key Custodian and Classified Material Custodian.Submarines are very similar, except that many jobs and duties are consolidated, reducing the number of crew required.To begin with, the culture is completely different. Surface ships are very strict and hierarchical. Submarines are much looser. Relationships between officers and enlisted are much looser. Sure, submariners still say “sir” and “ma’am” and address junior officers as “Mister” but they’re also more colloquial, and willing to have fun. Example, officers are often involved in pranks. The junior ones are instigators or collaborators, the senior ones are willing victims. Many things happen, such as stealing the XO’s stateroom door. The last time I saw that happen, the XO started with putting the crew into Battlestations, until the culprits confessed and returned the door. That didn’t work, but the XO “knew” who had done it, he just had no evidence. So, he took the two off the underway watch-bill, and put them into a port-and-starboard rotation, being his stateroom door. When somebody came to visit the XO, they would shout “knock-knock-knock” then, as the person walked by, a “screee” of a door hinge, followed by a “thump” when the door was closed. This went on for two days, until some other accomplices managed to rehang the door, while the XO was “asleep”.Another time, somebody stole the Captain’s mattress. Once, a group of guys kidnapped the XO’s favorite mug, a Canadian McDonalds thing (with maple-leaf drawings), holding it ransom, taking hostage demand photos throughout the ship, using an illegal Polaroid camera (before cell phones, NOBODY was allowed to have a camera aboard, except the Ship’s Photographer and the XO (to take pictures of dolphin-award ceremonies). We went to Battlestations many times, had an extra day-long Field Day instead of the normal drills, the XO would ransack the compartment shown in the latest photo (of course, it had been surreptitiously moved). The kidnappers identified themselves as The Desperadoes. This went on for three weeks, at the end of the patrol. In this case, by the end of patrol, the mug was still missing. Then, during our flight from Guam to Hawaii (a rare Commercial Flight, booked to satiate Pan AM), the flight attendant delivered to XO’s alcoholic drink in his missing mug. The photographer was a senior Sonar Tech.Anyway, certain jobs, even divisions, just didn’t exist. For example, there were no Department and Command Career Counselors. The only trained CC was at Squadron. There was no Master-At-Arms (ship police) force. There were no separate LCPO, LPO, ALPO, or Work Center Supervisor. Just the Chief or, sometimes, a PO1 if there were no Chiefs available.For grunt work, on a surface ship, only non-petty officers had to be Mess Cooks (cook assistants. Every division sent one). On submarines, it was PO3 and below. On surface ships, only junior people cleaned the head. On submarines, EVERYBODY cleaned the head. During my first Field Day on a submarine, they made it a point to assign me to clean the toilets, even though I was a PO2. Then, before it was over, they made it a point to take me to Crew’s Mess, where the Chief Cook was on his knees, waxing the deck. On surface ships, junior people cleaned the Goat Locker (CPO Quarters) and, during Field Day, all the Chiefs did was supervise. On submarines, the Chiefs cleaned the Goat Locker, including the Chief’s Head. On surface ships, the Chief’s ate in the Goat Locker. On submarines, they ate in crew’s mess, at the “Chief’s Table”. (Anybody could eat there, if they got permission first, or the Chiefs were done eating). Also, the Chiefs didn’t stand in the chow line. When a meal started, a Mess Cook was sent to the Goat Locker, and the Chiefs ate first, until the Chief’s Table was full. Then, they waited, just like everybody else. On a surface ship, the officers ate their own food, and had to pay for it. And, most of the time, the Captain ate alone (not in the Wardroom with the other officers.) On submarines, the officers ate the same food as the crew (still had to pay for it), but in the Wardroom, on fancy dishes, WITH the Captain.On subs, the Chiefs did all of the paperwork, except for some things delegated to more senior members of the division. On my second boat, even though I was the Chief’s assistant, I had no idea what he did when he wasn’t on watch. He had no mentoring capability, at all. I only set foot in the Goat Locker once, in all the years I was aboard, and that was to ask one of the Chiefs to go wake my Chief up. On my first boat, we had no Sonar Chief, so our PO1 slept in the Goat Locker and relaxed in the Goat’s lounge. One time, they had me make them a new cu of coffee. I didn’t drink coffee, myself, and had no idea how to make it. They refused to tell me, so I guessed. The end result was triple-strength coffee-mud, and they never, ever told me to do it, again! HAHAHASo, yes, submariners had the same duties as on a surface ship, but the distribution was totally different.OH, I forgot! Submarines don’t have a Quarterdeck or ANY of the in-port foofarah surface ships have. At the brow, there’s one (on an SSN) or two (SSBN) Topside Sentries, always junior enlisted. If they need anything, they use the Bridge Suitcase (an intercom box) to call down to the Control Room and get some help. He also checks forward and after draft every hour or so. If there’s unknown flooding below decks, he may be the first one to know, when the draft suddenly changes.For in-port, a surface ship duty section has a Command Duty Officer representing the CO, and the on-watch OOD at the Quarterdeck. A submarine has a Duty Officer, for the whole ship, and an Engineering Duty Officer, for the reactor. Everything else is all enlisted men. There’s a Duty Chief, an Engineering Chief, and, forward on watch, a roving Below Decks Watch. He visually checks the status of the Topside watch every 30 minutes or so. The nukes have more, back aft, but exactly who varies, based on reactor plant status. Oh, yeah, back to topside! For Colors, the Topside Watch does the Ensign and the Below Decks Watch does the Jack.Bottom line, on a submarine, enlisted do a lot of the duties that officers do on surface ships.

ON A WARM AND RAINY THURSDAY EVENING IN JULY 1941, inside a War Department office in Washington, a small group of Army officers hastily assembled for a meeting and listened in disbelief to the secret plan outlined by their commander.The general spoke in the velvety Southern accent of his native Arkansas. He was not in uniform -- Army policy kept officers in civilian clothes so as to disguise from Congress the burgeoning military population in Washington -- but he cut an immaculate figure, with his trim build, combed-back, graying hair and neatly groomed mustache. Over the past eight months, the officers of the Army's Construction Division had grown accustomed to bold and quick action from their chief. At age 49, Brig. Gen. Brehon Burke Somer-vell had earned a reputation as a smooth but ruthless operator. "Dynamite in a Tiffany box" was how an associate later described him. Now Somervell turned his eyes -- "the keenest, shrewdest, most piercing eyes one is likely to meet," in the words of one observer -- toward his chief of design, Lt. Col. Hugh "Pat" J. Casey.The War Department needed a new headquarters, Somervell said. The building he wanted to create was too big to fit in Washington and would have to go across the Potomac River in Arlington. It would be far larger than all the great structures of the city, including the U.S. Capitol. Somervell wanted a headquarters big enough to hold 40,000 people, with parking for 10,000 cars. It would contain 4 million square feet of office space -- almost twice as much as the Empire State Building. Yet it must be no more than four stories high -- a tall building would obstruct views of Washington and require too much steel, urgently needed for battleships and weapons.The War Department would occupy the new headquarters within half a year, Somervell instructed. "We want 500,000 square feet ready in six months, and the whole thing ready in a year," the general said. Somervell ended the meeting with orders to have the basic design plans for the building by Monday morning.Washington was consumed by war anxiety. Three weeks earlier, Adolf Hitler, already in control of much of Europe, had launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union. President Franklin D. Roose-velt, alarmed by Nazi gains, had declared a national emergency on May 27. The War Department in Washington was growing at an explosive rate, its 24,000 workers spread in 17 buildings, including apartment buildings, private homes and several rented garages. Gen. George C. Marshall, the Army chief of staff, needed a quick solution and turned to Somervell to construct temporary buildings for the headquarters. At a congressional hearing July 17, Rep. Clifton A. Woodrum, a powerful Virginia congressman, signaled interest in finding an "overall solution" to the War Department's problem. Somervell took that as a signal for a permanent fix, and the Pentagon, as it would become known, was launched that evening.The first problem was where to put it -- "incidentally, the largest office building in the world," Casey later noted dryly. Energetic and experienced, Casey was one of the Army's most brilliant engineers, and he quickly saw big problems with the location Somervell had chosen. Washington-Hoover Airport, at the foot of the 14th Street Bridge in Arlington, had just been replaced with a modern airfield, National Airport, about a mile downriver. Somervell -- eager to win the Virginian's blessing for the project -- had seized upon the old airport site, but the low-lying land, which was subject to flooding, worried Casey.When Casey asked Somervell whether other sites near the airport might be used, the general did not rule it out. Scanning a map, Casey's practiced eye quickly zeroed in on a 67-acre tract about a half-mile upriver from Washington-Hoover. It was Arlington Farm, just east of Arlington National Cemetery. Like the adjacent cemetery, the land had been part of the grand estate of Robert E. Lee that had been confiscated by Union troops in the spring of 1861 for the defense of Washington. In 1900, Congress transferred 400 acres of the Arlington estate to the Department of Agriculture to use as an experimental farm. In September 1940, Roosevelt approved the return of Arlington Farm to the War Department for use by infantry and cavalry troops at neighboring Fort Myer. Perched on a hill above the Potomac, just below the Lee mansion and overlooking Memorial Bridge, Arlington Farm was one of the most prominent sites in the Washington area.Late on Friday afternoon, July 18, George Edwin Bergstrom got to work. A formal man with a brusque manner, his dark hair whitening at the temples, Bergstrom was an accomplished and experienced architect, now in charge of the largest project of his long career. He gathered with his assistants at the division headquarters.Bergstrom led the deliberations. The restrictions were confounding, given the space they needed. The easiest solution, constructing a tall building, was out. They would have to spread out horizontally. But how? A square building that size -- with the enormous interior distances to be covered -- was too unwieldy, as was a rectangle. The Arlington Farm tract had a peculiar asymmetrical pentagon shape bound on five sides by roads or other divisions. Finally, guided by the odd shape of the plot, they designed an irregular pentagon. A sketch by Socrates Thomas Stathes, a young War Department draftsman, showed a square with a corner cut off, more or less matching the tract's shape. It was really two buildings, a five-sided ring surrounding a smaller one of the same shape.All through the weekend, the architects refined the design. The interior of the outer ring was lined with 49 barracks-like wings, sticking in like the teeth of a comb. The smaller ring had 34 exterior wings, all pointing toward the outer ring. The wings were 50 feet wide and 160 feet long, separated from each other by 30-foot-wide open-air "light courts." Corridors connected the two rings on the ground and third floors. Only the most senior officials would have private offices. Allowing 100 square feet per worker, the building could hold 40,000 employees.There were many problems with the irregular design. The pattern was awkward, and the routes between wings of the two buildings were circuitous. Lacking symmetry, with rows of wings sticking out, the building was frankly quite ugly. Yet, given the site, the pentagonal design had one overriding virtue, Stathes remembered more than 60 years later: "It fit."The whole idea seemed nonsensical to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. The War Department had just opened a new building the previous month in Foggy Bottom, but it had quickly proven inadequate and too small. How could the War Department propose to build a new headquarters so soon?At age 73, the secretary of war was the elder statesman of Roosevelt's Cabinet, and was known for his dignity, wisdom and Yankee reserve. Stimson was, in the words of an officer on the War Department staff, "like the Rock of Ages." But he also was imbued with a deep streak of Old Testament temper. Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson had telephoned Stimson early the morning of Tuesday, July 22, to inform him about the building Somervell had dreamed up. Patterson, who along with Marshall had given Somervell his approval the day before, arrived at the secretary's headquarters in the Munitions Building, accompanied by Somervell, Brig. Gen. Eugene Reybold and Bergstrom. As they presented their case, the dubious Stimson found himself slowly drawn to the logic. The secretary examined the plans for the building, which struck him as being "on practical and simple lines." How long would it take to finish? Stimson asked. One year, Somervell promised. The efficiency of the War Department would improve 25 to 40 percent by having everyone under one roof, Stimson was told.Finally, the secretary conferred his blessing. Sound it out with the House Appropriations Committee, and see what they think, Stimson told his visitors.At a hearing that afternoon before Woodrum's subcommittee, the congressman invited Somervell to speak. Exuding confidence, Somervell presented his plan. The building would now be three stories high, instead of four, to better harmonize with its surroundings by Memorial Bridge. The cost would be $35 million, and that covered everything except parking lots for 10,000 cars."This thing would not come to pieces very easily, would it?" asked Rep. John Taber, a New York Republican."It certainly should not," Somervell assured him. "It should not ever come to pieces."Somervell promised to begin construction in two weeks and finish in a year. As for the huge size, it was no time for restraint, the general told the congressmen. Somervell had sold them; the subcommittee unanimously approved funding for the new building, sending the recommendation to the full committee.Stimson decided it was time to tell the president what was afoot. On Thursday, July 24, he told the president's military aide, Maj. Gen. Edwin "Pa" M. Watson, that he wanted to speak with Roosevelt after the afternoon Cabinet meeting about a new War Department headquarters in Arlington. "It has now reached the stage where the Appropriations Committee has heard of it, and Stimson wants you to know that he is not [the] author, but that the plan has a lot of merit," Watson reported to the president.Somervell's proposal was reaching the president at an opportune time, as Roosevelt had concluded that the United States probably could not avoid war with Nazi Germany. Earlier that month, the president had agreed to take over the defense of Iceland from Britain. When the proposal was raised during the Cabinet meeting July 24, Roosevelt breezily approved the building. In exactly one week, Somervell had proposed constructing a building of unprecedented size and scale, produced preliminary plans, won the strong support of the War Department leadership, sold it to key congressional leaders, and received a green light from the president of the United States. Nothing, it seemed, could stop him.IN JULY 1941, PIERRE L'ENFANT WAS SURELY ROLLING OVER IN HIS GRAVE. Gilmore D. Clarke, chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, was certain of that. L'Enfant, the designer of Washington, was buried in a majestic site at Arlington National Cemetery overlooking the Potomac. It suddenly seemed that L'Enfant's view would be destroyed by the enormous new War Department headquarters Somervell was planning for just a few hundred yards below the major's tomb. Clarke was dumbfounded. "It is proposed to place this 'city' at the very portals of the Arlington National Cemetery, thus resulting in the introduction of 35 acres of ugly, flat roofs into the very foreground of the most majestic view of the National Capital that obtains . . . from a point near the Tomb of Major L'Enfant, the architect of Washington," he wrote soon after learning of the plan.The Commission of Fine Arts was the keeper of L'Enfant's flame. Created by Congress in 1910, the commission carried no legal authority to block projects, but Congress generally followed the recommendations of the distinguished panel of architects, sculptors and landscape architects.Clarke, a New York native, had a reputation as one of the nation's finest landscape architects and had helped design some of the country's first parkways. He was not a building architect, but that did not stop him from passing judgment on those who were. Clarke was accustomed to getting respect. But Somervell had not bothered to notify the commission about the massive new War Department building. When Clarke finally got word of what was afoot, the project had already been approved by the House of Representatives.Clarke was livid. "It is inconceivable that this outrage could be perpetrated in this period of the history of the development of this City, a city held in the highest esteem by every citizen who visits it," he wrote in a letter to the Senate.Somervell had also ignored the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, assuring Congress that there was no need to consult the commission about the project. Not everyone agreed, including the planning commission chairman, Frederic A. Delano, or, as President Roosevelt called him, "Uncle Fred." Delano, younger brother of Roosevelt's mother, Sara, was a pioneer in the field of city planning and was a leading force in resurrecting L'Enfant's plan and clearing out the Mall. Delano pushed Congress to bring order to the capital's development by creating the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and, Somer-vell's assurances aside, the law creating the commission clearly gave it oversight over the proposed building in Arlington.Delano had many concerns about the building, particularly potential transportation problems. At 3 p.m. on Wednesday, July 30, Delano walked into the Oval Office for a meeting with his nephew. He was accompanied by Harold D. Smith, director of the president's budget office. With calm gray eyes behind his rimless spectacles, Smith had the look and sensibilities of a Midwestern justice of the peace. His opinions were held in high regard by Roosevelt. The visitors had a very direct message: "It was a great pity to construct this building," the president was told.Roosevelt had returned the previous day from a five-day visit to Hyde Park, where he had decamped after approving the new building at the Cabinet meeting July 24. Now, faced with his uncle's protests, the president admitted that perhaps he had been a bit hasty. Smith's concerns about the building were not aesthetic. He just could not understand why a huge, permanent building was needed when the growth of the War Department was supposed to be a temporary response to the emergency.Delano and Smith told the president that moving 40,000 people back and forth across the Potomac River between Washington and Virginia every day would create "terrific" traffic problems and overwhelm the capacity of the bridges. By the end of the meeting, the president had decided that Somervell's building would be cut back considerably in size.ON AUGUST 3, AT 10:40 ON A HOT AND HUMID SUNDAY MORNING, the U.S. flag flying over the White House came down from its staff, signaling the president's departure. Roosevelt was escaping a Washington so oppressive that "the heat was melting the tar on Massachusetts Avenue," one press account said. A special train waited at Union Station to take the president to New England for what was supposed to be a relaxing 10-day fishing cruise.Before leaving town, Roosevelt had taken care of a pressing matter.After huddling with Harold Smith at noon on Friday, Roosevelt signed a letter to Colorado Sen. Alva B. Adams, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that was to consider the new War Department building. "When this project was first brought to my attention, I agreed that it should be explored," Roosevelt's letter read. "Since then I have had an opportunity to look into the matter personally and have some reservations which I would like to impart to your committee."The letter, drafted by Smith and using language very similar to that sent by Delano to the Senate the day before, expressed concern about whether the site's transportation network could accommodate such a large building with so many employees. Roosevelt urged the Senate to approve "a smaller building" limited to 20,000 employees. More space could be added later if needed, he said.With all final business attended to, Roosevelt appeared not to have a care in the world as he headed out of town, boasting of the number of fish he expected to catch. But the trip was a good deal more than a vacation. The president's yacht was scheduled for a surreptitious night rendezvous off Martha's Vineyard with the heavy cruiser USS Augusta, flagship of the Atlantic Fleet. The Augusta, in turn, escorted by another heavy cruiser and five destroyers, would carry Roosevelt to waters off Newfoundland for a secret meeting -- his first as president -- with Winston Churchill, prime minister of Britain.Almost everyone back in Washington, even senior government officials, knew nothing about the president's mission. Congress remained in session, and the debate over the new War Department building erupted into a full-fledged controversy. Somervell confidently moved forward to construct the building on his own terms, making no adjustments to shrink it. Yet there was no denying that Somervell had suffered quite a reversal.A consensus was settling in some quarters that the new War Department simply could not be built at the foot of Arlington Cemetery, desecrating the view from L'Enfant's tomb. Clarke, the leading opponent, endorsed a proposal to use another plot of land, this one immediately south of the Arlington experimental farm and adjacent to Washington-Hoover Airport. The Army had just broken ground for a quartermaster depot on the site.There would be no aesthetic concerns about building on this low-lying, ignoble tract of land. But Somervell refused to bend, heaping scorn on the quartermaster depot site, set in a picaresque neighborhood known as Hell's Bottom: "The Chairman of the Fine Arts Commission thinks it is all right to put the War Department down among a lot of shanties, brickyards, dumps, factories and things of that kind." The committee endorsed Somervell's favored site.In a debate on the floor of the Senate on August 14, opponents fought to derail the project. Sen. Robert A. Taft, the die-hard conservative from Ohio and avowed enemy of all things Roosevelt, led the sharpest attack. "To my mind, there is not any evidence that we shall need such a tremendous building, the largest office building that has ever been built in the entire world . . ." he said. Taft offered an amendment to cut the $35 million appropriation in half, but it failed, 29 to 21.The bill authorizing construction finally passed. The matter seemed settled: The new War Department building would be built right where Somervell wanted it.Bronzed and refreshed from his two-week adventure at sea, Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived back at the White House on Sunday morning, August 17, in good cheer, but he was quickly brought back to earth by awaiting problems. His secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes, was in outright revolt against the War Department project and had written the president "a very vigorous letter . . . begging him not to permit this rape of Washington." A telegram also arrived Sunday from Frederic Delano, traveling out West, telling the president he was "greatly concerned" by what had transpired. In a follow-up letter sent the same day, Delano urged his nephew to ask Congress to reconsider. The newspapers were also pleading with Roosevelt to act. Unhappy that the Senate had ignored his recommendation that the building's size be halved, the president was chagrined that he had agreed to the Arlington Farm site in the first place.Roosevelt, who prided himself on his aesthetic sense, already felt a lingering guilt for his leading role in a previous desecration of Washington. As assistant secretary of the Navy when America declared war on Germany in 1917, Roosevelt had persuaded President Woodrow Wilson to allow the construction of large temporary buildings on the Mall along Constitution Avenue to house the Navy and Army, then in desperate need of office space. Nearly a quarter-century after they were built, the barracks-like Navy and Munitions buildings were still there.On the afternoon of August 19, presidential press spokesman Stephen T. Early escorted the press corps into the Oval Office, where the reporters gathered for Roosevelt's first press conference in the White House since his return to Washington. The president reflected on his historic meeting with Churchill and his own efforts to prepare the United States for the Nazi threat. A reporter changed the subject: "Can you say anything about the new War Department building in Arlington?"The president dropped his bombshell. "My present inclination is not to accept that action by Congress," he announced.Before the assembled reporters, the president again prostrated himself before the altar of L'Enfant for having brought the "temporary" buildings to the Mall. "And here it is -- under the name of emergency, it is proposed to put up a permanent building, which will deliberately and definitely, for 100 years to come, spoil the plan of the national capital," the president said. ". . . I have had a part in spoiling the national parks and the beautiful waterfront of the District once, and I don't want to do it again."The following afternoon, reporters were brought into the Oval Office for a second press conference. The "best solution," Roosevelt announced, would be to put the bulk of the building on the quartermaster site, with a small portion jutting onto the adjacent Arlington Farm land.The bill passed by Congress did not specify where on the Arlington Farm site the new building was to be placed. As long as any part of the project was on Arlington Farm land, the president reasoned, it would technically adhere to the act of Congress. "So that makes it entirely within the bill," the president declared. Inspecting Hell's Bottom several days later with Somervell and Clarke, the president looked over the tawdry neighborhood and pronounced the site "excellent."The original rationale for Bergstrom's pentagonal design was gone. The building no longer would be constructed on the five-sided Arlington Farm site. Yet the chief architect and his team continued with plans for a pentagon at the new location. There was no time to change them.Besides, the pentagon design still worked. Like a circle, a pentagon would create shorter walking distances within the building -- 30 to 50 percent less than in a rectangle, architects calculated -- but its lines and walls would be straight and, therefore, much easier to build. The move from the odd-shaped Arlington Farm site freed the architects from the need to make the building asymmetrical. The advantages gained -- a smoother pedestrian flow, better space arrangement, and easier distri-bution of utilities around the building -- "proved startling," the architects concluded.The symmetrical design also dramatically improved the look of the building. Seen from above, the concentric rings of pentagons, if not beautiful, were at least pleasing to the eye. Something else about a pentagon appealed to Somervell and other Army officers. The five-sided shape was reminiscent of a 17th-century fortress or a Civil War battlement; indeed, the first shot of that war, a mortar shell that burst with a glare at 4:30 in the morning of April 12, 1861, illuminated the dark, five-sided shape of Fort Sumter.Roosevelt made the first foray at changing the design. His vision was for a solid, square building running a fifth of a mile in each direction; the only windows, if any, would be on the exterior. By his own admission, the idea was "a trial balloon," but the president was excited about the futuristic possibilities.Somervell and Bergstrom did their best to dampen the president's enthusiasm, and even Clarke, despite his dislike of the five-sided shape, spoke against the idea. "Well, Mr. President . . . somebody might throw a monkey wrench into the air-conditioning, and maybe they wouldn't all get out before they suffocated," Clarke told Roosevelt."You know, I never thought of that," Roosevelt mused.THE PENTAGONAL DESIGN NEXT CAME UNDER ATTACK FROM CLARKE AND THE COMMISSION ON FINE ARTS. Complying with Roosevelt's instructions, architect Edwin Bergstrom appeared before the commission on the morning of Tuesday, September 2, for aGesturing to the drawings, Bergstrom explained the plans. The commission's reception was decidedly cool. "A pentagonal has never worked out well and great confusion is apt to result in the circulation of the building," said commission member William H. Lamb, a partner in the architectural firm that designed the Empire State Building. A rectangular building would be preferable, Lamb said.His suggestion was endorsed by a most formidable commission member, Paul Philippe Cret, the internationally renowned French-born practitioner of the beaux-arts style and one of America's most distinguished architects. In such a huge building, a pentagonal design would confound visitors, Cret said. "If one gets into the wrong corridor, he is lost," he said. He and Lamb also wanted Bergstrom to rework plans for the facade and "do away with the monotonous appearance."Bergstrom agreed to make revisions but made it clear he was determined to keep the pentagon. After the War Department architects left the meeting, Cret declared that the fine arts commission should appeal to the president.Somervell beat the commissioners to the punch. At 12:15, the general, nattily dressed in a bow tie and a seersucker suit, strolled into the Oval Office, accompanied by Bergstrom, who was carrying a large sheaf of blueprints.Roosevelt, just back from Hyde Park, reviewed the plans carefully. He asked questions and directed a few changes, then approved the design.Everything was "coming along fine," Somervell told reporters as he left the Oval Office.At 2:15 p.m., it was the commissioners' turn. Clarke, Cret and Lamb were ushered in to see the president. The mustachioed, dignified old Frenchman presented the case against the pentagonal design, arguing that a rectangle made more sense. Cret also appealed to Roosevelt's sensibilities as commander in chief, suggesting that it would be even better to disperse the War Department in several buildings rather than in one single great mass.This pentagon-shaped War Department building, Cret said, would make the biggest bombing target in the world."You know, gentlemen, I like that pentagon-shaped building," Roosevelt said. "You know why?""No," the commissioners replied resignedly."I like it because nothing like it has ever been done that way before."Sources:Excerpted from by Stephen F. Vogel.