Dictionary.com defines a career as:

an occupation or profession, esp. one requiring special training, followed as one’s lifework: He sought a career as a lawyer.

That’s my problem, I feel I have no “lifework.” There are lots of things that interest me and I think I’d love to do them, but I’m not doing them. I need to put food on the table and keep the roof patched so I’m doing what’s expedient. My heart is not really in it. To top it off there is no doubt in my mind that it’s NOT moving me toward my long term goals. It’s just covering today’s needs with no room left for something else.

I have friends who love their jobs with a capital “L”, not many and some of them are truly honest. That’s the story they tell to save face. Personally I don’t mind the plugging away part – we can’t all have exactly what we want and it covers necessities so why complain? The thing that grabs me the most is what it’s setting me up for in the future (aka long term) and it’s just not. It’s like a stepping stone headed who knows where. I want to know that I’m plugging away toward something.

• Gato Class Submarine
• Keel laid: December 8, 1941, at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, ME
• Launched: May 30, 1942
• Commissioned: July 30, 1942
• Displacement: 1,526 tons surfaced; 2,410 tons submerged
• Length: 311′ 8″
• Beam: 27′ 4″
• Operating depth: 300′
• Complement: 6 officers, 54 enlisted
• Armament: ten 21″ torpedo tubes, six forward, four aft, 24 torpedoes, one 3″/50 deck gun, two .50 cal. machine guns, two .30 cal. machine g

On May 27, under command of Lieutenant Commander Joseph H. Bourland, she departed Midway for the Kuril Islands chain and waters off northern Japan. No report was heard from her. Captured Japanese records indicated that she sank the cargo ship Seinan Maru on June 11 in Tsugaru Strait off Hokkaidō, and the passenger-cargo ship Shinryu Maru on June 26 off the Kuril Islands.

A summary of Japanese antisubmarine attacks received since the close of hostilities contains no mention of an attack, which could explain the loss of RUNNER. Thus her loss must be ascribed to an enemy minefield, of which there were at least four in the area to which she was assigned, to an operational casualty, or to an unreported enemy attack. Destruction by a mine is considered the most likely of these possibilities.

Runner was awarded one battle star for World War II service.

Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Patch(es) were obtained from:
NavSource Online (Submarine Photo Archive).
Originally contributed by Mike Smolinski.

I don’t know about you, but my knowledge of the U.S. Supreme Court justices is pretty much superficial, limited to familiarity with their names – if I hear them – but completely unable to rattle off even 50% of their names. Not to mention their political leanings.

So my personal quick primer will be to place the name with the face.
For the above photo:
(back row from left) Stephen Breyer, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito,
(front row from left) Anthony Kennedy, John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and David Souter.

Seven of the current justices of the court were appointed by Republican presidents, while two were nominated by a Democratic president. It is popularly accepted that Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito compose the Court’s conservative wing. Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer are generally thought of as the Court’s liberal wing. Justice Kennedy, generally thought of as a conservative-leaning moderate, is considered most likely to be the swing vote that determines the outcome of certain close cases.

Maybe this will help my understanding as I hear as recent court decisions and dissensions.

I am attempting to re-establish a routine morning quiet time into my schedule. This can be tough when my mind wanders to all the things I need to get done for the day. However, this is also my most focused time of the day so it is ideal rather than evening hours when my mind is not as sharp.

I have decided to spend the next few days, weeks or whatever meditating on Paul’s letter to the Colossians. This morning I read through the entire book pondering the passage as I read. This mornings section that captured my thoughts was:

Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
Colossians 2:20-23 – New International Version (NIV)

I began to think about how the rest of the world typically views Christians as a group of people with so many rules. The fact is that this stereotype is often well deserved. As believers we tend to look more at what we can’t do than the freedom that we have. The fact is that in Christ there is great freedom, not a list of rules. What we decide not to do is not because we’re commanded not to do it but because we desire not to do it. The “rule setters” are creating a set of legalistic parameters around themselves – and most often also those around them as well – that somehow make them feel more pious. Christ himself condemned the religious rulers of his day who lost sight of what it was all about. The self-imposed rules became the “method” and eventually became the standard for those around them.

All our actions, all that we do as Christians should be dictated upon what brings honor to our savior not an arbitrary list of what I feel/they feel is right and wrong.

Wow! I had forgotten how much I love to find hidden treasure! A little over 3 years ago I heard about geocaching, bought a GPS off eBay and went crazy finding everything I could. Then, as most activities do, the fever waned and was replaced by something else.

About 2 years ago I placed a cache near our vacation rental in Alaska. At the time there were none in the area. The closest cache was about 15 miles away but the bulk being about 60 miles away. Now there are several in the Big Lake area of Alaska. As with all things, it was time to retire the cache and move on. Maintenance was a tough issue when cachers reported moisture. As part of the retirement of the cache I found that there was a geoCoin that needed to move on. I took the coin out of the cache and reported that I would move it on. This was an almost reluctant gesture since, as I have stated, much of my zeal morphed to fond memories.

Well, today things were slow enough at the office that I could afford a few minutes out to place the coin in another cache if there was one close by. Lo and behold there was an ideal one less than 1 mile away. It was straightforward to get in the general area but truthfully I lost my edge at finding caches. To be sure the GPS navigated me to within 12 feet. The all around me for at least 100 feet in every direction were 30 foot high piles of rock left over from a long forgotten mining operation. Somewhere under one rock was a 12″ x 4″ x 4″ steel box.

I had to look with an eagle eye and ponder where would be a good location to hide a cache as I tried to get inside the mind of the person who placed it. There was some frustration and a few encounters with those nasty burrs on my socks, shoes and pants but when I did find it what a rush.

I like this game!

The question arises in our litigious society about who is responsible if I am at a public beach, I dig a hole in the sand (a favorite of kids around the world) and the hole collapses on me and suffocates me. No kidding, it happens. In the last 12 years it has happened 52 times in the United States alone. Who should be responsible? Should I now disallow my children from digging holes in the sand and warn them of the dangers so that they will never, never ever dig a hole when I am not around?

Digging Holes in the Sand Can Be Deadly (Forbes.com 20-Jun-07 12am)

And what of the shortcut to China by going through the Earth that was so famous when I was young? Just when I thought worm holes were safe, I’m back to traveling the old fashioned way.

• O Class Submarine
• Keel laid: February 15, 1917, at Fore River Shipbuilding Co., Quincy, MA
• Launched: January 27, 1918
• Commissioned: July 27, 1918
• Displacement: 521 tons surfaced; 629 tons submerged
• Length: 172′ 4″
• Beam: 18′ 0″
• Depth limit: 200′
• Complement: 2 officers, 27 enlisted
• Armament: four 18″, torpedo tubes, 8 torpedoes, one 3″/23 deck gun

On the morning of June 20, 1941, O-9 and two of her sisters, O-6 (SS 67) and O-10 (SS 71), left as a group from the submarine base in New London, Connecticut, for the submarine test depth diving area east of the Isle of Shoals. Upon reaching their designated training area, some 15 miles off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, O-6 made the first dive, followed by O-10. Finally, at 0837, O-9 began her dive. At 1032 O-9 had not surfaced.

Rescue ships swung into action immediately. Sister ships O-6 and O-10, submarine Triton (SS 201), submarine rescue vessel Falcon (ASR 2), and other ships searched for the sub. That evening, pieces of debris with markings from O-9 were recovered. In water 450 feet (140 m) deep, O-9 was thought to be crushed, since her hull was only designed to withstand depths of around 200 feet (60 m).

Divers went down from 1300 on June 21 until 1143 on June 22. Divers could stay only a short time at the 440-foot depth but nonetheless set endurance and depth records for salvage operations until those operations were cancelled as they were considered too risky. Rescue operations were discontinued on June 22, The boat and her thirty-three officers and men were declared lost as of June 20. On June 22, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox conducted memorial services for the 33 officers and men lost on the boat.

On September 20, 1997 O-9 was finally located. Salem, New Hampshire-based Klein Sonar Company provided a vessel and sonar equipment which were used to discover O-9’s final resting place. Her hull is crushed from just abaft the conning all the way to the stern, though the forward hull appears intact. There are no plans to salvage O-9. Her exact location is secret and the area has been designated an official Naval burial ground.

Naval Historical Center

Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet

• S-1 Class Submarine
• Keel laid: April 11, 1919, at the Fore River Plant, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Quincy, MA
• Launched: October 11, 1922
• Commissioned: January 22, 1924
• Displacement: 854 tons surfaced; 1,062 tons submerged
• Length: 219′ 3″
• Beam: 20′ 8″
• Depth limit: 200′
• Complement: 4 officers, 34 enlisted
• Armament: four 21″ torpedo tubes, 12 torpedoes, one 4″/50 deck gun

Ordered north to the Aleutian Islands, she departed San Diego on May 20; steamed to Port Angeles, Washington; thence, continued on to Alaskan waters where she commenced patrol operations in June. On May 12, a little over a week after the beginning of the war in the Aleutians, she put into Dutch Harbor, took on provisions, refueled, and then headed west with orders to patrol in the Kuluk Bay area and to reconnoiter Constantine Harbor, Amchitka. On the night of June 16-June 17, she was ordered to Kiska. On June 18, she reconnoitered Constantine Harbor found no signs of enemy activity in that evacuated village, and moved on to round the southern end of the island, whence she would proceed to Kiska. In mid afternoon, she rounded East Cape and that night when she surfaced, fog obscured her position. Lying to charge on both engines, she was carried about five miles from her estimated dead-reckoned position. The fog prevented knowledge of the drift. At midnight, she got underway, slowly, on one engine and continued to charge on the other. Soon after 0043 on June 19, breakers were sighted about 25 yards forward of the bow. “Back emergency” orders were given. Seconds later, she grounded on rocks off St. Makarius Point.

Waves bumped her violently against the rocks, rolling her 10 to 15 degrees on each side. Her motors were continued at “back emergency,” but she was held firm by a submerged rock. Fuel was blown. Efforts to back off were continued, but the lightened ship swung harder against the rocks. Her starboard screw struck a rock and was disabled. Efforts were made to force the ship ahead to clear the stern; but, she could move only about twenty feet forward before she was again held fast. The immediate area was sounded. No passage was found. By 03:30, the pounding of the sea had increased and plans were made to move the greater part of the crew off. Dispatches of her plight, sent first at 01:15, were continued. Six were sent in all. One, giving no position, was received at Dutch Harbor.

A ferry system, using a rubber boat and lines rigged between the ship and the beach, was set up. Men, provisions, clothing, guns, and medical supplies were transferred safely. By 11:00, all but six, the commanding officer, Lieutenant H.L. Jukes, and five others, were ashore. All equipment was destroyed. Classified material was burned. At 15:30, three of the remaining men went ashore. The side plating was now loose, the torpedo room was flooding. At 15:50, the radioman, executive officer, and commanding officer left the submarine.

The night of June 19–20 was spent in an unsheltered cove. On June 20, camp was set up at Constantine Harbor, using the buildings and heating equipment which had survived a Japanese bombing. By June 21, the camp was fully organized: routines, including sentries and lookouts, had been established. Trips to and from the cove continued for three days. S-27 was reboarded on June 21 and June 22; thereafter, the presence of chlorine gas prohibited further visits to take off more supplies.

On June 24, a PBY Catalina on a routine flight spotted the activity at Constantine Harbor; landed; and took off 15 of the survivors. On June 25, three planes were sent in to bring off the remainder. All guns salvaged from S-27 were destroyed. Nothing was left except the submarine’s abandoned hulk and canned provisions, blankets, and winter clothing.

Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Patch(es) were obtained from:
NavSource Online (Submarine Photo Archive).
Patch on left contributed by Mike Smolinski, patch on right contributed by Don McGrogan, BMCS, USN (ret.)

• Gato Class Submarine
• Keel laid: June 25, 1942, at the Electric Boat Co., Groton, CT
• Launched: March 7, 1943
• Commissioned: May 31, 1943
• Displacement: 1,526 tons surfaced; 2,424 tons submerged
• Length: 311′ 9″
• Beam: 27′ 3″
• Operating depth: 300′
• Complement: 6 officers, 54 enlisted
• Armament: ten 21″ torpedo tubes, six forward, four aft, 24 torpedoes, one 3″/50 deck gun, two .50 cal. machine guns, two .30 cal. machine guns

Upon completion of refit on May 28, 1945 Bonefish got underway in company with Tunny (SS 282) and Skate (SS 305), as part of “Pierce’s Polecats”, commanded by Tunny’s skipper, Commander George E. Pierce. Equipped with a new mine-detecting device, the submarines were ordered to penetrate the Sea of Japan to sever the last of the Japanese overseas supply lines. Bonefish successfully threaded her way through the minefields by Tsushima Island as she transited the Korea Strait to enter the Sea of Japan for an offensive patrol off the west central coast of Honshū.

During a rendezvous with Tunny on June 16, Bonefish reported sinking Oshikayama Maru, a 6,892-ton cargo ship. In a second rendezvous on June 18, she requested and received permission to conduct a daylight submerged patrol of Toyama Wan, a bay farther up the Honshū coast. The attack group was to depart the Sea of Japan via La Perouse Strait on the night of June 24th. Bonefish did not make the scheduled pre-transit rendezvous. Still, Tunny waited in vain off Hokkaidō until the 27th. On July 30, Bonefish was presumed lost.

Japanese records reveal that the 5,488-ton cargo ship Konzan Maru was torpedoed and sunk in Toyama Wan on June 19 and that an ensuing severe counterattack by Japanese escorts brought debris and a major oil slick to the water’s surface. There can be little doubt that Bonefish was sunk in this action.

Bonefish (SS 223) earned Navy Unit Commendations for her first, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth war patrols, and seven battle stars for her World War II service.

Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Patch(es) were obtained from:
NavSource Online (Submarine Photo Archive).
Originally contributed by Mike Smolinski.

Solstice is rounding the corner at my current latitude of 61½° north. Daylight hours are currently 4:20am until 11:40pm. That does not mean that it’s dark from 11:40 until 4:20. After sunset is dusk, before sunrise is dawn. During that 4 hour and 40 minute period of no sun there is never enough darkness to see the stars and not quite enough to read clearly without significant strain – but it is light nonetheless. Just as the encroaching darkness reaches maximum it slowly gives in to the unyielding light of another day.

In less than a week the rule of the daylight sun will begin to weaken and the days will become progressively shorter. An aspect of this cycle that is absolutely fascinating to me and was not taught in any textbook or by any instructor, is that the normal progression of the sun from east to west is required to be altered to keep the balance. At the equator (and lower latitudes of the “lower 48″) the sun simply rises in the east and sets in the west. As the says lengthen what is not perceived is that the cost of a longer day. Farther up north it can be clearly seen. As the daylight hours are lengthened the earth either needs to slow down it’s spin or the sun needs somewhere to go in order to “hang out” in the sky longer.

As can be expected the earth’s rotation remains the same but the sun instead of heading due west and setting heads slightly more north each day. This increases the time it is seen before dipping over the horizon.

At our cabin up here in Alaska our front windows are facing south and the sun is clearly shining directly into the windows throughout day. Eventually however the suns face is toward the west side of the cabin. But then an unexpected thing happens, the sun lingers in the northern sky and is clearly behind the cabin before finally retiring the the day.

It’s an effect that was not expected but those little surprises are always fun.