This section of Our Founder’s Compass is where you will find things about the US Navy in general, submarines in particular and other relevant military and defense related information.  How does this relate to the focus of this blog?  Quite simply the United States Navy’s Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) program came about in response to the threat to all free and aspiring to be free societies posed by the military threat of the Soviet Union.  The defense of freedom and liberty was our primary mission and the forty one FBM submarines were named for patriots.  Education is part of the mission of this blog.  These are things that young folks probably don’t know much about but this is an important part of our history as a nation. 

There wasn’t much in the way of fanfare or hoopla associated with the Cold War.  That not too much public attention was drawn to many aspects of that long, cold slog to victory was intentional.  News headlines are the last thing you need when your mission as an FBM submarine is to slip quietly beneath the surface of the ocean, set the targeting of your missiles at the bad guys, and remain undetected for seventy straight days.   

Although there was no face off on a conventional battlefield during the cold war there were clearly identifiable bad guys [the Soviet Union and their orbit of dominated/influenced satellite nations; aka the Evil Empire] and good guys [the USA and our NATO allies; back in the days when NATO actually had some spine].  One could argue at length about what constituted the “front lines” of the Cold War.  Stating an opinion, since there is no fact to debate here, I’ll say the “front lines” were manned by the U.S. intelligence community and the U.S. Navy Submarine Force. 

There is little doubt that the USA shouldered the bulk of the responsibility for submarine operations throughout the Cold War but that isn’t to say that we didn’t have help.  In the case of both submarine and intelligence operations the United Kingdom arguably provided the most support of any of our allies.  Throughout the Cold War there was an intelligence gathering aspect of submarine operations (primarily the fast attack, SSN guys) as well as the strategic deterrence (us FBM guys).  In the end the cumulative effect of thousands of U.S. submarine operations played a major role in the collapse of the Soviet empire.     

Understandably the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the picture of Boris Yeltsin standing on a tank (1991) symbolize that collapse for many people.  Thousands of submarine operations between the launching of the first FBM submarine in 1959, the USS George Washington SSBN 598 – pictured below, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is a little difficult to boil down into a nice neat symbol people can picture in their minds.   Perhaps pulling together some information here and pointing to additional sources can help others compose a picture in their minds of 41 for Freedom as a symbol of our victory in the Cold War.    

The pictures below are of the USS Benjamin Franklin SSBN 640, the lead boat of the 640 class of FBM submarines; named for a truly great patriot and one of the Founding Fathers as was the USS George Washington.  I am proud and humbled to have had the opportunity to have served in the USS Benjamin Franklin and contribute in some small way to the cause of freedom and liberty throughout the world. 

At the time I appreciated the importance of what we were doing from a national defense perspective but I can’t say that I thought about it as much from perspective of what we were doing in terms of the cause of freedom and liberty throughout the world.  The possibility that the Cold War could get hotter than anything the world had ever seen at a moment’s notice was always in the back of your mind.  Fortunately our day to day responsibilities kept our minds occupied for the most part so we didn’t dwell on those possibilities.  Besides, you had to have faith in your boat and your shipmates and what may sound a little hokey to some people, that the good guys would win in the end.   The other part of the story that very few people can fully appreciate is what wives or next of kin (such as mothers and fathers) went through waiting for that phone call that the submarine had surfaced once again after seventy days with absolutely no contact whatsoever. 

That’s probably enough of that for now.  I look forward to the opportunity to organize some relevant historical information and a few remembrances to share with others.   Links to other sites of interests and other things will be posted here.  Other Navy and military information, military history, and current defense related topics will be included. There will be more to come in this section and in posts later on so check back later or subscribe for updates. This page and others will be open for comments for the time being.