I made several deployments on USS Sea Devil, SSN-664, mostly to the Mediterranean. One stands out; we were scheduled for a 45-day search in the mid-Atlantic, so the CO decided to not do a full 90 day load-out (no unreps on a nuke sub!). But the 1973 Arab-Israeli war broke out just before we left. Shortly after getting underway, we were ordered to make best speed for the Med with no defined end date. And, with only 45 days of food!
We had some exciting times and when the world situation quieted down, we were hoping to get released to return home. We had been out to sea for about 50 days and were considering how much we could further stretch the food. The CO didn't want to ask for a port call to resupply, because a) we weren't officially in the Med and b) we might get tasked to stay a little longer!!
In the end, we were released to return home and arrived in Norfolk after 72 days underwater. One of our last meals at sea was white bread, cheese whiz and a vitamin pill. Upon arrival, liberty was delayed until we finished loading stores for the duty section that night.
Hey John, so I take it that our current "hunkering down in place" is no great shakes given your experience on subs! "Been there, done that!" While you were spooking around submerged, I was on USS Springfield, the 6th Fleet flagship (OIC of the helo detachment). Like you, we spent weeks at sea ... often not far from Crete ... trying to shake our Soviet tail. Unlike you, however, after the war we paid a port visit to Istanbul. I took several of the guys in my det to an authentic Turkish bath that must have been a few hundred-years old. What a ritual cleansing, including a scrub down with a "luva" sponge that resembled a king-sized shredded wheat biscuit on steroids. Dead skin from a summer tan peeled off with each scrub--to the disgust of the muscular Turkish masseuse. The cold Turkish beer afterwards was delightful.
Can we have a name for this post?