Navy Days on the good ship Birmingham.

While cleaning off some old floppy discs I found some old scanned photos from my days in the Navy.

This is the USS Birmingham (SSN 695). The SSN stands for Submersible Ship Nuclear and the 695 is the hull number. The Bham was a LA Class 688 fast attack submarine.

This is me in the late 80's cleaning the Head and shower. Must of been a field day. A field day was a half day cleaning up of the ship by the crew. This was a once per week occurrence. For those non-navy folks the head is the toilet. Notice that the shower is a bit smaller than a phone booth. Like that nice facial hair?

The ships Skipper (Captain) Commander Paul Sullivan and Senior Chief Fisher. This was the 10 year anniversary of the ship (1988). Was commissioned in December 1978.

Lt. Miller standing watch as DOOW (Diving Officer of the Watch). This was during a one day family cruise.

ST3 Jon Pace in firefighting gear.

The CO's wife and son in the Wardroom during the family cruise.


The Skipper handing out an award.

The conning tower on a WWII sub located at Pearl Harbor Submarine Base.

MM2 Carpenter at our office door.

One of my shipmates YN3 Martin Humann. Three of us would work in this space.


Some of the crew.

The Hospital Corpsman Chief Goin in his space.

One day the ship's cooks wanted to have a burger cookout on the pier to boost moral. The ship was moored at the Pearl Harbor Shipyard and permission had to be obtained from the Shipyard Safety Officer to light a fire. The Safety Officer must have been one of those landlocked sailors who enjoyed exercising their control over a ship's Captain when he could.

Of course he said no. I suppose that we could have burned down the concrete pier. The Skipper said BS, it's my ship and we will have the cookout on the deck of my ship! So we pulled the grill onto the deck of the ship and held our BBQ. Those were some of the best sliders I've ever enjoyed.

MM3 Willie White cleaning out the SHT tank (it's where the head empties into). Not a fun job.

The Skipper giving the Executive Officer an award.

I'm not sure who's rack (bunk) this is. It was TP'd. Which means it was filled up with rolls of TP. I'm sure the assigned occupant was thrilled when he was ready to hit the rack.

Some of the crew in the Wardroom.