A $3 Toy Security Issue?

In the early summer of 1982, I walked into the Base Exchange at Dam Neck and walked out with a piece of the Cold War, boxed and shrink-wrapped for just a few bucks. It was a model of the Polaris submarine, the pride of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear deterrent program. For months, while I attended SWSE “A” School and later Mk 98 Mod 0 “C” School, it sat on my desk. A sleek plastic sentinel with decals, accurate contours, and the powerful allure of strategic dominance. It was emblematic of all the tasks that I was leaning and being prepared to take upon myself. It’s presence reminded me of my own goals and what I wanted to accomplish.

But, back in 1961 that little submarine model kit wasn’t just a toy. It was a controversy.

Back in 1961, Admiral Hyman Rickover, the irascible, brilliant father of the nuclear Navy, was fuming. Why? Because the very model I once proudly displayed came with something more explosive than its missile tubes: details. Real ones. Navy-approved schematics. Enough information, Rickover warned, to hand over a million-dollar intelligence windfall to the Soviet Union, for just $2.98. “Russia needed no costly spies,” the article declared, not when American companies were all too happy to sell the family silver for the price of a lunch.

Rickover wasn’t just blowing smoke. His outrage reflected a deeper issue: the clash between military secrecy and commercial interests in an age of mass production and Cold War paranoia. The Polaris was no ordinary submarine. It was the beating heart of America’s second-strike capability, our ace in the nuclear standoff. Yet here we were, gift-wrapping its specs for anyone with pocket change and a hobby knife.

There’s a kind of innocence in thinking that a model kit is just for kids or collectors. But Rickover understood something we sometimes forget: even the smallest details matter in warfare. A measurement here, a compartment layout there, it’s puzzle pieces for the enemy, and every piece counts.

For me, that model was a reminder of power and precision. For Rickover, it was a reminder that vigilance has no off switch. The submarine on my desk told a bigger story: about pride, policy, and the paper-thin line between open society and operational security.

And that’s something worth remembering, even if the glue has long since dried.

-ȸ

(For the record, that model remains the ONLY 41 For Freedom Boat I have ever seen in person. And it was a model…)