Under the Ice

She started life as a workhorse, not a wonder. USS O-12 was never meant to make history, only to do her duty. Built in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1916, this O-class submarine served briefly in the Panama Canal Zone after World War I. She was solid, if not spectacular. Compared to her Electric Boat sisters, she had her flaws. But for a few short years, she stood watch where it mattered. Then, in 1924, the Navy pulled her from service and parked her at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. She was supposed to be scrapped. That would have been the end of it.

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The Northern Star

In the shadowy chess game of the Cold War, the move that changed everything did not come from a missile silo in Kansas or a bomber base in England. It came from beneath the waves, out of sight and far beyond reach. On July 20, 1960, deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean, the USS George Washington unleashed the first Polaris ballistic missile from a submerged submarine. That launch did not just mark a technical milestone. It transformed the rules of deterrence, and in many ways, helped hold off the unthinkable, even into the 21st century.

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A Friendly Fire Near Miss

The morning began with overcast skies and a gray sea that rolled beneath USS Gabilan as she resumed her lifeguard station near the mouth of Tokyo Bay. It was 0542. Her role was to watch the skies and be ready to pull Allied airmen from the ocean if their luck ran out over Japan. These assignments could be long, sometimes dull, and always dangerous.

By 1135, weather conditions had started to clear. Enemy coastlines were still visible in the haze, but the skies were opening. Strike aircraft would soon follow. Word filtered through at 1430 that the carriers were sending in another wave. Gabilan surfaced at 1600 and established contact with her fighter cover. From the bridge, the sky seemed alive. Planes moved in every direction. Tokyo’s defenses were under heavy pressure, and the horizon felt full of noise.

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