FROM THE PRESIDENT
It has been the aim of the Submarine League to offer an informative educational dialogue within the pages of the Submarine Review — and it is gratifying to see this as an improving thing with each issue. Exceedingly astute material on submarine matters as well as good positive suggestions for improvement of the League have been made in the Review, making the League more dynamic and useful to the submarine service.
Consistent with the League’s objectives which your Board of Directors is actively promoting, the League is developing at a pace which is even more rapid than i t s growth rate. Still, the Board would like more ideas and suggestions as to the future course of the Submarine League. Letters or articles for the Submarine Review will certainly get the Board’s attention.
With 1915 members at present, it is evident that a large number of would-be members are still not aware of the Submarine Ieague ‘s activities. Hence, it is desirable that League members canvass their friends and encourage them to join this brotherhood – whose basic interest is submarine matters. The value to our country of an informed articulate Submarine League can be great particularly as to the lead role of submarines in strategic deterrence and in the control of the seas.
The response to the Submarine League’s Life Membership program has been good. Ken Highfill was our first life member, followed by nine more true believers in the long term future and importance of submarines — not that saving money over the long haul isn’t important!
Chuck Griffiths
FROM THE EDITOR
In thinking about the role the Submarine Review can play for the submarine profession, 1 recall my early reading of the Journal of The American Medical Association, (JAMA). In my youth, I was exposed to the Medical Journal on a monthly basis, perhaps because it was hoped I’d later be a doctor. But in retrospect, al ‘:hough the profession of medicine was considered to be the most highly regarded of professions, l subsequently came to believe that I had wisely chosen as highly regarded a profession — by being a naval officer in the submarine service .
What I came to admire about the articles ln the Medical Journal was the open discussion of how practicing doctors were using their tools medicines, trained diagnostic skills, new kinds (then) of instruments and equipment — to heal their patients. It was evident that the art of healing was taking great strides forward because of this sharing of ideas.
A recent review of a few of today’s Medical Journals shows some marked differences in the medical profession. There are a far greater number and variety of medicines to choose from. Research is uncovering a startling number of new healing techniques. This explosion of medical kn«lw-how has forced specialization in many fields, yet the “family doctor” — the generalist, or general practitioner — can keep pace with the changes through the aid of computers. Computers are now being used to store and digest medical knowledge and relate it to vast numbers of case histories, thus providing inestimable help in the diagnosis of patients. In addition, there is much advanced on-going research, directed toward areas in the medical field which can hold great pay-offs in licking diseases as well as other medical problems.
What I would observe from a reading of Medical Journals is that the medical profession has greatly improved the art of healing in only a short period of about fifty years. This progress is certainly evident in the increased longevity of peoples’ lives. And it appears to result from the uninhibited dynamic dialogue within the medical profession — and which is being carried on in the pages of JAMA .
Perhaps the art of submarining can enjoy the same sort of progress and success, if a free dynamic dialogue is carried within the pages of the Submarine Review? The analogy between the JAMA and the Submarine Review might sound far fetched, yet there are so many similarities, as to how one or the other increases the degree of professionalism of its individuals, that a few parallelisms might be drawn to better understand the importance of the new-born Submarine Review to t.oday’s submariners.
Past submarine experiences (like patient histories) and historical submarine successes in combat (like old cures) can be profitably used in the Submarine Review to show the immutability of the principles of war. The new equipment and techniques (like new medical and new medical equipment), available to submariners, can be related to better ways of fighting (like healing) with submarines. The training necessary to develop tactical skills (like diagnostic skills) can be usefully analyzed. How the great amounts of available information, today, can through computers be used for decision making — by the generalist, the practicing strategist/tactician — needs discussion, both as to its validity as well as to the alternatives of action which might be derived from such information. And, where research can and should be directed to maximize the payoffs for improvements to the art of submarining should be delineated.
In short, the dialogue in the Submarine Review, if generated in great part by active duty submariners (like the practicing doctors) . will tend to insure a development of the art of submarining to a high degree – despite an over abundance of good and bad information and an overwhelming burden of technical detail, which must be absorbed and treated in the course of a submariner’s duties.
I would hope that the Submarine Review’s aspirations to emulate JAMA are evident to the submarine profession from this as well as past editions.
