ADMIRAL FRANK CALDWELL, USN
DIRECTOR NAVAL REACTORS
Admiral Padgett, congratulations and thank you, sir, for your leader- ship. Thank you also for sorting out the slide issues. Jay, I trust that there will be a suitable critique at the end of this.
You know you’re at a submarine conference when you notice that all the men in the men’s room, when they’re done using the sink, they take the time to wipe off the counter. I mean, that’s an ingrained cultural item and it’s hard to get away from. But anyway, it is great to be here.
Thank you, Jay, for the introduction. Thank you to the Navy Subma- rine League for all that you do for us, not only for this event but for all that you do to strengthen our submarine family, to communicate and ad- vocate for the submarine force, and to recognize our submariners for all of their accomplishments. Congratulations to this year’s award winners. A special congratulations to Mr. Dan Tyler, Vice Admiral Ron Thun- man, and Vice Admiral Dan Cooper. I’d like to say, gentlemen, thank you for your lifetime of service and contributions to the U.S. Navy and the nation. Our force today is stronger because of your sacrifices and your commitments to the nation. I’d also like to publicly recognize Admiral Carter’s lifetime of service to the nation as well. And last but not least, I’d like to thank and recognize our industry leaders for your partnership in delivering and sustaining a strong submarine force that is so vital to our national security
Every time I come to this conference I’m reminded of my dad and the submarine family that I grew up in. My dad was all in on subma- rines, and so were we in our house. I’ll give you some examples.
In our house, we did not turn down the volume on the TV, we turned down the volume by 3DB. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard my dad say that. My brothers and I learned to hate the recurring semi-annual force revision to the planned maintenance schedule for our home. This was always conducted late in the evening and always involved a lot of what we would call quality time with dad.
Whenever we worked on a car there was a full-fledged underway testing that occurred. It was usually full ahead and with hard braking, and then full astern with hard braking as well. These were frequently conducted on a dark highway late at night after some long shift work in the garage.
Interestingly enough, though, there was always a discussion about ownership. It kind of went like this, he said before your family drives on it, you make sure you test and make sure it works right. There was a lesson in there. Little did I know that I would learn that lesson and have that responsibility on the submarine force.
We also had in our family the installation of TV aerials. A lot of you younger folks don’t know what those are, but TV aerial installation was a major evolution and a core competency in the Caldwell family. This usually required a pre-check of all the equipment, which included this rotor that turned the upper assembly, pre-stage tools on the roof, multi- ple stays that allowed us to get an extremely high look, even though we lived on top of a hill, and the assistance of two or three nuclear-trained officers who were unfortunate to live near us. They all attended the pre- brief, they all had assignments, and then before we went aloft everybody reviewed what they were going to do. I have to say we probably did not meet the rules for working aloft.
But anyway, the best part of this conference and being in the sub- marine family is the comaraderie. No matter where you go, no matter what port, no matter what station, that comaraderie comes right at you and there’s always a friend. So I think the most valuable part of this symposium is the chance to meet old friends, to reacquaint, and to gain new friends.
Since I have the honor of speaking first, I’m going to give you a short update on what’s going on in the Naval Reactors Program. I’ll just touch on the things that have happened since we last met, and then I’ll talk about our theme, which you can see at the top of the poster here “Getting Faster.”
We’ve been incredibly busy over the last year. There’s a lot on our plate. The Columbia, formerly known as the Ohio Replacement, remains
