POST GRADUATE EDUCATION
Post graduate education bas been a goal of most naval officers in recent years. This is in consonance with civilian society, where an advanced degree is desirable or even necessary for a wide variety of today’s professional. Advanced education is a broadening experience at the same time that it leads to a Navy subspecialty. The wide base of knowledge required to support a specialization tends to produce a more flexible, adaptable individual.
In past years, relatively few submarine officers were able to parti~ipate in post graduate programs. A rapidly growing force, inadequate accessions, and poor retention combined to require that submarine officers remain at sea. The good news is that improved accessions and retentions have resulted in a revised career path which provides a greater opportunity for post graduate education.
1 Reviewing the current status: there are now eighty-eight submarine officers either studying at post graduate schools or with orders to do so. At Monterey, previously hard-to-meet quotas have been met and exceeded with forty-four submarine officers assigned. Additionally, several officers are involved in special programs, Two are currently taking part in the Olmsted Foundation Scholarship Program which provides for two years study at overseas universities. Six 1120’s are involved in the HIT/Woods Hole Joint Masters in Oceanography Program, whioh leads to designation as an oceanography subspecialist (xx49P). Three submarine officers are at Harvard, one at HIT, and one at the Defense Intelligence School. Submarine officers are also assigned to forty of the sixtyfour Naval ROTC units as instructors. These officers are encouraged to pursue masters degrees while on campus.
Completion of a masters degree normally leads to designation as a subspecialist in any one of numerous fields such as operations analysis, national security affairs, strategic planning, organizational effectiveness, and weapons systems engineering. In all, there are forty-eight approved subspecialties, and FY-86 saw submariners studying in twenty of these curricula. Clearly, submarine officers are well-represented among the Navy’s post graduate scholars.
Captain Edgar D. Hux, USN
HELP FOR ADMIRAL ECCLES’ PAPERS
With support from the Naval War College Foundation, we are engaged in following up the work of our friend, the late HADM Henry E. Eccles, USN.
In view of Admiral Eccles’ early specialization in submarines as this technology was developing during the 1920’s and ’30’s, we thought you and your organization might be interested in knowing about the Eccles Papers Project.
In connection with our work on Admiral Eccles Papers, we would very much appreciate learning of surviving submariners who served with Admiral Eccles in the submarine phase of his career, which extended from shortly after he graduated from the Naval Academy in the same class as Admiral Riokover until the mid-1930’s.
Scott 1. Boorman
Paul B. Levitt
Dept. of Sociology
Yale University
THE THERMOPYLAE
In September, I and an old submarine pal, my ex-commander, will be holidaying in America. We will be touring with our wives through the southern states. One of our targets is to visit the ALAMO in San Antonio. We are hoping to take a photo of my pal and I holding a white ensign with the •ALAMO• behind it. The ensign is the one we flew in the World War II submarine “THERMOPYLAE” whose name refers to the Spartan warriors who defended the Pass of Thermopylae during the Greek wars against the Persian Hordes. What brought about our idea was a quotation by an American general at the time of the Alamo:
“Thermopylae had her messenger of a defeat -the Alamo had none.” General Thomas Jefferson Green, 1841
The messenger referred to in the above quote was the 1st marathon runner who ran 26 miles from the Pass of Thermopylae to Athens to inform the Greek king of the Spartans great battle (300 Spartans against several thousand Persians.)
The motto of our submarine HHS/m THERMOPYLAE (P 355) was “Victory in Defeat.” As history showa, the brave men who fought and died in this submarine, actually brought about final victory by their acts of heroism.
Las Hanks
Hants, UK
CLASSIFIED INFORMATION NI TOM CLANCY’S BOOKS?
I write in response to Jim Patton’s letter in the July issue or the SUBMARINE REVIEW.
When I wrote THE HUNT for BED OCTOBER — and REP STORM RISING — at no time did I have access to sensitive information of any kind, unless you count what I read every morning in the Washington post.
The Naval Institute submitted the original manuscript of my first novel to two active-duty submarine officers, one a former submarine co, the other an officer qualified for command. Though one or these officers originally recommended against publication — on the issue of security -I demonstrated to him how I acquired all my technical information, and he withdrew his objection on the spot. I further offered to remove anything that he thought was somewhat sensitive, and received the following response: “I’m not going to tell you what to take out, you dumbass, it’s classified!” I have been told that I guessed right (and wrong) on a few things — but nobody will tell me ~ I guessed right (or wrong) on, of course. This is rather frustrating, but entirely proper.
To the best of my knowledge I have never been exposed to sensitive information by anyone, and I have no desire to be. On the other band, I am free ·to use anything I see in the open press, and there is no law against using one’s imagination.
Tom Clanoy
