Extra reading: And what is a skyhook?” From Eagle1 and Fred Fry International Maritime Monday 93!
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Here is the new course of Monday Maritime Matters I promised, brought on by non-coincidental coincidence. That led me to a story about sea going vessels that, like the well done “Six Frigates” by Ian Toll, is far more than a story of the Navy; It’s a story of business, shipbuilding, pre-WWII political and economic history, with seamanship on linland waterways tossed in.

“Fresh Water Submarines” by RADM William T. Nelson. It came to me when the widow of Capt William J Godfrey, USNR (Ret) (Plankowner on USS POGY (SS-266)), loaned me some of his files to look through for some first person history for the blog. The book was in the first set of papers she left for me.First off, having now finished the book, it is a story that begins in 1836 with the establishment of shipbuilding on the shores of Lake Michigan by Captain J.V. Edwards, tracing the lineage of the establishment of the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company in 1902 (originally named the Manitowoc Drydock Company). From there, the history describes the business strategies of the owners, primarily Mr. Charles West and his continual work to look to the future and keep the business viable.The result? The company remained alive through the Depression, with a skilled workforce, and, when President Roosevelt decided to begin building the Navy up (in FY 1937) from the post-Washington Treaty demise, Mr. West lobbied to build destroyer escorts, figuring they would be small enough to get from the Great Lakes to sea. Recall, at the time, the St Lawrence Seaway was not developed. He kept connected to the Department of the Navy, letting them know he was ready to work and his staff had been busy making the initial plans.So what do you do, when the Navy summons you to DC in early 1941 to give you a contract for building 10 GATO Class submarines? The book tells you.Besides the fact you have never considered building a combat submersible hull, how do you get a vessel that draws more than 9′ of draft from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico with 21 locks to transit? Oh, yes: You have always launched hulls sideways and no one is sure if a sub hull will be able to be put in the water that way successfully in the narrow water ways around the shipyard.Well, you build it, commission it, train the crew in Lake Michigan, decommission it, load it on a drydock, hook up the tug and send it on it’s way south, around bends, under bridges, stopping on the river banks when necessary (sometimes not intentionally), deliver the boat to New Orleans, reinstall the periscopes and their shears, recommission it, load food, fuel and torpedoes and send the sub to war. That’s the executive summary.

The book is a study in the men, machinery and families who made this happen, covering the excellent foresight of the shipyard owners, who not only built ferries and ore ships, but cranes and specialized shipbuilding machinery to keep the skilled workforce in place, so when this requirement arose, they were up to the challenge, and, as it turned out, were able to deliver the boats faster than Electric Boat! Bonus information includes details of the operations of the river pilots and tow skippers, along with the issues of navigating rivers.

The Navy was so impressed with the early performance, a second contract, for more subs was ordered, before the first sub was built. Toss in the complication that the war had now begun and the strategic imperative took on a entirely new meaning. The story proceeds to tell of the complications of building up a work force, getting skilled labor in place to augment the generational workers already there. Building special jigs to rotate the 9 hull sections to allow welders to work in the best position for the best quality of their beads. Later, a third contract was given to the Manitowoc company, too.

The Navy then tasked, in February 1942, out of the blue, the construction of 450 LCT-5 craft to support amphibious landings. Later, the added requirement came to design and build the LCT-6s. Toss in a contract to build 6000 cranes for the Navy and Army for forward deployment, all as a result of keeping a company positioned and ready to aggressively take on new tasks with great efficiency.

A total of 28 submarines were built, short of the 41 tasked in original contracts, because it became apparent the war was coming to a close. The 28th submarine, the USS MERO (SS-378) wasn’t commissioned in time to reach the war zone and was tasked with conducting a public affairs cruise around the Great Lakes so the people could get a good look at what they had helped to build.

The book discusses, in depth, the specifications of the contracts, the interactions with Electric Boat, the costs and profits, equipment provided, special items and arrangements, and the transit of the USS PETO (SS-265) (the first Manitowoc boat) to the Gulf of Mexico and Panama for combat training. Interaction with the on site SUPSHIP reps and descriptions of the commissioning parties are there, too (complete with commentary reminiscent of my own experience in Pascagoula, MS).

The boats earned a reputation among the crews who took them into combat, and the maintenance units who serviced them as well built hulls, constructed with the understanding sailors lives were at risk.

RADM Nelson completes the story with some excellent analysis of the contract performance, showing specifics of costs, profits and the associated issues in the financial realm.

I highly recommend this book, not because it is a book on submarines, but because it is a wonderful case study of a business that grew and thrived in bad times and good, and when they had to perform, they successfully adapted and exceeded expectations. In the early part of the book, the story of the national mood and decisions regarding the size of the Navy, puts the history of the Navy in context for the time between WWI and II. Some details of the difficulties facing our submariners in the combat theater are also discussed, in the context of how the shipyard managed to re-engineer the dive planes and some other system to allow faster diving times and periscope vibration problems.

The company lives on today, still with it’s hand in the shipbuilding/repair business and building cranes, among other diversified operations, such as a major operation in food service machines. Checking this page, the Manitowoc Company currently has it’s hand in the LCS project, building improved lighterage barges for the Navy and the construction of USCG Great Lakes Icebreakers.

Not only is this book available from Amazon, I also found this site, Submarine Books, that has a lengthy list of books on submarines, old and new!

Found in an un-named SWO forum: Why it’s better to work at MacDonald’s than on a Sub:

1) No McORSE
2) If you have to take a piss, you can go take a piss. No questions asked.
3) You’ll never have to go port and starboard on the fryer.
4) Better pay.
5) The sun.
6) Air.
7) The boxes of food at McDonald’s aren’t stamped “Rejected by Hardee’s” or “Not fit for human consumption”.
8) Cool The ability to call in sick.
9) The ability to quit.
10) McDonald’s doesn’t get their uniforms from the same company as the state penitentiary.
11) McDonald’s doesn’t deploy.
12) They have actual janitors.
13) No McDrills.
14) The grill breaks, you CALL someone to fix it.
15) At least your boss accepts that he’s a clown.
16) No McResin Discharge.
17) No all night hydro on the fryer.
18) Cool One word: overtime.
19) Every day is slider day!
20) At McDonald’s, you will never, EVER, worry about being put in prison for ten years because you told your wife what the secret sauce is.
21) They pay you for training.
22) You’ll never die a horrible, excruciating death from the crush depth implosion of a McDonald’s.
23) No steam piping.
24) No time at McDonald’s will you hear your boss give a thirty minute dissertation over the P.A. on the importance of being at the register 15 minutes early.
25) They won’t ask you about Taco Bell operations on the advancement test.
26) You get to leave work EVERY day at the end.
27) McDonald’s will eventually fire the really stupid employees.
28) Cool Two words: Happy Meals.
29) McDonald’s doesn’t look like a big black turd.
30) Grimace doesn’t do Vulcan Death Watches.
31) McDonald’s has a slide out back.
32) To do something at McDonald’s, you look at the color coded chart, not OP umpty-squat, chapter whatever, reference 3, ACN B, rev 17.
33) If McDonald’s catches fire, you LEAVE.
34) No McSmall Valve Maintenance.
35) No McCOB.
36) Leaving McDonald’s in an emergency doesn’t require a steinke hood and a lot of praying.
37) The coffee’s better.
38) Cool Someone else makes the water.
39) You don’t have to live there to work there.
40) The only cones come from the ice cream machine.
41) McDonald’s doesn’t go into dry-dock. (again and again)
42) ALL the tests are multiple choice.
43) Their TV commercials are a lot cooler.
44) Three words: Sea Foam Green.
45) Stock in McDonald’s is worth something. The Navy is a part of an operation that is 6 trillion dollars in the hole.
46) Special sauce isn’t “hand made”.
47) No McBilges to clean.
48) Cool Opening for business doesn’t require a full day of preparations and everyone to show up for a brief at 0230.
49) Three words: Stupid ass hats.
50) Personnel inspection requirements are written on the door. (No shirt, no shoes, no service)
51) At McDonald’s, dislocating your shoulder is not considered getting the good deal.
52) McDonald’s never had an accident that cause a person to be stuck to the ceiling impaled on a french fry. (i.e.. No Mc-SL1)
53) Because you deserve a break today.
54) Even the little Hamburglar is cooler than a goat.
55) Mayor McCheese doesn’t wield a righteous thumb of indignation.
56) You can choose which McDonald’s you want to work at.
57) If you want to buy your boss a beer, that’s okay.
58) Cool If you want to tell your boss to screw off, that’s okay too.
59) There is no Uniform Code of McDonald’s Justice to deal with.
60) The news comes from USA Today, not Ric Crawford, GS-12.
61) No one will rack you out at 0200 in the morning to start the grill.
62) Chances of you getting called back after you get off work are pretty darn slim.
63) Putting the pickle on the hamburger doesn’t require an QA-34 and a signature to be used against you in a court of law, should they want you.
64) The only guy in a silly yellow suit is Ronald.
65) How many McDonald’s were sunk in W.W.II?
66) Fixing the register doesn’t require a rubber room and a rope man.
67) Nothing on the menu contains the phrases, “Horse cock” or “baboon ass”.
68) Cool At McDonald’s, the riders would have to leave at closing time.
69) $2.99 is a meal price, not a daily wage at McDonald’s.
70) You don’t have to go single register operations if someone spills a Coke.
71) McDonald’s doesn’t require a 24 hour Shutdown Register Operator and McRoving Watch.
72) McDonald’s doesn’t call your house at 0530 in the morning blaring some awful antiquated song about a bugler just to wake you up.
73) No McRadcon.
74) At McDonald’s, your boss will never make you drive him around for two and a half months so he can spy on Wendy’s.
75) You will never be locked in for 24 hours pretending to operate everything. (i.e. no McFastcruise)
75.5) You don’t have to come in to work at 0700 only to wait around for an hour waiting for your boss to tell you things you already know.
76) At McDonald’s you will never hear, “Shake machine troubleshooting team, and all off watch drink makers, lay aft.”
77) No McGMT.
78) Cool At McDonald’s you don’t have to route a 1250 for a new stack of cups.
79) If you burn a hamburger they won’t take away half a month’s pay for two months and restrict you to the playground.
80) Knowledge of the material of construction and variable operating characteristics of the grill are not prerequisites for operation.
81) You don’t have to take apart the shake machine once a quarter just because.
82) You don’t have to share your bed with two coworkers.
83) You don’t have to shave off your goatee when the district manager comes.
84) At McDonald’s, when the toilet clogs, you don’t rig pressurized air to the head.
85) You don’t have to shut everything off and call in the last shift to start the grill.
86) Early in the morning, you don’t cycle the drink machine on and off just for practice.
87) You scrub the floors because it’s dirty, not because it’s Wednesday.
88) Cool There is almost always plenty of parking. If not, drive through.
89) Don’t like what you got? Take it back.
90) You don’t have to take a turbidity prior to putting a new catsup dispenser on service.
91) Failure of the warming oven door to open is not a panic causing event. It will also not preclude you from starting another fryer or pulling the fries out of the vat due to interlock.
92) No Mc-HPACs.
93) No one hates it so bad they refer to it simply as “The Mac”.
94) No 16 hour days at McDonald’s prototype making burgers in the middle of the desert for no one.
95) If you wipe up a ketchup spill at McDonald’s, you don’t have to let it dry before you throw it away.
96) They won’t secure one of the register operators to keep track of the people going into Burger King.
97) You don’t have to have permission from the Manager, Assistant Manager, and Register Operator before going into the freezer.
98) Cool At McDonald’s, the toilet paper stays in the bathroom, not on the dinner table.
99) You don’t have to completely undress to pinch a loaf.
100) ALL of the articles of the Constitution apply to you at McDonald’s.

It appears there’s a call to wear green on the 11th of January to show support for our troops and to show dissenting opinions to the Close GTMO ACLU types….Details here.

40,000 lbs of ordnance delivered via airmail Skin Deep download on your doorstep….Oh, and only 10 minutes needed to “offload” for you…

Update: News at 11!

Professor who white-washed the Crescent of Embrace was Paul Murdoch’s classmate at UCLAAn excerpt from the Park Service investigation into the Flight 93 memorial identifies one of their consultants as a scholar from MIT who “wishes to remain anonymous.” Another document identifies this person as a religious scholar or a professor of Islamic architecture. MIT does not have a religion department, and they only have one professor of Islamic architecture: Professor Nassar Rabbat, who has confirmed that he is the Park Service consultant.

A check of Rabbat’s background shows that he was a classmate of Paul Murdoch, both getting masters degrees in architecture from UCLA in 1984 and both doing their masters work on Middle Eastern subjects. Murdoch wrote a “masters project” titled: “A museum for Haifa, Israel.” Rabbat did a masters thesis titled: “House-form, climactic response and lifestyle: a study of the 17-19th century courthouse houses in Cairo and Damascus.”

This connection between Murdoch and Rabbat raises the possibility that Murdoch himself orchestrated the Park Service investigation into warnings about his own design. Rabbat denies knowing Murdoch, but given the blatant dishonesty of what he told the Park Service, that denial cannot be trusted.

Rabbat lied about something that every practicing Muslim knows

Rabbat’s first “major talking point” (from the Memorial Project’s White Paper, towards the bottom) is a blatantly dishonest excuse for why the Park Service should not be concerned about the almost exact Mecca orientation of the Crescent of Embrace. A crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca is called a mihrab and is the central feature around which every mosque is built. Rabbat assures the Park Service that because the Mecca orientation of the Crescent of Embrace is inexact, it can’t be seen as a mihrab:

Mihrab orientation is either correct or not. It cannot be off by some degrees.

Absolutely false, and Rabbat certainly knows it. This goes to the most basic principle of mosque design: that all mosques are expressions of Muhammad’s prototype.

Muhammad’s original mosque in Medina was not oriented precisely on Mecca. It was built to face Jerusalem. Later in his career Muhammad changed the direction that Muslims were to face for prayer (their qibla direction). Instead of facing north from Medina to Jerusalem they were to face south, towards Mecca (Koran 2.142-145). To effect this change, Muhammad just started using the southerly wall of his mosque as his “qibla wall” instead of the northerly wall, even though this wall had not been built to face Mecca.

In the abstract, Muhammad held the qibla direction from Medina to be “south.” But Mecca is not quite due south from Medina either. Thus both in practice and in the abstract, Muhammad was not particular about an exact orientation on Mecca, and in Islam, what is good enough for Muhammad has to be good enough for everyone. He is the model.

This leeway to face only roughly towards Mecca for prayer is not some obscure bit of doctrine. Every practicing Muslim knows that qibla orientation does not have to be exact because they all have to avail themselves of this allowance pretty much every day as they seek walls that are oriented not too far off of Mecca which they can face into for their frequent prayers.

Rabbat just flat out lied about something that every practicing Muslim knows, and this is an expert in Mosque design. He knows better than anyone the historic leeway afforded in Mecca orientation.

Is Rabbat the source of Patrick White’s foolishness?

Rabbat’s dishonest report to the Park Service may explain an amazing argument made by Patrick White, Vice President of Families of Flight 93. At the July 2007 public meeting of the Memorial Project, White argued in a private conversation that the almost exact Mecca-orientation of the giant crescent cannot be intended as a tribute to Islam because the inexactness of it would be “disrespectful to Islam.”

At the same time as White was privately making excuses for the almost exact Mecca orientation of the crescent, he was telling the newspapers that the Mecca orientation claim was false and preposterous, so he certainly cannot be absolved. But it is possible that he himself was misled about how Muslims would regard an inexactly oriented mihrab.

The Memorial Project received Rabbat’s comments about a year earlier, and Patrick White certainly had access to them. It seems likely that when White said that an inexact orientation on Mecca would be “disrespectful to Islam,” he was following Rabbat’s “can’t be off” lead.

The crescent design also includes an exact Mecca orientation

If Nassar Rabbat actually read the information that Alec Rawls sent to the Memorial Project, he would know that in addition to the physical crescent, the Crescent of Embrace design also includes a thematic crescent, defined by architect Paul Murdoch himself. The upper tip of this thematic crescent is the point where, in Murdoch’s explanation, the flight path breaks the circle. If this thematic or “true” upper crescent tip is used to define the orientation of the crescent, then the crescent points exactly to Mecca.

If Rabbat really thinks that exactness is what matters, he would have been alarmed to see that this thematic crescent is oriented exactly on Mecca. Instead, he ignored it.

The Park Service already knew about the Mecca orientation of the crescent

The Park Service’s other Islamic scholar, Kevin Jaques, did the same thing as Rabbat. He admitted the similarity between the giant Mecca oriented crescent and a traditional Islamic mihrab, then concocted a blatantly dishonest excuse for why the Park Service shouldn’t be concerned about it. Jaques assured the Park Service that there was no reason to worry because no one had ever seen a mihrab this big before:

Thirdly, most mihrabs are small, rarely larger than the figure of a man, although some of the more ornamental ones can be larger, but nothing as large at the crescent found in the site design. It is unlikely that most Muslims would walk into the area of the circle/crescent and see a mihrab because it is well beyond their limit of experience. Again, just because it is similar does not make it the same.

If Jaques and Rabbat were willing to engage in such blatantly dishonest excuse-making, why did they start out by admitting that the giant crescent was geometrically close to a perfect mihrab? Because the Park Service already knew that the giant crescent was oriented almost exactly on Mecca, and that a crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca is the central feature around which every mosque is built.

Advisory Commission member Tim Baird would admit this explicitly in 2007, but it was obvious much earlier. What the Park Service wanted when it conducted its internal investigation in the spring and summer of 2006 was excuses not to be concerned about these damning facts, and that is what Jaques and Rabbat provided. Similarly for the egregious Daniel Griffith, the “professor of geospatial information,” who told the newspapers that “anything can point to Mecca, because the earth is round.”

The Park Service knew this was all fraudulent. Griffith’s “anything can point to Mecca” and Rabbat’s “it has to be exact” were complete contradictions of each other, but the Park Service gladly embraced both as excuses to pretend that there was nothing to worry about.

If these government functionaries were this desperate for a cover up, it is certainly plausible that they would accept any help they could get from Paul Murdoch. Not that it is hard to find radically dishonest, America-hating academics, but these three frauds are outliers even by worst standards.

More dishonest excuse-making from Rabbat

Rabbat’s next talking point is more of the same dishonest excuse-making:

Besides, in the US, a debate has been going on as to which is the right Mecca orientation: the one going through the North Pole or the one that follows a flat representation of the globe.

The orientation “through the North Pole” (55.2° clockwise from north, to be precise) is the great-circle direction to Mecca. This great circle direction to Mecca is the orientation of the Crescent of Embrace (almost exactly), and it is the direction in which almost all Muslims pray.

A few dissenters pray in the rhumb-line direction to Mecca (the direction of constant compass heading, which spirals down the globe in an east-southeasterly direction from North America). Rabbat pretends that the existence of these few dissenters somehow makes the whole matter of the Mecca oriented crescent a non-issue.

If anything, the debate over qibla direction shows the flexibility of the qibla direction, giving the lie to Rabbat’s earlier assertion that mihrab orientation “can’t be off.”

Rabbat certainly knows that the great-circle direction to Mecca is the dominant qibla direction. (It won out over the rhumb line direction for the very good reason that a person facing in the rhumb-line direction to Mecca is not actually facing Mecca, since the rhumb-line follows a curved path.) But don’t worry about a little thing like the crescent facing in the dominant qibla direction. Rabbat has plenty of lame excuses why you don’t need to care.

Tom Burnett’s call for a Congressional investigation

The Park Service won’t say how they came up with Griffith, Jaques and Rabbat so we have to force them. A lot of People must be forced to answer these and a lot of other hard questions, and the only way to do it is to heed Tom Burnett’s call for a Congressional Investigation.

Stop the Memorial Blogburst

1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech
A Defending Crusader
A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever
And Rightly So
Big Dog’s Weblog
Big Sibling
Cao2’s Weblog
Cao’s Blog
Chaotic Synaptic Activity
Error Theory
Faultline USA
Flanders Fields
Flopping Aces
Four Pointer
Freedom’s Enemies
Ft. Hard Knox
GM’s Corner
Hoosier Army Mom
Ironic Surrealism II
Jack Lewis
Kender’s Musings
My Own Thoughts
Nice Deb
Ogre’s Politics and Views
Part-Time Pundit
Right on the Right
Right Truth
Stix Blog
Stop the ACLU
The Renaissance Biologist
The View From the Turret
The Wide Awakes
Thunder Run

If you want to join the blogroll/blogburst for the Crescent of Betrayal blogburst, email Cao at caoilfhionn1 at gmail dot com, with your blog’s url address. The blogburst will be sent out once a week to the participants, for simultaneous publication on this issue on Wednesdays.

Leave it to some passionate curious and driven person to do what the “professionals” say can’t be done.

I’d keep my ear to the railroad tracks about this person of the post: Johnathon Goodwin.

Big hat tip to lawhawk at A Blog for All for pointing out this article on Johnathon who is making cars into low emission, high mileage speed demons. A turbine powered Hummer hybrid that can do 0 to 60 in 5 seconds and gets 60 mpg and generates 600HP? Got a diesel? He has done magic using left over cooking grease and even took a ’65 Impala and converted it to be able to get 25 mpg and lay a whooping on a Lamborghini on the drag strip!

A teaser from the Fast Company Magazine “Motorhead Messiah” article:

[…]
Goodwin leads me over to a red 2005 H3 Hummer that’s up on jacks, its mechanicals removed. He aims to use the turbine to turn the Hummer into a tricked-out electric hybrid. Like most hybrids, it’ll have two engines, including an electric motor. But in this case, the second will be the turbine, Goodwin’s secret ingredient. Whenever the truck’s juice runs low, the turbine will roar into action for a few seconds, powering a generator with such gusto that it’ll recharge a set of “supercapacitor” batteries in seconds. This means the H3’s electric motor will be able to perform awesome feats of acceleration and power over and over again, like a Prius on steroids. What’s more, the turbine will burn biodiesel, a renewable fuel with much lower emissions than normal diesel; a hydrogen-injection system will then cut those low emissions in half. And when it’s time to fill the tank, he’ll be able to just pull up to the back of a diner and dump in its excess french-fry grease–as he does with his many other Hummers. Oh, yeah, he adds, the horsepower will double–from 300 to 600.

“Conservatively,” Goodwin muses, scratching his chin, “it’ll get 60 miles to the gallon. With 2,000 foot-pounds of torque. You’ll be able to smoke the tires. And it’s going to be superefficient.”

He laughs. “Think about it: a 5,000-pound vehicle that gets 60 miles to the gallon and does zero to 60 in five seconds!”
[…]

Enough…read the lengthy article and believe yourself!

embedded by Embedded Video

More “gouge” here. Teaser from a blog entry:

11/21/2007 Sarge and Wendy’s Daily Blog

When you set your alarm clock for 4.30 a.m. to get up and dirt dive, it had better be worth it. The drive to Lake Wales airport is dark and cold. The coffee at IHOP on the way begins to make it bearable. Bleary eyes start to open and smiles begin to creep across tired faces. The smiles always become wider as you walk past Alan Gutshall who somehow manages to be first up, coffee in hand and always ready with a “Good morning, sir, good to see y’all” as you make your way to the 5.30 a.m. circle up.

In short, today was worth getting up for.

We set up the formation inside the armoury which is our home for the week, walked it out on the runway outside and boarded our aircraft around 7.30 for another crack at the 100 diamond. Spirits were definitely up. The chase CASA went over the base at 18,000 and by 12,500 feet the thirty-six way base was hammering through the sky. The formation built to 64 quickly and relatively smoothly by around 7,500 feet and the row 9 wings were called in. The row 10 wings came in shortly afterwards and the formation built into 90’s by the time it reached the 5,000 hard deck. Mike Lewis gave a “hold on” call in anticipation of the last four people docking and to the sound of arch calls we waited. And waited. And waited…and waited…and…well, you get the picture.
[…]

With stuff like this to do…why wouldn’t you want to jump out of a “perfectly good airplane?”

The Mechanik trailer

Opening notes:

• Required reading: Eagle1’s Sunday Ship History – Quonset Huts and Fred Fry’s Maritime Monday 92;
• I know I promised a different course today, but I left the primary source book behind on Friday. Next week will be the kick off of some interesting Maritme Matters.

RADM Julius A. Furer, USN
ADM Furer, a Naval Academy graduate of 1901 was the head of his class, and a man who got things done. Along the way, he set the stage for success in several warfighting areas, as well as supporting disciplines, earning a Navy Cross during WWI.From the Haze Gray website, the longest biography I could find on this man:

Julius Augustus Furer, naval constructor, inventor, administrator, and author, was born 9 October 1880 at Mosel, Wis. Appointed to the Naval Academy in 1897, he graduated at the head of his class in 1901. After sea duty in INDIANA (Battleship No. 1) and SHUBRICK (Torpedo Boat No. 31), he acquired a Master of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1905.

In the era of great naval expansion after the Spanish-American War, Furer established a reputation for professional competence in his remarkably expeditious outfitting of the Navy Base at Charleston, S.C., which at that time lacked a physical plant, natural resources, and a skilled shipbuilding labor force.

While serving in the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1911, he applied new theories of scientific management. His advanced thinking and methods of procurement brought him the added task of purchasing all tools, machinery, and dock facilities for the Navy’s new base for the Pacific Fleet-Pearl Harbor. Furer installed the equipment in 18 months, but delayed his departure when submarine F-4 (Submarine No. 23) sank in 50 fathoms off Honolulu. He insisted on salvaging her, and invented a submersible pontoon which
raised the boat and enabled her to be moved to drydock. An investigation of her hull revealed a design error which was corrected to avoid similar accidents.

Furer returned to Washington late in 1915 and took charge of the Supply Division, Bureau of Construction and Repair. Against some opposition by advocates of smaller vessels, he proposed the construction of 110-foot submarine chasers to meet the threat of the German U-boat. Furer’s arguments persuaded the Navy’s General Board to order 450 vessels constructed on Furer’s basic design. These contributions to the American war effort earned Furer the Navy Cross.

Following the war, he reported to the staff of the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, and tirelessly devoted his talent to the improvement of damage control, ship design, and crew comfort. From December 1922 to April 1927, he was a member of the U.S. Naval Mission to Brazil.

Furer next was assigned to the Asiatic Station, where he developed extensively the aircraft facilities at Cavite,
Philippine Islands.

In 1928, he became Manager of the Industrial Department of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and supervised the modernization of battleships PENNSYLVANIA (BB-38) and NEW MEXICO (BB-40). Under his management, the yard set records for low costs and speed of construction.

Between July 1935 and December 1937, Furer was Naval Attache at embassies in London, Paris, Berlin, and Rome.

His technical advice aided the American delegation to the London Naval Conference in 1936.

A Rear Admiral at the outbreak of World War II, he became the Coordinator of Research and Development, and the
senior member of the National Research and Development Board. He coordinated widespread research that speeded
development of modern weapons systems for the Navy. These services won Furer the Legion of Merit 30 June 1945.

Julius Furer retired from active service in 1945, but was recalled to duty in the Navy’s History Division in 1951. During a second retirement, he wrote the widely acclaimed study, “Administration of the Navy Department in World War II,” published in 1960.

Rear Admiral Julius A. Furer died 6 June 1963 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

In honor of ADM Furer, the USS JULIUS A FURER (DEG-6, later FFG-6), a ship of the BROOKE Class, was commissioned Nov 11th, 1967 at Bath, ME, another fine product of Bath Iron Works. Another site, for the Plank Owners, is here.Decommissioned in the US Navy Nov 10th, 1988, she was recommissioned in the Pakistani Navy as Badr (D-161) and served in that navy until retuning custory to the US Navy in 1993. She was scrapped in 1994. The FURER was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet.

I found it at Obsideian Wings, where this man was one of the authors. I hadn’t read the blog before, but Andy had pre-positioned a post for this occasion.

He was killed in Iraq 1/3/2008. Yesterday.

Andy Olmsted, US Army, Blogger. Photo credit: Rocky Mountain News

“I am leaving this message for you because it appears I must leave sooner than I intended. I would have preferred to say this in person, but since I cannot, let me say it here.”
G’Kar, Babylon 5

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
Plato*

This is an entry I would have preferred not to have published, but there are limits to what we can control in life, and apparently I have passed one of those limits. And so, like G’Kar, I must say here what I would much prefer to say in person. I want to thank hilzoy for putting it up for me. It’s not easy asking anyone to do something for you in the event of your death, and it is a testament to her quality that she didn’t hesitate to accept the charge. As with many bloggers, I have a disgustingly large ego, and so I just couldn’t bear the thought of not being able to have the last word if the need arose. Perhaps I take that further than most, I don’t know. I hope so. It’s frightening to think there are many people as neurotic as I am in the world. In any case, since I won’t get another chance to say what I think, I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. Such as it is.

“When some people die, it’s time to be sad. But when other people die, like really evil people, or the Irish, it’s time to celebrate.”
Jimmy Bender, “Greg the Bunny”

“And maybe now it’s your turn to die kicking some ass.”
Freedom Isn’t Free, Team America

What I don’t want this to be is a chance for me, or anyone else, to be maudlin. I’m dead. That sucks, at least for me and my family and friends. But all the tears in the world aren’t going to bring me back, so I would prefer that people remember the good things about me rather than mourning my loss. (If it turns out a specific number of tears will, in fact, bring me back to life, then by all means, break out the onions.) I had a pretty good life, as I noted above. Sure, all things being equal I would have preferred to have more time, but I have no business complaining with all the good fortune I’ve enjoyed in my life. So if you’re up for that, put on a little 80s music (preferably vintage 1980-1984), grab a Coke and have a drink with me. If you have it, throw ‘Freedom Isn’t Free’ from the Team America soundtrack in; if you can’t laugh at that song, I think you need to lighten up a little. I’m dead, but if you’re reading this, you’re not, so take a moment to enjoy that happy fact.
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There is more…much more.

Thanks, Andrew, and to your family, also, for your sacrifice.

Just one more nail in the coffin…

Thank you, environmentalist whack jobs who think it’s better for marine mammals to not get confused with too many man-made acoustic signals in the water…