BigBorePhil:
Thank you for your service. Although I am Army, I have great respect for my fellow veterans who go down to the sea in ships, and even more so for those of you who go under the sea. I live not far from New London, and my Dad, a WW2 Aviation Engineer GI, spent a good portion of his early years growing up there.
Besides, we both salute the same flag, and swore allegiance to the same country, and the only thing between us is different colors of the uniforms worn by the academy teams. I have read, with great pride, about the individual stories and the overall evidence that our sub force always outclassed the Red sub force during the period of time World History will forever call the Cold War, and I congratulate your and your submates, present and past, for a job well done..
When the youngest of my three children, Lisa, was a babe in arms in 1988, I took my family for a tour of the WW2 class sub on display at New London. She was silent during the entire walk through the ship. My oldest daughter, Julie, was about 11, and she walked through the sub in what appeared to be a state of disbelief. My son, Joseph Michael ("Jay"), was about 8, and he kept asking in disbelief, "Daddy, men went to war in ships like this?". And for the one and only time in our relationship, my (eventual ex-)wife was silent for a solid 30 minutes. Needless to say, they were astonished at the conditions which the WW2 submariners endured. And they were silent again when I told them that almost 50 submarines never returned, and that the 4,000 men who were in them were on perpetual patrol.
Again, thank you for your service, and that of your family.