US submarines leap forward in quietness

[wanttaja]

I'm pretty sure The Hunt for Red October was not intended to be a realistic documentary about submarines.

The story goes that the Naval Institute (who originally published the book) gave a draft to a retired submariner to get his take on it. It came back with big red "BS" on many of the pages....

There's a big advantage to writing books on subjects that you have never had security clearances on....

Ron Wanttaja

 

[Jim_R]

But Down Periscope was?

I don't actually have a clue what that movie is. Sounds like I probably missed a joke!

 

[Tools]

It’s “Slapstick” of the sub world. Kelsey Grammer. Freakin GREAT movie, total sleeper….

I spent three days on a sub once, ONCE.

 

[Salty]

I don't actually have a clue what that movie is. Sounds like I probably missed a joke!

 

[Matthew]

I think "Down Periscope" is a favorite of my nephew, a submariner.

 

[SoonerAviator]

It’s “Slapstick” of the sub world. Kelsey Grammer. Freakin GREAT movie, total sleeper….

I spent three days on a sub once, ONCE.

XO: Jesus, Buckman! This stuff's been on here since Korea! This can expired in 1966!

Cook: What the matter, sir? It still tastes like creamed corn?!

XO: Except, it's deviled ham!

 

[bflynn]

I'm pretty sure The Hunt for Red October was not intended to be a realistic documentary about submarines.

It was intended to be a highly realistic fiction story, but the writer didn't know half as much as he thought he did.

 

[bflynn]

I don't know a whole lot about submarines, but I'm pretty sure it's impossible for the captain or anyone else alone to even drive it around on the surface, let alone dive it.

It would probably take at least two people, maybe three. In a pinch, one could do it, but they'd be really tired from running around.

One of our senior non-quals claimed to be super hot, so his 4 hour long pre-qualification board checkout by the chief started out with "Ok, you wake up and you're the only person on board. Everything is shut down and you just have emergency lighting. You have to return the boat to port." They were working in the corner of crews mess and everyone knew what was going on because hey, it's a submarine. Someone would walk through crews mess and within 5 minutes everyone else knew what he was struggling with. The checkout only lasted 4 hours because they got kicked out to prepare chow.

The guy walked away with about 200 lookups and a good dose of humility.

 

[robin ardoin]

The movie Das Boot, the original in germanic with subtitles, is an excellent movie and seems to accurately depict life on a WWII diesel-electric sub. Great acting as well. I saw the Americanized remake, The Boat, and was disappointed. Strong recommendations to see the original.

 

[Iflydogs]

For my money the movie that most accurately depicts the personal dynamics of the wardroom is “Crimson Tide”. The plot is nonsense of course but for a while I thought one of my old skippers had coached Hackman, I mean he nailed his megalomania. The scene where the Xo mentions to the CO to back off a bit and Hackman picks up the 1MC and says, anybody who is feeling bad can GET THE HELL off my boat? Saw that exact scene play out in real life.

I wrote a memoir about 3 Northern runs in the 80s against the Soviets, one to the North Pole, and was happily surprised by two things: The DoD approved it for publication with minor redactions, and I had not one but two agents who wanted to represent it! It’s before publishers now, but nobody has signed yet. When I have a publisher and a date I will put it here.

 

[Ghery]

The story goes that the Naval Institute (who originally published the book) gave a draft to a retired submariner to get his take on it. It came back with big red "BS" on many of the pages....

There's a big advantage to writing books on subjects that you have never had security clearances on....

Ron Wanttaja

Indeed. I remember being handed a copy of the book before the movie came out. They had to leave out at least 1/2 of the book or the movie would have been at least 4 hours long. It was a great sea story,

And you know the difference between a sea story and a fairy tale.

 

[wanttaja]

Indeed. I remember being handed a copy of the book before the movie came out. They had to leave out at least 1/2 of the book or the movie would have been at least 4 hours long. It was a great sea story,

And you know the difference between a sea story and a fairy tale.

One starts, "Once upon a time," and the other, "No s***, there I wuz...."

ANY novel has to be drastically condensed to fit into movie length. A guy did a script based on one of my published young-adult novels and it was sad to see how much was left out. Adam Savage (of Mythbusters), in his "Tested" Youtube channel, recently discussed this issue. He said the best adaptations were from short stories. He talks about it about halfway through this video.

I recently completed my second novel since retirement...science fiction, set ~20 years in the future, featuring a small manned space plane like a scaled-up X-37. All sorts of fun and games there. Have some of my fellow retirees helping me, and when one saw one of the plot points, he said, "Please don't use that." Too close to something he'd been involved with in the past.

Trying to get a publisher or agent. An article several years back says that the odds of getting an agent are 6,000 to 1. May end up self-publishing this one.

Ron Wanttaja

 

[Iflydogs]

Query tracker is a good website to use to find agents and track your queries, I recommend it. There are some publishers that accept un-agented work but the majority do not. There are lots of resources out there on how to write a query. I had good luck, I sent out 59 queries and got two agents—many more responded but they did not make an offer, ultimately.

 

[AV8R_87]

I think "Down Periscope" is a favorite of my nephew, a submariner.

Always a good laugh. It's that Admiral... Graham-ham-ham.
Lt. Lake, you're almost out of uniform!

The movie Das Boot, the original in germanic with subtitles, is an excellent movie and seems to accurately depict life on a WWII diesel-electric sub. Great acting as well. I saw the Americanized remake, The Boat, and was disappointed. Strong recommendations to see the original.

That movie is the absolute gold standard!

This might stir some controversy, but I think K-19: The Widowmaker is actually better than The Hunt for Red October.

 

[Iflydogs]

Always a good laugh. It's that Admiral... Graham-ham-ham.
Lt. Lake, you're almost out of uniform!


That movie is the absolute gold standard!

This might stir some controversy, but I think K-19: The Widowmaker is actually better than The Hunt for Red October.

Agree. It is based on a true story that makes for compelling reading. Imagine walking into a reactor compartment to make weld repairs knowing you will receive a lethal dose of radiation that will kill you slowly and painfully. Brave men.