Shellback initiation

I first crossed on way from the Persian Gulf to Darwin, Australia on USS Helena (SSN-725) on 22 February 1994 (15 years ago, wow!), Longitude CLASSIFIED!

As is Navy tradition, there were some initiation rituals and a ‘Steel Beach Picnic’ and swim call on the equator.

Now get below decks and swap – Pollywog!

USS Helena (SSN-725)

I should add that I spent about 4.5 years of my life (from 1990-1995) living on a submarine. The ‘boat’ was stationed in Pearl Harbor, HI at that time and made several deployments in the Pacific Ocean. For you bubble-heads, it consisted of one NORPAC, two WESTPAC (the second one incuded some time in the Persian Gulf), and several EASTPAC deployments.
More information can be found here… http://www.skotfred.com/ssn725.php

I’ve made port calls in the following places…

  • San Diego, CA (Point Loma)
  • Bangor/Bremerton, WA
  • Victoria/Esquimalt, BC Canada
  • Nanoose, BC Canada
  • Guam
  • Yokosuka, Japan (south of Tokyo)
  • Sasebo, Japan (north of Nagasaki)
  • Chinhae, Korea
  • Pattaya Beach, Thailand
  • Singapore
  • Bahrain
  • Abu Dhabi, UAE
  • Dubai
  • Darwin, NT Australia