Length:	560 feet
Beam:	42 feet
Draft:	36.5 feet
Displacement:	16,764 tons (Surfaced)
	18,750 tons (Submerged)
Cost:	Around $1.2 Billion each.
Crew Complement - 154 Total
Officers:	17
Chief Petty Officers:	15
E-6 and below:	122

For a period of 4 1/2 years...I was one of the latter.

My Tour of Duty
I reported aboard PCU Florida (not a "USS", yet) in December of 1982 as a Machinist Mate Third Class just out of Naval Submarine School. I had joined the Navy in 1981 and headed off to Naval Nuclear Power School after MM A School. I managed to pass all of my "Nuke School" classes, but came up a bit short on the final exam. After serving with Nukes later on, and seeing what they had to go through, I must admit to not being too upset that I went on to be an A-Ganger.

The boat was in new construction when I reported aboard. The first time I went below decks was with a shipmate who had gone through Nuke School and Sub School with me. It looked as if a large number of metallic spiders had been running around the boat. There were so many wires, cables, tubes and such that we couldn't locate the ladder from the Control Room down to the second deck.

New construction certainly is a great way to learn your boat. By the time the boat was commissioned, us new guys could hold our own on operation and maintenance of much of the equipment.

Shortly before commissioning, I managed to make Second Class. Later on, while we were doing various excercises in the state of Florida, I qualified Submarines. I would eventually do 6 Patrols over my 4 1/2 years on board and be frocked as a First Class when I decided to get out when my Naval Enlistment ended in 1987.

During my time on the boat, I was quite the "Happy Sailor". I can remember joking, in the middle of some of the worst ranting and raving, that "some day we'll look back on all this and laugh". What is really amazing was how soon that someday came after getting out. Looking back, I'm certain that I was quite the pain-in-the-ass (Sorry, shipmates). Well...we were all young once.

This Site

I've created this site to provide links to information and sites for the USS Florida, Trident Submarines and the Submarine Community as a whole. Over time, I plan to have scans of photographs taken while on board the boat and perhaps a few of the more interesting "Sea Stories" that I have from my brief Naval career.

I am also interested in hearing from anyone I served with, or anyone who has served on the USS Florida. That includes anyone who served on the previous USS Florida (BB 30). Drop me an e-mail and, if you have a site of your own, I'll be happy to include a link to you.

Links

MSNBC has a segment about Strategic Deterrence with a section called the Virtual USS Florida. Hopefully it will be available for quite sometime. It has several views of the sub, including "Surround Video" from Topside and Missile Compartment Second Level at the CAMP Watchstation.

The Official U.S. Navy Web Site has a Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarines Section in the Navy Fact File.

COMSUBPAC is the parent command of Submarine Group Nine, that is in turn, the parent command of the USS Florida (SSBN 728).