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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 18, 1963)
. . MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFOBP, OREGON ( THURSDAY, APRIL ii, IMS 0 j Most Powerful Military Force Rests Near Summer Resort Town (Editor's not: A brief an nouncemeni from the U.S. Defense department on April 1 signaled a momen tous change in the Euro pean defense posture of America and its NATO al lies. On that day the first of three Polaris-equipped submarines took up station in the Mediterranean to re place land missile bases in Italy and Turkey that are toon to be dismantled. America's main defensive Mm in Europe from now on will be under water. Until new ones are estab lished, the only Polaris sub marine base in the world is in a peaceful little Scot tish Loch - Holy Loch -home of "Subron 14" or Polaris Submarine Squad ron 14. This is the story of auoron 14.) By ROBERT MUSEL United Press International Holy Loch, Scotland - ilirD -Somewhere beyond the Atlan tic mists Russian trawlers packed with electronic gear were fishing for herring - or information. Inside Holy Loch one of the two black shapes lying low in the water alongside the submarine depot ship, Hun ley, began to move slowly toward the Firth of Clyde and the open sea. The Polaris submarine John Marshall was leaving for sev eral days of manuevers be fore submerging for its rou tine 60 days of undersea patrol. This quiet loch, fringing the picturesque summer-resort building of an abbey, sank town of Dunoon, harbors the there. most nowerful mobile mill. 11 a11 looks as thollS" tary force known to man. It's name is "Subron 14" (Submarine Squadron 14) and it is as unobtrusive as it is deadly. A floating drydock, some small craft, the Huley itself and never more than two or three Polaris subma rines hugging its side - this is all anyone can see. and from the distant shore it isn't much. View Lessened Even what one does see is diminished by the expanse of water and the towering snow capped hills of Kilmtin be hind the loch which got its name in medieval times when a boatload of earth from he Holy Land, destined for the could be whisked away in a matter of hours and leave the loch to its seagulls and its legends. And this is exactly the case. During the Cuban crisis, with British ban-the-bombcrs crying out that Holy Loch was a front line target, the submarines switfly disap peared to action stations pre sumably off the coasts of Russia. The depot ship Proteus, re lieved by the Hunley a few weeks ago, also sped out to a secret rendezvous point at sea. Before the showdown came there was nothing left in the loch to draw an enemy's fire, nor will there ever be in any future crisis. It may be the realization of this that explains why has-: Washington may flex its the John Marshall, The Navy tile demonstratio i ..gainst the Polaris submarines by pa cifist groups, so frequent when the base was established in 1981, have become insig nificant. A widely proclaimed "all-night-vigil" to protest the arrival of the Hunley attract ed a grand total of six demonstrators. But the calm of the loch j a dozen Russian targets muscles but this thumb-shaped j also gave me every facility to naven, J.uuu miles away, is observe the deterrent opera the clenched list. Clenched Fist Each submarine's missile load is equal in power to all the bombs dropped on Naga saki and Hiroshima. Written into its electronic entrails is the obituary notice of half is deceptive. The Hunley, the first ship built from the keel up to handle Polaris craft, is the mother ship of nine missile-armed, submarines on active duty, with a tenth en route. Six or seven subma rines are always away on si lent 60-day patrols, never com municating by radio so as not to give away their positions, each with 16 missiles ready to fire in a matter of minutes. threat of instant and terrible revenge which Polaris sub marineers firmly believe fig ures painfully in the strategy of the Kremlin. Premier Nikita Khrushchev is said to be deeply impressed by Polaris. On this point I see eye to eye with the Rus sian dictator. I have just spent many hours examining the Robert E. Lee from the inside out, and been aboard VALUES TRADING STAMPS POTATOES U.S. No. 1's Golden Bell 10-lb. Bag . . . 29 CIEAN CLEANING (JP" COMPOUNDS PUREX Crisp, Tender - 2-lb. Cello Red Lettuce Each CARROTS ROMAINE STRAWBERRIES TOMATOES BLEACH Vi Gallon AERO WAX No Rub Quart WIZARD DEODORANTS EASY-OFF OVEN CLEANER .... 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CENTRAL POINT Closed Sunday 162 PINE STREET HOURS: 8 A.M. to 7 P.M. 19 Prices Effective XVn Through (fitTS, Sunday Lock for the Store Displaying the TIP - TOP MARKET SIGN in Your Area INDEPENDENTLY OWNED and OPERATED We Buy Right... We Sell Right Hon of "Subron 14" under the command of Captain Dav id E. Beii ot New London, Conn. Despite my Department of Defense credentials they pinned blue Bnd yellow tags on me which said "uncleared must be escorted." Security aboard these engineering mar vels is so strict that 1 was checked in and out ot vital areas, of the Robert E. Lee even though I was personally escorted by Commander Charles iChuckl Griffiths ot Kansas City who heads the "gold" crew. Takes Two Craws . There is a futuristic irony in the fact it takes two crews - a gold and a blue - to get the maximum use from a Po laris, it is the human ma chine rather than the nuclear one which needs the most maintenance so each crew takes over the submarine tor three months which Includes refitting, sea trials and a 60 day submerged patrol. Then the crew is flown home to the U.S. tor leave and a refresher course at the base at New London, while its replacement tlics in to nearby Prcslwiek airport. Commander Griffiths met me on the deck of the Robert : E. Lee as 1 climbed down trom the Huniey, Below us was the section ot the sub marine known to the crew as Sherwood forest or bird-: land - the home of the mis-: siles, ranged eight along each side of the ship under trap doors six teet across. The 30 fooi tubes extend down through all three decks of the submarine to the pads from which they are launched by jets ot compressed air. Like all the other Poiaris skippers i met, there is an enormous competence about Commander Griffiths. He was graduated from Annapolis with a bachelor of science de gree (Polaris captains are as much scientists as mariners). went into the nuclear power program and studied in wash of the officers disagreed with i or working. But there -is a the others about the interpre- tiny mess hall where are tattoo ot a signal they would i served the best food in the be authorized to withhold ! Navy and a new film is shown No Firing Chase j nearly every night. "Put it this way," said Grit- i When a man .-. ( j fith. "We are in constant com- j eight hours of duty he usually munication with our head quarters. We would get a coded message, extremely well authenticated, from the President through steps in the line. There arc all kinds ot built-in safeguards. And there is not the slightest possibility of a missile being tired with out an unmistakcabie and specific order to do so." I mentioned a report that Russia was so worried about Polaris U might assign some ot its fleet of killer subma rines to shadow each one per manently as soon as it was launched. "We've got killer subma rines, too," Griffiths chuckled "The ocean is a mighty big area and we are might silent ships." The Robert E, Lee is MS feet long, 33 feet in the beam and displaces about 5,800 tons. It's speed and the depths at which it can operate are secret but it can probably move faster and travel deeper than any other submarine be fore It, The John Marshall is bigger 410 teet long and 8,900 tons. And the LaFayette class Poiaris submarines are bigger still. During Crisis Griffiths has been on lour 80-day submerged patrols - one of them during the Cuban crisis when all of "Subron 14's" missiles were ready to strike at "multiple targets" if so ordered. He said the worst thing about these long submerged journeys is that the men cannot contact their families although they can receive messages from them, "But there's no real morale lactor because the men feel they are doing something im portant," he said. "They are ail volunteers Consider the navigations! resources ot the Robert E, Lee. For a successful missile launch, two positions must be known the submarine's and heads for his bunk and if he warns any privacy he draws a curtain. It Is an elite service sad anyone eligible to wear the dolphins insignia of the sub mariner is proud of it. Com mander Griffiths introduced me to two young officers who he said were among She first to go right into the nuclear program from Annapolis - Lt. William Ciesla of Buffalo, NY. and Lt, Jerome Rosen berger of New Castle, Pa. "i got them out of school a week early for this trip," he confided. Out To Practice We went sack on deck to watch the John Marshall leave under Commander Rob ert Donovan of Mason City, 111., whs heads its gold crew. It was going out to practice firing torpedoes and submerg ing and surfacing. "We've got to practice these," said Capt. Bell, "be cause ihe submarines stay down so long. Imagine a plane pilot who only got a chance to land hi plane once every two months?" The Polaris submarines ob viously cruise within 2 ,200 or 1.500 miles oi their Russian targets, depending on the type of submarine and the range of its missiles. Eventually it is hoped to extend the range of the missiles ss that depend ence on foreign bases will diminish or cease and the sub marines will he able to oper ate from the United States, Wast To Marry Aboard the 18,300-ton Hun ley an officer was consider ing requests from crewmen to marry Scottish girls. There were 130 marriages aboard the Proteus in the two years ol its duty here and the Huniey carries more men. There was one disconsolate crewman. Stewart McLaren left his native Edinburgh be cause he dldR t like the clt- Ington for a year under Ad- i the target's. So It is tmper a-1 mate, emigrated to subtropi- miral Hyman Rickover, J five that the navigation oftt- j cat Key West, Fl got called La Ready cer know within a few nun- up for national service and Although his gold crew had dred yards exactly when the i was posted to, of all places, just taken over, the Robert submarine is at ait times. 1 Holy Loch, E. Lee was in what he de- As soon as the Robert E. He was suffering from a scribed as "an Incredible state Lee moves along Hoiy Loch j cold. of readiness." 1 and clamps down its hatches j Seaman Ronald Locandro a nave to- get permission i where the Firth broadens into i ol Haw Brunswick. K.J., one of the Hunley" crew, watch ed the John Marshall fsde into the mists, "We are their slaves he said, giving point Us the Hun- from, Washington if 1 wanted) the sea - not in surface again to make any repair that for two months - its inertia! would take more than 24 j navigation computers continu hours," he said. felly calculate its position Griffiths said with ouieti from its movement in all di- humor that he realised there j rectioni. In addition there is ley's role of mother ship to were innge groups tnat tear- j a radiometric sextant to fix f the submarines. ed a Polaris captain might go position by measuring the ra-j In the Royal Marine hotel "berserk" and fire nuclear jdio waves emitted by the sun, j a group of Navy wives were missiles all over the place, a special periscope to take f discussing the lick of living The exact procedure leading j star sightings, an antenna for j accommodation in crowded up to an actual firing is natur-1 radio-navigation, and radar Dunoon and the acute lack ally secret but the orders and echo-soundinc eouinroent. i of central heatiBZ alone the j vould have to come from President Kennedy. A minimum of three offi cers aboard the Craft would have to agree that a message : to prepare to fire or to fire meant exactlv what it said - presumably the captain, the missile control officer and the executive officer. And if any Not Comfortable There is no pretense that Polaris submarines are the most comfortable places for 130 crewmen and officers: to spend two months. Some bunks are siung among the torpedoes and among the mis-: siles and every square inch! of space is either for sleeping Weak Argyllshire coast. One wife said she had been thinking of a holiday tour which included Leningrad but her husband's superiors had vetoed this. The Navy would be very unhappy if any rela tive of a man in the Polaris program fell into Russian hands. II Pol a r i s i y jy -S C O T I ANDjjr HARBORS POLARIS - This quiet Scottish could be whisked away from the loch in a ioch harbors the most powerfui mobile matter of hours to strategic positions In esse military force known to man; Poiaris mis- of sudden crisis or attack. UP1) sile carrying Submarine Squadron 14. Force Youth on Mission To Save Parents Object of Search Murphy, Idaho HM A30-j man party fanned out across; the wild and snow-blanketed; Owyhee mountains at dawn ; today in search ot a 19-year-old youth who became lost seeking help for his stranded parents. The Owyhee county sher iffs posse, bolstered by the Idaho Search and Rescue Team and light aircraft, re sumed its search lor Dclford Sharpe nf Gayway Junction, idaho. Car Break Dews The boy and his parents, Mr. snd Mrs David Sharpe, were stranded about two miles, from the ghost mining town of Silver City Sunday afternoon when their car broke down. They stayed with their car until Monday morning when Dclford set out for Silver City. Sheriff A! Barber's said: the youth had oniy an orange and pocketful of gingersnaps. ' There is no habitation within 1 20 miles of the spot and snow I drifts range to five feet deep. Wednesday morning the : elder Sharpe started hiking toward Murphy, the Owyhee ! county scat of some 50 popu lation 21 miles away. He was picked up by a rancher about 15 miles down the road. When Sharp got to Mur phy, a rescue party was or ganized. It bucked its way through a new snow fall to reach Mrs. Sharpe and bring her to Murphy. No trace was found of Dclford. The youth's anxious parents waited for news of their son after their rescue. "He's a stranger in that country - that rough coun try," Sharpe said. "He's nev er been in there before. I don't know what's happened." Grocers predict that wlthia 10 years 15 per cent of th nation potato trap will g to processor.
