“Maybe I can just ask the web guy and he can check his secret network …”

THERE IS NO SUBMARINE WEBMASTER SECRET NETWORK.

The Pogy site is not run by a “buddy clearing house”. We don’t have a secret directory we can go look a name up and tell you. We don’t have a really cool phone book that ultimately leads to somewhere inside the Pentagon, or special logins somewhere that we can get into some database and pull up your old buddy’s current status.

If you’re looking for an old buddy from the Pogy, your best bet is to go into the Forums on the site and simply post a note saying hello, and who you’re looking for. It’s totally legal!

Go ahead post your hello and a shout out to your buddies right in the forum.

[Queue up Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" ...]

You know, this site functions as a kind of virtual museum for fellow Pogy alumni, but I think that it also can serve another, present tense function, and I want to share a couple of thoughts with you.

I don’t know for sure why you joined the Navy, some of us may have been more mercenary than others. Some of us wanted that “adventure”, a stable job, an education not found anywhere else, or maybe just a career in “the canoe club”.

I think down deep though you’re all basic patriots, and if that was a real issue you wouldn’t have joined. And by patriot I don’t mean flag waving nut, but at your core you believe in your own country and its greatness.

This site is a great place to come, reflect on times gone by, but after that, you toast a few to the good ole days and then you’re back to your life.

So, we can sit in the past for a few moments, and reconnect to our old friends, share a few sea stories, and just wander away, or is there something greater in the present tense that we can all do to build from our experience in the past into something in the now?

As I recall, we were supposed to be an exception to the norm, a cut above the skimmers and the rest. Sometimes we all have self doubts but I think that we’re all still just as exceptional as we were “back in the day”. (And by “exceptional”, yes you get a ride on the ‘short bus’. )

Here we all are. A global economy that is suffering, a national situation of partisan divide, economic slump, and a society that seems to be fighting for survival at every level.

The bullshit is getting so deep you need hip-boots to survive all of it.

So I’m gonna challenge your normally quiet bubblehead assumptions. You guys sit out there and say nothing. Hardly a peep.

At this point in our nations’ history, it’s time to stand up and speak. You don’t want to share sea stories, or photos from your experience on the boat – fine.

But to those of you that shared the bubblehead experience, you are still one of the exceptional people, and it would be awesome if you spoke up. Made your voices heard.

This website gets a lot of traffic because people are curious about The Cold War. They know very little about the people who served in it. Can’t you get outside of yourself for 5 fucking minutes and make your voice heard?

Log onto the forums and speak up. If you have to get drunk or stoned to get some courage, then by all means do so.

Are you afraid of some old buddy or LPO or whatever ghost that haunts you is gonna judge what you have to say? Fuck that. Just fucking post something.

Our kids need to see that we have some fucking backbone and aren’t afraid to speak up.

“Yeah but what does this have to do with the Pogy or submarine duty?”

Don’t forget that it’s the men who served that made it all happen.

We’re the ones who stood watch in heat, cold, and endured each other’s crazy.

Let the people of now know that we’re still out here, and we’re not just watching it all happen, but that we have something to say about it.

And one last favor, if you can’t fucking remember your damn password or your fucking login, make a new one. Geezuss people get off your can and do something,

And have a nice day.

        FTG1(SS) GREG TERRELL

Photo by Neil Scheuerlein

Photos by John Kelly:

Photos by Neil Scheuerlein: