Subject: Submarine (R/C) Squadron Five – Sun ‘N Fun 2004 Patrol - Report of.
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PROLOGUE TO

Following planning with members Gail Phillips, Wayne Frey, Carl Dietz and self, notification was distributed squadron-wide to assemble all available boats for second annual submerged exercises. Rendezvous point designated: San Gabriel Park, Georgetown, Texas.

1. Narrative:
August 27th: 1400 With my wife Julie, picked up Jeff Porteous at Houston Intercontinental airport following his flight from Los Angeles. Embarked to Georgetown.

1600 Arrived at Holiday Inn Express and proceeded to dinner at Applebee’s with Gail and Ginny Phillips, Carl Dietz, Rich Allsmiller (noted Disney Nautilus expert who flew in from Florida) and Wayne Frey.

During dinner met Ray Lout and his wife seated at adjacent table. Ray spotted our shirts and identified himself as a Cold War submariner who served aboard diesel boats. He related an episode where his boat USS Trumpetfish (SS-425) “got caught where she wasn’t supposed to be” and was hounded and pounded by Soviet ASW forces. The boat received considerable damage and, according to Ray, upon her return several crew members turned in their dolphins and retired on the spot (this incident is noted on page 50 of Sontag and Drew’s “Blind Man’s Bluff”).
Ray continued in the service and later worked as a civilian developing secure communications for Ohio class SSBNs. Ray was invited to attend our upcoming function and promised to show up on August 29th.

August 28th: 0800 Following continental breakfast at the Holiday Inn, proceeded to San Gabriel Park.

At the park, Gail Phillips unveiled the sharpest frequency board in the fleet (see attachments). Gail is a true craftsman at everything he touches.

Gail's 1/72 Alfa is another fine example of his abilities. Built from a Thor kit, everything about the boat is first rate: from the spotless finish, expertly wired and engineered WTC, down to perfectly carved flotation foam. Gail's nearly completed 1/96 Seawolf (SSN-21) was on display as well as his highly modified D&E WTC-3.5.

Comrade Wayne Frey set up a static display featuring his monster 1/72 Akula. He also unveiled some recently acquired salvage parts removed from an actual Soviet Alfa. His sources are mysterious and impeccable. Wayne also served as safety diver throughout the event.

0900 Entered the water with my 1/96 Los Angeles class built from a ThorDesign kit. While the boat had been running for a while, the trim was never satisfactory. Using the knowledge gained at last years' event, I completely re-ballasted and trimmed the boat two weeks prior to the patrol. With further fine tuning, the boat was dialed in and demonstrated a marked overall improvement in performance.

At approximately 0930 Jeff Porteous launched his Small World Model's Blueback. It ran well then suddenly lost power. Further inspection by Gail, master of all things electrical, determined that the battery was faulty. After a few terminal modifications, a full charge was put on the pack and Jeff returned to the water.

1000 Jim Humphries arrived from San Antonio with his young friend Trevor Wasik. They brought three wooden, rubber band powered subs for display. These boats were extremely sharp looking stand-off scale models of a WWII Balao class fleet boat, an Akula, and a Verne-style Nautilus. Designed for pool running, these boats were reliable performers. Indeed, Jim's Nautilus has been in service since the 1980's!

1100 Another newcomer arrived: Tom Kisler of Potter, Nebraska. Tom and his wife fit the patrol into an extended vacation and were a wonderful addition to our operations. Tom brought his first boat, a newly completed 1/96 D&E Skipjack class modeled after the USS Scorpion (SSN-589). Tom's modeling skills were on display in this handsome boat featuring a full mast set, beautiful wooden display stand with brass plaques and a terrific weathering job. An impressive first project and fitting tribute to the brave souls lost in Scorpion in May, 1968.

1200 Commissary officer Carl Dietz produced another satisfying lunch -- this time cooking up hot dogs on his new grill. He also supplied and gave out several submarine related door prizes which were a big hit. Carl and his wife Jenny took great care of us.

1300 PCO cruises commenced. This was a program whereby SubCommittee members without commands could gain stick time by signing up for a fifteen minute slot with a boat. To our surprise, the only one to take advantage of the opportunity was Carl. Taking command of my 1/96 USS Thresher, Carl performed well at the helm and will be a fine CO of his own boat.

Between 1400 - 1700 submerged operations continued with Alfa, Blueback and Thresher. Tom's Scorpion entered the water and ran well with only minor, new-boat glitches. With some fine tuning, his boat will run as sharply as she looks.

1700 Returned to port for pizza break.

DARK-THIRTY Jeff and I commenced night ops. Blueback's running lights were a big hit at last year's event and performed well again this time -- a very cool effect with the sun below the horizon and the water stilled.

Not having lights on Thresher, I experimented with a tiny glow stick taped to my periscope. While the extra hardware didn't adversely affect her performance, the light emitted was less than satisfactory. The attempt did generate some discussion regarding possible uses of larger light sticks to reproduce the greenish-yellow glow of a Disney Nautilus at collision speed.

2030 - 2200 Returned to HIX as rain began to fall. Secured wives and then proceeded to Conference Room B for a Disney Nautilus seminar hosted by Rich Allsmiller. Rich was friends with the late, great Tom Scherman, modeler and imagineer extraordinaire, and Harper Goff, creator of the famous Disney Nautilus design for the 1954 movie "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."

Rich is in possession of an incredible collection of artifacts related to the film, Goff, Scherman, and the Nautilus -- a great portion of which he shared with our group. His tales of the film's production, backed with books of still images and construction blueprints, were fascinating, as well as his recollections of Tom Scherman and their modeling adventures.
Rich then did an extensive Q&A centered around my Custom Replicas 1/32 scale Nautilus project. The result was an intense, and incredibly satisfying, learning experience.

August 29th: 0800 Returned to op area. Overnight gusts and showers disappeared to leave the river an absolutely flat, almost greasy, calm. Other than an occasional jogger, the only personnel in attendance were the die-hard sub skippers, their wives, and Rich, Wayne, Carl and Don.

0830 – 1100 As is so often the case, with no one watching, all boats ran well. Alfa, Blueback and Thresher patrolled effortlessly and without incident. Approaches were made on a family paddling a canoe. Rich and others were able to take turns in command as well. It was a pleasure to see the joy with which Rich handled Blueback. We were shocked to learn that it was his first time to drive an R/C sub. It won’t be the last.
To our great pleasure, Ray Lout and his wife showed up as promised to check out the action. Again, he regaled us with several stories from his days in the 1:1 scale boats, including an insightful explanation of the term “sanitary tank.” Ray was very careful, however, not to divulge too many details of his former operations and shared his shock at some of the descriptions of Cold War submarine espionage he has read in recent years. “Why, that’s classified material,” he said with a wistful smile. Before he left, Ray concluded, “It feels like I’m with shipmates.” We couldn’t have asked for a higher compliment.

1200 Secured the boats and policed the area. Julie drew the winning raffle ticket (see item 9.), the skippers lined up in front of their boats and photos were taken. Departed for Houston.

2. WEATHER:
Excellent weather was experienced throughout the patrol. However, squalls did arrive on Saturday evening, just as squadron members returned to the hotel.

3. NAVIGATIONAL AIDS:
None. A navigation course was fully prepared and present at the event but was not utilized. This was due to the fact that the estimated set-up time exceeded the skipper’s willingness to set down their transmitters.

4. ENEMY SHIPS SIGHTED:
Canoe detected and engaged. Duck convoy tracked.

5. AIRCRAFT SIGHTINGS:
One vintage B-25 Mitchell bomber made a low pass over the patrol area late in the day on Saturday. IFF was exchanged without incident.

6. MAJOR DEFECTS:
Following a collision at approximately 1600 on the 28th, it was discovered that the hull of Jeff's Blueback was cracked and the entire stern cone was nearly separated. After much adhesive debate, CA was used to repair the damage and he was able to continue operations. (Note: video review later revealed Thresher was to blame. Proper apologies were rendered.)
On the 28th a discovery was made related to R/C operations. In previous outings, my LA experienced wild swings in trim: dead level for a run, then down by the bow and heading deep the next time out. During the afternoon run the same thing occurred again, without any apparent change in her perfect morning setup. The NiCad battery pack was the only variable, but was discounted since the two packs used were identical in size and position in the WTC. Inspired by an observation by Gail, the NiCad packs were swapped and normal trim was restored as a result. The slight difference in weight between the two identical packs, which were manufactured by different companies, had thrown the boat significantly out of trim.

7. HEALTH AND HABITABILITY:
The health of the crew for this patrol can be classified as good. While no injuries occurred, there was some fatigue and at least one case of slight overexposure to the sun. In addition, there was observed additional gray hair under the caps of several CO’s, less hair overall on others.

Habitability was very good. The staff at the Holiday Inn Express was extremely friendly and the facility was clean and neat. A large conference room was provided by the hotel free of charge for the Saturday evening Disney Nautilus seminar.

8. ENDURANCE FACTORS:
Torpedoes - none. Other factors - indefinite.

9. RAFFLE WINNER:
Julie drew Linda Waggoner's ticket for the ThorDesign 1/96 Permit kit. A resident of San Antonio, Linda has contracted with her favorite SubRon5 member, Shawn Brandon, to construct and command the boat.

10: PATROL ENDED:
By orders of wives, employers and flight schedules after multiple sorties.

10. SAILING LIST:
Rich Allsmiller, Don Baker, Shawn Brandon, Dr. Jim Caldwell, Brandon Cantu, Freddie Cantu, Bruce Coons, Chris Corn, Paul Crozier, Carl Dietz, Wayne Frey, Lee Giles, Jim Humphries, Tom Kisler, Gail Phillips, George Pierce, Richard Polhemus, Jeff Porteous, Scott Vickers, Trevor Wasik.

11. RECRUITING:
Every advantage was taken to promote the SubCommittee. Fliers, FAQ sheets, SC Reports and membership applications were on display and a log book posted to get names and contact info of all attendees. T-shirts were created in advance for sale to increase visibility. Raffling the 1/96 ThorDesign Permit kit did much to generate interest and tickets were purchased aggressively. Great effort was taken to be as friendly as possible to all who showed up.

While no new members were signed, renewed enthusiasm among current members was generated. A local high school ROTC unit stopped their morning march to observe operations. They were extremely impressed. And placing an easily built kit in the hands of a motivated member via the raffle ensures another new skipper will be at the event next year.

12. REMARKS:
(a) Bravo Zulu to Matt Thor for his donation of the Permit kit. The chance to win it generated great interest in the hobby and needed revenue to cover event costs. And even though Matt, an integral member of SubRon5, was unable to attend he participated in the event in a big way.
(b) Once again, without the commitment, planning, sacrifice and hard work of Gail Phillips, Wayne Frey and Carl Dietz (and their wives) this event would not have taken place.
(c) Lastly, my wife Julie is the fightingest naval officer I’ve ever seen. Her conduct while signing in attendees, handling the cash on t-shirt, meal, and raffle ticket sales, and welcoming people to the event, was superb. She is truly the best wife/XO/helpmate a guy ever had.

Respectfully,
P. H. Crozier

Copyright 2004 SubRon5/The SubCommittee