RUSSIA’S NEWEST NUCLEAR SUBMARINE ARRIVES IN PACIFIC OCEAN

[DFW]

12. We all saw that article when it came out a year ago

The issues were no secret and addressed (although to what degree of success was more of a secret).

Whether or not the powers that had the ship built is our friend or not, the man after whom the ship is named WAS very much the friend of the rank and file of the Navy. It is because of Bud Zumwalt that women and blacks could rise in rank the same as any other sailor, and Nixon hated him for it, even ordered Jim Schlesinger to have Zumwalt fired on Nixon's last day in office. Schlesinger disobeyed Nixon's order, and Nixon was no longer president by the time he found out.

Bud's daughter, Ann, is a dear friend of ours, and our daughters are close friends to the point where they crossed the ocean to be there when one of them got married. We'll be there to honor Bud Zumwalt and to be with his family, our friends. We are not going for politics. We are not being given a tour because we'll have the slightest idea what we're looking at, but because our friends invited us to a very special occasion. We'll leave the sneering to others, and wish the ship's crew well--and hope along with Sen. King that the greatest honor the ship could possibly garner is to never have to fire a weapon in anger.

In a trial run, the ship did see its first action, by the way: it rescued a fisherman off the coast of New England from a storm that wrecked his boat.