Navy veteran, Paul “Pappy” Lowe, visited the Los Angeles Class submarine USS Louisville (SSN 724), in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Sept. 23. The former submariner had not been onboard his former platform in decades and was amazed by the changes.
Lowe and his family, wife Herowina and son Marc, toured were given a guided tour of Louisville by Electronics Technician 2nd Class Paul Menchaca. The tour marked the first time Lowe had been aboard a submarine for Lowe since 1967, when he served as an Electronics Mate aboard a “Guppy” class submarine.
Stepping on the warship, brought back the “familiar feeling of camaraderie,” with fellow submariners, along with noticeable differences.
“There is so much more to learn, to qualify on,” Lowe remarked. “We operated in the era of vacuum tubes and had two large, manually-operated wheels for the dive planes in the control room. We only had one deck level for all our work.”
The tight spaces and passageways also revisited memories, as did the galley and wardroom. He spoke of “SOS,” his shipmate’s code word for a diet stable, dried beef on toast.
As a crew member on USS Quillbeck (SSN 424) during the Cuban missile crisis, Lowe recalled the intensity of the situation and how the crew was inspired by President Kennedy, as they deployed to Guantanamo Bay.
Lowe served on four different submarines in his Naval career and thanked the current shipmates for “standing the watch” while he continued in other fields supporting our country.
[mappress] Press Release, September 30, 2013