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| Art by David Levine |
“Intelligence, the central virtue of moral life, is being able to judge the limitations of knowledge. Though there is no substitute for intelligence, it is not enough. People may be intelligent but lack the courage to act. To find a purpose in life, one must be willing to act, to put excellence in one’s work and concern for what is right before personal interest.”
Admiral H. Rickover
I Like The Cut of His Jib 
Captain Lambert,Admiral Rickover conducted himself in the same manner that he required anyone in the Nuclear Engineering Dept on a nuclear powered Submarine to conduct themselves. I speak of professionalism in their chosen field and the way they conducted themselves in observing reactor safety. The man, his intelligence, and his dedication to performance is well beyond most men's capabilities. I credit his Nuclear Power Program as the main force in defeating the Soviets in the Cold War. Engineers did not do it alone, but they are the ones that powered us through the ocean with complete reliability for all those years, so we could bring our weapons to bear on any enemy that threatened the way of freedom and liberty. Navyman834
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Anecdotes of Admiral Rickover’s brilliance, demanding nature and his implicit toughness are legion, and one has to believe most of them are true. You didn’t have to LIKE the man, but you sure as hell had to PERFORM to his standards if permitted to join his corner of the US Navy. I had a grandfather who reminds me to this day of ADM R. Granddad also was an engineer (BSEE, Penn State, 1905) when that science was in its infancy. He electrified some of Pittsburgh’s steel mills and then worked to bring DC electricity to rural Pennsylvania, finding himself somewhere in the middle of the Edison-Westinghouse argument about which current- modulation was best suited to America at the time. Granddad went with the storage battery crowd – and lost the argument.…Except in submarines, which is not to mention that HG R’s and my Granddad’s paths ever crossed – rather that they shared a common appreciation for the same energy source: the Universe. Flinty, intolerant of incomplete work and excuses for its incompleteness, the hardest worker/thinker I can envision, ADM Rickover, Granddad Eichelberger and Ebenezer Scrooge could not have played a hand of bridge for two reasons: they would have considered it a gross waste of good time for thought and invention—and among them it was impossible to find a ‘dummy.’ Nonetheless, I believe they all now work gainfully for the Great Architect of the Universe, taming lightning bollts and quietly sharing the process with those who dream of such challenges.
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SteveThanks for that comment. I really appreciate it. Sounds like your Granddad was quite a man !!
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What would our Navy be today if we didn't have Nuclear propulsion? Hooyah Nuke Navy!!!!!
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Captain Lambert,Admiral Rickover was unlike any Officer I ever saw in the Navy, but one must remember that in his endeavors during the first portion of his Navy career he was not considered an example of intelligence and had a difficult time at the Naval Academy due to his views, these were the days that one could see posted in many establishments all over the country, a sticker on the lower portion of a window, near the entrance to that establishment, that was simply the letters, NJA, inserted in an oval display. Admiral Rickover did overcome the bias of some of our country’s citizens to rise to the top of his field. And I feel that some of his attitude still was based on those days of discrimination. He did not mind telling anyone how inferior they were, this included members of Congress and anyone else that confronted him in his endeavors to build the Nuclear Navy. But he succeeded in his endeavors and the Navy is far better off, when it comes to propulsion methods and the subsequent endurance of some Navy ships. The Sailors that inherited what the Admiral built have been indoctrinated to think differently than the rest of the Navy and they are prone to consider themselves and their contribution to the Navy to be above any other factor that ever existed. Most of the Nuclear Power Engineers never once consider that the purpose of the Navy is to protect and defend the Constitution, they believe only in reactor safety.One of the best Cooks (Mess Specialists) that ever provided sustenance to a Boat crew during deterrent patrols, that I ever saw, was a Second |Class Cook on the USS Tecumseh (SSBN 628), he spent 8 years on that boat and was never known to put out a poor meal, but he had no tolerance for nuclear trained individuals because of their attitude, he felt they thought they were more important than anyone else on the boat. And his most famous saying was “Nuc is only half a word”. He only used this phraseology after I told him that his other wording was unacceptable, 3was he was able to calm himself, and his attitude toward Nucs over a few patrols, but it was not an easy job. Such was life on deterrent patrols during the Cold War.Very Respectfully,Navyman834
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Master Chief,The point of the post was to highlight Rickover's courage to act. His small experimental science projected has turned into a program that has built probably over 100 new cores. All of this since Three Mile Island, too. Reactor safety must be a central priority and this probably will never change. What we can change is the mis-aligned attitude you mention.
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\”The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't being said.\” – Peter Drucker\”Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.\” -Ralph Waldo EmersonMy personal favorite:\”A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.\” -Wayne Gretzky
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ENS Rogers,Few individuals in the world have ever been in the position of Admiral Rickover, and most of us who were military career people would have been unable to stay in the career that we had chosen if we had acted as he did, you might check what happened to General Pace when he used moral authority as an expression, or General McChrystal when he made remarks which he may have thought were courageous and correct and got fired by a non-combatant for using his mouth as a factor of courage. I am personally glad that Admiral Rickover has the intestinal fortitude to stand up to anyone that crossed his path but if you plan to stake your life on the Admirals advice you might reconsider that these days. Part of the point of my post was to show that Admiral Rickover was not always the go-getter that he expected everyone else to be. That is everyone that had to do with his NR program, and every facet of that program from supplies, shipyard repair, total control of personnel and anything else that he could demand. He was certainly dedicated to his job, as he saw it, and that is not all bad, but then again it is not everything. If the Mess Specialists did not do an outstanding job of providing meals, if that A-Ganger failed to keep the oxygen generators doing their jobs, or the Sonar Techs were unable to provide contacts to the OOD underway, or if the Quarter Master did not have the proper charts, and a multitude of other things that are kind of important to a boats overall successful operation, that reactor might just as well be a big hunk of pig iron, a submarine is made up of many subsystems as they are sometimes described, and each must function to allow the overall ships mission to be accomplished. When one has to take that boat on patrol, which might be anywhere from 70 to 90 days totally submerged, it is necessary for the crew members to understand that their Shipmates also have an investment in that boat and their job is important to the boat as well, you will be locked in together for some time and it behooves each of you to make a best effort to respect everyone of your shipmates and treat them as a Shipmate and not someone that is just a little lower than you. When a Sailor has to do this same thing for 5 or 6 patrols or more, he finds that even if reactor safety is considered important there are a lot of other important aspects of that Boat, as well. I am unaware of any major reactor problems in the U S Navy (not including the reactors on the Scorpion and the Thresher) since the Nautilus was launched. I do not think that the Three Mile Island incident had anything to do with the 25 year span of the NR program before the Three Mile Island meltdown. There were more nuclear powered submarines built prior to 1979 than since that time and reactor safety has always been the primary goal of Nuclear Trained Personnel, they did achieve that goal. And on the Tecumseh these Nuclear Trained individuals also knew who was COB and even though this Sailor was a Weaponeer he was a daily visitor to Engineer Spaces including Maneuvering, and was always welcomed there.Very Respectfully,Navyman834
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