Submarine veterans gather to discuss sea life

A Flathead submarine veteran, Geo Johnson leaned against his pickup truck and adjusted his hat as he talked about a normal day at work hundreds of meters below the ocean’s surface.

It takes a different kind of person to join the Navy, he said. It takes an even odder kind of person to become a crew member on a submarine.

This Friday and Saturday, dozens of Montana submarine veterans are gathering in Kalispell to talk about their life under the sea.

“There’s about 60 of us who will show up — not a lot of people realize this many submariners are in Montana,” Johnson said. “Well, 60 plus our wives. We figured we couldn’t take them with us back then, [we] should bring them along this time.”

Terry Moore said the Montana branch of the United States Submarine Veterans, Inc. membership has doubled over the last decade, with its membership growing to 140 people. Around 20 of those members live in Kalispell.

Moore, 67, said U.S. submarine branches across the nation typically take root in a city and create a community. He said due to the distance between Montana veterans, the local organization serves as a lifeline to peers. The sea veterans travel across the state to see each other twice a year.

“We all worked 12 to 24 months to qualify to be on a sub,” Moore said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re an officer or enlisted guy — you know what he went through to get those dolphin pins and know how important they are to him.”

The submarine force is a relatively small group. Roughly 6 percent of all Navy personnel serve on submarines, according to statistics from the U.S. Navy.

Moore, who served from 1973 to 1978, said life on a submarine is unique, “even for the Navy.”

He said missions could result in 50 to 80 days under water.

“And getting there was hard work,” he said. “On a submarine, if the guy next to you isn’t highly qualified and one thing goes wrong, he could sink an entire boat of 100-plus men.”

Moore said unlike most forces in the military, submarine veterans also go overseas to meet with their counterparts.

He described meeting Russians who had stories from the 1970s of skirting the Mediterranean Sea in an effort to spy on U.S. submarines. Moore said similarly, in six-month missions his crew would survey the waters in search of Russian submarines to get a peek into the county’s plans.

“They were much noisier those days, so it was easier to follow them,” he said laughing. “We were both serving our country. But we were both doing the same, unique, thing.”

In June, Moore plans to head to Saint Petersburg, Russia for the next international gathering of shipmates.

He said whether it’s a meeting in Northwest Montana or overseas, the submarine gatherings tend to bring out the odd sense of humor that living in a tight space without daylight for months can create.

At the local gathering, Moore said the Montana veterans honor those who have worn their pins the longest — especially those who served in World War II.

“They really were the basis for the future submarine force,” Moore said. “They went through so much most of us will never experience, which makes them special.”

Special even for a submariner in the Navy, he said.

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.