Admiral Oliver.

This is coolbert:

Once more thanks to the Pritzker Military Library and Museum we have this most interesting podcast. I recommend not however without a slight degree of qualification.

"Rear Adm. Dave Oliver, USN (Ret.), Against the Tide: Rickover's Leadership Principles and the Rise of the Nuclear Navy"

Very informative! Admiral Oliver an American submariner and nuclear engineer of repute. Although I find the presentation and speaking style of Admiral Oliver to be only fair bordering on poor this hour-long podcast still well worth listening to.

An audio only version of the podcast also available here.

My comments on the presentation of Admiral Oliver:

* The Admiral in some respects has a poor recollection of history?

     * Admiral Rickover did not invent the first nuclear reactor. Rickover was instrumental in developing the first nuclear reactor to be fitted inside a submarine YES!

     * Triton and not the Magellan that first submarine to make and around-the-world voyage submerged.

     * The United States has never gone to DEFCON 1 status. Elements of the U.S. military did go to DEFCON 2 on at least two occasions, possibly three if what the Admiral says is true.

     * USS Guardfish and not the USS Barb responsible for the "shadowing" of the Soviet nuclear submarines during the purported DEFCON incident?

* The Admiral also engages in exaggeration?

     * 18 % of the American submarine personnel did not die during that period of the 1960's.

     * The suicide rate for American submariners during that period of the Cold War was not 10,000 to 100,000 times the national average when adjusted for age. This does seem to be correct? The entire complement of American submariners would have to be killing themselves a dozen or more times per year for those statistics to be correct?

* The Admiral is in the bad habit of using words and terms the meaning of which is poorly understood by the lay public. "Flank" and "tertiary platform" for instance.

* According to the Admiral:

     * Nautilus a hybrid vessel. The forward half almost a clone of the German WW2 Type XX1 submarine. The rear half containing the nuclear reactor and also containing other essential parts scrounged, scrapped, refurbished. Nautilus in whatever form representing a magnitude forward in submarine warfare.

     * American submariners exposed to one-hundred times LESS radiation than their Soviet counter-parts. That Soviet sailor suffering from blood poisoning and having to undergo a period of recover after a patrol. Blood poisoning I can reasonably infer an attack on the bone marrow, the white blood cell greatly diminished?

Devoted readers to the blog will suggest or infer I am being excessively pedantic? An expert such as Admiral Oliver however should not be wrong about his facts, or engage in hyperbole or exaggeration. You decide.

coolbert.