Floating Bunker
This fictional story was written on December 16, 2007 for my shipmates and friends who were aboard Lafayette, SSBN 616, during the 1960s. I wrote it in the
first person so that I could speak to the main character in the story, Conrad Martin. Just as Sherlock Holmes needed Dr. Watson to talk to in the Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle's stories, Conrad is my sounding board in this story.
"Hello, Conrad?"
"Yes, who is this?"
"This is Dave, your ET buddy on Lafayette, way back when."
"Oh, hi, Dave! I've heard rumors, and I'm glad you called. Maybe you can answer some of my questions!"
I think I can, Conrad, but we'll need to talk over a secure line. Can you get to a secure phone? Even an old STU III will be OK."
"Sure. I can find one at the local FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] office here. I don't know why FEMA has need for secure comm, but they told
us in class that those offices would have secure lines."
"I'll tell you about it, later, Conrad."
"I can probably call you in half an hour." The Secure Telephone Unit three (STU III) was outdated by 2008 standards, but many local FEMA offices still used it.
"OK, call me at 102-555-2423 when you get there."
"Later, Dave."
Twenty minutes later, a call came in on a secure phone at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut. The receptionist, a
Secret Service agent, took the call, told me it was Herb Conrady, and handed the receiver to me.
"Hi, Conrad! Did you complete the three-week officer's fam [familiarization] class in Monterey?" The Navy had an officer's education program in Monterey, California
where they taught high-level classes.
"Yes, and I'm back here at home on leave. My orders are to depart tomorrow for EB [Electric Boat Division in Groton]. So what's the news on the old guys, like us,
who have been tagged for this operation?"
"Well, Conrad, you and I are probably the junior guys of the ‘old bunch' from the early Lafayette days for this short tour of duty. Like you, I've been made a Lieutenant,
but pretty much all the other guys outrank us."
"Well, Dave, I said I'd never go back into the Navy unless I got a commission. Congress has deemed that I can pass for a gentleman!"
"That's quite a stretch for you, Conrad! Did you have to shave your beard?"
"Heck, no. The beard stays!"
"Well, we ‘oldies' deserve some breaks! You don't smoke anymore, do you?"
"No, I gave it up."
"That's good because the Navy doesn't allow any smoking on board the Colin Powell."
"Dave, Dave! What is the Colin Powell?"
"Conrad, it is an Ohio Class boat that has been converted to an SSGN and renamed."
"Uh, you mean we're not going to protect the free world with a magnificent boomer?"
"Well, our boat will be more important than your average, run-of-the mill boomer, Conrad."
"Say that again, Dave! I don't think I heard you quite right. It is the boomers who have kept the evil empires at bay and off of our doorstep for half a century."
"True, Conrad, but this is an entirely different operation, and I feel smug that I am the first to tell you. Admiral John Hughes gave me permission to give you the details
since I've been on board for two months. In fact, I just earned my dolphins back yesterday, and the Admiral pinned them on me!"
"Holy cow! Admiral John Hughes? You mean our buddy, Gundog?"
"Exactly, Conrad. But I don't call him ‘Gundog' anymore since he was promoted to Admiral for this command."
"Why didn't they just make him a commander or a captain?"
"Well, that gets down to the crux of this situation, Conrad. Hughes was chosen based on the fact that he was always highly respected, he knew a lot of people, both in
the Navy and in the political arena, and he kept up contacts with key people from the old days, like you and me. And he has a wealth of experience. As you know, he
commanded the USS Puffer. So, when it came time for the Navy to get this operation going, they chose him to lead the charge. The mission is very sensitive, but the
Admiral got a lot of experience doing sensitive stuff when he commanded Puffer. We're going to be a sea-going ‘Mount Weather' [High Point Special Facility, built in
1958-1960], an ops site for the NCA [National Command Authority] if and when an emergency arises when protection of American leadership is deemed necessary."
"Oh, I've heard of Mount Weather, but I thought that was a closely-guarded secret."
"Well, Conrad, the New York Times broke the story in 1991, I think, that the reason for Mount Weather was to maintain continuity of government. We value freedom of
the press, but sometimes the media leaks secrets that we would rather keep in the black. Another continuation of government facility that had its cover blown is the
Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. While Weather Mountain is meant to support top echelon government personnel, the Greenbrier, from 1961
to 1995, maintained a 112,000 square foot fallout shelter for members of Congress in case of nuclear war. That facility was built by the US Government, called the West
Virginia Wing of the Greenbrier, as project Greek Island. The basement consisted of the shelter, and it was hidden behind a camouflaged wall. The shelter was
maintained by a government front company known as Forsythe Associates. Forsythe employees entered the facility between 1am and 4am to avoid suspicion by
Greenbrier employees. The shelter is covered by 20 feet of earth and the exterior doors weigh 25 tons. After a 1992 Washington Post report brought it to public
attention, it was decommissioned in 1995 and turned over to the resort which now gives tours of the facility. On the Colin Powell, we'll do a better job because we can't
be easily targeted, and if somebody discovers our mission, it won't be much of a problem because we're mobile. We'll be at sea where it will be difficult to find us. If
high-level government personnel, possibly including the President, come on board, they will be accompanied by flag-rank advisors from the military services, and the
Navy wanted to make sure that our buddy, Hughes, had enough scrambled eggs on his cap to make sure he got the respect he deserves as well as to keep anyone
from trying to walk over him, rank-wise. The Navy protects its own, and Admiral Hughes will have the ‘juice' to do what he deems is necessary to carry out our mission."
"But Mount Weather has never been used, has it?"
"Yes, on the afternoon of September 11, Vice President Dick Cheney and several senior congressional leaders were moved here from Washington by car and chopper.
The place is built like a small city with everything from a hospital to a crematorium to a radio-TV studio. Of course, the radio and TV isn't for entertainment. It is so that
the NCA can communicate with the outside world. This place will support 2,000 people for more than 30 days in complete isolation. The Vice President stayed in Mount
Weather for several weeks following 9/11 because we didn't know if there would be follow-up attacks."
"Well, Dave, is seems to be lucky that the Colin Powell is coming on line because Mount Weather is like putting all of your eggs in one basket at a known location."
"You might suspect that, Conrad, but there are secret locations all over the US that we don't know about and shouldn't know about. One thing that did come out during
9/11 is that Air Force One didn't take the President back to Andrews."
"Oh, yes, I heard they flew to the old SAC [Strategic Air Command] headquarters in Omaha."
"Yes, and SAC was replaced by USSC [US Strategic Command, aka USSTRATCOM]. The night of September 10, a person in Sarasota, Florida reported that he had
heard a man threaten the President. That evening surface to air missiles were placed on a rooftop of the Colony Beach Resort where the President was staying, and an
AWACS [Airborne Warning and Control Aircraft] was launched to orbit over the Resort all night. Offutt went to high alert when the first tower was hit because it had been
alerted by the FAA of hijacked planes. An E4B [specially-built Boeing 747] was immediately launched to provide command and control. After Air Force One took off from
Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, and flew toward Offutt, it was accompanied by top cover to ensure no funny business from terrorists. Air Force One and its cover
went radio-silent all the way to Offutt to ensure that they couldn't be tracked by terrorist communications assets. They were monitored by ATC [Air Traffic Control] radar,
of course, and when they got a certain distance from Offutt, the tower transmitted a message with the wind speed and direction and ‘cleared to land, any runway.' The
Admiral says that things have drastically changed since the cold war, and stationary safe sites aren't as good as a submarine cruising in blue water."
"Dave, I assume that if the President comes aboard the Colin Powell, our call sign will change to ‘Navy One'."
"That would be true in a non-emergency situation, Conrad, such as if he (or she) came aboard just as an exercise or to check out the boat. But in an emergency, we'll
have a different call sign, just as Air Force One is assigned a different call sign during emergencies. Well, I've talked your arm off. You need to get packed and get here!
See you tomorrow!"
The next day I picked Conrad up at the New London Airport and drove him to EB. On the way, Conrad wanted to know more, and I was happy to give him the information
that the Admiral had told me to tell him.
"OK, Dave, so who else will be on board with us?"
"Well, the XO [Executive Officer] is Captain Crawford. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Captain Crawford."
"Dave, you mean Super Chief Stub Crawford?"
"Yep. His experience will be invaluable on board. When Admiral Hughes submitted his name on the recommendation for XO, the Joint Chiefs had actually heard of
Crawford's excellent work aboard the boomers, and they immediately agreed and promoted him to captain."
"Well, I'm pissed off that Stub outranks us! But I'm sure he'll make a good XO. Got any more surprises for me?"
"Oh, Conrad, I've got loads. Listen to this! Bill Fraser was promoted to Commander, and he'll be the Engineering Officer."
"But Dave, he was an ET and didn't get anywhere near the engine room!"
"That's true, but he is very intelligent, and they sent him to Nuke school, so he is ready to rock and roll with the sodium reactor on board."
"Wait a minute. You said the Colin Powell has a sodium reactor?"
"Actually, Conrad, it is called a Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor or ‘SFR.'"
"But weren't there big problems with sodium reactors? I heard that one sub had one, and the primary loop leaked and did all sort of corrosion damage."
"Yes, that's true, but a lot of R&D has gone on since that time. Remember the Boeing/Rocketdyne fiasco at the Santa Susana Lab in Simi Valley?"
"No, don't think I do."
"Well, they were testing a dozen different reactors there, and one of them was an SFR. Somehow, in 1959, the bearing lubricant on a pump got into the primary loop
sodium and created a substance that ate through the cladding on the fuel rods. About a third of the rods melted due to an overheat. Somehow, they got the reactor
cooled down. That wouldn't have been so bad except that, as a test reactor, it didn't have a containment building to capture gaseous emissions, and radioactive Iodine
escaped into the atmosphere. It has only an eight-day half-life, but that was enough to give many people in the surrounding area various sorts of cancers. In 1964 there
was another event, and Boeing decommissioned the reactor in 1965. Ultimately, Boeing sold Rocketdyne to Pratt and Whitney, the aircraft engine manufacturer, but
Pratt stipulated in the contract that it didn't want any part of the Santa Susana Lab. It looks like Boeing is going to give that area to California as an open space for
hiking, but maybe no picnicking."
"Remind me not to go there."
"I'm with you on that, Conrad!"
"OK, so we'll have Bill, er, Commander Fraser, running the SFR plant."
"Yes, it has a pool layout which is more compact than the double-loop type. The primary systems are located in a single vessel, and the primary loop sodium pressure
is at atmospheric pressure. No need to run a pressurized primary loop as is done with water. The sodium in the primary loop is radioactive, of course, because it passes
through the fuel rods, but the sodium in the secondary loop is not."
"So, other than not having to run the primary at high pressure, are there any other benefits of sodium over water?"
"Yes, sodium has a much higher heat inertia than water. In other words, it the liquid sodium metal retains its heat much better than water. Water tends to cool off much
faster. A sodium reactor comes up to power delivery much more quickly than a water-type which is why they call it a fast reactor."
"So, what do they do with the heat in the secondary loop? Heat water to run steam turbines?"
"Nope, the case around the secondary loop is covered with thermocouples to generate electricity, directly."
"So, the electricity drives an electric motor geared to the prop shaft?"
"Yep, that's it."
"And the energy output from the reactor is balanced to meet peak propulsion needs?"
"No, Conrad, the reactor produces more energy than that needed for propulsion. The design is elegant because the excess electrical energy runs the rest of the boat,
charges the batteries, distills sea water, and so on."
Then Conrad said, "Ahh, hot showers! Sure beats the ‘pig boats' of World War II."
"Not only that, but the distilled water is put through electrolysis to . . . "
"Of course, Dave! To make oxygen to replenish the air."
"Yes, but there is more to it, Conrad. Remember in the old days we purged the hydrogen overboard? Well, not any more. The hydrogen and oxygen are highly
compressed into separate tanks situated outboard of the pressure hull. The hydrogen and oxygen can be brought back into the hull to run the Air Independent
Propulsion (AIP) system."
"But wait, Dave. I thought you said our propulsion was electric."
"Yes, but the AIP system acts as both a backup to the electric motor and as additional power on the shaft for flank maneuvering. Also, the oxygen and hydrogen can
be used in a fuel cell to generate electricity."
"Will the Powell be the first sub to have AIP and fuel cells?"
"No, the Germans and Italians already have AIP boats in the water."
"Nice engineering to have both electric and AIP propulsion that can be used in tandem or separately."
"AIP can be used, not only in an engine for propulsion, but also in other engines such as those to run pressure pumps for hydraulics and air. An emergency use of the
high-pressure hydrogen and oxygen in the tanks stationed between the pressure hull and the fairing is to direct their contents into the ballast tanks, if needed through
separate valves."
"Whoa, Dave! Are you talking mixing oxygen and hydrogen in the ballast tanks? One spark and the Colin Powell would be one big bomb!"
"No, we have to give the engineers some credit for not doing that. What happens is that, in an emergency where the tanks need to be blown to ascend, much as what
happened when the Thresher had a weld break in a main seawater line in the engine room, the standard air tanks can be used to blow ballast. However, if the situation
is that the ordinary high-pressure air is all used up, the conning officer can call for either oxygen or hydrogen to be blown into the tanks through their own valves,
independent from the normal, high-pressure air valves."
"So, if the valves are closed prior to broaching, as we think happened on Thresher, and they froze shut and couldn't be reopened at 300 feet, when the rods dropped and
scrammed that plant due to overheating from the use of maximum power to ascend, in our case, we have more high pressure gas, in the form of oxygen or hydrogen to
pump into the ballast tanks?"
"That's right, Conrad. It must have been terrifying aboard Thresher to come to 300 feet, stop the blow just to avoid an embarrassing, unseemly broach, or to run out of
ballast air, and then have the reactor shut down. When the boat began to sink, because the thrust that kept it going up had stopped, they tried to, again, blow the tanks,
but the either the valves were frozen shut due to evaporative cooling, or, more precisely, due to expansion cooling, or the high-pressure air supply was exhausted."
"Ok, so if we don't blow the ballast tanks with oxygen and hydrogen, simultaneously, which would we use first?"
"Good question. Since ordinary high pressure air that came about with the SUBSAFE program contains about twenty percent oxygen, if additional blow is required, it is
best to blow with oxygen. Granted, pure oxygen is dangerous. A spark can cause it to burn just about anything that is flammable. But you wouldn't want to dump
hydrogen into the tanks that already have some oxygen, even if it is only the twenty percent found in ambient air."
"OK, so, worst case, you run out of ordinary high pressure SUBSAFE air, and you run out of high-pressure oxygen or it can't be used for some reason, then we would
dump hydrogen into the ballast tanks?"
"You've got it. But like you said, now you're a bomb waiting to go off. This would be an absolutely, last option, and it might end in disaster. But then, if I were sinking
into Davy Jones's locker, I'd use it. Better to hope the pressure hull held against a possible oxygen/hydrogen explosion than experience crush depth."
"Well, that all makes sense. What is the crush depth of the Colin Powell?"
"I can't discuss it, Conrad. Classified, and the Admiral didn't give me permission to talk about it. Uh, in fact, as far as I know, Lafayette's test depth is still classified."
"Yes, I know, and the media is always asking leading questions, but we can't confirm or deny."
It was getting to be late afternoon, so I took Conrad to the hotel we were staying at and told him to meet me in the hotel restaurant the next morning.
In the morning we ate and talked about our families and ordinary events in our lives. We couldn't discuss any subjects related to the Powell due to security issues. As
the saying goes, "Loose lips sink ships."
We drove over to EB, checked in, and I took Conrad to the dock where the Powell was tied up.
Conrad said, "Wow, this is one big boat! I see there are no external identification marks on it."
"Nope, clandestine, all the way."
We showed our identification to an armed guard at the gangway and walked over it, saluting the ensign and the quarterdeck. Again, we had to show ID on the
quarterdeck, and then we were allowed to climb down into this immense machine.
Conrad said, "These Ohio Class boats must be the largest in the world."
"No, Conrad, the Russian's Typhoon Class boats are actually larger."
We had climbed down the hatch, entering near the control room and Conrad noted that the layout was somewhat the same as on Lafayette, but much bigger.
He said, "Dave, isn't this the first sub to be used for protection of the NCA?"
"Well, there is some conjecture on that point, Conrad. The Triton, the dual reactor sub that went around the world submerged in 84 days, may have been a refuge for
the NCA or some other high-level dignitaries, but I don't know, for certain."
"What's the story on Triton?"
"Well, Triton was a contemporary of Lafayette, although slightly ahead of it. Triton began life as a radar picket sub with twin, S4G pressurized water reactors, each rated
at 22,000 hp, one to drive each propeller, to give it a lot of power for high speed. It is reported that during sea trials, Triton exceeded 30 knots on the surface. The two
reactors were in separate compartments, making the length of the boat 448 feet, with a surface displacement of 6,000 tons and 7,700 tons submerged. It was so long
that EB had to cut off the tail to make it fit on the ways in Groton. The lower portion of the bow had to be cut off to allow the parts delivery train to pass by. The sail was
so high, that it had to be cut off to clear the overhead cranes. Just prior to launching, the portion of the bow and the tail were welded back on. The sail was reattached
after the launching in 1958. Triton was the longest U.S. submarine built until the Ohio Class came along in the early 1980s. It was commissioned in 1959 as a radar
picket sub, SSRN-586, and Captain Edward Beach, the famous World War II submariner, commanded the crew of 170 men. The boat had a traditional, pointed hull
designed for high speed on the surface, because its mission was to act as a radar picket to run ahead of a task force to provide elint [electronics emission intelligence],
radar coverage, and to control fighter intercepts of enemy ships or planes headed for the task force. Because its mission was to be way ahead of a task force, feeding
it intel, it would be outside of task force protection, so it could dive to avoid enemy attack. Submerged, it had full submarine capabilities. It was the only US sub to have
two reactors. With the introduction of carrier-borne early warning aircraft in 1958, the Grumman E-1B Tracer, and it successor, the E-2 Hawkeye in 1964, the need for a
submarine radar picket boat went away. In March 1961 it was reclassified as an attack sub, SSN-586. It sailed to Portsmouth in June 1962 for SSN conversion. The
crew complement was reduced from 170 to 159. From September 1962 to January 1964, she was overhauled and refueled in Groton, during the time that Lafayette
was undergoing sea trials. Lafayette was tied up near Triton, and I had the opportunity to meet a sailor assigned to Triton, and he took me aboard to show me around.
My recollection is that the interior was a mess, all disassembled and being reassembled. I have no idea what the SSN conversion in Portsmouth was all about, but it
looked like the interior was being completely redone. I was told the interiors were being refitted to serve VIPs. It was difficult to distinguish one compartment from
another because the floors were pulled up, the ceilings had been taken apart, and the Maslin on the walls had been partly pulled off and was everywhere. In April
1964 her home port became Norfolk where she served as the flagship for the Submarine Force, Atlantic Fleet until June 1967 when the Ray, SSN-653 assumed that
role. There is a report that plans were made to use the boat's large CIC space as an alternative national emergency command post, but apparently, it never happened.
Triton was decommissioned in May 1969 and scrapped, the first nuclear power submarine to be withdrawn from the fleet. However, the Ray was unlucky. On
September 20, 1977, she ran into an undersea mountain which required a year of repairs in Charleston. Well, Conrad, now that we're aboard, put on this small
earpiece that looks like a Bluetooth communication device. All crewmembers wear these while on watch, and they communicate through them. Each crewmember
carries a small frequency selector on his belt so that he can talk to the members of his watch group. Of course, the 1MC is tied into all comm devices at all times.
The diving and collision alarm sounds have been changed. The Model T Ford sound for diving is no longer used. As you can see, nearly every watch station has a
computer display and keyboard. The boat is really a lot of computers hooked up together, with redundancy built in. Nowadays, the functions of both NAVDACs, the
three SINS, the TRW receiver/processor, the SDC, the Loran C, and the MSRs can all be packed into a laptop-size computer that will process all of those
applications, simultaneously, much faster. Even the planesman and steering stations have been combined into one crew position where the crewmember uses a
display screen, a mouse, and a joystick to control the boat. When we're at sea, you'll notice how quiet this ship is. In the Nav Center on Lafayette, the computer
fans were noisy. Not here, The fans are located in each individual computer, and all of the computers are located in a separate room, below decks."
"What about the crew, Dave? I heard that some are suggesting that women serve aboard subs. What do you think?"
"Well, Conrad, the Powell has an all-male crew. To have women aboard would certainly cause a distraction for the men, and probably for the women, too. In 1995,
Norway appointed a female captain to a submarine. In 1998 Australia, Canada, and Spain allowed women to serve aboard subs. As for the US Navy, there are only
three exceptions allowing women on board.
- Women civilian technicians for a few days at the most.
- Women midshipmen on an overnight stay during summer training for ROTC and the Naval Academy.
- Female family members on a one-day dependent cruise.
Although an all-female crew could be a possibility, because most submariner training is on-the-job, it would be impossible to field an all-female crew that could
operate a sub without prior experience working aboard a submarine. The Royal Navy is concerned for atmospheric contaminants that might hurt the fetus of a
pregnant woman. Radiation isn't a concern because most submarines of the free world have sufficient shielding to maintain a radiation level that is about the same
as the background radiation a person receives on land. Another issue with a woman who is pregnant is that when the baby is due, the patrol cannot be suspended
to evacuate her. It must continue to the end of the deployment to meet operational readiness goals."
"Are there any other of our Lafayette guys on board?"
"Yes, Commander Dave Bartilson is the Communications Officer. This is an important position because of the large amount of various types of gear on board including
satellite uplink and downlink communications, a TV station, a radio station, crypto gear, etc. Commander Reggie Clark is the Navigator, and Commander Polkowski
is the Weapons Officer."
"Dave, other than us lieutenants, this boat is commander-heavy."
"Well, we're all pretty senior men, and the Navy wants some rank on board when we're carrying a lot of different civilians. If you and I keep our noses clean and ‘mind
our whites,' we might be promoted soon, too!"
"Hey, I'm for that!"
"So, Dave, how did they convert this Ohio Class boat into the Powell?"
"Well, they needed a large area, larger that the huge CIC compartment that was in the Triton. The missile compartment wasn't needed for this mission, but trying to
remove all of the tubes and then trying to install all of the communications machinery into the existing hull would have taken too long and cost too much. What they
did was have the engineers design a three-level section that would replace the missile compartment and size it to what would be needed. As a result, the section that
replaced the missile compartment is nearly twice as long as it was. The upper level is the working space with communication gear and meeting rooms where Dave
Bartilson will spend most of his time. The level below it contains mess facilities, food storage, a library and an entertainment center. The lower deck consists of
separate berthing and restrooms for men and women. The boat can accommodate 300 persons, far short of the 2,000 persons who can live at Weather Mountain,
and this means it will probably carry only the highest level leaders in the Nation."
"It is really great the Navy came up with this idea and implemented it."
"Well, Conrad, the Navy implemented it, but it didn't come up with the idea or the plan."
"Who did, then? One of the black agencies?"
"Yes, FEMA."
"But FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is in the white, isn't it? And isn't it the agency that takes care of the public in a disaster?"
"Well, Conrad, look at what FEMA did for New Orleans after Katrina. They were tasked to provide shelter for a lot of folks down there who were forced from their
homes, and it did, in a way. It sent down a lot of RVs with secure phones in them."
"Secure phones? What would homeless people need with secure communication?"
"I guess I should start at the beginning, Conrad. FEMA is one of the black agencies. FEMA's mission is to provide a continuity of government. FEMA built all of the
secret bunkers across the nation and hires front companies to maintain them. As for the public, well, FEMA is very good at directing Federal funds to a stricken area,
but it isn't in the business of providing housing or material goods to the public in a place that has been declared a state of emergency."
"You mean that FEMA's primary goal is protection of the leadership of the US?"
"Yep, that's it. FEMA did a great thing when it realized that a submarine plying the oceans was a much better hiding place for the NCA than some bunker in a
mountain or hill. During the Cold War, bunkers were fine because the Soviets couldn't get the exact latitude and longitude of every bunker. And they didn't know which
bunkers might be used. Besides, their missile warheads weren't sophisticated enough to place a direct hit on a bunker. Most of the bunkers are designed to withstand
a medium-size nuclear detonation as close as 25 miles away. But now, as Admiral Hughes said, terrorism is a whole different rat . . . er, animal. It is a whole different
game. Unfortunately, in the framework of terrorism, we're a very open society. For proof, ask yourself what the hell 20 million illegals are doing in the US. And I'm not
talking just about the poor Mexicans who came here looking for a better life that wasn't burdened by a corrupt government. I'd probably do the same thing if I had been
born there. Eventually, these people will be integrated into our culture. What I'm worried about are the much fewer terrorists who come in to the US by the same
doorways, ready to spread havoc. The terrorists don't have missiles. They don't live on foreign soil. They don't have to have a sophisticated delivery system. All they
need to do is to sneak around, find the bunkers, watch to see who goes into them after their buddies cause some sort of carnage that scares the leadership into hiding,
and then they can place their bombs, chemicals, or deadly organic compounds. Thank goodness they didn't take down Mount Weather after the towers dropped and
some of our highest leadership went there. So, we must realize that FEMA's primary concern is the continuation of the government, which is a laudable mission and
one that we don't want to be without. When the next hurricane hits the southeastern US, we need to give FEMA a break. FEMA isn't here to solve all of the natural
disaster problems. It has a higher purpose."
"Well, Dave, it is one-of-a-kind! What a great boat with such an important mission!"
"There is one other one with its keel about to be laid, Conrad."
"You mean they are building one specifically for this purpose?"
"Yep. I can't tell you where it is being built, but it will serve in the Pacific. That way, we'll have one available to the West Coast in the event we need protection over
there. For example, if the President or other high-ranking leaders happen to be in the West when something happens."
"That makes a lot of sense. Can you tell me what they've named it?"
"You won't believe it."
"Why not?"
"The John Hughes."
"I don't believe it."
"But it is true."
"Thanks for the information and the tour, Dave. I'd better get busy and start learning this boat so that I can get my dolphins reinstated, too!"