I take Maxie to the St. Mary’s dog park for a romp with her friends every day around 5:30. Her newest friend is a frisky black mutt from Mexico, adopted from a San Diego shelter…
“So what brings you to St Mary’s?” I ask…
“I’m a dolphin and seal trainer at the base,” Sebastian’s attractive owner says.
The reason she’s training dolphins and seals in St. Mary’s is this:
That’s an Ohio class submarine being escorted into open waters from Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base.
These are nuclear powered subs that can carry Trident nuclear ballistic missiles.
I took that picture Sunday morning from the deck of my family’s beach week house on Amelia Island. The subs get escorted out between Amelia and Cumberland islands, where the St Mary’s River hits the ocean.
Kings Bay
I definitely live in a ground zero town.
Kings Bay is the home base for the Navy’s Atlantic Nuclear Sub fleet. The internet will tell you there are 10 of these Ohio class subs at Kings Bay, but I wouldn’t necessarily trust that number — no reason to let potential adversaries know everything about your capability.
There’s no doubt that Kings Bay is among the most secure sites in America. And part of that security comes from dolphin and seal patrols in the waters around Kings Bay.
I guess obviously the young lady is not allowed to say very much about the patrol animals. Dolphins and seals are highly tuned to vibrations in the water created by fish — or scuba divers.
Kings Bay’s dolphins and seals are part of the Swimmer Interdiction Security System. They learn to retrieve beacons from their trainers and carry them to the site of large vibrations that could be scuba divers to mark the spot for further investigation and tracking.
The seals can actually carry a cuff attached to a rope in their mouths that they can attach to a divers leg so they can be reeled in.
Around the World in 727 Days
Two days ago, the USS Florida returned to Kings Bay. It had just completed a 727-day deployment, the longest ever. The Florida traveled 60,000 nautical miles. The crew was swapped out five times.
The Florida was retrofitted from nuclear weapons to Tomahawks in 2003.
I can’t help but wonder if some of those Tomahawks rained down on Houthis in Yemen.
And I can’t help wonder where the sub we watched yesterday is headed. We can probably make some pretty good guesses…
Cheers,
Briton Ryle
Chief Investment Strategist
Outsider Club
X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritonRyle
You Might Also Like:
Pentagon Index Says Something’s Up
https://www.outsiderclub.com/the-pentagon-index-flashes-red/
“The Stock Market was Angrey that Day, My Friend”
https://www.outsiderclub.com/an-angry-stock-market/
How We Knew the Sell-Off Was Coming
https://www.outsiderclub.com/this-chart-says-game-over/
