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US Navy veteran makes torpedoes on submarines | Magazine



U.S. Navy veteran at Orangeburg Dane Moseley spent 3-1/2 years of his military service several hundred meters below the ocean’s surface aboard the USS Francis Scott Key.

As a torpedo on a nuclear submarine, Moseley knew his power was at hand.

He’s grateful that he never had to use it.

“Our job is to go out and try to go unnoticed so that if something happens, we can press a button and people will… just disappear,” Moseley said, noting that back then every Submarines will carry about 16 warheads with one more warhead. more powerful than the atomic bomb.

“You do the math, that’s a lot of bombs there,” Moseley said. “It was a submarine, and at the time, there were 43 like it. It was a deterrent because everyone was scared to use it. You do this and we do it and we do it. no one wins.”

For the most part, his service in the Navy aboard the 7,300-ton, 425-foot submarine was “peaceful,” said Moseley, but there were times that confused him.

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“It just happened like twice the whole time I was there when another submarine spotted you – you can tell because their sonar emits a ping,” Moseley said. “You can hear it hitting the submarine. It’s a strange feeling because you know someone has found you.”

“And you know it’s not American,” he continued. “Things can happen, things can go away, you know. Nobody really knows. Submarines – they’re always called the silent service because nobody talks about it.”

“It’s a bad feeling, bo,” Moseley continued. “Ping! Oh my. You don’t know who it is.”

Before embarking on a side job in October 1977, Moseley first had to live her childhood and teenage years like most people.

The son of a US Navy veteran, Moseley graduated from Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School in 1973.

With his father working in the Navy, Moseley said perhaps military service has always been on his mind, but it’s not something he consciously thinks about.

“I was riding around one day and I said you know how I thought I was going to join the Navy,” Moseley said. “It was a really cool thing. I was out of high school for about a year at Tech (Oraongeburg-Calhoun Technical College) for a while and was a bit bored and I said, ‘Hey, I’m going to join the Navy and that’s it. “

Moseley joined the United States Navy in December 1974 as an E1 sailor recruiter. He went to training camp or basic training at the Naval Training Center in Orlando, Florida.

He then left Orlando for Groton, Connecticut, to study submarines before being introduced to Francis Scott Key. The submarine is part of Submarine Squadron (SUBRON) 16 based in Rota, Spain.

“We’re going to go there (Rota, Spain) and get on a boat and hang out for three months,” Moseley said. “Then go back, fly back to Charleston and three months later fly back and do the same thing. We’ll be out at sea for about 70 days and come back. The other crews will take over and they’ll go. go out.”

“I was in the torpedo room and just kept an eye on everything to make sure everything was fine and nothing blew up,” Moseley continued. “It was really a peaceful experience. We basically kept the torpedo room clean and orderly and ready to roll.”

Moseley said one of the most memorable was when he went to Cocoa Beach, Florida, and participated in the Trident rocket test.

“We have successfully fired the first Trident missile,” Moseley said. “They always had the Polaris missile on their submarine and back then they used the Trident missile, which was supposed to be bigger and better for the new Trident submarines.”

“We were at Cocoa Beach for a couple of months where they retooled our boats and we went out and fired a few of those missiles to make sure they were tested first,” Moseley said. when it goes into production,” Moseley said.

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For Moseley, the three-month experience on the submarine was a different experience. Despite being far away from family and friends, 150 individuals in the cramped quarters quickly became friends.

“You have good friends who talk, read books, listen to a lot of music,” Moseley recalls. “Probably you have passed the time.”

Of course, when he didn’t pass the time, Moseley stood watch for eight hours.

Moseley said being in the water for three months didn’t bother him.

“When I went to submarine school, they let you pass all kinds of tests,” Moseley said. “They get rid of people.”

He said that when he started the class there were about 52 people, when he graduated there were 14 people.

There were a number of physical and mental tests that he and his naval colleagues had to undergo.

One must be placed in a small tank with seven other men

“You probably lost about a third of them in that exercise,” says Moseley. “Some people can’t understand the entire system of a submarine.”

There is also a 100-foot silo structure that the men will need to enter, he said. The room will be filled with water, asking everyone to swim out.

“A lot of them didn’t like that,” he said. “I think that exercise is to see if people follow through with what you’re told.”

The tests proved beneficial to life on the submarine.

“Most people on the submarine are pretty laid back, and every once in a while, someone gets a little cranky,” Moseley said. “That happens very rarely. I think they’ve done a very good job of screening people.”

Moseley said the sub-ship is fairly self-contained with staff on board able to treat minor injuries and meet basic medical needs.

“The only reason it has to work again is that you’ve run out of food,” Moseley said. “You make your own water. You make your own oxygen.”

Moseley would eventually be discharged from the Navy in December 1979 as a third class officer. He is fully certified in submarines and has received the Battle “E” award for Combat Effectiveness several times.

The criterion for receiving the award is overall command readiness to carry out assigned wartime missions. To win, a ship or unit must show its highest combat readiness.

“I enjoyed it,” Moseley said. “I’ve learned a lot, but it’s time to go home.”

After leaving the Navy, Moseley went to Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College on the GI bill, where he received an associate degree in business.

Moseley will marry and have two children and work in the car manufacturing and sales business.

Despite retiring more than a year ago, Moseley said he continues to be involved with veterans groups, particularly the American Legion and Foreign Veterans. Moseley was the athletic director of American Legion Post 4 for about 20 years before leaving that position about two years ago.

“Both organizations do things for the community that people don’t know about,” Moseley said.

Moseley said he keeps in touch with one of his secondary colleagues through social media, but the others are across the country.

“You make good friends and then ‘Hey, he’s out of the Navy and going to Oregon and this guy’s going to Louisiana,'” Moseley said. “You really make good friends when you’re in there because they’re the people you depend on and trust, but like everything else, life changes.”

As for Moseley, he’s enjoying life.

“Now I enjoy fishing and mowing my lawn,” he said. “It’s about it.”



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