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From the Depths: Dragon's Navy Tales - Tomahawks, Whales, and Life Below
12 Plays10 days ago
Join host Patrick Riley as he welcomes fellow VFW member Stuart "Dragon" Draughon to share incredible stories from his submarine service in the U.S. Navy. In this gripping episode, Dragon takes us deep beneath the waves to experience life aboard a nuclear submarine during some of the most dramatic moments of his five deployments.
Hear the heart-pounding account of launching Tomahawk missiles from the Mediterranean during Operation Iraqi Freedom, where the compression from underwater missile tubes made ears pop and the entire submarine shudder. Dragon shares what it was really like to be part of the "Silent Service" during wartime operations, from a sailor's perspective who was still learning the ropes.
But the military action is just the beginning. Dragon recounts one of the most harrowing sea stories you'll ever hear, when their submarine traveling at 50+ knots underwater struck and split a whale in half, causing an 80-degree roll that launched him from his top rack and cracked his ribs. Listen as he describes the dangerous underwater welding operation to free massive whale bones from the propellers, complete with shark watch and no decompression chamber aboard.
From the Arctic ice where footsteps could be heard across the silent frozen landscape, to the comedy of errors that left the crew eating nothing but noodles for three months straight, Dragon's tales capture both the extreme danger and unexpected humor of submarine life. You'll also hear about charity missions in Tunisia, ports of call around the world, and the unique challenges of living underwater for nine months at a time.
Whether you're a military history buff, submarine enthusiast, or just love incredible true stories, this episode delivers unforgettable tales from the depths. Hey, I need to continue to promote the book "Deception Underway" and share updates about the VFW Post 4266 in Parker, Colorado.
Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. Visit UnderwayBooks.com for more military stories and Patrick's published works.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:00
Patrick Riley
What?
00:00:52
Patrick Riley
Welcome back to the podcast. It's been a couple
Balancing Life, Writing, and Marketing with QR Codes
00:00:55
Patrick Riley
of weeks. I've had some scheduling errors, but I've got a good friend from the VFW Post 4266 here in Park, Colorado.
00:01:05
Patrick Riley
Stuart, or we like to call him Dragon. Welcome to How's Things Been? If you'd like to introduce yourself, please.
00:01:12
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, thanks, Pat. um You know, things have been good. It's busy around here. I have three-year-old, so it's very hectic.
00:01:19
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:01:21
Stuart Draughon
But, you know, I'm happy to be here talking to you, you know, get people engaged.
00:01:26
Patrick Riley
Thanks.
00:01:28
Patrick Riley
Absolutely. Absolutely. And of course, I'm always pumping the book. I've got other books coming out. Hopefully I'll get some traction with it. It's a process. um Like I was telling you earlier, i I got a new car and
00:01:28
Stuart Draughon
So,
Parenting, Military Life, and Joining the Navy
00:01:43
Patrick Riley
I'm trying to get out there, do some lift.
00:01:45
Patrick Riley
And when I do lift, I talk to people. I hand out business cards. It's got the QR code for the podcast on YouTube. It's got the... podcast link for Spotify, Apple, and also to purchase the book on Amazon.
00:01:59
Patrick Riley
I'm trying. And then, of course, ah the picture on the front with the but QR code goes out to ah my website, UnderwayBooks.com.
00:02:09
Patrick Riley
So I'm trying, man.
00:02:10
Stuart Draughon
That's very cool.
00:02:11
Patrick Riley
ah
00:02:12
Stuart Draughon
Oh, it's very cool. It's awesome. I wish I could get into that.
00:02:13
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:02:15
Stuart Draughon
and don't have the time for it.
00:02:16
Patrick Riley
I know with a three-year-old, it definitely, you know, it does get better.
00:02:18
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:02:20
Patrick Riley
I mean, well,
00:02:21
Stuart Draughon
Does it? Because I was curious, you know.
00:02:22
Patrick Riley
yeah no It doesn't. It doesn't get any better. Because what happens is when they get in their 20s, all of a sudden they're leaving or if they're 18, they're leaving.
00:02:31
Stuart Draughon
Right?
00:02:31
Patrick Riley
And that's not any fun either.
00:02:32
Stuart Draughon
Yeah. They're off to the military, you know.
00:02:34
Patrick Riley
yeah Yes, exactly.
00:02:35
Stuart Draughon
Sorry.
00:02:36
Patrick Riley
So yeah, great segue.
00:02:36
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:02:38
Patrick Riley
How about that? So tell me, how did you get into the Navy? Like, what did you do? what How did you choose the Navy?
00:02:45
Stuart Draughon
so So I graduated high school and then I went into community college and i got my associate's degree and I really didn't know what I wanted to do from there.
00:02:56
Patrick Riley
Mm-hmm.
00:02:56
Stuart Draughon
I was kind of like up in the air. And I went to my dad and I was like, hey, you know, i don't know what I wanna do. I have a associate's in general studies. You know, I could probably get a job very easily. i just don't know what to do, what I'd be happy at.
00:03:12
Stuart Draughon
and he's like join the navy that's what i did and my dad was a submariner for seven years as a missile tech on a boomer submarine and um
00:03:19
Patrick Riley
yeah
00:03:23
Stuart Draughon
It's an SSBN submarine.
00:03:26
Patrick Riley
Yes.
00:03:26
Stuart Draughon
Boomer is kind of abbreviation for it. But I decided, you know, why not? I went into a recruiting office and I talked to a recruiter. And that afternoon, I was talking to him about like jobs I'd want to do.
00:03:41
Stuart Draughon
and
Choosing the Submarine Force and Training Experiences
00:03:43
Stuart Draughon
yeah that's kind of how it first got started and then after about a few days or so i went back and i was like i kind of i'm interested in doing secf which is sonar electrician um fire control and you know it's like a program they run specifically for uh submarines so
00:04:01
Patrick Riley
Mm-hmm.
00:04:05
Stuart Draughon
I was like, okay, well, I could give it a shot. And they kind of sprung the submarine talk on me. So it was like, hey, do you want to do submarines? And I was like, oh, yeah, you know, I'd love to.
00:04:18
Stuart Draughon
Wait. And I didn't even really think about my answer, but I was already locked in at that point. So I was like, all right, well, my dad was a submariner. Can't be that bad. So, you know.
00:04:28
Patrick Riley
Right. So did you tell the recruiters in the beginning that your dad was also in the Navy and a Samaritan or how they picked that up?
00:04:37
Stuart Draughon
I did not. Yeah.
00:04:38
Patrick Riley
Oh, wow. They just kind of guided you in that direction. Like they needed a billet to fill. Hey, we've got we're told to push this week.
00:04:43
Stuart Draughon
yeah
00:04:46
Patrick Riley
Let's get some Samaritan in there. So.
00:04:48
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, absolutely. They do that with a lot of new recruits. So what they'll do is like if you go into a recruiting office and you say, hey, you know, want to join the Navy.
00:04:59
Stuart Draughon
The first thing they're going hand you is like this book, right? And you're going to look through it you'll see all these jobs, you know, listed in here. You'll see some cool ones and some dull ones. And you're like, I think I really want to do this.
00:05:11
Stuart Draughon
You know, mine was electronics. You know, really wanted to get to be an electronic technician. and they'll test you in the ASVAB. Depending on how you test is where you'll fall into those jobs.
00:05:24
Stuart Draughon
so The ASVAB, I don't know how recent it is. I don't know if you took the ASVAB.
00:05:30
Patrick Riley
Yep, I took it.
00:05:30
Stuart Draughon
ah Yeah. um So I scored a 98 on my ASVAB, which was actually, i guess, fairly good. They tried to sign me up for some kind of nuke program where I'd go and be some kind of engineer.
00:05:40
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:05:42
Stuart Draughon
And I was like, I don't want to do that.
00:05:45
Patrick Riley
Right.
00:05:46
Stuart Draughon
Like, what have you thought about submarines? And that's like, the I guess, the structure of the conversation. Like they they want to see if you want to be a nuke first. And then they'll point you to submarines. And then if you say no, they'll be like, okay, surface fleet.
00:06:00
Stuart Draughon
That's kind of most of the structure of the conversation for most recruiters these days.
00:06:05
Patrick Riley
Okay. Oh, perfect.
00:06:06
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:06:08
Patrick Riley
yeah Yeah, mine I was focused on. I wanted to be a diver. So I just went in and said, I want to be a diver.
00:06:12
Stuart Draughon
Oh yeah.
00:06:14
Patrick Riley
I didn't make it, obviously.
00:06:16
Stuart Draughon
yeah Yeah.
00:06:17
Patrick Riley
and
00:06:17
Stuart Draughon
Funny enough, I went to dive school after, but yeah.
00:06:18
Patrick Riley
And then,
00:06:20
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:06:22
Patrick Riley
oh, wow. how How'd that happen?
00:06:23
Stuart Draughon
yeah
00:06:23
Patrick Riley
How'd you get into being a diver?
00:06:26
Stuart Draughon
So when I joined the submarine force, I went through BESS, which is basically listed submarine school. And after you graduate BESS, you have the option to further your A school. So you can go from A school to C school.
00:06:41
Stuart Draughon
And part of C school is actually going into a dive program because you're required to have seven divers on staff on a submarine. So...
00:06:49
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:06:50
Stuart Draughon
you know it was part of a c-school program they had that i graduated from that's when i was far more fit than i am right now so yeah
00:06:59
Patrick Riley
Oh, wow. All right. So did you, after sea school, did you dive at all or did you have to re-qualify as a diver?
00:07:08
Stuart Draughon
yeah i did dive um
Challenges and Incidents in Submarine Operations
00:07:11
Stuart Draughon
so i've got a funny story for you on that if you want to hear it
00:07:16
Patrick Riley
Absolutely. Let's go.
00:07:18
Stuart Draughon
home so i So we were traveling the Atlantic, right? Usually in the middle of the ocean, there's like no biological life anywhere, right?
00:07:27
Patrick Riley
yeah
00:07:27
Stuart Draughon
It's usually just geographic, right?
00:07:28
Patrick Riley
Mm-hmm.
00:07:31
Stuart Draughon
And that's it. For a submarine, all you have to watch out for like underwater mountains, et cetera, right? So we're cruising and we're going pretty fast. We're we're going about like 40 to 50 knots underwater, which is yeah know about 95 miles per hour.
00:07:44
Patrick Riley
wow
00:07:46
Stuart Draughon
And, you know, I'm in my rack and the way the racks are set up is there's three racks on in birthing. So like they're stacked three and I have the top one because I'm tall.
00:08:00
Stuart Draughon
So. You know, I'm on the top rack and I'm falling asleep. And then all of a sudden we take this roll. It was like an 80 degree roll.
00:08:10
Patrick Riley
Mm-hmm.
00:08:10
Stuart Draughon
And i fly out of my my rack and birthing. I hit and i actually cracked a rib when I landed because ah basically the the wall becomes a floor.
00:08:21
Stuart Draughon
Right. so um we do an emergency blow which is basically you blow the main ballast tanks uh for the front end to do a 45 degree angle up and you actually travel uh towards the surface at you know pretty high rate of speed where you actually get airborne with the submarine when you surface and we came up really fast because we were terrified.
00:08:46
Stuart Draughon
And we were like, why did we just take an 80 degree roll, right? So where we go to the surface, we come out of the sail, and there is just a trail of what looks like blood.
00:08:58
Stuart Draughon
And we're like, what?
00:08:59
Patrick Riley
hmm
00:09:00
Stuart Draughon
And we must have hit some kind of underwater whale because we see pieces of it.
00:09:04
Patrick Riley
hmm oh oh geez okay
00:09:07
Stuart Draughon
So we basically split whale in half. sure Yeah. But the bone got caught in the propellers and we couldn't go. Right.
00:09:17
Patrick Riley
okay
00:09:18
Stuart Draughon
So, um, you know, they issue the divers out. I was one of them that jumped in with, uh, another sailor of mine. And then we jumped in, we had the brazing torches underwater and we had to like weld this thing off, you know,
00:09:34
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:09:34
Stuart Draughon
Uh, yeah, it was like basically taking a plasma torch to a ah telephone pole is massive. Right. And, you know, it was, it took hours, right.
00:09:45
Stuart Draughon
we had a shark watch for the sale to make sure, know, nothing was going to eat us while we're doing this.
00:09:45
Patrick Riley
yeah
00:09:51
Stuart Draughon
But yeah, it was intense. It was, it was a crazy scenario.
00:09:55
Patrick Riley
wow
00:09:56
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:09:57
Patrick Riley
And just take, it I mean, were were there any other parts on the um the sub that were, like, affected where, like, did it didt ingest anything? Because are there any pumps that are circulating water that ingested anything?
00:10:12
Stuart Draughon
so we So we have hydrophones on the sides of the submarine. They're actually embedded into the, it's kind of this rubber coating on the outside of the HY80 steel that holds the submarine together.
00:10:29
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:10:29
Stuart Draughon
So the hydrophones, we have about 144 hydrophones. There's a lot. So when we went through the whale,
00:10:39
Patrick Riley
Hmm.
00:10:39
Stuart Draughon
the rib bones actually peeled some of the bottom hydrophones off. So we had to replace those when we dove down. So we were at about, I want to say it was 100 to 150 feet under to replacing hydrophones.
00:10:56
Stuart Draughon
So, and, you know, I mean, it doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're a diver and you're at 150 feet underwater,
00:11:03
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:11:03
Stuart Draughon
You know, that's a lot of pressure on your body. You have to know how to manage it. And there's no decompression tank that we had on the boat at that time. So we had to do a straight dive.
00:11:12
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:11:15
Stuart Draughon
So we did it in stages. we So what we do is we we dive down 40 feet and then we'll dive down another 40 feet and well we'll rest there, you know.
00:11:27
Stuart Draughon
And this is to prevent the bends from happening.
00:11:29
Patrick Riley
Mm-hmm.
00:11:30
Stuart Draughon
You know, and we just take it in stages down. So it takes quite a while to get down to that depth right away, you know, because it takes a toll on the human body. so
00:11:40
Patrick Riley
So how tall is because normally when we see a sub and it's surfaced and it's rolling along, it looks like just the main part of the sub is only a couple feet out of the water besides the sail, obviously.
00:11:51
Stuart Draughon
Right.
00:11:53
Patrick Riley
So underneath the water, that 150 feet?
00:11:53
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:11:55
Patrick Riley
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:11:57
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, so normally, so a submarine has has a float factor to right? So it depends on how many air in the ballast tanks you have. We blew all of our front main ballast tanks, so we had to refill to actually bring to full surface.
00:12:11
Patrick Riley
okay okay
00:12:14
Stuart Draughon
But the sail itself is 58 feet tall, right?
00:12:17
Patrick Riley
okay
00:12:17
Stuart Draughon
So the part you see that sticks out of the water is 58 feet high. Now with the mass raised, that adds an additional 58 feet because the the mass, like the periscope and the antennas and stuff, they're all the same length as the sail because they they decompress inside of the sail when they come down.
00:12:30
Patrick Riley
ye
00:12:37
Stuart Draughon
So... um the submarine the compartment tank people tank is actually about 100 feet in length um know deep so it would be and total like 158 depending on you know what you're doing normally submarines cruise at like 150 feet it's kind of like a general safety to avoid uh any kind of maritime uh vessels or anything like that so
00:12:56
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:13:07
Patrick Riley
Oh, sure. Sure. Okay. Now I understand. All right. So
Navy Traditions and Initial Deployments
00:13:10
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:13:10
Patrick Riley
yeah, that's now have you done any recreational diving or
00:13:16
Stuart Draughon
You know, I'm certified diver, so I could. i went to Hawaii and the Bahamas the past 10 years, and I dove in the Bahamas. We went down 80 feet.
00:13:29
Stuart Draughon
That was fun. We saw some manta rays. And the nice thing is that, you know, if you're certified diver, you don't have to do all of the little training courses they have you run through that take a couple of days to go do that stuff.
00:13:44
Stuart Draughon
So, you know, you save yourself some time, I guess. But yeah, it was fun.
00:13:48
Patrick Riley
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I know it's it's a lot different diving for the Navy versus recreational. So you kind of like, I've always said the same thing.
00:13:58
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:14:00
Patrick Riley
I love to go on cruise ships because when I'm on a cruise ship, I can still be at sea, but have to work. I don't have to ship paint.
00:14:07
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:14:08
Patrick Riley
I don't have to work in the galley.
00:14:09
Stuart Draughon
right
00:14:09
Patrick Riley
i don't have to do any of that crap.
00:14:12
Stuart Draughon
I hated chipping paint.
00:14:13
Patrick Riley
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:14:14
Stuart Draughon
but That needle gun, I'll never get that vibration out of my hands.
00:14:20
Patrick Riley
Right.
00:14:20
Stuart Draughon
so
00:14:21
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:14:21
Stuart Draughon
Right?
00:14:21
Patrick Riley
I always thought that needle guns would just take off everything.
00:14:22
Stuart Draughon
the
00:14:25
Patrick Riley
And I just remember, you know, working a needle gun and it just was like, why isn't the rust going away?
00:14:25
Stuart Draughon
Right.
00:14:30
Patrick Riley
Why isn't the paint going away? Why isn't this, you know, give me a good sandblaster.
00:14:34
Stuart Draughon
yeah
00:14:35
Patrick Riley
We can just blast him. But no, no, it's working with the damn needle gun.
00:14:38
Stuart Draughon
dude it was like grinding it was i mean it's the worst form of meditation i guess some people love to sand wood and stuff for like meditate but needle gun is just it's loud i mean there's dust everywhere we had these uh zinc diodes on the inside of the submarine too
00:14:38
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:15:00
Stuart Draughon
get rid of the salt water that would get into the cracks so it wouldn't rust as much and they would build up what's called cadmium on the outside of these things we had like a whole hazard thing to like not breathe this and we had a bunch of uh you know mass and everything we have whole protocol to like paint the ship so we had to grind and we couldn't get too close to these diodes or we would have to go to medical and
00:15:01
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:15:25
Stuart Draughon
There were so many of them. We had to just needle gun around all of it. It was exhausting.
00:15:30
Patrick Riley
yeah Wow.
00:15:33
Patrick Riley
Well, and that's the thing, because with these episodes, and most of my episodes include a needle gun. their Needle guns come up in all the conversations.
00:15:33
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:15:40
Stuart Draughon
Oh yeah.
00:15:43
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:15:44
Patrick Riley
ah ah Yeah, Rob was recently talking about it. He was the last know friend I had on, and he was talking about the needle gun, like, hey, welcome aboard. Here's a needle gun.
00:15:54
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:15:54
Patrick Riley
And I always think about, you know, besides just playing the book right over my shoulder, maybe I should get a needle gun.
00:16:00
Stuart Draughon
right definitely people be like i recognize that you know where's your air hose you know yeah
00:16:00
Patrick Riley
That'll bring back some PTSD for people.
00:16:06
Patrick Riley
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah, that's true. So after, was going to say, after you went through school, i mean, where was your ah where was your A school at?
00:16:19
Stuart Draughon
so our a school actually every basic enlisted submarine school a school is actually in grott connecticut um
00:16:26
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:16:27
Stuart Draughon
So the submarine base there is, it's extensive. You can actually go see the first nuclear submarines, a history museum right next door that has the Nautilus where you can actually take a tour of it.
00:16:37
Patrick Riley
Okay. Mm-hmm.
00:16:41
Stuart Draughon
They're very cool to see what experiences were like back then it compared to now.
00:16:47
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:16:47
Stuart Draughon
i Cause they were using, so the racks I described earlier, the three stack of racks, you know, on the Nautilus, they had a similar setup, but it was only two stacks, but it was cots, you know, basically like a hammock that was roped across, you know, so, you know, it was much different experience.
00:16:59
Patrick Riley
Mm.
00:17:05
Patrick Riley
Jeez.
00:17:07
Stuart Draughon
And like, they, they went through a lot of trials and tribulations that were figuring out now how to fix and,
00:17:16
Patrick Riley
Mm.
00:17:17
Stuart Draughon
It's, a we're still taking lessons from the Nautilus. It was an amazing boat. So if you get a chance to see it, you should.
00:17:25
Patrick Riley
yeah absolutely absolutely yeah and um so how did you get your first orders and where were your orders at
00:17:33
Stuart Draughon
So my first orders were actually in Groton, Connecticut. So I was assigned to the USS Pittsburgh, um, And, you know, when they assign orders ah out of C school, essentially at that point, they they they give you a pick, but it's only like the top 2% actually get to pick where they want to go, right?
00:17:56
Stuart Draughon
Right.
00:17:56
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:17:56
Stuart Draughon
uh the others are basically assigned so i did not make the top two percent of dive school i'm sorry but that's very difficult to do and so you know i i got chosen to go to the uss pittsburgh which was fortuitous because they were actually going on a big mission when i got assigned to them so um you know, I got to be a part of that and actually made some meaningful impact to the world, you know, so I, I was very happy to be a part of, you know, the USS Pittsburgh and just in general, be a part of that experience because it, when you get orders, you always think, okay, I got Groton Kinetics, like, well, I'm staying here, you know, but
00:18:25
Patrick Riley
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:18:42
Stuart Draughon
my, you know, disappointment was lifted when I was like, oh, we're going out on deployment. And, you know, when I found out what we were doing, I was like, oh man, this awesome, you know?
00:18:55
Stuart Draughon
So, oh
Submarine Operations and Life Onboard
00:18:57
Stuart Draughon
yeah, you know, that's basically it.
00:18:58
Patrick Riley
So what was that first deployment? OK. OK.
00:19:02
Stuart Draughon
so we went to we went sent to a centcom deployment and um as in operation iraqi freedom where uh you know we fired tomahawk missiles um and you know being if you're not within fire control so my job was i was a radio man right um handle classified material on the daily
00:19:09
Patrick Riley
okay
00:19:21
Patrick Riley
and okay
00:19:26
Stuart Draughon
yeah I was an EKMS manager, you know all of that stuff. But you know in the end, we got orders from SecDef to go ahead and execute you know the mission and fire Tomahawk missiles.
00:19:42
Stuart Draughon
And it was on the news at the time. but You know, we were one of, i think, three sister boats that were out there. And it was just really cool to be a part of because it's a different experience that not many Samaritans actually get a chance to talk about.
00:19:59
Stuart Draughon
So, yeah, it was very cool.
00:20:00
Patrick Riley
Right. So when you guys launched Tomahawks, did you have to surface and then launch or are they like ICBMs where you're under, you you can be submerged and then launch the ICBMs?
00:20:12
Stuart Draughon
So we can launch to merge. We did. um
00:20:15
Patrick Riley
Okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:20:16
Stuart Draughon
So each, well, each TLAM depends on what version of TLAM you have. um Because there's there's four different versions, A through D, right?
00:20:28
Stuart Draughon
and You know, some of them come with booster rockets. So TLAM-As are your basic Tom Hawk missiles that will fire within six inches of a target, you know, from a like X distance that I can't disclose.
00:20:42
Stuart Draughon
But, you know, they have a booster rocket on the bottom that will basically jettison it and then it'll fire the rocket and fly.
00:20:46
Patrick Riley
Okay. Yeah.
00:20:52
Stuart Draughon
out and that creates what's called fingers of death uh for a submarine which is the rocket trail leaving the water points exactly to where your submarine is at so you you know them fingers of death because anybody looking for us will instantly find us you know so yeah
00:21:03
Patrick Riley
okay
00:21:11
Patrick Riley
yeah Absolutely. Yeah, i didn't realize that would be a saying. So because of course, i was surface. and And one of my friends is like, Oh, you're a target.
00:21:18
Stuart Draughon
yeah
00:21:20
Patrick Riley
Yeah, I'm a target. Yeah, yeah I get it. But we we had vertical launch.
00:21:24
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, unfortunately.
00:21:26
Patrick Riley
So on this it was this Bruins-class destroyer.
00:21:28
Stuart Draughon
Oh, yeah.
00:21:30
Patrick Riley
So we were able to launch. did We launched tomahawks during the first Gulf War. But that was after I left.
00:21:36
Stuart Draughon
Okay.
00:21:38
Patrick Riley
I was like, really? They had to launch after I left? Okay, fine.
00:21:41
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:21:41
Patrick Riley
Which, not a big deal. We were in the Red Sea. We were in the Persian Gulf. We were in the that area of operation.
00:21:46
Stuart Draughon
Okay. Yeah.
00:21:48
Patrick Riley
But, yeah, soon as I left, that's when I launched. was like, all fine.
00:21:53
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, it was, it's pretty cool. I mean, on a submarine is a little bit different than a surface boat. I've not been on a surface boat launching Tomahawk missiles, but on the sub, it it'll make your ears pop because the compression difference from when, you know, there's an escaping vacuum from the VLS tube on a submarine actually makes your ears pop because you're underwater, right?
00:22:02
Patrick Riley
Right.
00:22:18
Stuart Draughon
So, and you'll feel the boat
00:22:18
Patrick Riley
Right.
00:22:21
Stuart Draughon
like dip down when it goes so it has a tremendous effect like when you when you experience it's loud obviously you know but um but it's very cool you know and uh you know i hope i don't have to do it again you know
00:22:30
Patrick Riley
right
00:22:38
Patrick Riley
Yeah. Now, when you guys launched, were you in the Persian Gulf or you were in the Mediterranean or Red Sea or where did you launch from to get into Iraq?
00:22:47
Stuart Draughon
We were in the Mediterranean at the time.
00:22:49
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:22:50
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:22:50
Patrick Riley
All right. So I went out over either Syria or Iran or.
00:22:51
Stuart Draughon
And...
00:22:55
Stuart Draughon
yeah yeah and it was um you know during that time i was i wasn't fully qualified submarines as i i just got into the boat so you know there was a lot of unknown that i didn't know at the time so as far as like the details of the mission or like any of that there was just so many nuances that i was still trying to learn at the time
00:23:05
Patrick Riley
Hmm.
00:23:12
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:23:21
Stuart Draughon
I didn't really understand what was going on, but it was very cool to be there and experience it.
00:23:26
Patrick Riley
Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:28
Stuart Draughon
But yeah.
00:23:29
Patrick Riley
Well, and then it got you qualified for the VFW in that case. So there you are.
00:23:32
Stuart Draughon
Yeah. Right.
00:23:33
Patrick Riley
Full circle.
00:23:33
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:23:34
Patrick Riley
We're right there.
00:23:34
Stuart Draughon
All right.
00:23:35
Patrick Riley
And, of course, we we do have to say hi to Jim because Jim will probably hear this podcast at 3 in the morning.
00:23:43
Patrick Riley
And I won't be the only one he yells at. He'll yell at you. He'll call you and say, David Dragon, why have to hear your voice at 3 a.m.?
00:23:43
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:23:46
Stuart Draughon
That's right.
00:23:50
Patrick Riley
Because the damn his podcast just kicks in. And I heard that recently. I was like, that's pretty cool. So here you go.
00:23:57
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:23:57
Patrick Riley
Say hi to Jim. He's good to go
00:23:59
Stuart Draughon
Hey, Jim, get some rest.
00:24:01
Patrick Riley
exactly
00:24:02
Stuart Draughon
very
00:24:03
Patrick Riley
be happy to hear from you. oh So yeah, that's great. So that was your first show. How long were you out to sea during that Iraqi freedom?
00:24:11
Stuart Draughon
So the first deployment we were out for nine months, I five deployments ah in my career in the Navy.
00:24:16
Patrick Riley
Oh, wow.
00:24:21
Stuart Draughon
So the first one was a CENTCOM deployment. Then I did a Northern deployment, got my Blue Nose, and i got my shell back obviously in my first deployment.
00:24:33
Stuart Draughon
um And then you know, i did an AFRICOM tour, ah and then I did another northern run and another CENTCOM run.
00:24:45
Stuart Draughon
So... um yeah It was really cool experience. Some missions you go out on, especially for a submarine in some cases, there's just not a lot of grandeur like you see in the movies or TV.
00:24:57
Patrick Riley
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:25:00
Stuart Draughon
so like If you go out to sea and you have orders to kind of hang out in an area, That's your mission, you know, and sometimes you go there, hang out, and you're completing your mission and you don't even know it.
00:25:15
Stuart Draughon
ah So there's a lot of background noise, especially with like the intel we gather and like what we're doing out there. So there's always something in the background with a submarine, even if you're just hanging out and the missions don't always dictate what's actually happening. So
00:25:35
Patrick Riley
Right
00:25:35
Stuart Draughon
it's It's a cool experience, but being underway for nine months can take its toll for sure.
00:25:41
Patrick Riley
Yeah So with that How do you Okay so we know we don't have to do anything with fuel You've got the nuclear reactor Perfect But for um supplies you know Because I always heard they made pretty good food On subs Is that true no?
00:25:42
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:25:49
Stuart Draughon
Right. Yeah. ah Okay.
00:25:59
Stuart Draughon
I'm going to tell you another story. ready?
00:26:00
Patrick Riley
Okay. i'm I'm always ready for stories. I'm going to bait you for the stories. Yes. Yep.
00:26:04
Stuart Draughon
Okay, this is great because this is a good one. It's doozy. So we were getting ready for another deployment to go out. And before we do, we do a stores load, right?
00:26:16
Patrick Riley
Yep.
00:26:16
Stuart Draughon
And for a submarine, know, we do have great food. Like we have some of the best food in the Navy because We everything is fresh, right? I mean, we have a freezer.
00:26:27
Stuart Draughon
It's not opened all the time. i mean, you only have 160 guys to feed. So it's pretty fresh food. You know, our milk usually lasts about two weeks, which is a lot compared to other people.
00:26:34
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:26:39
Stuart Draughon
And, you know, we were getting ready to go underway and we're packing on the food.
00:26:41
Patrick Riley
yeah
00:26:45
Stuart Draughon
Right. So, you know, we start packing like the noodles, the sauce, you know, all of that stuff. And we all noticed that we're we're leaving almost a full pallet of food on the pier.
00:27:00
Stuart Draughon
And we're like, what what's happened here? Something's wrong. And we couldn't figure it out before we left because it was time to go. So we ah we departed and we're getting near the tail end of our deployment and we figured out what the problem was with the food.
00:27:19
Stuart Draughon
So we had loaded, well, first we had ah ah a new CS, which is a culinary specialist on the boat. And he was very junior, you know, and he was entering in the food load.
00:27:33
Stuart Draughon
And instead of 200 pounds of noodles, he put 2000 pounds because he put an extra zero and we loaded 2000 pounds of noodles.
00:27:40
Patrick Riley
no
00:27:44
Stuart Draughon
onto the boat. And we're this is the last three months of our deployment. So we didn't have enough room for any other food. And that's why there was another pallet of food on the pier.
00:27:56
Stuart Draughon
So we ate nothing but noodles because we were on mission for three months.
00:28:00
Patrick Riley
Wow.
00:28:02
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:28:03
Stuart Draughon
And we didn't have we ran out of peanut butter, ketchup. I mean, everything you could think of to make a sauce, we were out of in the first two weeks.
00:28:11
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:28:14
Stuart Draughon
And all it was was just your generic steam line noodles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three months. Yeah. Yeah. It was rough.
00:28:23
Patrick Riley
That's got to be bad. i can envision that already. Yes. That's.
00:28:27
Stuart Draughon
Oh, man. It was.
00:28:29
Patrick Riley
Yeah, ah and then just to get the the food down to the reefers, I mean, that's just, e you just can't drop it in, right? Like, you don't have a forklift.
00:28:42
Patrick Riley
It's just humping right?
00:28:42
Stuart Draughon
um
00:28:43
Patrick Riley
A work party?
00:28:43
Stuart Draughon
Yes. So we have a work party and it depends on what kind of submarine. So we went on attack sub. My dad, who was on a boomer, which is is an SSBN. you can actually crane load the food on because the sb ssbn's are about four times larger than an attack submarine and they you can actually remove a hat a top half of the submarine to like crane stuff down they have a gym a library they got all this crazy stuff and i'm like
00:28:57
Patrick Riley
Oh, good.
00:29:03
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:29:16
Stuart Draughon
Well, that must be nice because I don't have of that, you know.
00:29:18
Patrick Riley
Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:21
Stuart Draughon
But, yeah, it's so it's crazy. But, yeah, we do have we have working party where it's like, you know, 50 of us or so, and we're handing each other food, you know, just the bait.
00:29:32
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:29:33
Stuart Draughon
And we do it for hours, and we just handed too many noodles down, you know.
00:29:33
Patrick Riley
Oh, yeah.
00:29:38
Patrick Riley
Right.
00:29:39
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:29:40
Patrick Riley
Yeah, you just have a question like, why so many noodles? What's going on with the noodles?
00:29:43
Stuart Draughon
Right. We should have asked the question. Yeah, we should have.
00:29:46
Patrick Riley
Exactly. Well, on my first ship, we had, it was a smaller Adams-class destroyer. And during those working parties, it was five-inch rounds.
00:29:57
Patrick Riley
That was the fun one, besides the provisions.
00:29:59
Stuart Draughon
Oh, man.
00:30:00
Patrick Riley
But the five-inch rounds, just being able to
00:30:01
Stuart Draughon
ah
00:30:03
Patrick Riley
move those around because my second ship
00:30:04
Stuart Draughon
Those are heavy.
Cultural Exchanges and Liberty Ports
00:30:06
Patrick Riley
was the Scruance and that was nice because they were able to crane them on board and then they had a pallet jack where there is a pretty heavy duty pallet jack just move those into the armory and into the magazine and they were able to take care of it themselves we didn't have to carry it I didn't I only had to do the first year that I was on board let's move those damn five inch rounds
00:30:15
Stuart Draughon
yeah
00:30:17
Stuart Draughon
That's so nice.
00:30:27
Stuart Draughon
There was never any end to that that floor for the store's load.
00:30:31
Patrick Riley
yeah
00:30:31
Stuart Draughon
I mean, everybody... was a volunteer for that. There was no end. And if you weren't doing the store's load, then something was wrong. You were in the wrong place doing the wrong thing, you know?
00:30:40
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:30:42
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:30:44
Stuart Draughon
But yeah, it didn't matter what your seniority was. The captain was down there loading food. Everybody was doing it. So, yeah.
00:30:50
Patrick Riley
Wow. So you mentioned earlier your blue nose, and I i didn't have to do that.
00:30:55
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:30:57
Patrick Riley
i I got away. I got close. we we were ah i was on the Mount Whitney, and I went up to Norway, but we didn't go too far up north into Norway.
00:31:01
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:31:07
Stuart Draughon
Okay.
00:31:07
Patrick Riley
We did some um exercises in the fjords. That was great.
00:31:12
Stuart Draughon
Okay.
00:31:13
Patrick Riley
But we didn't go up any further. Mine hit Stavanger. Stavanger was awesome. And all the girls had blonde hair. Love Norway.
00:31:22
Stuart Draughon
Yep, they're beautiful out there.
00:31:22
Patrick Riley
So, yeah. So when you were out on deployment and you got your blue nose, what does that entail?
00:31:31
Stuart Draughon
So um we broke through the ice. So it's submarine, blue nose ceremony. you know They don't really do them as much anymore. Now it's ah it's considered hazing is you know kind of their stick on it. But yeah know there were some volunteers. I volunteered to do the ceremony.
00:31:55
Stuart Draughon
And there were some people that opted out just because they could. right oh So normally, like, you know, you have what's called ice princess. Okay.
00:32:05
Patrick Riley
yeah
00:32:05
Stuart Draughon
And, you know, it's a whole thing, right?
00:32:05
Patrick Riley
okay
00:32:08
Stuart Draughon
You all hail the ice princess and, you know, they dump a bunch of cold water on you and it is freezing. Um, but the traditional, like how you actually merit the blue nose and on a submarine is to break through the ice in the Arctic, which we did.
00:32:15
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:32:23
Patrick Riley
Uh-huh.
00:32:25
Stuart Draughon
Um, we broke through and how they do is they use sonar to detect where the thin parts of the ice are. So, um, we have hydrophones on the top of the submarine, which ping up and, you know, it'll tell us, okay, this is where the thinner part of the ice is. We'll break through. So we did.
00:32:46
Stuart Draughon
and uh we had to stay on station for a few days so once you surface you actually have to do roving patrols and all of that so um you know that's kind of the initiation for a blue nose and there's a lot more to that i don't want to give away but uh yeah you know it's um it's a pretty fun experience and
00:33:06
Patrick Riley
sir Sure, sure.
00:33:11
Patrick Riley
So let's that's a question I would have is, but so you sir you know you break through the ice and you set up roving patrols. How far out do you go and where do you, i just imagine polar bears are out there.
00:33:23
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, so, oh yeah. So we have on the top of the sail, we have an a Mark 243 belt fed machine gun that we have a post for and we watch for polar bears, but we have a rolling roving patrol on the outside of the boat.
00:33:39
Patrick Riley
right
00:33:43
Stuart Draughon
um and we only do it because you know you don't want animals to start harboring next to the boat uh because there's an epa issue like if we were to leave and the animals were there they'd all fall in or something would happen right but
00:33:52
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:34:01
Stuart Draughon
yeah I mean, it's dead quiet out there. so And it's 70 below where we were at.
00:34:06
Patrick Riley
right
00:34:07
Stuart Draughon
So it's freezing. And you have these special coveralls that you wear that are like that thick, you know. And they cover you head to toe. And by the time you get outside, you're already sweating, you know.
00:34:22
Stuart Draughon
But you could hear a pin drop out there because it's so quiet.
00:34:25
Patrick Riley
ah
00:34:26
Stuart Draughon
So you can hear the footsteps of the roving patrol at the top of the sail all the way from the other end of the boat because it's like crunching chips that you hear out there.
00:34:38
Stuart Draughon
And I remember one of my buddies was roving and i you know it's almost like um soothing to hear the footsteps.
00:34:48
Stuart Draughon
So you have to force yourself awake. And, you know, I remember hearing him stop and I'm like, did something happen? And then I just hear this fart from a distance is so far away.
00:35:02
Stuart Draughon
And I was like, oh, my gosh.
00:35:02
Patrick Riley
ah
00:35:03
Stuart Draughon
you know
00:35:04
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:35:05
Stuart Draughon
so But it was funny. You know, it was a good time.
00:35:08
Patrick Riley
Yeah. Yeah. Well, because I know, like I said, I've had to do some roving patrols, but granted on the ship, we went didn't get off. But yeah, I was sweating because it was Bahrain in the middle of the Persian Gulf and just had the frack jackets on.
00:35:20
Stuart Draughon
oh man Bahrain is terribly hot yes it is
00:35:22
Patrick Riley
And I remember taking the frack jacket off and just complete sweat on my dungarees. Like, yeah, that's... Yeah, yeah. So you saw a lot of different environments where you were 70 below and then 120 in the middle of the desert.
00:35:40
Stuart Draughon
oh yeah black flag weather yeah definitely yeah it's been uh experience
00:35:42
Patrick Riley
Yeah, yeah. Great. So, yeah What were some of the ports of call that you went into?
00:35:51
Stuart Draughon
So, oh gosh, so I'll start from one side of Europe and I'll i'll kind of go across. ah So,
00:36:00
Patrick Riley
Well, because i know you mentioned Subic Bay, which really kind of amazed me because I've been there in the heyday.
00:36:05
Stuart Draughon
right.
00:36:08
Patrick Riley
i can That's kind of the why I started this whole podcast thing, because I love to talk about Subic Bay.
00:36:13
Stuart Draughon
Is it? Okay. Yeah.
00:36:16
Patrick Riley
But...
00:36:16
Stuart Draughon
Well, I mean, we went to, um I don't know if it was specifically Subic Bay. You know, we were in the Philippines, but I think it was like Davao something like that at the time.
00:36:30
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:36:31
Stuart Draughon
Cause we stopped in for a refit and it was like a two day or one day refit, but it wasn't really, i would call a port of call cause we didn't really get any Liberty time.
00:36:42
Stuart Draughon
um You know, Port-a-Call that we had, i mean, we pulled into Lisbon, um Halifax, Portsmouth, England, Berth, France, Toulon, France, Nesemi, Italy.
00:36:59
Stuart Draughon
We went to Singapore.
00:37:04
Stuart Draughon
gosh what was the name of that place it's an old marine base on a deserted island outside of madagascar and i can't remember what it's called again diego garcia um yeah that's it yeah yeah diego garcia then we went to
00:37:16
Patrick Riley
Diego Garcia. I've been there. Yes, I've been there.
00:37:24
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, that's when we went to Singapore and then stopped in Osaka you know it did kind of the other side, pulled into San Diego.
00:37:37
Stuart Draughon
And then we we turned around and came back the same way we went. And we stopped. We actually did a port call in Tunisia, which was a charity call.
00:37:47
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:37:50
Stuart Draughon
I don't know if you've ever done one of those before.
00:37:52
Patrick Riley
No.
00:37:53
Stuart Draughon
um so the navy will sometimes do these charity calls and they're voluntary right so you pull into we pulled into tunisia and we basically built these adobe huts for the people there that were you know a lot less fortunate than the people we have here and you know they didn't have house clothes anything but what the navy will do they'll air drop food and you know supplies we'll take them show them how to do stuff like show them how to you know build their own houses repair stuff set up electricals you know that kind of stuff so
00:38:32
Stuart Draughon
You know, it was a good, that was one of my favorite ports of call just because it was totally voluntary charity thing that our boat participated in.
00:38:39
Patrick Riley
right
00:38:42
Stuart Draughon
So it was very cool.
00:38:43
Patrick Riley
Well, that's great.
00:38:45
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:38:45
Patrick Riley
Yeah, that's that's always good to be able to help out other people, especially when you're in foreign countries.
00:38:48
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:38:50
Patrick Riley
And that's, like I said, that's something i' missed out on. I wasn't able to do. I can't remember, granted, it's been 30 years where we pulled in and helped somebody. I'm sure there was aid at that time that we probably helped out different countries in, but ah we didn't have helos to drop off the aid.
00:39:10
Patrick Riley
We did run with I left the Philippines back in 92, 91, 91.
00:39:10
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:39:17
Stuart Draughon
Okay.
00:39:18
Patrick Riley
ninety one you anyone And right after we left, we were already heading to the Persian Gulf for desert storm and Mount Pinatubo blew up.
00:39:19
Stuart Draughon
Wow. Yeah.
00:39:29
Patrick Riley
So we didn't turn around to help out the Filipinos. We just kept going. But the phil is the Philippines got messed up pretty bad and we just left port.
00:39:37
Stuart Draughon
yeah
00:39:39
Patrick Riley
So, um,
00:39:40
Stuart Draughon
Wow.
00:39:42
Patrick Riley
And then you were talking about, like, with the boomers, when they pull in into ports, they're not really close to, like, you know, city centers. They might put you out a little ways. What were the liberty calls like?
00:39:54
Stuart Draughon
So for for like an SSBN submarine, there so normally the way it works for ah nuclear submarine like that, where you're actually having like nuclear weapons on board is you don't usually get foreign ports of call.
00:39:58
Patrick Riley
Mm-hmm.
00:40:12
Stuart Draughon
What you'll do is you'll get a box of area where you can operate in and you just do circles and then you come back and you can have different US calls.
00:40:12
Patrick Riley
okay
00:40:22
Stuart Draughon
So like I know, uh, Bremington or Bremerton and, uh, like San Diego. Um, I want to say it's Kings Bay and Norfolk, you know, those are all kind of like your traditional boomer port of calls.
00:40:39
Stuart Draughon
Um, you know and that's that's generally the most i guess vacation time they get uh now if you're on a tank submarine like i was you you travel the world like you see everything because you're not i mean normally housing nuclear weapons uh and you know it wouldn't become a conflict of interest to pull into those ports you know now if there was an emergency i could see a boomer pulling in
00:40:56
Patrick Riley
yeah yeah
00:41:07
Stuart Draughon
to a foreign port, but it has to be a pretty big one, you know?
00:41:11
Patrick Riley
so you only spent time on uh fast attacks
00:41:14
Stuart Draughon
Yeah. Fast attacks. My dad did a boomer. Um, and I give him crap for it all the time. Uh, and, uh, you know, I did, um,
00:41:27
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, tax subs. I was almost assigned to the USS Colorado. And i i was, so it was in dry dock when I got orders to it.
00:41:32
Patrick Riley
OK. Yeah.
00:41:38
Stuart Draughon
And um I had actually already been in the dry dock working on the boat because they pull in extra hands when you're on TDU, which is what I was for about three months.
00:41:53
Stuart Draughon
Um, and, you know, help put together the radio room in, uh, the OCS Colorado, which was pretty cool. You know, I have
00:42:02
Patrick Riley
yeah
Transitioning from Navy to Civilian Life
00:42:03
Stuart Draughon
my initials carved in there somewhere.
00:42:05
Stuart Draughon
So, yeah.
00:42:05
Patrick Riley
Oh, that's cool. Yeah. So, and just so, you know people aren't aware of how the boats are named. If they're named after a state, it's a boomer. If they're named after a city, it's a fast attack sub.
00:42:17
Stuart Draughon
correct yeah and uh i think my dad was on there was so that's a recent change um i think back in the early 80s they were named after uh after people i'd have to get my facts straight on that i wasn't on a boomer so i don't know for sure but my dad said he was on the polk the james k polk which i'm not sure was a boomer or a fast attack um
00:42:18
Patrick Riley
So, yeah.
00:42:42
Patrick Riley
okay right
00:42:47
Stuart Draughon
So, I mean, he was a boomer guy, so I'm assuming he was a boomer. But it wasn't named after a state, so I don't know at the time.
00:42:51
Patrick Riley
exactly catch yeah a lot of the destroyers of the death of had rolls uh...
00:42:54
Stuart Draughon
It's weird.
00:42:59
Patrick Riley
Carriers are named after mainly presidents, but, you know, there are a few exceptions, um, for the old carrier Nimitz.
00:43:02
Stuart Draughon
Okay.
00:43:07
Stuart Draughon
Like the Nimitz. Yeah.
00:43:08
Patrick Riley
Yeah. Enterprise, Midway, Midway, I guess i was a, well, yeah, that had to be after the, wasn't, no, didn't, I forgot when the Midway was commissioned.
00:43:09
Stuart Draughon
Yeah. Yeah.
00:43:20
Patrick Riley
Um, it had to it was it after world war two, because of course York town was world war Um,
00:43:21
Stuart Draughon
Ooh.
00:43:27
Patrick Riley
um
00:43:28
Stuart Draughon
It was and he was either after, yeah, I think it was after World War two
00:43:28
Patrick Riley
Can't remember the other ones. Saratoga.
00:43:33
Patrick Riley
Yeah. Yeah.
00:43:34
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:43:34
Patrick Riley
And of course, have you been to San Diego ah lately?
00:43:37
Stuart Draughon
I have.
00:43:38
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:43:38
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:43:40
Patrick Riley
Did you go on the ah the USS Midway?
00:43:43
Stuart Draughon
I did not have a chance to go.
00:43:44
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:43:45
Stuart Draughon
i was on a business trip and and didn't have a chance to to visit. i did see the Navy SEALs training. I have a buddy of mine is a Navy SEAL instructor and he showed me some of the enduring tests that he puts his students through.
00:43:52
Patrick Riley
Oh, yeah.
00:43:56
Patrick Riley
so Okay.
00:44:01
Stuart Draughon
so it was it was pretty fun.
00:44:02
Patrick Riley
ah Yeah, I was out in San Diego back in December for a change of command ceremony. And the change command ceremony was on the beach.
00:44:10
Stuart Draughon
Okay.
00:44:13
Patrick Riley
It was really cool. Loved it. And toward the end of the ceremony, we saw the small boats coming up, the little rib boats. And um of course, the SEALs get out, they come up on the beach and
00:44:21
Stuart Draughon
Oh, yeah.
00:44:27
Patrick Riley
I'm like, is this part of the change of command ceremony ceremony? And found out that no, they were supposed to be down the beach 300 yards.
00:44:32
Stuart Draughon
How's that?
00:44:35
Patrick Riley
They missed their entry point by 300 yards.
00:44:39
Stuart Draughon
Oh.
00:44:40
Patrick Riley
And that doesn't make me too, you know, thankful. Like, yeah, look at the seals are good. They missed it. They missed their landing point.
00:44:46
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:44:47
Patrick Riley
So, yeah.
00:44:47
Stuart Draughon
Well, they they won't miss it again because they probably did it like 50 more times.
00:44:51
Patrick Riley
Right? Yeah. And that water has to be cold out there. I don't know.
00:44:55
Stuart Draughon
ah It is, yeah.
00:44:55
Patrick Riley
It's just the way it comes down.
00:44:57
Stuart Draughon
At night, it's very cold. Like during this time of year, it's actually kind of warm. But yeah, it gets freezing out there.
00:45:02
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:45:04
Patrick Riley
Yes, yes. And, of course, it was December, so it was definitely chilly.
00:45:07
Stuart Draughon
Oh, yeah.
00:45:08
Patrick Riley
It was a nice day for the change of command. They almost, have you ever heard of the LCACs? You know what the LCACs are? The big hydro hovercrafts.
00:45:18
Stuart Draughon
Oh yeah. Okay.
00:45:19
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:45:19
Patrick Riley
So those are called LCAX. They were supposed to land on the beach for the change command ceremony, but there was fog that morning.
00:45:19
Stuart Draughon
That's a, yeah.
00:45:25
Stuart Draughon
Really?
00:45:27
Patrick Riley
I'm like, oh, I want to see those because.
00:45:28
Stuart Draughon
Oh man. That would have been really cool.
00:45:31
Patrick Riley
Yeah, yeah. I'm like, come on, you got radar. yeah mean, here I am, Mr.
00:45:35
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:45:37
Patrick Riley
Civilian, for 30 years. You know, okay, it's not my call. I get it, but it was it was super cool. I mean, I was really grateful to be out there and, yeah, to be able to see some old friends.
00:45:51
Patrick Riley
it was It was a wonderful ceremony.
00:45:51
Stuart Draughon
Absolutely. That's very cool.
00:45:53
Patrick Riley
But, yeah, so with your Porsa call, and, I mean, so when you went in the Navy, because you went through – You had your associate's degree so you were a little older than a lot of the recruits Okay
00:46:05
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, I think I was about 22 or 23 at the time. ah So I graduated 18, 19 because I was a year behind. Thanks to my parents holding me back in first grade and then ah got my degree.
00:46:18
Patrick Riley
um
00:46:21
Stuart Draughon
So I was about 21, 22 when joined. Yeah.
00:46:24
Patrick Riley
Okay
00:46:24
Stuart Draughon
when i joined yeah
00:46:25
Patrick Riley
All right. So usually, i mean, that's for me, I would look at that and go, man, you're old. I'd be going through boot camp at 22.
00:46:31
Stuart Draughon
yeah
00:46:33
Patrick Riley
You could be the old man, you know, old as dust.
00:46:35
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, but I got so fit. I'll tell you, I've never felt better in my life than when I finished boot camp because it was like, it was the workout program that I needed, you know?
00:46:41
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:46:47
Patrick Riley
Yeah. Yeah.
00:46:48
Stuart Draughon
And I was like, wow. You know, I thought that I was in decent shape, but then I came out of that with like, I had abs, man. I got, had muscles, you know? And I was like,
00:47:02
Stuart Draughon
man, this feels great. And I could like go places without being winded. It was great. It was great experience.
00:47:08
Patrick Riley
Oh, that's good.
00:47:10
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:47:10
Patrick Riley
Well, and that's the thing. i and Plus, being on subs are a little different.
00:47:17
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:47:17
Patrick Riley
I know just me. I was 19 years old when I was overseas for the first time, so nobody's really going card you. You can still drink on base. oh I wasn't the best well-behaved person um just because I was was able to like, hey, I can drink.
00:47:32
Stuart Draughon
I don't believe that, Pat.
00:47:35
Patrick Riley
um And I'm sure if you're a little older, you're already like, hey, I'm legal to drink in the U.S. It's not a big deal.
00:47:41
Stuart Draughon
Right. Right.
00:47:42
Patrick Riley
But were there any of those, I'm sure that when you went out on Liberty overseas, there probably were younger guys that just got lit, got you know a little crazy.
00:47:53
Patrick Riley
Any ports of call, because I know Singapore is pretty chill.
00:47:53
Stuart Draughon
Oh, yeah.
00:47:58
Patrick Riley
Diego Garcia, you're hanging out with just Marines and whoever else is out there.
00:48:00
Stuart Draughon
Marines. Yep.
00:48:02
Patrick Riley
um Any nice ports of call that were like, hey, let's go out, have a few beers, get a steak dinner, stuff like that.
00:48:10
Stuart Draughon
Yeah. ah So we pulled into Bergen in Norway and that was a ton of fun, you know, because I mean, when we were there, the sun didn't go down until like 1 a.m.
00:48:15
Patrick Riley
oh
00:48:23
Stuart Draughon
m And you didn't know that it was like 11 p.m.
00:48:24
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:48:28
Stuart Draughon
Because when you're on a submarine, like you lose all track of time. they Like you don't see the sun for months. And then suddenly you're there and it's like, 11 p.m at night but it's a brisk of day and you're like what what do you mean it's 11 okay can i go do stuff it's like more most of the stuff's closed i'm like can we open it you know and um yeah so yeah you're right
00:48:49
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:48:52
Patrick Riley
That's a new form of day drinking. Day drinking at 11 at night. I like it.
00:48:58
Stuart Draughon
yeah It's awesome, man. And we had so much fun. there was this, ah they call it flaring in Norway. I don't know if it's a thing here, but it's basically, you ever see that movie Cocktails with Tom Cruise?
00:49:14
Patrick Riley
Yes.
00:49:15
Patrick Riley
Yes.
00:49:15
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:49:16
Stuart Draughon
So he did the flaring where he flips the bottle and like fills the drink and stuff, you know?
00:49:22
Patrick Riley
Uh-huh.
00:49:22
Stuart Draughon
Well, they they have flaring competitions out in Norway.
00:49:26
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:49:26
Stuart Draughon
And it's like crazy, some of the crazy stuff these guys do. And we were at the bar for what seemed like, i don't know, 10 hours. And we turns out we were, it was like 10 hours and we had gotten any sleep. And I was like, I have duty in an hour and a half.
00:49:43
Patrick Riley
Right.
00:49:44
Stuart Draughon
I've got to go, you know, and um these guys, they're doing these competitions and they are splashing alcohol everywhere.
00:49:46
Patrick Riley
Right.
00:49:55
Stuart Draughon
You know, when you're throwing these bottles around and I am drenched in alcohol and I've got to go on duty.
00:49:58
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:50:00
Stuart Draughon
You know,
00:50:01
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
Family Connections and Personal Stories from Service
00:50:02
Stuart Draughon
so you know, there's a lot of questions that come with that.
00:50:06
Stuart Draughon
Like when you're about to handle a firearm and you smell and reek of alcohol, but you didn't actually drink.
00:50:06
Patrick Riley
Yes.
00:50:11
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:50:13
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:50:14
Stuart Draughon
So, you know, it's like, well, no, now I know i can recite deadly force. I've got like the rules of, you know, condition one is, you know, and like you just go through all the rules, but I mean, I'll tell you, it was it was a long time before the duty officer would allow me to carry a firearm.
00:50:34
Patrick Riley
right right oh that's funny yeah now you mentioned halifax halifax i i i've been there we were on there with the mount whitney it's in the book it's in the book because obviously i met a girl there yeah yeah yeah i met a girl um at it they had a bar crawl that's like the first bar crawl i ever went to and it was like a a city sanctioned bar crawl
00:50:34
Stuart Draughon
And was like, okay, I understand. Yeah.
00:50:48
Stuart Draughon
Is it? Okay. That's great.
00:50:59
Patrick Riley
Where yeah like whatever company you work for, whatever ship you were on whatever, because it's a fairly good sized city.
00:50:59
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:51:08
Patrick Riley
So there's a lot of industry there and just corporate buildings. So everybody was out. just It was a nice Saturday afternoon, and people decided we're going out drinking, and they just went to all these different bars.
00:51:23
Patrick Riley
And, of course, ah that's where I met a girl. So it's in the book.
00:51:26
Stuart Draughon
ah that's very cool.
00:51:27
Patrick Riley
It's in the book.
00:51:27
Stuart Draughon
That's awesome, man.
00:51:28
Patrick Riley
So ity any stories of Halifax?
00:51:28
Stuart Draughon
Awesome. Check it out.
00:51:33
Patrick Riley
Because, like I said, near and dear to my heart.
00:51:35
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, absolutely. So of one thing you probably don't know about me is I was born in Danone, Scotland, um which used to be the port of call when my dad was in the Navy.
00:51:42
Patrick Riley
Oh, okay.
00:51:48
Patrick Riley
Oh, wow.
00:51:48
Stuart Draughon
They changed it to Halifax.
00:51:51
Stuart Draughon
I think it was back in like 79 or 80 when they changed it or something like that.
00:51:51
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:51:59
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:51:59
Stuart Draughon
But Man, yeah. So I was born in Danone. My dad met my mom in Scotland. And that was from port of call in Danone.
00:52:11
Patrick Riley
Okay. Oh, I got you.
00:52:11
Stuart Draughon
So, home yeah, i you know, there's a lot to tell there.
00:52:17
Stuart Draughon
When I was there, you know, I showed all the guys around town because I had been to Scotland like 11, 12, 13 times by the time I joined the Navy. So I had already been there, you know, done that kind of thing.
00:52:30
Patrick Riley
right
00:52:31
Stuart Draughon
But I took them to Edinburgh, St. Andrews, visit my grandparents, you know, did a lot of great stuff, you know, when we were there and, you know, got to show like my shipmates, like my family and like my heritage, which was awesome.
00:52:46
Stuart Draughon
It was a great experience. And, um,
00:52:50
Patrick Riley
And do you have relatives there as well?
00:52:50
Stuart Draughon
You know, i I do. Yeah. So my, um, my uncle Willie, and yes, that's his name. Um, he, uh, he is ah member of Scottish parliament.
00:52:59
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:53:04
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:53:04
Stuart Draughon
Um, And my Aunt Caroline, my Aunt Aileen, my grandparents, and I have like seven cousins and a great aunt in Ireland.
00:53:19
Stuart Draughon
So lots of family over there.
00:53:19
Patrick Riley
okay
00:53:22
Stuart Draughon
i try to go when I can, but these days it's very difficult with a three-year-old. So I'm trying to manage my priorities on that.
00:53:28
Patrick Riley
yeah exactly yeah oh that's great yeah that's um yeah i've never we've never pulled in i mean the closest i've gotten there was um we did pull in just for a short time in portsmouth
00:53:32
Stuart Draughon
So yeah.
00:53:45
Patrick Riley
But then ah we pulled around to Cork, or actually it Cove, Ireland.
00:53:46
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:53:51
Patrick Riley
And Cove was cool.
00:53:52
Stuart Draughon
OK.
00:53:53
Patrick Riley
it was right by Cork. So, again, in the book.
00:53:56
Stuart Draughon
OK.
00:53:57
Patrick Riley
ah
00:53:57
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:53:58
Patrick Riley
Everything's in the book.
00:53:59
Stuart Draughon
I'm going to check this book out, man. That's awesome.
00:54:01
Patrick Riley
Let's do it. Let's get that book sold.
00:54:02
Stuart Draughon
yeah
00:54:04
Patrick Riley
But that's something I'm really curious on. I'll have to take you to lunch one day and really get to understand like when you went to Scotland and you grew up.
00:54:14
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:54:15
Patrick Riley
Well, don't think you've been there many times as a kid. Kind of that that scenario because that's part of my second book where I've got a character.
00:54:23
Stuart Draughon
OK.
00:54:26
Patrick Riley
you know, he was his dad was stationed in Thailand. So he has experience living in Thailand. The ship pulls in the Thailand.
00:54:33
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:54:34
Patrick Riley
So that that kind of experience of, you know, I want him to take his friends out and show him a little bit around up Thailand.
00:54:42
Patrick Riley
So that's I need to find out a little more because I need to put that in a book. I've got a lot of it written, but, oh and that's part of, was like, I got to get over there.
00:54:42
Stuart Draughon
That's very cool.
00:54:47
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, definitely.
00:54:52
Patrick Riley
I need to get back to the Southeast Asia, but that's another topic for another day. So I'll get there one day.
00:54:59
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, it's fun, man.
00:55:01
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:55:01
Stuart Draughon
It's a great place to be.
00:55:03
Patrick Riley
So after all your experience, how many years did you spend in the Navy? 10 years.
00:55:08
Stuart Draughon
years. I did 10 years on Navy.
00:55:09
Patrick Riley
Oh, that's awesome. So toward the end, what made you decide to kind of cut it at 10 and what, what made you decide to get out?
00:55:10
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:55:18
Stuart Draughon
Man. So, you know, after the first 10, You know, i had i had thought long and hard about my experience in the Navy. And I was just thinking, like, there were two frames of thought.
00:55:31
Stuart Draughon
One was, can't really top this, you know.
00:55:34
Patrick Riley
Huh.
00:55:34
Stuart Draughon
you know Like, even if I do another 10 years, is it really going to be better than my first 10, you know. And I had talked to a bunch of guys in the Navy and I was like, hey, so, you know, i know you've been in the Navy for a while. And like, what was your experience like in their first 10 years? Do you feel like it's getting better? And I got a lot of no's, you know, but yeah.
00:55:59
Stuart Draughon
it's really kind of where people are setting their priorities. So if you wanna retire, it's a great plan, right?
00:56:07
Patrick Riley
Aha.
00:56:07
Stuart Draughon
10 more years of active duty, retire, and then you could go on and do another job and still collect retirement. So there's um you know there's always the benefits of the payout.
00:56:13
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:56:18
Stuart Draughon
ah For me, it was, I didn't want to repeat the 10 years I had already done. Like I had already seen combat several times and I did not want to relive, you know, going back if that was a possibility.
00:56:35
Stuart Draughon
Um, and and, you know, the big part was, i don't think I could have done anything more than I had already done, you know, and i feel like I expended all of my experiences in the Navy, um, at that point.
00:56:43
Patrick Riley
okay
00:56:51
Stuart Draughon
So I decided to call it quits and, I came back home, you know, I wanted to start a family and it would be very difficult to do in the Navy. So, yeah.
00:57:01
Patrick Riley
all right right right yeah and that's that's a very honorable that that makes sense that is uh... great reason to get out so uh... once you got out what did you learn and what did you bring with you
00:57:09
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
00:57:13
Patrick Riley
from your experience in the Navy to kind of the the civilian world or they call it the real world.
00:57:14
Stuart Draughon
Oh,
00:57:19
Stuart Draughon
Right. oh Well, honestly, i brought everything with me. So like, ah you know, everything from my training, the leadership roles I had, I was an LPO for my division.
00:57:24
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
00:57:31
Patrick Riley
Okay.
00:57:32
Stuart Draughon
You know, mean, all of that stuff carried over as transferable skills. And I walked away with the ability to use the GI Bill. And I was like, well, I might as well finish my MBA. I mean, have an associate's, you know.
00:57:47
Stuart Draughon
So four more years, you know, why not? And knocked it out. And i was able to transfer all those skills to what I do today. And I'm like, this is great because like I can instill the leadership that it was taught to me from the military.
00:58:05
Stuart Draughon
I can bring that over to the people I work with every day. And I'm getting like the people I work with are like, how are you so structured in everything? And I'm like, you know, I can't tell you, I'd have to show you, you know?
00:58:21
Patrick Riley
yeah yeah yeah and that's exactly it because um we just when you work with people that were in the military we just kind of carry ourselves a little differently so it's that makes sense and so people i mean we all talk about our military past is it something in your office is that people recognize what you've done and uh
00:58:22
Stuart Draughon
Yeah. But it's crazy.
00:58:45
Stuart Draughon
Oh, yeah. um Every time I say i was in submarines for 10 years, they're like, wow. You know, like I always get the that's incredible.
00:58:52
Patrick Riley
yeah
00:58:54
Stuart Draughon
You know, um honestly, anybody can do it. Like if you assert yourself and, you know, given the psychological reasons that you think you might not be able to.
00:59:05
Stuart Draughon
I believe that anybody could do it if they put their mind to it. you know
00:59:09
Patrick Riley
Absolutely. Mm-hmm.
00:59:10
Stuart Draughon
and it's not it's not far beyond wait just doing your normal day to day. like You wake up, have coffee, you go do your job, you get off work. like It's the same routine in the military.
00:59:24
Stuart Draughon
It's just structured a bit different. like There's a few things that are different on a submarine as opposed to what it is now. which is submarines work on 18 hour days.
00:59:35
Stuart Draughon
So you get six hours of on watch, six hours off watch, and then you get six hours to sleep and that's it. You know, that's your day. So you keep doing that.
00:59:43
Patrick Riley
Yeah. Yeah.
00:59:45
Stuart Draughon
And, you know, for some people, it's taxing. Other people just very well. And yeah I think that's the most like culture shock that people have coming out of the submarine force in particular is the days are different.
01:00:01
Stuart Draughon
They feel longer. you know
01:00:03
Patrick Riley
yeah
01:00:04
Stuart Draughon
And you know it's just a different experience. but But I feel like the people I work with, they understand that difference a little bit. you know And once you talk to them and you explain to them, hey, you know these were my experiences,
01:00:21
Stuart Draughon
yeah They're more forthcoming about it. so
01:00:24
Patrick Riley
Yeah. Well, it's amazing. I didn't realize the 18-hour workday, that makes sense.
01:00:30
Stuart Draughon
Yeah. yeah
01:00:31
Patrick Riley
Mine was 12 on, 12 off.
01:00:33
Stuart Draughon
Oh, man.
01:00:34
Patrick Riley
but
01:00:34
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, port starboard. Yeah.
01:00:36
Patrick Riley
It was brutal. Yeah, especially heading into the Persian Gulf or Desert Storm.
01:00:42
Patrick Riley
that was And I had 7 at night to 7 in the morning.
01:00:42
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
01:00:47
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
01:00:48
Patrick Riley
Oof, oof.
01:00:48
Stuart Draughon
we did We did port and starver watches too.
01:00:49
Patrick Riley
they
01:00:51
Stuart Draughon
That was rough.
01:00:52
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
01:00:52
Stuart Draughon
But yeah.
01:00:53
Patrick Riley
And then when they decided call GQ, when you're trying to sleep, come on, guys.
01:00:57
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
01:00:59
Patrick Riley
so Well, we got to get ready.
01:00:59
Stuart Draughon
Right.
01:01:00
Patrick Riley
Get ready for, shut up. I want to sleep.
01:01:03
Stuart Draughon
Yeah. We had...
01:01:04
Patrick Riley
I had a great tan, though.
01:01:04
Stuart Draughon
a
01:01:05
Patrick Riley
That was a nice thing about being on a service ship. I had an incredible tan.
01:01:08
Stuart Draughon
ah Yeah, no tan lines, right?
01:01:11
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
01:01:11
Stuart Draughon
you guys didn't wear anything, right?
01:01:11
Patrick Riley
Oh, well.
01:01:13
Stuart Draughon
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, C-State 5, easy.
01:01:15
Patrick Riley
Yeah, yeah, know short no, you know it it was all good.
01:01:16
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
01:01:18
Patrick Riley
But when you're out the middle of the the out of all of the Red Sea, the Red Sea wasn't that bad. It was nice and cold, you know, compared to right outside of Japan.
01:01:24
Stuart Draughon
yeah yeah
01:01:28
Patrick Riley
that was It was rough outside of Japan. but
01:01:31
Stuart Draughon
yeah c state five easy
01:01:31
Patrick Riley
so Yeah. And then so coming from a surface guy, what was it like when you're, i mean, it's you're 150 feet down.
01:01:43
Patrick Riley
Are you really being affected by the currents and the the ocean movement?
01:01:48
Stuart Draughon
so um So, yeah, there's there are layers of the ocean where you can go where the weather does affect you and doesn't affect you. So, um you know, there are currents running through the ocean.
01:01:58
Patrick Riley
Okay.
01:02:02
Stuart Draughon
Everybody knows that. ah When you get down to depths of about 500 or 600 feet, then you're going to, anything that's happening above you, you don't feel at all.
01:02:15
Stuart Draughon
If it's a hurricane, you're in the eye of the storm, you'll feel it just a little bit, but it'll be like a little shaking.
01:02:15
Patrick Riley
okay
01:02:23
Stuart Draughon
If you're like 800 to 900 feet, you're not going to feel anything. um
01:02:27
Patrick Riley
Nothing, huh? Wow.
01:02:28
Stuart Draughon
Yeah. So it just depends.
01:02:30
Patrick Riley
it
01:02:31
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
01:02:31
Patrick Riley
And the one question I was going to ask is, i was like, I got talk to talk you about this. And of course, why do I wait till the very end? All right. Tell me about the cat piss, ah the smell, the cleaning, because I was like, i can't deal with that.
01:02:40
Stuart Draughon
oh Oh, man. Okay. yeah so uh to recycle air on the boat we have these um hydroxide filters and what we use amine uh to actually filter out the air so we can get breathable air and these we have co2 scrubbers and all this other stuff ah lithium hydroxide um filters and everything but amine gets pumped through the boat and It's almost like in the first week you smell it, right?
01:03:13
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
01:03:14
Stuart Draughon
It's a very distinct kind of cat pee smell. And it's because you're recycling farts all day, you know, like that's basically what submarine air is.
01:03:21
Patrick Riley
Yeah. yeah
01:03:24
Stuart Draughon
So we have to surf it. Well, not surface, but we come into Periscope depth every about three months or so to recycle air. So we'll raise the snorkel mast, recycle the air, and then we'll lower it and we'll ah go about our day.
01:03:32
Patrick Riley
wow
01:03:40
Stuart Draughon
But once you get that fresh air, it actually smells nasty. Like after you're smelling cat pee for months, you know, your body gets used to it and you don't smell cat pee.
01:03:43
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
01:03:51
Stuart Draughon
You smell normal air.
01:03:51
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
01:03:52
Stuart Draughon
But in your close reek of it, like when you're done from deployment, so bad.
01:03:55
Patrick Riley
ah
01:03:58
Stuart Draughon
Yeah. So.
01:03:59
Patrick Riley
Well, i can just imagine. So here I am thinking about you you're going out to the port of Kohl in Bergen, Norway.
01:04:07
Stuart Draughon
Right.
01:04:07
Patrick Riley
and And girls are like, ugh, what do you smell like? Yeah.
01:04:11
Stuart Draughon
Yeah. Yeah. You got to wash the submarine off and, you know, normally like we'll get like a hotel room and sometimes we'll be like, okay, it's your turn.
01:04:18
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
01:04:21
Stuart Draughon
And we'll just take turns showering in the hotel room. Like the guys will rent out one room and then we'll just have like 10 or 20 guys like filter out every, you know, we'll just wait in the lobby and the next guy will go, but like, yeah,
01:04:24
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
01:04:31
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
01:04:36
Stuart Draughon
it's almost like a routine. Like you have to do it because it's going to stink. Yeah.
01:04:41
Patrick Riley
Yeah.
01:04:41
Stuart Draughon
And yeah.
01:04:41
Patrick Riley
Well, and that's something I've never heard of because i just didn't really realize that.
01:04:42
Stuart Draughon
yeah Yeah.
01:04:47
Patrick Riley
um I had a good friend from high school. He was, I think he retired at 20 years. He was a senior chief. And he was one of the, oh, ah he was one of the nuke guys.
01:04:55
Stuart Draughon
Okay.
01:05:00
Patrick Riley
So he was, he went through that extra nuke training.
01:05:02
Stuart Draughon
Okay.
01:05:03
Patrick Riley
So, but yeah, I never asked him about it.
01:05:04
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
01:05:07
Patrick Riley
So it's kind of my loss. I i just wasn't able to, but.
01:05:11
Stuart Draughon
You're not missing much.
01:05:11
Patrick Riley
Yeah, that's great.
01:05:12
Stuart Draughon
Nukes are kind of boring. They got protocols, you know?
01:05:14
Patrick Riley
Yeah. Yeah, there you go. So, Dragon, thanks so much for the time.
01:05:16
Stuart Draughon
but yeah Yeah.
01:05:19
Patrick Riley
I'm pushing my book, obviously, Deception Underway.
01:05:20
Stuart Draughon
Absolutely.
01:05:22
Patrick Riley
It's out on Amazon.com. I've got, I'm selling signed copies through Underway Books. um But if you need one, I'll be, I think it's next week or when's our VFW meeting?
01:05:34
Patrick Riley
Is it two weeks?
01:05:35
Stuart Draughon
It's the two weeks. Yeah, it's in two weeks.
01:05:38
Patrick Riley
Yeah, yeah. So I think we've got an officer's meeting next week at Lone Tree Brewing.
01:05:43
Stuart Draughon
Okay.
01:05:45
Patrick Riley
So we'll be there for that. um But I'll see you around.
01:05:47
Stuart Draughon
Very cool.
01:05:48
Patrick Riley
You know, said like i said, I love the the VFW and what we're able to do for bets.
01:05:49
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, definitely.
01:05:55
Patrick Riley
So I'm glad you're you're a member.
01:05:56
Stuart Draughon
Yeah, absolutely.
01:05:59
Patrick Riley
You're a good friend of mine here. It's awesome. I look forward to spending many years with the you here until I get pulled out and we have to move somewhere else.
01:06:04
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
01:06:06
Patrick Riley
I don't want to move anywhere else. This is it.
01:06:08
Stuart Draughon
yeah
01:06:08
Patrick Riley
So.
01:06:09
Stuart Draughon
It's too nice here, you know.
01:06:10
Patrick Riley
Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, Dragon, again, thanks so much.
01:06:14
Stuart Draughon
Yeah.
01:06:14
Patrick Riley
Hang on. We're going to upload some files, but appreciate bud.
01:06:17
Stuart Draughon
All right. Yeah.
01:06:18
Patrick Riley
Thanks.
01:06:18
Stuart Draughon
Thanks, man.