“What we need is another study to show that we need…” – I’ve heard this far too often in my years with the Navy. A slight variation is, “We are conducting an investigation and we will get to the bottom of it.”

It doesn’t matter what political party or what political office. It doesn’t matter what branch of the military what the rank of the individual making the statement. Those statements are a way of moving the blame for failure to someone or someplace else.

Now for a little story: I was the sea trial director at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo in the 1980s. I directed the at-sea testing of ships and submarines after a period of overhaul and modification.

Surface ships were fairly easy to test at sea. Submarines are a whole different ballgame. Following the loss of USS Thresher (SSN593) on April 10, 1963, while on sea trials following repairs, a huge stack of requirements for testing and verification was established. One of the requirements was to have a surface escort ship be in communication with the submarine during the initial shallow dive and the following deep dive of the sub to its maximum test depth.

It was a costly proposition. A destroyer or submarine rescue ship was most often used, but scheduling them was always a problem. We could tell them we needed the services on a certain date, but that might slip by days, weeks or even months. The escort might have to make two or three trips toward San Francisco before the sea trial was actually conducted.

Then there was a little problem with another phase of the at-sea test program. That was sonar system testing, so that the eyes and ears of the submarine could be assured of being able to find and identify a target. For that testing, a small, contracted boat was used. The small boat was usually delayed in getting to sea because of weather.

RV Pacific Escort.

In fact, it was those delays that caused me to do a little study. Well, it wasn’t that much of a detailed study. I just figured if Mare Island Naval Shipyard had its own submarine trial escort and sonar test vessel, we could better control our own destiny and save a little money on fuel and contracting costs. Plus, I didn’t want to get stuck at sea for another 22-day period waiting on a surface support ship.

So I somehow obtained permission to use some expiring funds ($835,000) to find, modify and test such a ship.

We did just that with those limited funds. In fact we spent only $535,000 to get it ready for the first escort services. I remember getting chewed out for not spending all of the money.

That little ship came from a junkyard of ships up the river from San Francisco near Stockton. It had been an ocean-going tug for the U.S. Army, called LT-535. It never had a name until the Navy took it over.

We called it a work boat. The newly assigned hull number was 143WB841. A contest was held among the shipyard workers to name it. It became Research Vessel (R/V) Pacific Escort.

That little ship served long and well until we replaced it with yet another “used” ship that was a little larger and had more capabilities for additional research besides submarines.

The story ends here with the following statistics: Those little ships we added to or kept in the Navy (without the actual approval of Congress) ended up saving the Navy about $3 million per year in fuel costs and an additional estimated $35 million in stopping the delays during sea trials each year. Total investment for both ships was about $1.3 million to convert and modify, with operating costs of about $1.2 million each year.

It wasn’t a huge investigation to get to the bottom of something. It wasn’t a long, protracted and expensive study. I couldn’t see things taking as long as they did. It was stupid. Finding the ships and the folks to be crew was easy, too. I must admit I had to beg a little for forgiveness when our local member of Congress found out about it, but soon she saw the savings, too.

We saw the problem because we could admit we were part of the problem. We saw a way to fix the problem and also the funding to do it. We didn’t set out to get an award – but we did. It was a nice letter of commendation from the commander of all of the submarines in the Pacific fleet. We were proud of that.

No, we didn’t win a Grammy or an Emmy award or even a Nobel peace prize. We just did our jobs to the best of our ability. Along the way we saved our country over half a billion dollars.

I would hope our elected officials would do the same at all levels of government – city, county, state and federal. I would hope that before they just throw a lot of money at a problem, they see if a solution is already in hand. I would hope that some solutions, like Pacific Escort, are just up a river waiting to be used again.

Now, if only Congress and the president could get to the solutions of the problems we have. We might have to wait on another study or investigation to “get to the bottom of it.” I’m not holding my breath.

Oh, I forgot to tell you that the first little ship was built in 1944 specifically for the invasion of France on D-Day. It also served in Korea and Vietnam. The darned thing was sold to a private party when Mare Island shut down in 1995. That little ship returned to where it was built 51 years earlier and was modified for use with the off-shore oil platforms. It is still being used today, nearly 70 years after it was launched.

Not bad for something built by government contract to the lowest bidder.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com and his commentaries are archived at DManzer.com. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].