“THIS CAN’T BE GOOD”

“This can’t be good,” Chief Paul DeLange thought to himself as he stood on the deck of the attack submarine USS FINBACK (SSN-670) early this morning overseeing the aft line handlers.  Disco music blared from speakers rigged on the sail as FINBACK got underway from the Port Canaveral facility in Florida.  But what held the Chief’s attention was on the port fairweather dive plane.  As a tugboat towed the nuclear sub through the restricted waters of Canaveral inlet, a go-go dancer clad only in a thong and sneakers gyrated on the dive plane to the obvious delight of the crew!

Unorthodox actions were not foreign to CDR Connelly D. Stevenson, skipper of FINBACK.  Previously, he had converted the wardroom dining table for ping-pong.  He was notorious for wearing non-regulation head gear on the bridge, often exchanging his ballcap with pilots in foreign ports.  His thoughts were for his crew who had just finished a laborious, long-hours overhaul.  Morale was low in the Navy in this post-Vietnam era.  Retention was poor, funding inadequate, substance abuse was common, facial hair abounded, and discipline was problematic.  Surely a bit of levity as the boat began this long deployment would brighten the crew’s outlook.

Cathy “Cat” Futch was a dancer known to many of the 121-man crew from the Cork Club, a local Port Canaveral hotspot.  The crew had convinced Stevenson to let her perform as they got underway.  After about ten minutes of dancing FINBACK glided past the “boomer” ALEXANDER HAMILTON (SSBN-617) and at this cue Ms. Futch stopped, re-donned her long white robe, pocketed cash collected from the crew, and transferred to the waiting pilot boat.

Word of the event rose as high as the Secretary of Defense, James Schlesinger.  On August 1^st, shortly after FINBACK reached her station near the Bahamas, a message from SUBGRU Six commander, CAPT Austin Scott, instructed Stevenson to abort his mission and return to Norfolk.  A month later the Washington Post broke the story, and the Navy had a major public image debacle on her hands.  Ms. Futch was instantly the most popular go-go dancer in the country, and later stated, “I never saw such a smiling bunch of men go to sea.”  Within the Navy opinions ranged from solid support to categorical rejection.

CNO, ADM James L. Holloway III ultimately decided Stevenson’s fate, detaching him for cause and awarding a Letter of Reprimand and a fine.  The punishment was later reduced to a Letter of Admonition and the fine was waived.  This allowed Stevenson to retain eligibility for promotion, though all agreed his chances were remote.  He was reassigned to the Naval Research Laboratory in London and subsequently left the Navy. 

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  14 JUL 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Taylor, Robert A.  “Cat on a Cold Steel Dive Plane.”  Naval History, Vol 24 (1), February 2010, pp. 40-43.

Trescott, Jacqueline.  “After Dancing Topless on a Submarine, the Bar Scene Isn’t the Same.”  Washington Post, 25 June 1977.

Wilson, George C.  “Topless Dance on Sub Gets Skipper Beached.”  Washington Post, 9 September 1975, p. A1.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Secretary of the Air Force, John L. McLucas, seized the occasion to jab at the Navy, “even the Navy thinks $100 million is far too much to spend for a go-go dancer platform.”

Cat Futch enjoyed her fame briefly, claiming familiarity with the Navy from having been previously married to a sailor.  After a series of dead-end jobs that followed, she enlisted in the US Marine Corps.  But she was dropped from boot camp at Parris Island for medical reasons, problems she blamed on her treatment at the hands of resentful instructors and officers.

FINBACK was decommissioned 28 March 1997 and broken up for scrap.

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                                                  PILOT DOWN!

By September of 1944 the Allied advance across the Pacific reached the Bonin Islands, an 1800-mile-long chain that includes Iwo Jima.  At 0715 this morning, a squadron of Grumman TBF Avengers took off from USS SAN JACINTO (CVL-30) to strike a Japanese radio installation on another of these islands, Chichi Jima.  During the 71-mile flight to the target the Avengers were picked-up by the enemy’s radar, and the anti-aircraft batteries were ready when they arrived.

One of the pilots steadied his aircraft on its bombing run until he felt the sudden lurch of a flack burst slamming his fuselage.  Flames began licking the cockpit and neither the tail-gunner nor the navigator responded.  The pilot regained control for the moment and finished his run, but by the time he pulled up, his plane was engulfed in aflame.  Bailing out was the only option, but not before he nursed the Avenger past the island’s beachline.  His parachute landed four miles from shore near a life raft dropped from another plane in his squadron.  Now seeing a Japanese boat depart the beach in his direction, he furiously paddled out to sea while his airborne buddies strafed in his defense.  This may well have saved his life, as it was later learned that the Japanese island commander believed his troops gained strength by eating the flesh of their enemies.  Several American POWs had already been cannibalized!

For three hours he bobbed in the raft, watching the beach.  Then the waters parted as USS FINBACK (SS-230) broke the surface–a “lifeguarding” submarine for just this purpose.  Three weeks later he took well-deserved leave, during which he married his high school sweetheart, Barbara Pierce.  For todays and other brave actions in the war he was awarded the Navy’s Distinguished Flying Cross.  The whole event may have passed without much fanfare as commonplace in 1944.  Indeed, who could have anticipated that LTJG George Herbert Walker Bush would one day become President.

Bush enlisted in the Navy on his 18^th birthday, 12 June 1942, with the goal of becoming a pilot.  A year later, 9 June 1943, he was commissioned an Ensign and entered pilot training at NAS Ft. Lauderdale.  He was assigned to VT-51 in Norfolk and was shortly deployed with Task Force 58 in the Pacific.  He flew his first combat mission over Wake Island on 23 May 1944.  He logged over 1200 flight hours, 58 combat missions, and 118 carrier “traps.”  He twice survived being shot down, the first coming in his TBF Avenger nicknamed “The Barbara” during the Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19 June 1944.  He, and his son, George W. Bush, were our last Presidents with prior military service.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  8 SEP 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 405.

Hyams, Joe.  Flight of the Avenger:  George Bush at War.  New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 14  Victory in the Pacific.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1960, p. 10.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Though American voters have traditionally favored presidential candidates with prior military service, four of our last five Presidents have reached the Oval Office as non-veterans.  On 9 December 2002 Secretary of the Navy Gordon England announced that our tenth Nimitz-class nuclear carrier, CVN-77, would be named USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH in honor of the elder Bush.

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