4 generations in the US Navy: This family has seen 100 years of submarine history

[rangerrebew]

4 generations in the US Navy: This family has seen 100 years of submarine history
Story by Caitlyn Burchett, The Virginian-Pilot • Wednesday

 
NORFOLK, Va. -- The grooves of the Will family’s gold-plated dolphins have tarnished. But the submarine warfare insignia, having been pinned to the chests of four generations, shines nonetheless.

The dolphins have been handed down from Will to Will for 100 years, bearing witness to major conflicts and events — World War II, the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Iraq War — and the U.S. Navy’s shift from diesel ships to nuclear powered warfighters. That century of Naval submarine history is mapped out on walls of the family’s Buckroe home in Hampton.
 
“This is submarine history, but it is our history too,” said Alex Will, a retired captain and third-generation submariner.

Alex was pinned with the dolphins in 1988 when he was 26. The insignia, which is given to qualified submariners, belonged to his father and his father’s father.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/4-generations-in-the-us-navy-this-family-has-seen-100-years-of-submarine-history/ar-AA1dKLOI

[PeteS in CA]

Engraved on the back of the dolphins is the name of the first Will to join the silent service. John Will Sr. was one of the Navy’s first submarine officers in the years before World War II, with his commissioning dating to 1923. He commanded three diesel S-class submarines and the fleet submarine Porpoise before World War II.

Depending on which group (some were built by the USN and some by Electric Boat), S-class boats were dangerous or not very well suited for ocean-going service. Some served honorably early in the Pacific war, but they were obsolescent by then. The Porpoise class was very early in the evolution from the more or less experimental (experimenting with sizes and roles) V-boats and the fleet boats capable of speeds similar to USN battleships. That evolution lead to the Tambor, Gato, and Balao classes that were the workhorses of the Pacific submarine fleet.