The Jimmy Carter's Undiminished Combat Capabilities

Thank you for publishing the article on the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in the July 2001 issue of Sea Power. Please note that the USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) has a torpedo room and will retain its full warfighting capability. The SSN 23 is being modified with additional volume and functionality to support new multimission opportunities. These changes will have no direct impact on the ship's warfighting capability, but will give the submarine an enhanced payload capability with a more modular architecture. The article and the caption accompanying the picture of the Jimmy Carter were not intended to imply that any warfighting capabilities were removed from the ship, particularly from the torpedo room. The redesign and reutilization of torpedo room space could occur on future submarines, however, as the result of new developments and improved interfaces for launching and recovering unmanned underwater vehicles and advanced weapon payloads.

John Sirmalis
Technical Director
Naval Undersea Warfare Center
Newport, R.I.

Electric-Drive Footnote

Dr. Edward Whitman's article ["The IPS Advantage"] in the July 2001 issue of Sea Power captured the various research and development initiatives taking place with electric drive. Soon, advances of this extraordinary technology are going to be incorporated into operational platforms. The promise of electric drive is now being seriously discussed and Dr. Whitman has made a useful contribution to the understanding of its capabilities.

I would like to add a footnote regarding Large-Scale Vehicle (LSV-2), which is featured in the article. The 6,000-horsepower permanent-magnet motor installed and now performing in this vessel is an independent research-and-development effort by General Dynamics, Electric Boat. We donated the motor to the Navy as a means of demonstrating this emerging technology on LSV-2. Electric Boat, along with the Navy and our LSV-2 teammate, Newport News Shipbuilding, are eagerly anticipating the service operation of this autonomous submarine hydrodynamics test capability.

Millard S. Firebaugh
Electric Boat
Groton, Conn.

Prizeworthy Clarifications

I read with interest the short article in the July 2001 issue of Sea Power on Dr. Walter Munk receiving the Albert A. Michelson Award. However, there are two major clarifications required.

Michelson was not the first American to win the Nobel Prize. That honor went to President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 for his role in ending the Russo-Japanese War. Michelson was indeed the first American to win a Nobel Prize for one of the physical sciences, though--the prize in physics, in 1907.
Also, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography is not part of the University of San Diego, but part of the University of California, San Diego.

Sidney L. Saltztein
El Cajon, Calif.

Thanks for the Memories

It was with great pleasure that I read Senior Editor Gordon I. Peterson's comments on the movie "Pearl Harbor" in the July issue of Sea Power.
When defending the movie--which both my husband and I just loved, holding hands throughout, I tell the critics who gave it terrible reviews: "What do you know? You weren't even born!"

We lived it. It was a simple time. We had romances on both sides of the pond. Yes, we danced and flirted, just like in the movie. Yes, we wore clothes just like that--red, red Revlon nail polish and matching lipstick. It was a time of great hurry--to love and to cry. Thank you so very much for the review.

Grace Brown
Valley Village, Calif.

Poorly Illustrated

Scanning through the September issue of Sea Power before reading the articles, I spotted the artist's illustration of the Icat 050, apparently under way. Flying the Stars and Strips on the bow denigrates an otherwise successful concept for rapid transport. Could you not have found a more appropriate picture of the craft undergoing evaluation, or of the HMAS Jervis Bay?

Cdr. Ralph G. Eldridge, USNR (Ret.)
(by e-mail)

USCG a "Unique Instrument"

Scott Truver's article, "Staying Ready All of the Time," in your August 2001 issue, was right on target. He did an outstanding job outlining the Coast Guard's readiness woes, which are caused by its antiquated inventory of platforms. Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, now U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, had it right when he said, "The Coast Guard provides national command authorities a unique instrument in the nation's security tool bag."

I hope the neglect of our Coast Guard comes to an end very soon. A nation with a gross domestic product of several trillion dollars can surely afford to provide this gallant service a modern fleet of cutters, aircraft, and communication systems. The Deepwater Mission Project sounds like the perfect remedy. Its success is crucial to ensuring that our Coast Guard remains Semper Paratus, "Always Ready," long into the 21st Century.

Jim Dolbow
Alexandria, Va.