Childhood U-Boat Fascination:

chilipeppermaniac said:
Here is the closest I have been to a U Boat. We have this treasure where I live. I am sure DonO knows about it.

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My oldest son Robbie plays the lottery once a week. His goal is to win the big PowerBall jackpot, then go to Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft and have them build a U-Boat from the original plans, then sail it around the world, stopping in various ports for photo opportunities.

A few years back, we had a zoom call with their engineering department and we told them what we wanted....a full scale, diving Typ VIIB U-Boat with modern engines, modern batteries and more efficient electric motors, combined with extensive use of stainless steel in critical areas of the boat.

We told them, this was of course, a dream of a father and his three sons and that our questions are related to feasibility and cost. We expected the project to cost $34 Million USD.

The panel was extremely gracious and after hearing us, said this. "We are impressed with your well-thought out approach to this proposed project. We can indeed do this easily. The project would cost approximately $24 million USD, but it's not a problem at all. We look forward to meeting with you and your sons when funding becomes available..."

I also found a company that builds firing Replicas of the deck gun and FFL Title III Firing Replicas of machine guns.

Under maritime law, a vessel may possess any weapon legal under that country's (of registration) federal law and the ammunition for said weapons. Federal law, specifically FFL Title III, only restricts fully automatic weapons and weapons that are concealable upon the person.
 
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My grandfather enlisted into the Navy in the late spring/early summer of 1945 when he was eligible. He applied for submariner school and went to New London, Connecticut. When he completed training, he was given his orders to go to the Pacific and was sent to San Francisco Hunter's Point for a few weeks to begin situating on the sub before he deployed. Almost as soon as he got there though, news broke out about a city in Japan that was vaporized in a flash, 3 days later, another city vanished. Before he ever set off, Japan surrendered unconditionally, ironically enough lol

Eerie thing is, Hunter's Point is where the fissile material was loaded onboard the USS Indianapolis and then sent to Tinian, which was then assembled and delivered as the Little Boy, dropped on Hiroshima August 6th, 1945.
 
Clockworkmike said:
Personally, from what is known of the Columbia Class, i think its an overinflated piece of :poo: as its cost is $4Billion per unit vs the Ohio class cost of $2Billion per unit.
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Such an incredible waste of money and natural resources, and perfectly typical of a species hell bent on destroying all life and the only livable planet at the same time. The cost of one sub would easily cover universal healthcare for years. Food could be distributed to impoverished areas. We could work on slowing climate change and it’s destructive effects.

But no, let’s destroy ourselves and every other species over our petty disagreements instead. Human beings are the best excuse for geonocide.
 
@ SG John,. Loads and loads of truth there. And you aren't even from Kalifornia. Not political, but I've said this likely since I was in 2nd grade almost 50 years ago, the costs of discord, destruction and death such as the Viet Nam war and of course Korea, the WW's and of course all the wars, feuds, genocides, in all the warlike countries as well. Why can't nations, and all people throughout the world realize the futility and waste of discord, and do a 180 and work together for the good of all?
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
@ SG John,. Loads and loads of truth there. And you aren't even from Kalifornia. Not political, but I've said this likely since I was in 2nd grade almost 50 years ago, the costs of discord, destruction and death such as the Viet Nam war and of course Korea, the WW's and of course all the wars, feuds, genocides, in all the warlike countries as well. Why can't nations, and all people throughout the world realize the futility and waste of discord, and do a 180 and work together for the good of all?
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A lot of my outlook was spending much of my youth in Germany with people who survived two world wars. My uncle who was a doctor drafted by the Wehrmacht, and survived the Siege of Stalingrad and a Russian POW camp was very influential when I was a kid. He always said that people who idolize the military and war are not right in the head, and are very dangerous. They should also be feared, watched carefully, and never trusted. The same goes for the practice of organized religion.
 
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SG John said:
Such an incredible waste of money and natural resources, and perfectly typical of a species hell bent on destroying all life and the only livable planet at the same time. The cost of one sub would easily cover universal healthcare for years. Food could be distributed to impoverished areas. We could work on slowing climate change and it’s destructive effects.

But no, let’s destroy ourselves and every other species over our petty disagreements instead. Human beings are the best excuse for geonocide.
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chilipeppermaniac said:
@ SG John,. Loads and loads of truth there. And you aren't even from Kalifornia. Not political, but I've said this likely since I was in 2nd grade almost 50 years ago, the costs of discord, destruction and death such as the Viet Nam war and of course Korea, the WW's and of course all the wars, feuds, genocides, in all the warlike countries as well. Why can't nations, and all people throughout the world realize the futility and waste of discord, and do a 180 and work together for the good of all?
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Don O said:
Agree, if there were no evil people in this world we wouldn’t need this stuff. But until then, like the Boy Scout motto says, Be Prepared.


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Agree with all 3 sentiments equally! Unleashing the power of the atom, unfortunately was humanity's Pandora's Box moment. On one hand, we could harness energy unimaginable and provide a nearly endless power source, as well as for but a brief moment: being the sole operator and owner of the most destructive weapon in mankind's history.

But as expected, that technology could never be monopolized and our enemies soon harnessed the same exact power, thus leading to humanity's greatest credible threat of ceasing global life as we know of it. The defense we used was " If we didn't do it, our enemies would have" and that is probably true, but we are solely guilty of being the first and the only ones to use nuclear weapons against an enemy. And the grim truth was, the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were largely civilians: collateral damage of military production targets.

Now unfortunately, we are stuck with this thing because it's like a big game of chicken with our perceived enemies: no one is going to willingly lay down their weapons out of fear the other side will not do the same. The concept of Mutually Assured Destruction

To sum up the instant regret of this kind of technology, look no further than one of the principal architects of the bomb: J Robert Oppenheimer here in this clip that's less than 1 minute but is chilling

 
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