Big Sub Fans, 1,500 Miles From the Nearest Ocean

When you write a book about the Navy, your book tour usually takes to cities along the East and West Coast, where Navy bases are located. But twice I've stopped in Nebraska, which is about as far as you can get in this country from a U.S. Navy ship or any ocean. I was shuttling between Lincoln and Omaha last week for good reason, however. My book, "Big Red," is about the USS Nebraska Trident submarine, and much to the astonishment of my publisher, it's selling briskly in Nebraska. "Big Red" is the nickname of the USS Nebraska, which the sub adopted from the nickname for the University of Nebraska football team. Anything with "Big Red" printed on it sells well in the Cornhusker State.

The Navy is under fire for having 16 civilians aboard the USS Greeneville, a Navy fast-attack submarine, when it collided with a Japanese fishing trawler on Feb. 9, killing nine aboard the trawler. A Naval inquiry into the accident is probing whether civilians aboard for a day cruise may have been a distraction to crew members that contributed to the accident. The three admirals who conducted the inquiry are now considering what kind of legal proceeding should be taken against the Greeneville's skipper, Cdr. Scott Waddle. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, meanwhile, is mulling whether he should clamp down on the services' allowing civilians to ride on their war machines. But the reception I've gotten in Nebraska explains why the Navy wants to continue the practice.

It's no accident that most Navy submarines are named after cities or states. This builds local pride across the country for Navy vessels, and the service considers civilian tours of its warship important to maintain public support. This has become increasingly important in the post–Cold War era as the Navy competes intensely for dollars with the Army and Air Force.

The bond between Nebraska and the Trident named after it is one of the strongest any state has with a warship. Climb down into the USS Nebraska and you find it's filled with memorabilia from the state. University of Nebraska pennants and posters are tacked up everywhere. Glass cases display footballs from championship games the school has won. In the crew's mess hangs a wooden sign with "Cornhusker Cafe" carved on it. When a young crewman earns his dolphins pin, which he gets after serving an apprenticeship on the sub, he must sing the University of Nebraska fight song.

There are three things Nebraskans are proud of, the submariners told me: the University of Nebraska football team, the corn the state grows, and this Trident submarine. I believe it. The state has a Big Red Sub Club that routinely flies Nebraska crewmen back to the state for parades and football games. When I was in Nebraska this weekend, I was given an honorary commission in the Nebraska Admirals Association, signed by Nebraska governor Mike Johanns, for writing a book on "their" sub. I was also named an honorary "commander" in the Big Red Sub Club.

Nebraskans are eager to continue civilian visits to their sub. On March 21, Johanns boarded the USS Nebraska at the Kings Bay, Ga., Naval Submarine Base, along with 10 other prominent Cornhuskers: the presidents of the Nebraska Cattlemen's Association and Omaha Chamber of Commerce, a radio personality, a handful of industry leaders, and the coach of the University of Nebraska women's volleyball team, who presented the crew with a volleyball signed by the players (who had just won the NCAA championship).

They were the second group of civilians to take a one-day sub ride since the Greeneville collision. None were allowed to steer the 18,750-ton boat. That's been banned since the Greeneville incident, when a civilian had been sitting at the inboard helmsman's wheel. The prohibition is largely symbolic. The civilian steering the Greeneville had a sailor and diving officer behind him telling him every move to make on the wheel and had nothing to do with the accident; the mishap was already in the works by the time the civilian pulled the wheel back to surface the sub. Nebraskans, however, can live with the steering prohibition — as long as they can continue visiting their sub.