The Silver Dolphin of Courage

Travel Bug Mission: To spread awareness of the US Navy Submarine fleet and the Silver Dolphins these brave sailors earn to wear on their chest.


****Upon finding and logging this Travel Bug, your task is to research a significant historical fact about submarines or a "Submariner" in your local area. Use any source necessary to get your information. Your local library, the internet, you could even talk to a relative or friend of the family who served on a submarine and tell us one of their "Sea Stories." Make it unique and have fun.

*****Post your historical fact or story in your log entry for this Travel Bug.

The Quest For Silver Dolphins
Dolphins, the insignia of the United States Navy Submarine Service, indentify the wearer as "qualified in submarines." Submariners must work very rigorously to earn their dolphins and they wear them with pride.

It was in March 1924 that Acting Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt Jr. authorized the wearing of silver dolphins by qualified submariners. There might be only a few dollars worth of metal in the two-and-a-half-inch pin, but the meaning the dolphins hold for the men who earn them is immeasurable. Silver dolphins signify that the enlisted wearer has passed through rigorous screening and arduous training--and has upheld the legacy of generations of undersea warriors.

Submarines operate in the most unforgiving environment on the planet, the crushing depths of the ocean, and they do it with a relatively small number of men. There are about 130 crewmembers on board when a 9,600-ton Seawolf-class submarine heads to sea; an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyer of about the same displacement has a crew two-and-a-half times larger, about 340 Sailors.

That means that the performance of each and every crewmember on a submarine is vital. Every man must know his job--and much of everyone else's, in case he ever has to fill in--and a host of emergency procedures. Finishing his "quals" identifies a man as someone whom the other members of the crew can depend on to save their lives. Everyone in a submarine's crew, from the captain to the "NUBs" (for "nonuseful body"--i.e., someone who has not finished his "quals"), recognizes the importance of the pinning ceremony.

The men who choose to "go subs" routinely cite the camaraderie of the tightly knit service as their reason for joining, but the challenge also is a key attraction.