Quicksand Fans

Recent photo of USS Carter (SSN-23) coming back to port after a deployment in the Pacific is raising a few eyebrows. Submariners, are traditionally as talkative as clams going into the boiler, so there is no article, and there won't be one, maybe not in my lifetime
But the Jolly Roger is typically flown after some mission of note was accomplished. The other tell is when she gets a PUC for, well, nothing... But, FYI, Carter, is a one-off, the last Seawolf-class completed; and roughly 100+ feet longer than the other two, and has some different mods to her control surfaces and propulsion systems. The added length is for the lockout chamber for divers, and hangar for submersibles. She was intended from the beginning to take over special operations involving intelligence gathering, cable-tapping, etc.
All the finger-breaking stuff you'll read about in 20 years

What is that V mark on the lower right hand of the image? It looks like a repair job of some kind... or is it?

I posted this before visited Sal's today, just for full disclosure. So nobody stole nobody's lines

Someone there noted it, and pointed out it was likely a bit of the anechoic coating that came loose and was flopping the waterflow , and someone cut it off to stop the noise.

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

Procedure Mercury (decrypt by analogy)

Whatever they were up to they get my respect. I know they eat good and get to shower with unlimited hot water (thanks Fission) but there is no way you could get me into one of those things for 6 months at a clip.

The food is NAVY-awesome, but after a few months on patrol , 3-bean salad and no fresh food would get old for anyone