Patrol in Paradise
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| Our group at Kings Bay Submarine Base | Captain Seigfried Koitschka on the ‘scope |
Without question, the greatest SHARKHUNTERS gathering in the US and possibly of all time! Honored guests included Erich Topp, the third most successful submarine Skipper of WW II and holder of the Knights Cross with Oak Leaf and Swords. Captain Seigfried Koitschka (U-616), also with the Knights Cross, was with us. There were six other U-boat veterans with us on this great ‘Patrol‘.
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| Captain Igor Kurdin, RADM Chernavin, Harry Cooper, RADM Joseph Peck and Captain Cherkashin at Kings Bay | Sara Hammacher, Susan Burleigh, and Meaghan Cooper on the bridge of the destroyer we toured. |
America and Russia were well represented, with Captain Nicolai Cherkashin (political officer), RADM Lev Davidovich Chernavin (the last ComSub of the Soviet Navy), RADM Joseph Peck (American destroyer Skipper in WW II), and Captain Igor Kurdin (currently serving as Skipper of a Russian Navy DELTA IV boomer boat).
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| Sean Cooper, Horst von Horstig, Igor Kurdin, Lev Chernavin, Harry Cooper, Joe Peck, Nocolai Cherkashin, Volkmar König, Erich Topp, and Seigfried Koitschka at Kings Bay. | Harry Cooper, our pilot, and Erich Topp walk from our P-3 ORION. |
We visited Kennedy Space Center, Epcot Center, SubBase Kings Bay and toured all through a boomer boat, Naval Base Mayport and all through a modern-day destroyer, Naval Air Station Jacksonville where we toured the flight line and all through a P-3 ORION sub hunter aircraft with her crew and of course, there was the Hawaiian luau dinner with Cooper in a grass skirt doing the hula. We probably could have done without that…