Rickover Uncensored with Claude Berube
the man, in his own words.
There are few naval leaders who had a legendary reputation and such a long running - and not uncontroversial - record of service as Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, USN..
Talk to any submarine officer or surface nuclear power officer over the age of 60 and they will have a personal story directly or indirectly about the man who is generally seen as the "Father of the Nuclear Navy."
Was the man as he lived really in line with his reputation?
We now have a broad collection of Rickover in his own word is the just published collection of his papers, Rickover Uncensored, edited by Claude Berube, Samuel Limneos.
From the book's Amazon page;
"Nearly 250 archival boxes full of his personal papers were bequeathed to the U.S. Naval Academy Museum. Outside of his official biographer, no historian had access to these documents. In "Rickover Uncensored," the editors present a broad section of Rickover's life from love letters in the 1930s to his first wife, his speeches, transcripts of telephone conversations, and memoranda through his retirement.
Joining us for the full hour will be one of the editors of this collection - returning and founding guest of Midrats, Claude Berube.
Claude is the author or editor of five non-fiction books, three novels and more than eighty articles. He earned his doctorate from the University of Leeds, and is a retired CDR in the USNR.
He has worked as a navy contractor for NAVSEA and ONR, as a civil servant with the ONI, and as a staffer to two US Senators and a House member. He has taught in the Political Science and History Departments at the US Naval Academy since 2005.
You can get the podcast here or below;
I am having trouble visiualizing Rickover writing love letters.
My second CO aboard my FFG was a Navy Surface Nuke Commander doing a CO tour before going back for a possible Reactor Officer tour on a CVN. He had lots of Rickover stories. Wish I remembered them all. Fuzzy memory aside, here are a few involving interviews that ADM Rickover held for all Navy Nukes. The Admiral told one officer to go stand in a broom closet until he was ready to be interviewed. Several hours transpired. Don't remember how that turned out. Another interviewee was told "Make me angry!". The officer grabbed the scale model of USS Nautilus off the Admiral's desk and smashed it to pieces. The Admiral was furious. He passed. Another was invited to lunch with the Admiral. The officer salted his food. The Admiral dismissed him because he had not tasted his food before salting it. I really liked that Nuke CO I worked for. He was precise in everything, zero ambiguity in what he expected. I prospered under him. He is the one who made me GQ OOD (hog heaven for me) as a W-2. The rest of the wardroom was glad it wasn't them. He surprised everyone by retiring after his tour. What sane man wants to be a Reactor Officer when you could be a recruiter in Detroit or fuel handler in Shemya?