2014 Submarine Force Birthday and Wear Your Dolphins to Work Day

Friday, April 11, is the 114th birthday of the U.S submarine force. On April 11, 1900 the HOLLAND VI was acquired by the US Navy. Although not actually commissioned as a warship until October 12, 1900, April 11th is celebrated as the official "birthday" of the US Submarine Fleet. USS Holland was considered to be the world's first truly successful submarine.

Additionally, it is "Wear Your Dolphins to Work Day." A day on which we encourage every submarine qualified individual to proudly wear their dolphins on their civilian shirt while at work. The goal is to raise awareness on the service you provided.

This idea was suggested by Dennis, a retired COB who served on boomers. You can read his story and rationale on his original site of this same domain, head on over to the Wayback Machine and read his story. Here's a snippet from his old web site that explains the rationale behind the initiative...

If we can have a "take your daughter to work day", why not have a "Wear your Dolphins to work day"? Earning Dolphins must be at least as hard as having a baby, right? So why are we hiding our achievement?" We were in the "Silent Service", not the "Hide it like we are ashamed Service". I know some sea lawyer is thinking that we aren't supposed to wear uniform insignia with civvies, but we're SUBMARINERS! We wore beards when the rest of the Navy was clean shaven! We wore Nikes as uniform of the day at sea. We hit golf balls off the bow at the North Pole! We wore civilian clothes on watch for half-way day. We have friends with names like "Warhead"! If we can take pictures from inside Russian harbors, we can damn well wear our fish with civvies one day a year. Why not do it to celebrate the Submariner Force Birthday, April 11th? 

I hope you'll join me in wearing your Dolphins on Friday and HAPPY BIRTHDAY fellow bubbleheads!