USS Seawolf submarine hull cracking

Tom's personal arc with Millard Firebaugh through the Seawolf program — funding zeroed when Soviets fielded titanium submarine; consulting role after 18% of ship had to be torn apart and rebuilt.

I had students who, when they became captain, were head of the program for the DDG 51, and then the Zumwalt class that just got cancelled. Millard Firebaugh was before my time. He was a 13A, which was before 2N, and he got a PhD here. He was in charge of designing the SSN 21, the Seawolf. I knew him when he was a captain designing the Seawolf. I knew him when Congress zeroed the budget for the Seawolf because the Soviets had developed a titanium submarine and Congress said, oh, they've leapfrogged us. I knew him when he went back up to the Hill to get the money back. I knew him when he became chief engineer of the Navy. And I was hired by him when they had completed 18% of the ship and had to tear it all apart in the early '90s, along with a few other people, to look over Electric Boat's shoulder and make sure they didn't make the same mistake the next time. He's still alive, retired obviously now.