"You were practicing all the time to be perfect at something you hoped would never happen." (Video Interview, 1:10:36)
{
align: 'left'
}
Edward H. Mortimer
Edward Mortimer [detail from video]
War: Cold War Branch: Navy Unit: USS Gudgeon (SS 567); USS Abraham Lincoln (SSBN 602); USS Nathan Hale (SSBN 623); USS John Adams (SSBN 620) Service Location: Annapolis, Maryland; Pacific; Pearl Harbor, and Ford Island, Hawaii; New London, Connecticut; Charleston, South Carolina; United Kingdom; North Sea; Atlantic; Pacific; Guam (Mariana Islands) Rank: Captain Place of Birth: TN
Annapolis graduate Edward Mortimers career spanned the central years of the Cold War, 1954-1977, during which he served on five submarines with increasingly sophisticated technology. He worked his way up from communications officer to captain of the USS John Adams, a third-generation Polaris submarine. Patrolling both major oceans and several of the seven seas, Mortimer was exquisitely aware of what firing one of his subs missiles would mean. He also talks of a good friend who was aboard the ill-fated Thresher, the first nuclear submarine to be lost at sea.