Submarines, Strawberries, & Syrup

Start with the kitchen counter the night before. Foil trays lined up end to end, cinnamon rolls, French toast bake, a hundred breakfast burritos wrapped in foil and labeled in marker. Then the back of an SUV packed to the max, a water cooler wedged in beside the trays, and a drive down to the waterfront at Pearl Harbor.

The crew of USS Charlotte (SSN 766) ate outside that morning, in coveralls, at folding tables with the harbor behind them. Strawberries and syrup included.

The Silent Stinger families built every bit of it.

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Why the pier

A submarine crew spends most of its time either at sea or getting ready to go back. During workups and maintenance stretches, the days run long and the boat comes first. The pier ends up being one of the few places where families and crew are in the same spot at the same time.

So the families bring the morning to them. Breakfast on the pier is not a ceremony and it is not on anyone's schedule of events. It is a hot meal on a working day, made by the people who know exactly what that week has cost.

Nobody is required to do this. These spreads are put together and paid for by the families themselves, which is the thing worth knowing about them.

The part we liked best

There was food left over. So the families packed up the rest and ran it over to the Navy Region Hawaii Fire & Emergency Services crew down the road. Breakfast burritos, sandwiches, biscuits and gravy, delivered to a firehouse that had no idea it was coming.

Given surplus, they gave it away again.

Our part

NCSF covered the fruit, pastries, juice, and some additional donations.

The Foundation is not a separate entity standing alongside the submarine community. It is its supporters and members, its crews and their families. When a pier-side spread comes together, those are the people putting it together.

The 766 families do this work. We are here to make it easier, and the FRGs know where to find us.