Ames IA resident Douglas Ward commanded submarine during Cold War

Since 11-13-03

SILENT SERVICE
by Jason Kristufek, Staff Writer
November 11, 2003

Ames IA resident commanded submarine during Cold War

Doug Ward walked outside his home north of Ames on a chilly morning last week with the sun shining in his face. He appreciates sunshine these days.

As on officer in the U.S. Navy he spent a portion of 28 years below the Pacific Ocean's surface in a submarine, often going months without seeing the sun or communicating with his family.

"My wife thinks I am crazy, but a lot time I go outside and just sit out there and read," said Ward, who at 59 is retired and has his own consulting company. "I don't know if that is because I spent so much time in a black can or not."

On Veterans Day this year, Ward does what he has done many days throughout his life. He reflects back on his days as an officer and eventually the commander of a nuclear ballistic submarine, the USS James Madison, during the height of the Cold War.

Submarine crews are often referred to as the "silent heroes" who won the Cold War. But much of what they did back then remains unknown. Even Ward is reluctant at times to say much.

What is undeniable is that submarines and their crews acted as the greatest deterrence to prevent nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Secretly, American subs battled the cold, dark depths of the ocean to ensure American leaders knew every secret of the Soviet Union.

Submarines also provided another crucial aspect to winning the Cold War. They kept a portion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal concealed at sea and undetectable to their Russian counterparts. "The only people who knew where we were was us," Ward said. "We were assigned to a specific area of the ocean and we could move within that as much as we wanted to. And we knew if we were ordered to launch our missiles that it meant someone else had already attacked us. We knew America would never launch first. A duty unlike most

Ward spent up to 100 days at a time submerged and isolated from this family and the rest of the world. "We all did something we believed in," he said. "And we believed it was helping our country." As an officer on a nuclear attack submarine during the height of the Cold War, Ward is bound to keep secret the specifics of many missions.

Attack submarines are the spy vehicles of the U.S. Navy. They're also capable of supporting other naval operations. Today's attack subs can launch Tomahawk missiles on targets hundreds of miles away. One job of attack submarines is to track enemy ships, slip into enemy ports and eavesdrop on enemy conversations.

The biggest responsibilities the crew of an attack submarine faced during the Cold War was staying undetectable. "You take this big chunk of metal filled with equipment, sink it, then you get to do really exciting things with it," Ward said. "That is probably why I stayed with it." Ward was the executive officer onboard the attach sub USS Puffer for three years. He had many deployments into the western Pacific Ocean during the Cold War. "The sense of urgency was always to remain undetected," Ward said. "The only component to our nuclear weapons that the enemy didn't know where it was at any given time was on the subs. The biggest fear was being sunk."

As a Commander of the USS James Madison, officers such as Ward were responsible for nearly 150 crewmen and possibly 16 to 24 nuclear warheads. The ability to maneuver undetected while keeping a nuclear arsenal underwater caused the Soviet Union to go broke trying to keep pace in the arms race.

Ward can neither confirm nor deny that any submarine he serve on was armed with a nuclear warhead, although it is safe to assume that was the case. "I am not at liberty to say if we did," Ward said. "All I can say is that we had the capability to carry them and having them on board." The people who served on ballistic missile submarines were there to prevent war, Ward said, not start one.

Thank you

Ward joined the Navy as a financial incentive to attend Iowa State University, where he earned a degree in 1967.

He knew as an officer on a submarine capable of carrying nuclear weapons that at any moment he could be asked to launch weapons on some faraway target. "Every time you got a message like this ;you always wondered if it was going to be the one," Ward said. "You always wonder what it might be like knowing you are about to launch a missile that has more destructive power than has ever been used before."

Ward says he doesn't miss the cramped, 428-foot long, 30-foot wide space of a submarine such as the USS James Madison.

At the time of the Cold War, the Navy had less than a hundred submarine crews. Ward was one officer who was fortunate enough to earn the rank of commander and control his own ship.

The stress on a sub crew during the Cold War must have been tremendous. Although it probably wasn't until later that they and other Americans began to see the important role subs played in the Cold War's outcome.

Ward keeps in touch with his submarine days as a member of a national organization for submariner veterans. The group has a local chapter that meets every two months. He is one of a handful of officers. Most are enlisted men.

He remembers riding in a car with a bunch of them during a recent parade. Along the route he heard thank yous from the crown. You can tell that moment was special to Ward, although he doesn't open up much. "You know every morning you get up on a submarine, you will encounter a new and different challenge," Ward said. "That is probably what kept me in it all those years."

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Ames Tribune 2003