SSC: How did you end up in the Navy and in submarines?

Ron Martini: I was born and raised right here in beautiful Sheridan, WY at the foot of the Big Horn mountains.  Put in 1/2 year of Jr. college here and then talked my cousin into joining the Navy.   The Navy recruiter here was dating another cousin and we got to know him well before we signed. 

Boot camp in San Diego, EM "A" School there also then across country to Sub School.  I got pneumonia and was set back two classes.  Caught up to my cousin again in San Diego where I spent 11 months on the USS Catfish SS339.  It was the boat that later was sold to Argentina and was lost by them in the Faulklands War. 

Orders to Nuclear School at Vallejo and once again the same guys I went to "A" school with all gathered there once again.  Six months there and then six months in Idaho at A1W prototype. 

Orders from there to the USS Patrick Henry SSBN 599 Blue in Groton.  I did 6 patrols on her and returned her to the yards at EB for core change and missile upgrade.  I was sent to EM "B" school from there.  Just prior to checking in at Great Lakes, I married my wife (also from Sheridan) and we lived in Zion, IL. 

Orders from there to new construction, Portsmouth and the USS Grayling.  I was the only one there and after 5 weeks, they called me in and said I was way too early and they handed me orders to the USS Patrick Henry Gold which really pleased me.  I did 7 patrols on her and then walked out the gate, after eight in 1968. 

SSC: How did you get started on the internet?

Ron Martini: Worked for Safeway Stores (food chain) from 1968 until 1997 and retired out from them here in Sheridan. 

I took up computing in about 1982-3.  Played with Sinclairs, Commodores and settled on a Tandy 1000SX in 1986.  I had the biggest hard drive in Sheridan at 80 meg.  I began attending meetings of a computer's user group here and in 88 broke off from them (as they were Apple people) and formed SMUG.  Sheridan Microcomputer Users Group.  We built a shareware library of 5 1/4" disks and checked them out like library books.  We at one time had some 300 members which was the largest users group between Minneapolis and Seattle. 

In 1994-5, a local computer store owner called in me and said he was bringing the Internet to Sheridan and he said he would give me space for a page and a bulletin board free (which came later) if it would bring people in to his site.  The first page was located at rontini/wavecom.net. In those days, I remember only 6 other pages about submarines on the net.  An instructor at Sub School had one that folded after pressure from the Navy because he had included some shots of DBF systems.  Another page out of Connecticut which lasted 5-6 years. Another by a gent in Kings Bay who was a Lt. Cmdr on boats.  Nicknamed Hot Rod Rodriquez.  Then another on the Sturgeon boats.  He was a non-submariner with the passion and he told me once he had ONI come to his home and questioned him.  It appears he guessed pretty well the speed and depth on the Sturgeon boats and they didn't like it.  Then there was the granddaddy of us all and that was Don Merrigan's Silent Service page.  He had info on all the boats and was the seller also of Jim Christley's Submarine Force Data Book which is still the bible of all boats up through the Virginia.  Don was also Nat. Jr. Vice Cmdr of USSVI and American Submariner editor for a time.  Don's page folded tents in 2005.  So my page currently is the oldest page of the fleet and I believe the largest with over 1000 links to all things submarine.

In late 1996, Gil Raynor approached me about starting an on-line submarine memorabilia shop and we haven't look back from the first mouse pad and 3 1/2" disk labels to over 400 items at our shop at:  submarineshop.com

Don Merrigan had the first Submariner's BBS and I followed suit in 1997.  The BBS currently gets 875 unique hits/day and 5210 message views/day.  The page has drawn attention from Navy Times, Houston Chronicle, CNO's offices, CSL offices, NavSea offices and the New London Day among others.  The Navy Times did two articles drawn from the BBS.  The first was a humor bit about how to live like a submariner at home (and I still maintain that page) and the other concerned a problem that developed with giving Midshipmen silver dolphins which I am proud to say we played a major role in getting that practice stopped. 

SSC: What keeps you going... motivated?

Ron Martini: My impetus for doing the page goes back to the wonderful time I had throughout my eight years on the boats.  Never regretted a minute of it and that includes the first 2 minutes of missile alarms before the CO said it was a drill.  That was two minutes of terror, especially during those mid 60's and the Cuban Missile crisis, Kennedy assasination, and the Israel-Egypt war that took us into the Med for our only time.

I retired in 1997 and the long winters in northern Wyoming are wonderful for keeping up with my interest in submarines and their history.  I also managed, in 2006, to establish a USSVI Submarine Library at the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock. 

I have five pictures on my wall; USS Patrick Henry, USS Wyoming, EM 'A' School Class, Adm. Lockwood and Adm. Rickover that states pretty well what I believe in. 

A labor of love contains no work.

-- Visit Ron Martini's website 
-- Visit Ron Martini's bulletin board