Date: Fri 20-Mar-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Dounglass-Biesel-Navy

Full Text:

Newtown Native Takes Command Of A Fast Attack Sub

(with cuts)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

For as far back as he can remember, Commander Douglass T. Biesel knew he

wanted to be in the Navy.

As a young boy growing up in Newtown, he built models of ships and envisioned

himself as the captain of a battleship. On March 5 Cmdr Biesel, 41, did become

the captain of a ship, but instead of a battleship it was the USS Philadelphia

, a nuclear fast attack submarine with a crew of 14 officers and 127 enlisted

men.

"When I enlisted in the Navy after I graduated from Newtown High School in

1975, battleships weren't on active duty so I chose submarines. It was the

best decision I ever made," Cmdr Biesel said.

A large group of family and friends from Newtown attended the

change-of-command ceremony at the naval base in Groton to watch Cmdr Biesel

become captain of the 360-foot submarine.

"It was an outdoor ceremony with the officers on a platform on top of the sub

and the guests seated on a platform (on land) with just a small amount of

water between us," said Cmdr Biesel's father, William H. Biesel of Shut Road

in Newtown. "It was quite impressive."

In a telephone interview, Cmdr Biesel said submarines traditionally get new

commanding officers every two and one-half to three years because the duty

requires so much time away from home and family. He is the eighth captain of

the USS Philadelphia since the Los Angeles class ship was commissioned in June

1997.

"Nuclear attack submarines today are limited only by the food supply on board.

We usually don't spend more than a month or two (at sea) but we could easily

go three months," Cmdr Biesel said.

The submarine crew is an all-volunteer force.

"What's great about the crew is they are really well trained," Cmdr Biesel

said. "They are the top men in the Navy, very technically competent. The

average age is 25. All have to be high school grads, take a technical course

and sub school. The crew is so highly trained that they immediately go into

very responsible jobs. The newest members of the crew are the ones that drive

the ship."

Between training, performing maintenance and standing watch, members of the

crew are on duty 18 hours a day and don't have much time to think about their

confinement in the close quarters of a submarine. The diameter of the vessel's

hull is only 33 feet.

"Often on subs there aren't as many bunks as (there are) men," he said. "They

sleep in shifts in the bunks -- we rotate through three watches -- but each

crew member has his own (bed)linens."

The ship is completely air conditioned and has equipment for revitalizing the

air. It also has a library and a laundry.

Although specific information about the ship's deployment is classified, Cmdr

Biesel said the vessel has many functions, especially during wartime. "It

participates in anti-sub warfare, hunting killer submarines," he said. "It can

launch a land attack strike with Tomahawk cruise missiles, performs covert

missions for surveillance and covert missions to insert men into a targeted

site, and it can operate in the Arctic. The submarine fleet also maintains sea

lanes.

"We protect the United States by being forward deployed."

According to the Navy, the USS Philadelphia has been sent to the Mediterranean

Sea four times including a deployment in 1991 for Desert Storm; and has seen

sea service in the Western Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Eastern

Atlantic. In 1996 it was nominated for the Battenberg Cup Trophy as the top

performing submarine in the Atlantic Fleet.

The Navy tries to keep submarines out of their home port more than 50 percent

of the time; the last ship Cmdr Biesel served on, as executive officer, was

out of port 74 percent of the time.

"As an officer, I spend two to three years on tour, then two years on shore,"

Cmdr Biesel said. "The hardest part of being on tour is leaving your family.

It really is a sacrifice."

Cmdr Biesel's wife, Beth, a former Newtown resident, and their children,

Taylor, 12, and Owen, 9, who now live in Ledyard, were at the change of

command ceremony along with his twin sister, Deborah Anne Wilker, her husband,

Ronald, and their son, Greg, 16, of Port St Lucie, Fla. Friends attending from

Newtown included Don and Shirley Lawrenson and Scott and Kim Scriven. Cmdr

Biesel's former scoutmaster from Troop 470 in Newtown, Tom Helmacy, who now

lives in Pennsylvania, also came.

Growing Up In Newtown

Born in Coulderspoint, Penn., Doug Biesel moved to Newtown in 1963 when his

father was hired as an associate editor at The Newtown Bee.

"I really grew up in Newtown," Cmdr Biesel said. "First we lived in half of

the Scudder-Smith house, the big house -- which is now painted yellow -- on

Main Street, and I went to Hawley School for first and second grades. When Dad

went to work for the Bridgeport Telegram , we moved to Bonnie Brae Drive and I

went to Middle Gate for third through fifth grades. After middle school, I was

part of the first class at the new high school."

Doug's mother, Jane Todd Biesel, worked for the Board of Education as the

transportation coordinator.

"When the administration moved into the old metal shop (when the high school

building on Queen Street became the middle school), Mom had a CB radio to talk

to the bus drivers," Cmdr Biesel said. "They called her the Head Beagle."

"My mother retired in 1985 and died in 1987 at the age of 65," he said. "Dad

is 81 but he still works fulltime as a copy editor for what is now the

Connecticut Post ."

Twenty-five years ago last month, Douglass Biesel was honored at a Court of

Honor for his Eagle Scout project which involved organizing his fellow Boy

Scouts to put in an access road to scout-owned land in Southbury while

Heritage Village was being built.

"I wasn't very involved in high school sports or activities, mostly I worked

after school at two jobs, both outdoors," he said. "I helped Woody Johnson

maintain the house and gardens of Marni and Harrie Wood's house on Poor House

Road, and I also worked for Doris and Martin Moorehead."

After he graduated from high school in 1975, he enlisted in the Navy at

Bridgeport and entered the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, R.I.

From there, he received his appointment to the US Naval Academy at Annapolis,

Md., through the State of Connecticut.

"After I was accepted, I came back to Newtown High School to thank my

teachers," he said. "I was talking to one of the school librarians, Ann

Titcomb, and told her I was going to the Naval Academy. She said her family

was moving to the Annapolis area because her husband had taken a job with

Westinghouse. Her family became a sponsor family, one that hosts boys from the

Naval Academy on holidays. Her daughter, Beth, who was two years behind me in

high school, left Newtown as a junior. Beth and I wound up graduating college

the same year, 1980, and got married."

In The Navy

After graduating with honors from the Naval Academy with a bachelor of science

degree in mechanical engineering, Douglass Biesel underwent submarine

training, then was assigned to the USS Lapon in 1982. From 1985 to 1987 he

attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., earning a master

of science degree in operations research and was awarded the Military

Operation Research Society Graduate Research Award for his thesis on the MK-48

Advanced Capability (ADCAP) Torpedo.

In December 1987, he reported to the USS Michigan as engineer officer and

completed four strategic deterrent patrols. Completing his tour in May 1990,

he was assigned to the Nuclear Propulsion Examining Board on the staff of the

commander in chief of the US Atlantic Fleet.

From February 1993 to May 1995, Cmdr Biesel served as executive officer of the

USS Annapolis . During this tour he completed two North Atlantic deployments

and a Mediterranean deployment as part of the USS Eisenhower carrier battle

group. In June 1995, he reported to the Pentagon as a joint mission area

analyst on the staff of the chief of naval operations where he served until

June 1997.

During his career, Cmdr Biesel was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal with

one gold star, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with three gold

stars, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and several other unit and

personal awards.

"My wife calls them merit badges to keep me humble," Cmdr Biesel said. "They

are called personal medals, awarded primarily for performance."

Bill Biesel said everyone is very proud of his son's successful military

career.

"He's a hometown boy who made good," he said.