JIM constantly sends great information over the e-mail, so we decided to put it all in our KTB Magazine, with his own monthly column. Keep it coming JIM.

Submariners find a home above water. The Horse and Cow bar in San Diego caters to a highly secretive fraternity of sailors. Outsiders are welcome, but beware of the klaxon. Happy Hour is underway at the Horse and Cow, and the subject is submarines. The subject is always submarines at the Horse and Cow, a drinking, pool playing, jukebox listening, sports TV watching establishment just outside the rear gate of the former Naval Training Center.

In an era of niche businesses, the Horse and Cow may be the niche-iest. With its distinctive decor and gung-ho attitude, the Horse and Cow caters to members of a select and highly secretive sailors of the U. S. Sub Fleet. The Horse and Cow is one of the few bars to proudly advertise itself as a dive, the pun fully intended!

Surface ship sailors (skimmers), Marines and even civilians are welcome at the Horse and Cow, but they are never allowed to forget that they are but visitors in someone else's domain -- in this case, three oddly- shaped dimly lit rooms with well-trod floors.

If outsiders are inclined to forget their whereabouts (and manners), reminders include the submarine banners, submarine pictures, submarine memorabilia, submarine graffiti (Best Sonar Shack in the Navy) and submarine gear and a newly arrived submarine toilet behind the bar. If all else fails, a submarine klaxon erupts periodically with the ear- shattering: aaaahh-ooooo-gah, aaaahh-ooooo-gah!

After four decades of owning submarine bars in three Navy towns (including the last 8 years in San Diego), the Looby Family knows the secrets of putting on a submariner bash deluxe. They put on an after-Christmas bash for homesick sailors, complete with a visit from Santa Claus; $1 shots of a secret and lethal house mixture called 'nuclear waste'; and the usual fare of cheeseburgers, fries and hot wings - plus country-western music played at a raucous level.

When Rod Pavlak was first in the Navy, all he heard from the old salts on long deployments was about the Horse and Cow. He was a Chief Petty Officer stationed in San Diego. The Horse and Cow is famous. It's a place where you can cut loose, hoist a few and tell a few stories.

Until recently, the Horse and Cow tradition had gone largely unnoticed by the non-submarine world. Then it was outed in this year's best selling book: 'BLIND MAN'S BLUFF; the untold story of American submarine espionage, as a place where submariners engaged in off-duty high jinx to decompress from their high- stress job of shadowing Soviet submarines.

'There are a lot of sailor bars, but only one real sub bar.' said Sean Keck, a former sub sailor. 'It's like Cheers for submariners.'

Max Monningh, a former nuclear electrician aboard the submarine USS SEA WOLF, agreed and said, 'A lot of submariners only feel comfortable with other submariners.'

By nature and nurture, military culture breeds a certain clannishness with pilots preferring the off-hours company of pilots, Marines of Marines, and tank drivers with other tank drivers etc. But there is a factor specific to the submarine service that sets its sailors apart even from the rest of the Navy -- an ironclad secrecy.

The Navy takes the uncompromising position that all details about submarine missions after 1950 are top secret, even in cases where retired submariners from the Soviet Union are gladly chatting away about the chase, confrontations and near-collisions that were commonplace as fully armed submarines from the two superpowers played a daily game of hide and seek at hull-crushing depths.

The publication of 'BLIND MAN'S BLUFF' prompted the Navy to require all submarine commanders to remind their sailors that, although the Cold War is kaput, the secrecy code is still in effect, now and forever. Nothing in the secrecy code prohibits a sailor from pronouncing proudly that he is a submarine sailor. Indeed, the Navy has begun inviting reporters along on submarine training cruises. Still, some sailors are not taking any chances.

At the approach of a reporter armed with a notebook, two uniformed sailors, left the Horse and Cow at a speed akin to a cruise missile headed for Saddam's summer palace. Three others, dressed in civilian clothing, remained in place but went into evasive maneuvers, information-wise.

'Excuse me gentlemen; are you submariners?'
'Sorta'
'Kinda.'
'Depends on how you define the word submarine.'

While it would be wrong to confuse the Horse and Cow with a Christian Science Reading Room, it would also be a mistake to typecast it as a brawling and boozing sailor haunt like those seen in the movies.

The modern Navy has spent considerable effort to dispel the old cliche of the drunken sailor on leave.

HARRY's NOTE - Please pardon a chuckle or two as I read this and think of Lutz Bieber and his troubles with drunken sailors in the former DDR.

Alcohol awareness instruction is given to young sailors. If that fails, they are warned that an alcohol induced incident, particularly off base, can torpedo their career and benefits.

Police records show that in the past year, police have visited the Horse and Cow on only three occasions, all for minor matters, and none for drunkenness, fighting or other anti-social behavior - which is not to say that drinking and behavior that pushes the envelope of civilized demeanor does not occur at the Horse and Cow.

It is common for enlisted submariners who have just won their 'Dolphins', the submarine badge attesting to their certification as submarine sailors, to head for the Horse and Cow with their buddies. The silver Dolphins are dropped in a large pitcher which is then filled with every kind of beer and spirit and liquid available. The new submarine sailor is then encouraged by his shipmates to drink the entire pitcher until he reaches his Dolphins. Only then is he truly accepted.

Then there is a unique submarine ritual dating back to the days of the diesel submarines. To show their moxie, submariners (usually fortified by strong drink) remove their pants and underwear, affix a roll of toilet paper to their bare backsides - and light it on fire!

Some jump on tables to display their bravado - and their flaming sterntubes. Sounds kinda' painful!

Horse and Cow has a mythological pedigree. Neptune, the god of the sea, is often portrayed as being accompanied by a small horse and a small cow or a bull. In World Wars I and II, merchant sailors who were terrified of being sunk by submarines, tattoos a horse on one ankle and a cow on the other in hopes of safe passage.

The submarine fleet is not an expanding client base. San Diego once was home to 22 fast attack submarines -- now there are six.

Horse and Cow rules prohibit any kind words for the nuclear missile carrying submarines known as 'Boomers' which are based out of Bangor, Washington on the west coast, and King's Bay, Georgia on the east coast. To fast-attack submariners, whose duty is to chase enemy boats, they see the Boomer sailors as slackers who toll away their days in comfort, waiting for an order that has never come.

Says one graffiti scrawled on the barroom wall: "I'd rather have a sister in a whore house than a brother on a Boomer. "

Well, I guess there is wisdom in that -- somewhere. To the Navy brass, Horse and Cow is not an authorized member of the family. Yet the unofficial ties are strong. When the submarine USS POGY was recently decommissioned, the farewell banner appeared at the Horse and Cow just as soon as the official ceremony was completed and the admirals were stowed in their offices.

Beyond succor and sustenance, the Horse and Cow also performs an unofficial educational role, particularly for young sailors unable to remember when the United States and USSR were hull to hull in every ocean in the world.

"Sometimes one of the old guys who remembers the Cold War will tell us stories. said one young sailor from Pearl Harbor, perched atop a bar stool sipping a soft drink. "That's why we love coming to the Horse and Cow. "

We just spoke to the people at the Horse and Cow; they now get our KTB Magazine for the submariners to read each month.

JIM, many thanks. We'll have a page by JIM SANTOS in our KTB Magazine from now on, as long as he keeps sending such great stories. We encourage all you Members to send stories for similar columns and pages.