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Ed Schenk's service on the U.S.S. Skate “proud moment" in his life
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Edward J. Schenk Jr. of Struthers has written his memoirs about his service as a Navy submariner aboard the atomic-powered USS Skate that traveled under the polar ice cap and patrolled the coast of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Schenk served on the sub from 1962 to 1964.
YOUNGSTOWN
Edward J. Schenk Jr., a Navy nuclear-submarine veteran, served on the U.S.S. Skate, whose role as a deterrent to nuclear attack during the Cold War was largely unknown to the public or even the rest of the Navy.
It was the United States vs. the Soviet Union ... Democracy vs. Communism.
During Schenk’s part of that tense time, which included the Cuban Missile Crisis, not a shot was fired between the U.S. and the Soviets.
But the danger was real.
According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, “for thirteen days in October 1962 the world waited — seemingly on the brink of nuclear war — and hoped for a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis,”
But, with both sides armed with nuclear weapons, if one shot had been fired it might not have just been “heard around the world,” it could have touched off a horrific nuclear exchange, Schenk said.
The Cold War began in 1945 with the end of World War II in Europe and essentially ended in 1990 with the reunification of Germany.
It was with the backdrop of the Cold War that Schenk, who grew up on Arlington Street on Youngstown’s North Side, joined the Navy in September 1961.
This is his story, as told in an interview with The Vindicator and in his unpublished memoirs, written primarily for family and friends, about his journey from Youngstown to under the Arctic ice pack in a nuclear submarine patrolling the Soviet Union’s shores, and back.
During his three years in the Navy, from 1961 to 1964, Schenk, a 1961 graduate of The Rayen School, served two years, from 1962 to 1964, in the submarine service aboard the USS Skate SSN (submersible ship nuclear) 578, the first fast-attack fully operational nuclear combat sub built by the U.S.
Schenk explained that nuclear subs USS Nautilus and USS Seawolf were built before the Skate, but were considered experimental. The Nautilus successfully navigated and crossed under the polar ice pack making world history.
In 1958, the Skate became the first nuclear submarine to surface through the ice at the North Pole during favorable conditions.
The next year, the Skate went back to the Arctic when winter was at its worst, with ice up to 4 to 6 feet thick, and surfaced numerous times.
Skate’s performance demonstrated that nuclear subs carrying missiles could stay undetected under the Polar Ice Cap and emerge when necessary to launch nuclear missiles at the Soviet Union or any other important Soviet targets, Schenk said.
Skate was part of Submarine Squadron 10, made of up of nuclear fast-attack fully operational combat submarines, often referred to as the “black Navy” because its clandestine and covert lifestyle was unknown to the American public, he said.
Schenk, 71, discharged from the Navy in 1964, came home to work at General Extrusions, Youngstown Steel Door and Commercial Hydraulics before starting his own business, Kitchen Mechanic Co., which he still operates.
In 1966, he married the former Beverly Hubler of Youngstown. The couple raised two children: Eric of Lowellville and Heidi Dunlap of Coitsville, and have three grandchildren. Schenk’s sister, Paula Clarke, formerly of Youngstown, works and resides in China.
More than 50 years after his Navy hitch, Schenk, a patriot and Navy at heart, still considers service on the USS Skate a focal point of his life.
“Besides my wonderful marriage to my bride, the submarine service and life on Skate was the second-best experience that heaven has ever bestowed on me,” he said.
“If World War III would have broken out, we were the new vanguards of the Navy [pre-positioned units]. Those three years in the submarine service were a proud moment in my life,” said Schenk.
Looking back, Schenk described the role of nuclear subs as a “never ending game of cat-and-mouse to equal counterparts providing a philosophy of containment to the expansion of Soviet ideology ... on station every day of the year, waiting and watching and listening.
“In the history of the Cold War and strategic weaponry systems, World War III never came. The philosophy of deterrence and contain had done its job well,” Schenk said. “In joining the Navy, I got what I wanted ... a chance to serve my country.”
“I was massively privileged to serve as part of a deterrent weapons system that held the Soviet Union at bay by sea denial and access to the sea lanes, if needed,” he said.
USS SKATE TIME LINE
USS Skate was the third nuclear submarine of the Navy named for the skate, a type of ray. It was the first to make a completely submerged trans-Atlantic crossing, and the second submarine to reach the North Pole and the first to surface there.
July 18, 1955: Contract to build the nuclear submarine was awarded to General Dynamics.
May 16, 1957: First launch and later commissioned Dec. 23, 1957.
July 30, 1958: Skate steamed to the Arctic, where it operated under the ice for 10 days.
August 11, 1958: Became the second sea ship to reach the North Pole, and first to surface there.
Sept. 12, 1986: Skate was decommissioned.
Oct. 30, 1986: Skate is stricken from the Naval Vessel Register.
March 6, 1995: Disposed of by submarine recycling at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash.