USS Cod Submarine Memorial

Now that good weather and large crowds are here, the Cod crew has turned their attention to the beautification of the sub and grounds. It started when our grounds team planted flowers donated by Petitti's Garden Centers. Next step had the crew painting decorative border chain and railings while others refurbished the submarine propeller that is Cod's memorial to lost American submariners. Rust holes had developed in the rear trim ring because the tailcone and rear trim ring had no drip hole to drain water accumulation from inside the pieces. After a polishing of the 2,800-lb bronze propeller and these other tasks completed, we can now be proud once again of our tribute to the fallen in the Silent Service.

Our crew also fired up the pressure washer to prepare the hull for paint as well as remove scum from the waterline. Cod now looks like she just returned from drydocking. All the while the welders and fitters have been repairing the corrosion on our vent risers. Heck if it wasn't for the beautiful flowers planted throughout the dock our visitors might have had the impression they were touring an active shipyard! BZ to the crew for your hard work!

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF COD STEWARDSHIP

The Cleveland Coordinating Committee for Cod, Inc., a civilian organization designed to save Cod from scrapping when the submarine reserve training program was terminated in 1971, was a direct outcome of the scrapping of USS Gar, the reserve training sub in Cleveland prior to Cod's arrival in the summer of 1959. A fixture on Cleveland’s lakefront since 1947, Gar had fascinated thousands of children and adults who toured the veteran of 14 war patrols in WWII when it wasn't being used for reserve training duties. But sentiment at the time was that these old warhorses were no longer useful and weren't the sexy new "atomic submarines " that were grabbing all the headlines of the time. So she was towed to Ashtabula for scrapping along with USS Tambor, Detroit's reserve trainer.

For a while the Gar and Cod were moored together at our dock. A few items came aboard Cod from Gar, including the wood dog house over the AB hatch and the SJ radar dish. The $7 million cost to build Gar in 1940 returned to the federal government only $56,000 in scrapping. Oh to have these two boats today ...

Memorial Day 2026 will go down as one of the busiest days in recent history aboard Cod. No holiday slacking for our crew. We helped stage memorial events this foggy morning for the local Chapter of the Fleet Reserve Association, followed immediately by an even larger event for the Greater Cleveland Boating Association. So that meant some of the crew were setting up chairs and running sound for the programs while greeting old friends and new ones attending the events. We also hosted the second annual Cleveland Ruck for Veterans. A ruck is where veterans carry weighted backparks along a preset course while building comeradiery and strength. Meanwhile other Cod crew were busy working on prepping engines for operation later this summer and still others were busy installing repaired vent risers in our superstructure. Oh and once the tours started we were visited by the grandchildren of one of our WWII crewmen. Showing them where their granfather lived aboard the boat during her last four patrols, was a great honor. But the long day didn't end until the president tackled the job of weeding out monster-sized thistles from the flower bed outside our main gate. Now with
the day ended and my body pumped full of iburprophen, I'm passing a major BZ to the Cod's crew... shes a living ship!

All of our known WWII crew are on permanent duty with their Supreme Commander. But we are blessed to host vists from their families, like the sons and daughters of Cod cook and baker Philip William Linn. Cookie's records are incomplete but we have proof he made at least two patrols, numbers 6 and 7 ... so he and his shipmates almost were blown to bits by one of their own burning torpedoes and narrowly dodged bombing by a friendly bomber on patrol 6. On the seventh and final patrol Linn and the other cooks and bakers had to get busy and feed two submarine crews, a total of 152 mouths, for three days after Cod rescued the crew of the Dutch Submarine O-19 after it got stuck on a reef deep in enemy waters.

Father Linn had a long and fruitful life and served on several other fleet subs post war. Sadly he didn't attend our crew reunions, so our tour with his son's and daughters was our only way to connect them to dad's service. Listening to their stories about their father, we were able to decern that he was bunked on Hogan's alley. Seeing the two crew panoramic pictures taken in New Zealand, his children were quick to find dad, standing next to Cod senior cook Geroge Sacco and one or two of the officer's stewards. The family shared with us a well curated album of dad's documents, pictures and news clippings that included a few unique Cod images, including a picture of dad holding one of the two steel Cod battle emblem disks created for our first public tours on Navy Day in 1945 in Miami.

Every submariner will tell you the best smell aboard the boat is cinnamon rolls baking in the galley ovens. Now that USS Cod's ovens are operational and have proven their mettle with pizza, I just had to bake cinnamon rolls and tollhouse cookies for nothing if not the aroma today. I put my Cod apron on and got baking after I returned from the USS Cleveland commissioning ceremonies nearby.

It was a successful baking evolution but not without its challenges. The baking sheets I laid the cookies out on turned out to be an inch too long for Cod's 1940-vintage ovens! Luckily I had oval stainless steel serving platters that did fit the oven racks. My two Pillsbury cinnamon bun dough cans filled Cod's original square baking pan nicely.

The aroma of tollhouse cookies and cinnamon rolls shocked the public stepping into the crew's mess. Many asked "are you really baking?" They were excited to learn that not only was I baking but that they would be able to taste the results! A number of youngsters sat down on the mess tables and refused to move until the bakery cooled sufficiently to be served.

Crewman Tony Dalesio held court in the mess while I baked and he showed Cod's WWII color movies on our hidden screen.

Be proud of the commissioning... not the misinformation...

USS Cleveland: Not The First Commissioning in Cleveland @WanderingCurator Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

Damn... we did it finally! After 72 years -- USS Cod's galley was restored to operating condition by our crew and today we put our work to the test with a pizza party. Why pizza? Because our most famous cook, George Sacco, veteran of all seven war patrols, made pizza for his friends aboard the sub in WWII. It's also the least messy food to prepare. George spoke to me many times on the phone years ago about the challenges of creating pizza aboard ship from the Navy's WWII supply chain. He said it "required some substituting." I wanted George to attend our crew reunions over the years but he refused to travel due to health concerns. I went as far as to offer to bake pizza with him in our galley once again. That was a stretch because back in the 1990s the chances of returning the galley ovens to working condition were slim to none. George passed in the early 2000s but over the last decade our crew has grown to include very talented people who made it happen. Now today we put their efforts to the test as I baked five pizzas. And I know George was there with us today, silently approving of his modern day shipmates and our culinary efforts.

We just learned from Sacco's family that our pizza tribute to him FELL ON HIS BIRTHDAY!

What i took away from my experience making pizzas in the galley of a fleet sub is an even greater appreciation of the talents of organization and efficiency required by submarine cooks to feed 90+ men in a galley no bigger than a walk-in closet.