Rickover’s 63-year tenure in non-nominally active service should be underlined.
Not just the longest military service tenure in U.S. history, nor merely unmatched globally among non-hereditary officers—it is, by virtually every relevant measure, among the most superlative and singular martial-professional achievements in recorded human history.
Hindenburg (53y) and Wilson (57y) had conventional European military careers. Chiang, Ramesses, Elizabeth II, technically have him beat — but, discounting those —63 years — intensely involved until the last day at the most senior possible level helming the premier strategic asset on the planet.
Through to 1984 is decades of “peacetime” service, yes, but that fact pivots on Rickover personally probably — I’d venture definitively — more than any other person.
Strong argument to be made a single naval reactor failure—in port, under arms, during a crisis—imperils the entire nuclear navy through perhaps the mid-late 70s. Standard congressional procurement economy of scale death spiral hangs in the air until at least long.
He engineered and personally maintained the most precise, dangerous, and strategically critical system in modern history.
As easily clickable documentary evidence of his passing: a single 60 Minutes episode, a couple books, this Substack post.
Possibly (here, much less definitively, you could have an argument, a shortlist with many names) the most significant — as in intentive, willful impact on events, in the Bill James, Above Replacement sense — human to ever live.
Groton is the home of Naval Submarine Base New London and is located in Connecticut and Senator Brien McMahon represented Connecticut from 1945 - 1952.
*"he opted to design the reactors so that submariners would experience a level of radiation equal to that of background radiation." -> you need to provide a source for this assertion. I don't believe it is true (and it isn't feasible). Rickover's insight, which was more of a hunch, was that internal and external exposure should be additive for setting dose limits. The conventional wisdom at the time held that they could be considered independent limits.
*"they needed to build a land-based prototype first" -> They only needed to build a land-based prototype because Rickover insisted on it for all new reactor designs at the time. This was another feature of Rickover's approach to design.
What a great piece! Such a thoughtful example of how it is people who create and solve our problems, and nothing else. Rickover's example of celebrating individual human agency and using it to drive results is as timely today as it has been since the days Tocqueville admired those same values in Americans.
Fantastic article. He was also a major influence on Jimmy Carter. He famously asked Carter during an interview with his time in the Navy if "he had always done his best." Carter answered truthfully that he had not and Rickover ended the interview.
Carter would be inspired to do his best and even title his autobiography "Why not the Best."
Rickover’s 63-year tenure in non-nominally active service should be underlined.
Not just the longest military service tenure in U.S. history, nor merely unmatched globally among non-hereditary officers—it is, by virtually every relevant measure, among the most superlative and singular martial-professional achievements in recorded human history.
Hindenburg (53y) and Wilson (57y) had conventional European military careers. Chiang, Ramesses, Elizabeth II, technically have him beat — but, discounting those —63 years — intensely involved until the last day at the most senior possible level helming the premier strategic asset on the planet.
Through to 1984 is decades of “peacetime” service, yes, but that fact pivots on Rickover personally probably — I’d venture definitively — more than any other person.
Strong argument to be made a single naval reactor failure—in port, under arms, during a crisis—imperils the entire nuclear navy through perhaps the mid-late 70s. Standard congressional procurement economy of scale death spiral hangs in the air until at least long.
He engineered and personally maintained the most precise, dangerous, and strategically critical system in modern history.
As easily clickable documentary evidence of his passing: a single 60 Minutes episode, a couple books, this Substack post.
Possibly (here, much less definitively, you could have an argument, a shortlist with many names) the most significant — as in intentive, willful impact on events, in the Bill James, Above Replacement sense — human to ever live.
Groton is the home of Naval Submarine Base New London and is located in Connecticut and Senator Brien McMahon represented Connecticut from 1945 - 1952.
Two more comments:
*"he opted to design the reactors so that submariners would experience a level of radiation equal to that of background radiation." -> you need to provide a source for this assertion. I don't believe it is true (and it isn't feasible). Rickover's insight, which was more of a hunch, was that internal and external exposure should be additive for setting dose limits. The conventional wisdom at the time held that they could be considered independent limits.
*"they needed to build a land-based prototype first" -> They only needed to build a land-based prototype because Rickover insisted on it for all new reactor designs at the time. This was another feature of Rickover's approach to design.
What a great piece! Such a thoughtful example of how it is people who create and solve our problems, and nothing else. Rickover's example of celebrating individual human agency and using it to drive results is as timely today as it has been since the days Tocqueville admired those same values in Americans.
Fantastic article. He was also a major influence on Jimmy Carter. He famously asked Carter during an interview with his time in the Navy if "he had always done his best." Carter answered truthfully that he had not and Rickover ended the interview.
Carter would be inspired to do his best and even title his autobiography "Why not the Best."