Sorry about the shameless Braveheart reference.  But in a weird sort of way, freedom was defended from a base in Scotland named Holy Loch.  A good portion of the Casimir Pulaski's life took place in this part of the world.  Positioned close to the cold water areas of the Soviet Union, Holy Loch was essential due to the short range of the initial Polaris missiles.  Once the longer ranged Polaris A-3 and Poseidon missiles came into service, Holy Loch's need was not as great.  Soon, Trident missiles would give US boomers the ability to strike any target, any where.  The decision was then made to trim the US Navy's submarine bases to just Bangor and King's Bay.  This page is a tribute to Holy Loch.  My deepest thanks to the Pulaski sailors who have sent their Holy Loch photographs for this page.

Gold Crew Torpedoman Don Ward has provided many photographs, the majority of which include his perspective of the countryside and base that made up Holy Loch.  Here's a map of the local area that Don picked up during the course of his travels.

Here's the Pulaski inside USS Los Alamos for one of her scheduled trips to the dry dock.  A photo like this during the 1980's would have been extremely forbidden.  Such was the atmosphere prior to the arrest of John Walker who is, at this time, hopefully still rotting in jail.

Here's a view of the USS Los Alamos, in an empty condition.  One of a class of several floating dry dock ships, once in place, her bow section is removed. 

The Royal Marine Hotel in the downtown area.

Crewmen leaving the Pulaski.  Note the open hatch and extensive safety netting.

Another view of crewmen leaving the dry dock.  Note the old style "633" ballcaps.  By the 1980's, these were gone in favor of the "ship's name" with dolphins ballcaps.  Also gone in the mid-1980's were the beards.

A picture is worth 1000 words...

The local Scottish countryside.  A British Royal Navy Oberon Class diesel submarine on the surface.  Still in service towards the end of the 1980's, these nimble boats protected British sea lanes and submarine transit routes.

A view of the base complex from onboard a ferry boat.

Another view from off base.

Pulaski in dry dock.  Note the openings in her hull for the CSA anti-torpedo countermeasures.  Basically, these units are discharged and create loud noise to distract the acoustic homing of a torpedo's sonar.

These photographs are the courtesy of Rob Bell and were taken in 1977 and feature the Casimir Pulaski's sister ship, USS Lafayette.  The photographs were taken in the winter as evidenced by the appearance of snow on the boat's hull tops.  Note also the bright winter sky.

The ESM and snorkel masts are raised onboard USS Lafayette.  USS Lafayette would remain a Poseidon missile equipped boat throughout her career, while her younger sister went on to Trident I C-4 conversion.  This picture is from December of 1977.

This photo was taken prior to the Casimir Pulaski's 48th patrol and was also taken in December of 1977.  The USS Lafayette is outboard of the Pulaski.

Jim has sent us a photograph of the submarine tender, USS Canopus (AS-34) when she was stationed in Holy Loch.  She would be relieved by her sister the USS Simon Lake (AS-33) and would end up awaiting orders to King's Bay, Georgia.

My utmost thanks and appreciation to the family of Jack Postell for sharing these photographs with us here at the USS Casimir Pulaski web site!  Our thanks also to Don Ward for preserving the photos and enabling their donation to become a reality.

Night work.

Holy Loch's fleet tug squadron as viewed from Pulaski's missile deck.