For some reason I am stuck on bubblehead topics this week. As us tin can sailors said, “There are two types of ships in the Navy. Tin cans and targets!”

OK, now that the jab at the sub guys is done lets get back to the word. Dolphins is the slang term used for the Submarine Warfare insignia. All members of a submarines crew are required to earn their pin. This is an important step in being accepted into the submarine community and is also an important safety issue.

Although submarine qualification methodology has changed throughout the decades the basic goal has remained. First to provide the submarine sailor with a basic knowledge of all systems on board, their uses, operations, and interrelationships with other systems. Secondly to ensure all personnel can operate effectively under pressure in shipboard situations. Submarine damage control techniques are stressed throughout the qualification process.

Progress is tracked by the Chief of the Boat. Each item on the qual card is worth a specified number of points; unqualified sailors must obtain a predetermined number of points per week. Failure to achieve the required number results in placement on a delinquent list. This in turn makes the sailor referred to as a dink and the assignment of additional study, monitored by the Sea Dad. Each system signature is weighted and each phase has a maximum number of points.

Making progress on your quals is a very serious matter on a submarine. Once you leave port you are not going to get a new grew member if somebody cannot figure something out, so you have to learn. On surface ships obtaining the ESWS pin is not needed until you reach E4. However on a submarine, EVERY sailor MUST get his pin. I have actually seen E1 submariners with their pin. It is that important.

On 13 June 1923, Captain Ernest J. King, Commander, Submarine Division Three suggested to the Secretary of the Navy that a distinguishing device for qualified submariners be adopted. He submitted a pen-and-ink sketch of his own showing a shield mounted on the beam ends of a submarine, with dolphins forward of, and abaft, the conning tower. The suggestion was strongly endorsed by Commander Submarine Division Atlantic.

Over the next several months the Bureau of Navigation, BUPERS, solicited additional designs from several sources. Some combined a submarine with a shark motif. Others showed submarines and dolphins, and still others used a shield design. A Philadelphia firm, which had done work for the Navy in the field of United States Naval Academy class rings, was approached by the Bureau of Navigation with the request that it design a suitable badge.

Two designs were submitted by the firm, but these were ultimately combined into a single design. It was a bow view of a submarine, proceeding on the surface, with bow planes rigged for diving, flanked by dolphins, not the mammal, but the Mahi-mahi, commonly known as the dolphin fish, in a horizontal position with their heads resting on the upper edge of the bow planes.

Officers wear a gold pin and enlisted wear a silver pin. Although the qualifications for officers are different from that of an enlisted sailor the need for both is the same, a well trained submariner.