William Toti

@johnkonrad John, but you do get to do other fun things that you can never talk about.

Nuclear submarines are THE coolest weapon platforms on planet earth. Just one problem with becoming a submariner… you never get to shoot anything. Until now 🇺🇸

@DeptofWar Clearly from a Los Angeles class submarine like those I commanded. First time a ship sunk by a US submarine since 1945.

@TimOnPoint Patrol Pins anyone?

@RansomStoddard8 @TimOnPoint @TheIOGuy Love that movie

@TimOnPoint @TheIOGuy Reminds me of that scene in “In Harms Way” after the Pearl Harbor attack when Kirk Douglas says to John Wayne “Oh Rock, we got ourselves a war. A gut bustin’, mother lovin’ Naval war”

It’s a tough time I know. But what has been different with @AmericanAir is that when I checked in all three days, it was pretty clear the desk agent knew the flight was going to be cancelled when I asked her. She just muttered something about “I can’t tell you” and let me check in. In all 3 cases flight canceled an hour before boarding when most passengers at the gate. Other airlines called the flights off early enough that folks avoided checking in and checking bags. Since I live an hour from the airport and had to uber back and forth three times I wasted over $400 on six Uber trips.

@william_toti We’re very sorry for any confusion and for the wait on your bag. Our team is working hard to get everything back on track and reunite customers with their luggage. Thank you for your patience. If you need more help, please continue to work with our airport baggage office.

There is what @AmericanAir says, and there is what they do. Anyone think this is a security problem? After three canceled flights to DC over a period of three days, which I concede is not their fault, I told them I just needed to get my checked bag back. They said the bag would be put on the next flight to DC, which could be days, so if I really wanted it back I had to cancel my ticket entirely, come back the next day, and I would be able to pick it up in the baggage claim area. I said OK and cancelled my flight entirely and came back the next day (today). AirTags say I’m within 50 feet of the bags, but can’t find them. I go to baggage claim office and they say the bags have been staged to fly to DC and I can pick them up there. I tell them I no longer have a ticket to DC. They tell me their baggage tracking system doesn’t know I’ve canceled my trip so my bags were going to go without me. I did what they said to do, but still had to intervene to keep my bags from flying without me. Huh. Not the way it’s supposed to work, is it?

Seems these days I only message when airlines do stupid things. This time it’s @AmericanAir. Four plane changes at DCA this morning. Will the 4th time be a charm? A game of musical chairs using boeing 737s. Apparently none of their planes are working. Think they will figure out a way to blame their maintenance problems on the government shutdown?

@birdchadlouis Chad, as a Naval Academy graduate I was of course aware of the accident. As a Christian I began following your ministry only recently. My sister only put the two together for me this morning. So sorry for your loss and happy birthday to Luke in heaven.

Today, our son, Luke, would have celebrated his 25th birthday. He was with us for twenty-one years in this world. We will soon visit his grave at the United States Naval Academy. Luke was a 110% kind of guy. If I may borrow a saying of Jesus, if you asked Luke to go one mile with you, he would say, “I’ve got a better idea. Let’s run ten miles. Uphill. With a pack on.” On his eighteenth birthday, he got up in the middle of the night and completed an eighteen-mile walk. For fun. He was the president of his senior class and the recipient of national awards in JROTC. When a wrestling injury kept him from starting at the Naval Academy right after his senior year, he just buckled down, worked hard, and started a year later. After his hiking accident, my family and I began receiving messages from his friends and fellow midshipmen. They told us things Luke never would have mentioned himself: all the times he volunteered, stayed after class to help struggling students, and offered words of encouragement to those who were down. I don’t think I will ever be able to write words like that without tears of gratitude for the kind of man he was. But “was” is not the right verb. That is the kind of man Luke is. For a Christian, like Luke, there truly is no “was.” Luke has never stopped living. He lived here for twenty-one years, then stepped from the front porch of his Father’s house, through the door of physical death, into the heavenly habitation of Christ. We miss him. Every day my heart hurts because I miss him. But I also know that one day, one glorious day, he and I, along with all believers in Christ, will stand together before our Lord. Until that day, my mission is simple: to try to be at least half the man my son became in only twenty-one years; to live in Christ; and to share the Gospel, that many others may hear, believe, and join me and Luke and all Christians on that glorious day of resurrection joy.

@megynkelly Which is why, at age 68, I agreed to return to work in the Pentagon.

Could not endorse this more

At this precise moment, 80 years ago, USS Indianapolis (CA-35) was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-58, sending it to the bottom of the Philippine Sea. Out of a crew of about 1200, after nearly five days in the water, only 316 survived.

@bill_hamblet @NoContextBrits It’s only a flesh wound.

@NoContextBrits We are the knights who say “Nee.”

Some will get this.

Because of my current job I don't post much anymore. But the job allows me some interesting opportunities and interactions. Today while visiting Naval Reactors I was presented a copy of a card that decided the trajectory of my life. It's the note card that represents the outcome of my February 1979 interview with Admiral Rickover, which I wrote about in both my "The Wrath of Rickover" article and in my book "From CO to CEO." On the upper left is a summary of my oral exam scores during my Rickover interview, but the most important part is the "R: OK" which means the kindly old gentleman himself Rickover "R" said I was "OK" to be accepted into his naval nuclear power program. On the lower left is a summary of my 1984 Department of Energy exams to qualify as chief engineer of a nuclear power plant. The interesting part of this is they never actually tell you how you did during those exams and interviews. They only tell you pass or fail. So it wasn't until today, 46 years after the event, that I learned I actually did pretty well. No reason any of you should be interested, but for me a fascinating artifact of my personal history.

As of 4:46 today, my wife has been sitting on @Delta flight 1003 plane for 2.5 hours now on the tarmac, and flight attendants refuse to give the passengers water. This has been a 5 hour delay in total. Delta used to be the best US flagged airline. Absolutely not true any more. Will be giving up on them.

@NavalInstitute Remember his response while CNO at the press conference announcing Captain McVay’s release from custody? A reporter asked him if he knew of anyone who had been court martialed and still got promoted. He said, “Yeah, me.”