I’m reasonably sure people get my meaning. Issued, awarded, pinned, earned, however he got them, my dad received them in the early sixties. (Can you get “Blood Dolphins” the way we Airborne types get “Blood Wings?”
While I wasn’t there for that ceremony, if there was one (I was only one or two) he did relate to me the story of how you became a Nuke. In that time it required a personal interview by Hyman Rickover, the Father of the Nuclear Navy, In my dad’s case it meant walking into a room with no one inside, and an empty chair. Apparently it was a test to see what you would do. He chose to sit while he waited for the admiral. He passed.
The plank is from the Flasher (SS-249) the WWII namesake of his boat. I’ll be mounting the Revell 1/72 Gato kit on it with the Dolphins.