Living the MIRACLES: A Sailor’s Life in the Nuclear Power Age

In his memoir “Living the MIRACLES: A Sailor’s Life in the Nuclear Power Age,” author Albert Lee Kelln tracks his twenty-eight year Navy career in an easy-to-read manner. The book is designed to appeal to both young and old and inspires the reader to recognize how much a person can achieve, even if coming from modest means as Kelln did. He demonstrates the benefits of focused study and determination.

After Naval Academy graduation, Al served in the Korean conflict aboard the surface ship USS Blue (two deployments) and the diesel submarine USS Ronquil. Recognizing Albert’s skill as an engineer and his understanding of physics, Admiral Hyman Rickover personally selected Kelln to enter the Navy’s Nuclear Propulsion Operators School where he graduated with a Master’s level education in nuclear physics and qualified to operate and maintain a Navy nuclear reactor.

While serving on the Navy’s first nuclear attack submarine, the USS Skate, Kelln tells about his two deployments to the Arctic Ocean to gain knowledge of this ignored though vital military arena. These assignments were historic especially in the development phases of future missile-capable submarine operations.

Kelln explains in his book that during these deployments, he became the first person ever to fly over the North Pole, pass under the ice at the North Pole (in a submarine), and actually stand on the ice at the North Pole, a record which still stands.