CFS Instructor Web Page

Alan Cohlmeyer

Biography

While still a midshipman at Annapolis he spent part of one summer assigned to the USS Tigrone (AGSS-419), a WWII diesel submarine. During this period he experienced the hot bunking, the cramped quarters, and the one shower a week routine that all submariners experienced during WWII. Alan Cohlmeyer graduated from the United Stated Naval Academy with the Class of 1971 with a BS in Systems Engineering and immediately entered Admiral Hyman G. Rickover’s Naval Nuclear Power Program. Following the completion of the six-month theoretical portion of the nuclear submarine training program he attended the six-month practical engineering training program at the S1W prototype for the USS Nautilus (the first nuclear submarine) and qualified as Engineering Officer of the Watch. He then attended Submarine School in New London and then joined the USS Abraham Lincoln (SSBN-602), one of the Navy’s first five Polaris submarines, that was going through refueling overhaul at Mare Island, California.

He spent 18 months in overhaul during which time he was the Reactor Control

Division Officer and the Start-up Reactor Physics Program Coordinator for the 
ship and also qualified as Engineering Officer of the Watch on the S5W 
submarine reactor plant. Upon completion of overhaul he assumed the

additional duties as the Electrical Division Officer, the Interior Communications

Division Officer, the ever-important job as Movie Officer, and was also a member

of the Emergency Action Team and Tactical Submarine Tracking Team. From

April 1974 through February 1976 he was deployed on three Polaris deterrent

patrols (one of which included a Follow-On Test of 3 unarmed Polaris missiles 
which were fired in the Pacific Missile Range) and participated in a Demonstration 
and Shakedown Operation at Cape Canaveral, Florida. While on board he qualified 
as Diving Officer, Officer of the Deck, Nuclear Submarine Officer, and as Engineering 
Officer in the Naval Reactors Program, and also served as the Damage Control 
Assistant and Acting Engineer. Following his tour on the Abraham Lincoln, he was

assigned as a Leading Engineering Officer of the Watch and then as Training Officer

at the Navy’s S5G natural circulation reactor prototype (reactor plant was that of the

fast attack nuclear submarine USS Narwhal) at Idaho Falls, Idaho, for a period of two 
years.
 
Upon leaving the Navy as a Lieutenant, he worked at the Department of Energy’s 
N-Reactor at Hanford, Washington, as the Training Manager for approximately one 
year and then went to work at the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant near Portland, Oregon, 
as a member of the engineering staff. He became the Plant Engineering Manager, 
qualified as Shift Technical Advisor, and was certified as a Senior Reactor Operator 
and also served as a member of the Plant Review Board responsible for ensuring 
nuclear safety oversight for plant operations. During this time he also received his 
MBA at the University of Portland. For the next 13 years he worked as a nuclear 
engineering consultant on various projects as Project Engineer or Project Manager 
and retired in the year 2000. Since moving to a 30-acre “farm” in the Leicester area in 
2001, he has attended numerous College for Senior classes and is a founding 
member (along with his wife Sharon) of the Smooth Mountain Square Dance Team 
sponsored by NCCCR.

For more information e-mail: sbperry@bellsouth.net