Rob Hubler

COON RAPIDS — Serving aboard a nuclear submarine in the 1960s, Rob Hubler and his fellow crew members received word that war with the Soviet Union had started, that their arsenal was to be released on the enemy.

After following through the missile launch, the crew of the submarine pondered what they had done — not knowing that it was only a drill, that no nuclear warheads were in the sky ready to rain death, destruction and Armageddon. In the middle of the ocean, with the true nature of their assignment kept under wraps so top brass could obtain realistic results, Hubler and his submariner buddies thought a nuclear war was happening above.

“We sat there for 45 minutes knowing everyone we knew was dead,” said Hubler, 65, a Council Bluffs Democrat who is running for Iowa’s Fifth Congressional District against U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.

Soon, the crew learned it was just a drill, and that they would again see many friends and family. it is an experience that still gives Hubler pause.

A 1961 graduate of Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs who later went to college and served as a Presbyterian minister, Hubler volunteered for the Navy in 1962 and stayed until his honorable discharge in 1969. He served a total of 6 years and 9 months, with 3 years and 9 months of sea or foreign service duty, according to his official military records.

“I really wanted to serve my country,” Hubler said in a recent interview over coffee at the Coon Rapids bowling alley. He has six uncles who also served in the military.

He went through basic training in San Diego and chose the submarine service because, he said, “It seemed like the place I fit best.” His first assignment was aboard the USS Sea Devil — “which my mother always thought was very appropriate,” he joked.

The first few days at sea weren’t easy for Hubler, who said he suffered from motion sickness every half hour.

“My first day they gave me a coffee can that had a belt loop on it,” he recalled.

Among other assignments, Hubler also served aboard the USS Sculpin and USS Daniel Boone. He was a nuclear power plant operator and a nuclear propulsion room supervisor.

One memorable mission involved silently slipping into a Soviet port in a sub and taking surveillance films while underneath a Russian ship. Hubler received hazardous duty and combat pay for much of his service in the Navy because of risky endeavors such as this one.

“Submarines, particularly nuclear boats, are the most sophisticated weapon of mass destruction there is,” he said.

On the campaign trail, Hubler, an opponent of U.S. policy in Iraq, often wears a “Silent Service” cap from his days in the Navy. At some stops, veterans will approach him, shake his hand and spend time talking about shared experiences before moving on to issues. Hubler said he prefers to talk about his service in the context of working on veterans’ benefits and improved treatment of men and women in uniform, not by telling so-called war stories.

He’s been outraged during the campaign when King, who was at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Mo., with a high draft lottery number during Vietnam, seems to challenge the patriotism of those who served. Hubler earned the Vietnam Service Medal.

While he is a strong supporter of home-grown Iowa energy, and not the unabashed proponent of nuclear power that King is, Hubler knows who he’d want running anything nuclear in the United States.

“If we had a great nuclear power program in the United States, it ought to be controlled by the U.S. Navy,” Hubler said.