“Life on a submarine is the most peaceful existence you’ve ever had in your life,” says U.S. Navy veteran Jeff Tess.
And if you’re lucky, he’ll tell that to you aboard the U.S.S. Cobia, docked at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in his hometown of Manitowoc.
But you’re more likely to hear him tell it from behind the bar at Submariner’s (pronounced sub-MARE-in-er) Pub in nearby Two Rivers. Here, Tess is in his element, surrounded by friends and walls full of memorabilia from his time in the U.S. Navy’s Submarine Service.
Tess was a cook and, in his opinion, doing the most important job on the sub.
“Food is something that brings the world together,” he says. “So on a submarine, that’s the same thing. It’s the one time where the crew gets together, shares a meal, talks, laughs, has fun.”
Now a crew of happy customers shares a meal, talks, laughs and has fun with Tess at the helm of his trusted grill. His kitchen is laid out just like the tiny space he had on the submarine.
Many in the crowd are fellow veterans who’ve made their own contributions to Tess’s ever-growing display of military objects. The most important of these are the service photos veterans or their families have put up on the Submariner’s Pub Hero Wall.
“Anybody can bring a family member, themselves, whatever,” Tess says, as three generations of his family look down upon him from their places on the wall. “It’s a tribute to the people that made us great.”
The Submariner’s Pub has become a welcome place for the area’s veterans, something that Air Force veteran Ashley Smits appreciates.
“Submariner’s Pub is a place that you can connect, a place that just brings that camaraderie together and a place where you can feel understood and seen and heard again,” Smits says.
That connection was what Smits was seeking when she founded Manitowoc County Vets, a support organization that Tess has warmly embraced.
Whether or not you believe life on a submarine could be the most peaceful existence possible, it’s clear Tess’s life at Submariner’s is giving him the peace and sense of belonging he had aboard ship.