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There was a good amount of hazing on the boats back in the day. I assume that is all now forbidden.
It ran from the annoying (mail buoy watch), to the humiliating (Bluenose/Shellback ceremony), to the painful (tacking on dolphins). At my age I remember these events as fond, nostalgic memories. Its hard for me to decide if it was a good thing or a negative thing in the scheme of things. But I'm sure one would end up in prison today for these pranks.
In any event if you end up on a boat don't let anyone trick you into putting yours thumbs into a vise. No good will come from it I promise you.
On my last boat, they made a big deal about us always having to wear a towel when traveling between the shower and our racks, and I always wore my towel [over my shoulder] you would not believe how much grief I got for that.
Then the Navy had a 'Safety Stand-down' for sexual herassment. Every sailor fleetwide had to spend one day doing 8 hours of lectures on sexual herassment. Later we ended up repeating it a few times.
One of our junior officers decided to make a sexual herassment complaint against an A-ganger. The A-ganger's clip board his used for his logs had a laminated photo of his wife underneath the log sheets [She wasn't nude but she was in a bikini]. Pretty quickly everyone's photos of their wives / GFs in berthing all had to disappear. Somehow that junior officer came down with the worst case of poison ivy we had ever seen. It was on both his feet, his crotch and arm pits.
You just do not see poison ivy very often on a sub.
Is a nuke submarine career enriching and fulfilling overall?
The simulated emergencies and mock battles must be exciting.
My time on subs was all on FBMs. So we were dedicated to the Cold War of nuclear deterrence. We were always ready to launch missiles. I have been through encounters with Soviet 'Bear', 'Kilos' and 'AGIs'. One encounter with a 'Kilo' very nearly killed me [long story]. In one encounter with an 'AGI' you could say that we 'swapped a bit of paint', both vessels took heavy damage [we ripped their stern off, they bent our shaft, etc], a lot of our crew were injured. I have been in flooding incidents and shipboard fires. I saw one fellow crewman electrocuted when doing 'routine' maintenance on nuclear reactor electric panels while we were underway. During one refit a crane dropped a pallet on our deck and killed four of our crewmen.
Fast Attacks are different. They can be in-port and a third of their crew in schools, an embassy gets bombed somewhere, and within hours all crewmen are recalled and that boat is gone. They tap inter-continental telecomm cables, they go up rivers to deliver operatives, they act as taxi service for Seal teams, etc. Fast Attacks do lots of stuff.
Submariners are not restricted to only serving on boats. I did 3 years on a sub tender, basically a floating factory and repair shop. I did electronic repair. I also served 2 tours of Law Enforcement, one stateside and one in Europe.
When one qualified they had to drink for their Dolphins. We would go into a bar and have a glass filled with an assortment of whiskeys. Drop the Dolphins in. The guy had to drink the whole drink before getting the Dolphins in his teeth. I saw one guy so drunk he picked a fight with a cigarette machine and he won.......LOL
Many original diesel boat sailors that went on the nukes had a propellor tattooed on each cheek of their butt with the wording above it (like a tramp stamp), 40 knots, no smoke!
True but many turned it down as they would loose sub pay and Pro Pay.
The extra pays, occasional tax-free status, FBM tax deductions, and substantial Re-Enlistment Bonuses can be addictive. Because we are paid more, we have higher expectations placed on us. A higher Operational Tempo and higher standards.
Most sailors can lose their security clearance and it might not end their career. To a submariner if your clearance is gone the command will automatically process you out, in 2 weeks your a civilian.
Serving on a sub-tender was unique as it is a mixture of about 1/3 submariners and 2/3 surface sailors. At that ratio there is a tension between the two cultures. To a surface sailor serving on a ship is sea-duty, to a submariner serving on a tender is neutral duty [it does not count as sea or shore], so the Navy handles us differently.
Surface sailors can do 4 years on a ship and that fulfills their sea-time so they can rotate to shore duty. Submariners need 5 years at-sea [some times more], 4 years on a sub followed by 3 years on a tender and for a submariner your still not eligible for shore-duty because the tender time was neutral.
Quote:
Originally Posted by the searchers
Is sub duty sought after or does the Navy have to work at getting personnel?
When faced with the draft I elected to go Army because the idea of being stuck on a boat or ship for months did not appeal to my point of view.
On my first boat, the draft had just ended. I was among the first crewmen to arrive who had not been subject to the draft.
The crew before me were mostly draft dodgers.
Guys who had gone to college as a deferment from the draft board. Then after 4 years of college, the draft was still going, so after getting a degree instead of waiting for that letter from the draft board, they went to a recruiter and volunteered for sub duty.
I stepped onto a sub that was fully manned by college grads who individually had all volunteered as a method of avoiding being in the infantry in VN.
The training for subs had required a 6-year contract, and even though the VN war was over they were still serving the 6-year contract.
My chief chewed me out once because I was the first Electronic Technician [ET] he had ever seen who was not already an Electrical Engineer. He was used to working with ETs who had a much higher education.
My career spanned from the 70s to 2001. Once the VN-era guys flushed out of the fleet. I think the recruiters were still encouraged to push anyone who can ace the ASVAB toward either being a nuc or any of the sub rates.
Once a recruiter puts a recruit into a sub pipeline, and assuming the recruit completes each of the schools and screening processes, the sailor is locked in.
Submariners have our own separate bases. For the most part we do not mingle with surface sailors.
The extra pays, occasional tax-free status, FBM tax deductions, and substantial Re-Enlistment Bonuses can be addictive. Because we are paid more, we have higher expectations placed on us. A higher Operational Tempo and higher standards.
Most sailors can lose their security clearance and it might not end their career. To a submariner if your clearance is gone the command will automatically process you out, in 2 weeks your a civilian.
Serving on a sub-tender was unique as it is a mixture of about 1/3 submariners and 2/3 surface sailors. At that ratio there is a tension between the two cultures. To a surface sailor serving on a ship is sea-duty, to a submariner serving on a tender is neutral duty [it does not count as sea or shore], so the Navy handles us differently.
Surface sailors can do 4 years on a ship and that fulfills their sea-time so they can rotate to shore duty. Submariners need 5 years at-sea [some times more], 4 years on a sub followed by 3 years on a tender and for a submariner your still not eligible for shore-duty because the tender time was neutral.
On my first boat, the draft had just ended. I was among the first crewmen to arrive who had not been subject to the draft.
The crew before me were mostly draft dodgers.
Guys who had gone to college as a deferment from the draft board. Then after 4 years of college, the draft was still going, so after getting a degree instead of waiting for that letter from the draft board, they went to a recruiter and volunteered for sub duty.
I stepped onto a sub that was fully manned by college grads who individually had all volunteered as a method of avoiding being in the infantry in VN.
The training for subs had required a 6-year contract, and even though the VN war was over they were still serving the 6-year contract.
My chief chewed me out once because I was the first Electronic Technician [ET] he had ever seen who was not already an Electrical Engineer. He was used to working with ETs who had a much higher education.
My career spanned from the 70s to 2001. Once the VN-era guys flushed out of the fleet. I think the recruiters were still encouraged to push anyone who can ace the ASVAB toward either being a nuc or any of the sub rates.
Once a recruiter puts a recruit into a sub pipeline, and assuming the recruit completes each of the schools and screening processes, the sailor is locked in.
Submariners have our own separate bases. For the most part we do not mingle with surface sailors.
Is a nuke submarine career enriching and fulfilling overall?
The simulated emergencies and mock battles must be exciting.
Nukes as in the engine room folks? Or jsut those who serve on nuke subs in general?
Anyway, emergency simulations (drills) are very, very boring to the point of annoying, but that is how they are, and a person becomes very proficient in their assigned roles. Mock battles are noting like the movies, extremely boring, maybe just sonar, fire control, and the OOD may get a little excited, but that is it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Submariner
Submariners are not restricted to only serving on boats. I did 3 years on a sub tender, basically a floating factory and repair shop. I did electronic repair. I also served 2 tours of Law Enforcement, one stateside and one in Europe.
Lol, I did shore duty, then did combat tours with a joint command just to avoid going back to sea. Got out after all of that. I think i could have coasted out to my 20 (I did 12 years) with only doing one more sea tour.
Quote:
Originally Posted by johngolf
True but many turned it down as they would loose sub pay and Pro Pay.
They can retain their sub pay (do not know about pro pay) if they argee for another two years sea duty after their shore duty.
Quote:
Originally Posted by the searchers
Is sub duty sought after or does the Navy have to work at getting personnel ?
When faced with the draft I elected to go Army because the idea of being stuck on a boat or ship for months did not appeal to my point of view.
When I was in, they had to work at it for most ratings. Maybe more people want in, but it comes down to finding qualified people, especially in the engineering fields. After my ASVAB, they threw to me the sub ET offer, and it was the only offer. It sounded great to me anyway so I would have took it no matter what most likely.
Being on a sub did not appeal to me also after I was done with my shore duty, that is why I opted for combat tours and got out after, anything to avoid going back to sea.
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