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When first spotting this thread thought that this was a joke, or at least satire, but it seems to actually be serious. Let us hope that this goes quietly into the discard pile. The persons that conjured up this plan would seem to know little about naval warfare and even less about the operation of a modern submarine. It requires skills that only years of experience can provide. The CO, senior officers, and senior petty officers, all have the experience that is essential. It is far, far from just "pushing buttons" as some have suggested. A raw inexperienced all female, or for that matter all male, crew, would likely get the sub sunk with the loss of all hands, or if not, run into something. There are a few ex submariners that occasionally post on CD, if they see this thread and post, would think that they would confirm just how complex a submarine is, and how much experience, skill, and teamwork counts.
Cmdr. Monica Rousselow, a public affairs officer for submarine forces Atlantic, posted a comment on The Hill’s article, correcting the error.
“Hello, this is the Public Affairs Officer for Submarine Forces. The USS ILLINOIS will not have an all female crew. Today the First Lady accepted sponsorship of the USS ILLINOIS and she met with the group of female Submariners that have already reported to Submarines. This group is the first for the US Navy.
Currently we have females serving on some ballistic and guided missile Submarines. The USS ILLINOIS will be a Virginia class Submarine. At this time, we do not have any females serving on SSNs. Tried to call your agency to correct, but received an answering machine.”
For those who are researching this incredible claim, let me be clear -- the Illinois is NOT going to be the first submarine with an "all female crew" when she's commissioned in 2015. There will not be any female Submariners with enough experience to be XO, let alone CO, by 2015. Even if the White House wanted to do this for some perverse public relations reason, Naval Reactors would shoot it down, because they would not give approval to a CO who did not have the requisite submarine experience. You can't just take a female surface nuke CDR and make her CO of a submarine; too much submarining is learned by the hard lessons of experience and discussions in the wardroom. Naval Reactors would not in a million years send one of their submarine reactors to sea under a CO without the submarine training you can only get by doing at least two full prepartory sea tours on a submarine. No female will have that level of experience by then.
I'm betting that boat is one hell of a deterrant. Can you imagine 100 women in a confined space for a couple of months. Once their cycles syncronize, no Navy in their right mind will dare mess with them. Talk about MAD.
after the media picked the story up and ran with it without checking the facts, like always.
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Let us hope that this goes quietly into the discard pile. The persons that conjured up this plan would seem to know little about naval warfare and even less about the operation of a modern submarine. It requires skills that only years of experience can provide. The CO, senior officers, and senior petty officers, all have the experience that is essential. It is far, far from just "pushing buttons" as some have suggested. A raw inexperienced all female, or for that matter all male, crew, would likely get the sub sunk with the loss of all hands, or if not, run into something. There are a few ex submariners that occasionally post on CD, if they see this thread and post, would think that they would confirm just how complex a submarine is, and how much experience, skill, and teamwork counts.
