Surface Vs Subs
I had a unique persepective in the Navy because I was one of the few who got to be in the target fleet and the sub fleet. Not only was I in the sub fleet I was in a very special part of it. I went into the Navy a bit later than most, I was just over 23 years old. At the time I'd played in the NFL, but left because of a pretty bad head injury. MY youngest brother had just graduated high school, he entered the Air Force (which wouldn't take me due to a few minor altercations with the law). I figured I'd join the military too. One day I was reading a Sports Illustrated and saw this great advertisement for Mississippi Power And Light, which was opening the Grand Gulf Nuke plant around 1984. Behind the guy in the ad was a chalboard with an equation, which I was able to solve, later on i found out it was the Xenon Equilibrium Equation. I figured this nuke stuff might be cool, and I was tired of Umpiring Baseball and playing Semi Pro Ball. I was also sick of colege and I'd always loved the Navy. So I called a recruiter about this nuclear thing they had going. I told him I wouldn't join unless I could be a nuke, recruiters had a quota for Nukes and even though he wasn't sure of my appearance (Mohawk, Loin Cloth with a knife tucked into the waist band) he gave me the nuke test, which I aced. The Navy then granted me a "Behaviour" waiver.
I like Boot Camp. I didn't get fucked with, mostly because I understood it was a game and played along.
Then I went to "A" School, which is whewre I learned the basics about Steam Engineering and Power Plants. That was in Great Lakes Illinois. Lucky for me I left GLakes right at the beginning of December, just before it got cold
By the way MAJ and featherfingers, do you remember that Antibiotic jelly they shoot into the area just above your ass at GLakes? I remember the next day getting out of my rack and falling down because the fucking shot froze your ass muscles up!.
FRom there I went straight to Orlando, no smurf duty because Uncle Sam was hurting for nukes BIG TIME because of the drug purges of the mid 80s and they were flat in the middle of the big submarine construction era. I had an AWESOME time at Orlando. It was a great area, lots of things to do, lots of women, lots of titty bars and clubs, and for some reason I fell in love with the fashion square mall. Every Friday night we'd go to the 10PM showing of REvenge Of The Nerds, followed by Rocky Horror. One thing I hated, every day at 4pm it'd rain on base, and stop promptly at 410, just as I was entering the mess hall. This ensured I'd have to get my dress whites dry cleaned frequently. I refused to wash my clothes in the barracks laundreys because you'd always get kids who had no idea how to wash clothes, and if you'd follow them you'd end up with dress pinks. I'd head to Chi Chi's on Colonial everyday at 330PM for happy hour (I'd go out the Bennet Street Exit Maj) Sometimes of course I'd it the Cover Slut, and Century 21 because I liked watching a movie and drinking beer.
At Nuke school the top 10 guys in the class our choice of where we'd go to prototype. For those who don't know what that is, after Nuke School the Navy would send you to a land based reactor to qualify prior to allowing you to operate their fleet reactors. These prototupes were the same types as in the fleet (except MARF which was the Frankenstein of all reactors). Your choices were Balston Spa NY, Windsor COnn, or Idaho Falls Idaho. I wanted Balston Spa, but my two best friends at Nuke school wanted IF. Since I could request they go where I go I decided I'd request IF, mostly because they wanted to go there worse than I wanted Balston Spa. The reason having friends was important was none of these places had barracks, you had to rent a place so good room mates were essential. TRansportation wasn't a problem because the IF prototype was in a desert, and the Navy would bus you 90 minutes each way. When I was a student that was on top of a 15 hour work day. It sort of sucked. They did have overnight berthing if you were too tired to go home, but usually it was shutdown due to guys getting the crabs.
I got picked up for staff duty, my two roommates went straight to the fleet. After my staff tour I alread mentioned how I ended up on The Pig.
I like both fleets. I had a blast in both, but the mentality certainly was different. NUkes are trained to question orders, it's the first thing they tell us. Do not blindly follow any order, and if you don't agree do not follow it at all. However you better have a good basis to disagree. Many of the guys in the surface fleet, and just about all the Chiefs were regular Navy were obedience was king. AS a person I tried to get along with all the various ratings (rating is a job in the Navy, for instance Maj was an Electronics Rating, feather was probably an Aviation, I was an engineer). I was sort of a minor league hero on the Pig because I was doing an Officers job (EOOW an engineering officer), and because I had a degree and refused to become an officer. Plus I was only on the Pig a short time so I didn't have to play the games. I REALLY hated those fucking chiefs whose only job was to tell you to get a haircut or your shoes shined prior to leaving the Pig. I was also astounded at how many ways the Surface fleet could cook Hamburgers (Sliders) and try to pass them off as different things!. I DID like the people, as a group they were far more varied than submariners. Plus they partied harder. There was a lot more fucking with the enlisted in the surface fleet. I remember this asswipe Master Chief got it into his head that normal working hours are 8am to 430PM. Now to a civilian that might seem just dandy. However to a sailor it meant the following (I'll explain). Each area of a ship has watchstanders, in other words guys who do various jobs in that portion of a ship. In engineering on the Pig we were on 4/8 which meant I'd be on watch 4 hours and off for 8. During that 8 hours I might have to do maintenance, work on my qualifications, or go to Battle Stations. In other words I couldn't always sleep. Well this fucking Master Chief decided since 8 to 430 were normal working hours that meant no one could be in Berthing during those hours. So if I got off watch at 8AM I couldn't go to sleep, and I'd have to be back on watch at 4pm. We finally got got it lifted by basically being so bullheaded ABOUT making the Chiefs and the officers prove every order they gave was correct the CO wanted to know why nothing was getting done in Engineering (for instance paperwork needed to start up the reactors). When he found out about the berthing thing he blew up, Although I had the feeling if the reactors were running he wouldn't have given a shit. Because the Enterprise was so busy it was tough sleeping to begin with, although realistically I can't remember one time in the Navy when lack of sleep bugged me. I guess we just all got used to it. My first day on board I was told Reactor Berthing was closed so I had to find a rack for myself, it didn't bug me because I knew nukes from the Pig, and they all told me Reactor Berthing was noisy because it was right next to the main engines of the ship.. Dumbass me went forward and found a great lounge, with plentry of open racks. Thinking I was smarter than 6000 other sailors who had been on the Pig for awhile I said, I'll take one of these. Of course that evening I was shocked by the tremendous noise above me and the fact it felt the whole end of the ship was shaking off. Turns out my nice quiet mecca was that way for a good reason. It was right under the catapults that launched the airplanes. The next day it was realized I was there as a guest and to help out, so I was given a rack in Reactor Berthing 🙂 I soon found out Night time wasn't too bad on the Pig. One of the more senior guys tuned me into sitting on the fantail and watching the Wake of the ship. I spent many a happy hour just sitting watching stars and watching the wake. It's a sight I'll never forget.
My time on the Big E ended too soon and I went to my projects boat. It was decidedly different!. Of course rank meant something, it was a miltary organization, but competence meant a LOT more. I met plenty of incompetent guys in the surface fleet (and no wonder, the surface fleet is huge). I can't say I met an incompetent person in the Sub Fleet, then again I was in a very select portion of it. They also weren't anal about personnel inspections or hair cuts, Keep it short enough and they were happy. I also never wore a dress unirform when I was in projects. When you left the boat no one inspected you and the Captain ALWAYS let us leave first after a cruise. The other thing I noticed was the Sub Fleet was a LOT more serious about quals. For the civilians out there quals are basically books with a bunch of tasks. You learn how to do the task, then show a qualified person you can do it. He then signs your qual book. After your book is done you are now qualified to work independently. About the only thing that was the same, within my first three days on the Enterprise I was qualified in Damage Control, same thing on the Submarine. The other quals however were different. For instance on the Enterprise technically all Nukes had to be qualified a majority of their watchstations within a year, but no one really bothered checking, unless they ran out of watchstanders. I never once saw anyone get into trouble for not qualifying. Also, you didn't have to know anyone elses job. If you wanted to qualify surface warfare you could, but it wasn't required. On the sub I had 6 months to qualify all my watchstations PLUS submarine warfare. I didn't have to know how to repair everyones equipment, but I did have to know how to operate in case the normal ratings got injured or killed. I was a nuke, but I could con the boat if needed, and I could operate the sonar and all that. It had to be that way in the subfleet because we had a limited number of people. Around 120 on my boat. The odd thing was for that limited number of people it didn't seem as friendly as in the surface fleet. Someone was always checking your qual status. And unlike the surface fleet every watchstation you qualified on required an interview with the Old Man.
Our berthing was different, for instance the Junior Officers slept in the same berthing as us, AND when someone was sleeping they were good about letting you sleep. Also, subs "Rig for red" between certain hours of the day. In other words they have special red lights that simulate night. They do this for two reasons.
1: to keep your body on a regular clock, although they didn't think it through because we were on 6/12 (6 on watch, 12 off) so you'd rotate different times of the day on watch)
2: In case the boat has to surface at night they want to guys who go topside to be able to see in the dark instantly. The whole time I was on the Sub we only surfaced outside of port once. And that was because the weather report predicted gorgeous weather, we were only out for training, and the CO wanted to have a BBQ. So we surfaced, we swam in the Pacific (with two sharpshooters to cap sharks) and we had about a 8 hour party.
Some guys had to "Hot Rack" Subs have a limited number of bunks or racks and sometimes when doing training we'd take more than our usual complement of people. In these cases junior guys hot racked. When one was on watch another would take his rack, and they'd rotate like this. The other option was strap on racks which had little clamps so they could strap them onto a torpedo. My first 7 weeks onboard I slept on a MK48 Torpedo. Overall the fact there really wasn't segregated berthing made the officers and crew a lot closer.
Yes the food was a LOT better, at least until we ran out of fresh stuff, and still they managed to do well. We ate a lot of varieties of chicken, steak, roast beef, shark, and every Saturday night was all you can eat pizza. After about two weeks at sea we'd get mostly dried milk, dried eggs, freeze dried stuff, but they always had fresh bread and cookies. The cooks had a list of every mans birthday and we'd have birthday parties underway. If anyone wanted to cook they did. ON halfway night (the night we figured to be halfway done with a cruise) we'd have casino night, and the officers would cook. We always had new release movies before the general public did, but until you qualified you couldn't watch movies. We had two schools underway, your in rate training, and School of the Boat to keep your Submarine warfare quals up. When I was on the Enterprise they NEVEWR scrammed (Shutdown the reactors) while the ship was underway. When I was on the submarine, we'd be submerged, and the engineering officer would constantly come back and turn the automatic shutdown switch, then turn off the lights and we'd have to start up in pitch black. In his words your life might depend on it.
First thing a Sub would do underway 9after submerging, was Angles and Dangles. Basically they dive the boat at a maximum angle, as fast as they can, then surface her in the same manner. They did it multiple times. (BEST damn roller coaster I've ever been on) This is dobne for two reasons, to get used to handling her under the worst conditions, AND also to make sure the boat was "rigged for sea" Rigged for sea means everything needs to be tied down.. THe wrath of God would come down on you if something fell out of your rack, or a tool fell on your watchstation. The Sonar Guys could tell the Old Man exactly where a noise came from, and what caused it. I know it sounds picky, but Submarines lives depend on stealth. And a small noise can get a bunch of sailors killed.
Overall it was a good life. The one things I could have done without were the smell of my clothes when we came in from a cruise. And that endearing thing the Russians used to do called a Crazy Ivan. Russian weaponry sucked and their sensors were for shit. For instance you could hear Russian subs from MILES away and they couldn't hear us at all. Directly behind a submarine is an area known as the Baffles. WAter churning through your screws tends to mask any noise in the baffles. US Submarines had the ability to hear through the baffles, but the Russians never seemed to be able to figure out how to do it, or get the proper electronics to do so. SO as a compensatory measure they'd do a rapid 180 degree turn and charge right back through their baffles. They'd do this to be able to hear, AND hopefully to spook a US sub into trying to avoid the Soviet boat, and in doing so make some noise that they could analyze and maybe use a detection measure. They didn't really give a fuck if they hit anything. Of course we were training to maintain course on the basis the odds are they couldn't turn directly back into their own path, and they'd most likely miss. WE called this Rusky maneuver a Crazy Ivan . I suffered through a few of these. (Technically I guess it should be called FUCK A CRAZY IVAN!! Because that's what you'd hear over the sound powered phones from the control room when it happened.
Be safe!
Tron
