Some people have commented on my post. I’d like to respond.
Question - Who's going to tear down and fix the machinery when it breaks?
Answer - The sailors who get the initial hybrid MM/EM training will be introduced to the engineering fundamentals, use of technical manuals and troubleshooting before they go to their ships much as they do now. The ones that decide to reenlist for nuke school will be trained to a deeper level. They’ll be the ones who’ll lead on major underway repairs and direct the junior people. The thing a lot of us overlook is that the engineers behind the scenes at NAVSEA really do a great job. First, they design a nuclear plant that 20 year old kids can operate and can take the routine transients we put on them. How many major underway engineering equipment failure that put you dead in the water does the fleet really experience? I experienced one, maybe two, in 20 years. Second, if you take the time to look at the NAVSEA equipment manuals you’ll find them for the most part to be very well written with just about all the technical information you need to troubleshoot/repair.
Question - what percentage of folks on a submarine are in that first four year timespan?
Answer - that depends on the number of watch station billets there are to fill at this level. I've been retired long enough that the submarine engineering watch station manning I knew has probably changed a little.
Question - How do we get the LDO/WO population?
Answer - That’s the easy part. The good people are out there. There’s a large number of qualified candidates that aren’t selected every year because the number of openings are limited. If the Navy adjusted the number so that you had 1-2 full time LDO/CWOs EOOWs on submarines and 75% of the Engineering/Reactor Division Officers on CVNs were LDO/CWOs (the rest coming from the ED community) it would take about 3 years to establish the manning levels. Once established, these people flow into the shore billets at shipyards, NAVSEA, prototypes, etc.
Question - For the most part, (I think we all have met a CWO who made it so that he will get surfaced, thereby making the submariners sleep easier) LDOs and CWO are subject matter experts (SME). How will you breed these under your plan?
Answer - First off, I have never met a CWO who “made it so that he will get surfaced”. The selection process is too tight. If you’re not technically competent and don't show the right leadership characteristics then you’re not going to get selected. There may have been people you didn’t like for personality reasons who got selected that you place in this category but that’s another issue. If a person who’s a real butt head makes CWO, trust me, we dealt with that when he/she tried to act that way in our community. You want to wear the “blue breaks” in your gold then you better have your shit together or we’ll cut you out of the heard. Same thing goes for LDOs. I’ve seen E-6/7s with a cocky attitude when they put on their bars get chewed up as an ensign and not survive.
How will we breed them? My whole approach to the change deals with the mental shift in the Navy organization that being a nuclear operator/engineer in the Navy is a profession. Go back 100 years and the Navy had a prominent, separate engineering branch. It may be time to reinstate that organization structure starting with nuclear. Remember “It’s not just a job”? Well it is just a job. But, it’s a very good, specialized job where you can learn a lot, have a good career and make a very good living for yourself and your family.
The junior enlisted nukes would be much like the new non-licensed equipment operators in the civilian plants. They get preliminary fundamental training, there’s a lot of on-the job-training, they start doing the job and continue to learn. After several years they may want to go for that next step as a reactor operator and can even see becoming an EOOW in their future. The whole time they’re learning more about their profession and progressing. For example, you’re an E-3 in initial training. you start by learning about different types of valves (check, globe, gate, etc.), their characteristics and applications. Then learning how to repair each type. Flash forward 8 years and your learning about obsolescence management and how to select the proper replacement for a certain valve that’s no longer available. Finally, our E-3 is an O-3 working at NAVSEA designing a fresh water system and figuring out what the combined head loss of the system will be based on the valves he’s selected.
This is the future we could map out and present to some kid coming out of high school. A lot of the pieces are already in place but there are too many barriers in the Navy right now to make it flow smoothly to where you could really sell it. Rice bowls and politics are tough things to overcome.