The nature of Nuke conversation on submarines.

[PotentialNuke]

I have been thinking alot, something I am told I do by almost everybody I meet. Visited CTMU.org, have been reading topics posted on that site and have been wondering: In general, do conversations amongst Nukes tend to pertain to philosophy/meaning of life questions, and if/when they do, how often do they happen? I stereotype the assumption that Nuke submariners are more likely to do this because of long deployments underway and close proximities, but if I am wrong, please correct this assumption, otherwise feel free to add to that speulation. Is there a rate that is more "prone" to the, "What is it in itself" conversations? I am not trying to quantify the interrogative nature of Nukes as  rates, as it varies individually, but oftentimes patterns do emerge. Thank you all for your time,
Elias

[cweaver8518]

As a current nuke, I can tell you that deployment conversations are some of the most interesting and possibly philosophical conversations I've ever had. However, the fart jokes are many. If you have an intelligent watch team, you're much more likely to have these conversations. However, if your watchteam is immature and/or bitter about the Navy, these conversations won't happen.

[crusemm]

After XX years, XX deployments and XXXXX hours in the box (look it up if you don't know), You are just as likely to get conversations on any, or all of the following topics in the course of a mid watch:

1. who was right Hawking or Einstein, and why.
2. Did you see the ____ on that girl last night
3. Did you see the ______ on MM3 schmaltz last night
4. My division sucks
5. EM's rule
6. I hate all khaki's
7. I hate all blue shirts (said when it was a completely khaki watch team in the box)
8. I joined the navy because: (this usually leads to either a meaning of life discussion or a series of put downs)
9. Prove mathematical theorem XXXX
10. I'm going to do XXXX when I get out.

[Marlin]

These are probably not as high on the list now, but in the 70's they were:

-If we do go to war with Russia would it be better not to survive as there would not be much to come back to?

-If you did come back after the start of the big one and you did not get the Russian boat that launched on your home port or home town what then?

-Who's number one on the short timers list and how much time do you have left? (Many of us enlisted as an alternative to the draft and an M-16 in a swamp)

... and all of the above with the exception of Hawking.

[DDMurray]

Really want to know?

Watch the movies Clerks and the Big Lebowski.

[Adam Grundleger]

Read a bunch of Ayn Rand, brush up on geeky sci-fi trivia, hone your skills in mocking your peers (but hold fire until you're qualified). 

Dirty jokes are almost always welcome.  If you become an ELT, learn all the real chemistry and physics you can so you can pick apart the dumbed down training you get.  You'll dazzle your peers and flat blow the minds of the lesser rates. 

A good grounding in philosophy will help, but avoid the marxist doctrine except as a reference.  Most sailors will kick you in the jimmy if you start spouting commie rhetoric.  Stick with Ayn Rand for the philosophy.  Very popular in RL Div on my last boat.  At one time, four of us were reading Atlas Shrugged.  Spring for the large format; the paperback is in what looks like six-point type and will ruin your eyes before page 1000.

Very important:  Learn to listen.  Most people spend the time the other person's talking waiting to make their next statement.  Spend that time listening.  It took me until I was ready to get out to realize that, and I missed out on a lot.

[Preciousblue1965]

Wow the memories. 

Just started thinking back to some of the conversations we had in the plant during deployment.  Some, but not limited to, conversations were as follows:

1)  If you could have any superhero power, what would it be and why?
2)  What is the mininum number of valves and/or switches that you could use to scram the plant, not to include the scram switch or anything else that easy?
3)  Who is the hottest female cartoon character(80% of replies were Jessica Rabbit)?
4)  Which is better, the Jedi way or the Sith way?
5)  Six degrees of Kevin Bacon
6)  Movie quote trivia
7)  Why Star Trek/Star Wars is better than Star Wars/Star Trek.

Just some of the conversations we had underway.  You mileage may vary.

[Preciousblue1965]

Three (S5W's), all valves, no switches, total LOCA, no ability to stop it without pulling deckplates apart. Impossible to pull the deckplates apart in time to save the reactor.

When we told the Eng how we figured it out on the premise that the best sleeper the Soviets could place on an S5W boat would be an ELT in AMR2LL things got interesting. The conversation was prompted by the Eng on one of his tours,..."Hey!, You guys read that book "Hunt for Red October yet?", it just rambled on from there,....

Thanks Marssim, now I have to spend all day trying to figure out how you do it.  As for an A4W plant, depending on how the plant is set up, you can cause a scram with one valve.

[Fermi2]

I have been thinking alot, something I am told I do by almost everybody I meet. Visited CTMU.org, have been reading topics posted on that site and have been wondering: In general, do conversations amongst Nukes tend to pertain to philosophy/meaning of life questions, and if/when they do, how often do they happen? I stereotype the assumption that Nuke submariners are more likely to do this because of long deployments underway and close proximities, but if I am wrong, please correct this assumption, otherwise feel free to add to that speulation. Is there a rate that is more "prone" to the, "What is it in itself" conversations? I am not trying to quantify the interrogative nature of Nukes as  rates, as it varies individually, but oftentimes patterns do emerge. Thank you all for your time,
Elias

heck no. I rarely post anymore but Philosophy or meaning of life questions? Nukes are knuckle draggers nor freaking PHILOSOPHERS HERE is what they typically talk about.

1: The guy who everyone knows his wife is banging the hell out of young sailors while he's gone.
2: Hot chicks
3: Movies
4: Movies with Hot Chicks
5: Hot Chicks in Movies.
6: Wild Things 1 (see items 2-5)
7: Sports
8: Movies about movies that have hot chicks in them.
9: I hope I don't have an STD.
10: The hot chick at the bar who got wasted and pulled a train with A Gang. (note this chick was 35 days underway /17 beers hot)
11: Our families, very common after about 40 days out and tends to lead to depression very touchy subject.
12: The guy whose wife cleaned out his bank account and sold everything they owned on the last 2 underways and WHY wouldn't he think she's going to do it again?
13: Boobs (See any of the above except item 11 and for all you know someone who met your sister is discussing her boobs, For items 1 and 12 there will be some discussion as to the boob quality of the wife involved and whether this absolves her of any responsibility for the offenses in question, usually if she has great boobs the general conclusion will be Well what the hell did he expect leaving her alone like that, she has great boobs!)

If anyone here tries to tell you otherwise they are flat out lying or have never been to sea.

Philosophy Rolls my eyes.

[crusemm]

BZ, while you are generally absolutely correct, not every boat is the same.  Two boats ago, we had an Officer that minored in theology, an EM1 that majored in philosophy, and had a degree in it, and I think an RO that had most of some kind of sociology degree.  Standing watch with those guys made my ears bleed.   Existentialism vs blah blah blah.  However, I do agree, philosphy discussions make me want to 

Have a Day
-Matt

[HydroDave63]

I've gotta agree with crusemm; back on my rustbucket a much wider smorgasbord of discussions, including: had EO and RO playing chess on tiny magnetic boards, a small unofficial chapter of the John Birch society, futures, options and gold trading, 7 or 8 of BZ's topics, and read our back issues of Shotgun News, Crutchfield and Bose catalogs til the ink came off the page.

For what it's worth...our only Atlas Shrugged/John Galt/Fountainhead groupie was also a Dont Ask/Dont Tell guy, so not many conversations there!

[Fermi2]

Yes but I bet you had very few philosophy discussions. I'm just trying to ensure this NUB knows he's not entering the galley of enlightened souls.

BTW Rand may be the worst author I have ever read.

[HydroDave63]

" Throttleman, that is correct!"   

[retired nuke]

heck no. I rarely post anymore but Philosophy or meaning of life questions? Nukes are knuckle draggers nor freaking PHILOSOPHERS HERE is what they typically talk about.

1: The guy who everyone knows his wife is banging the hell out of young sailors while he's gone.
2: Hot chicks
3: Movies
4: Movies with Hot Chicks
5: Hot Chicks in Movies.
6: Wild Things 1 (see items 2-5)
7: Sports
8: Movies about movies that have hot chicks in them.
9: I hope I don't have an STD.
10: The hot chick at the bar who got wasted and pulled a train with A Gang. (note this chick was 35 days underway /17 beers hot)
11: Our families, very common after about 40 days out and tends to lead to depression very touchy subject.
12: The guy whose wife cleaned out his bank account and sold everything they owned on the last 2 underways and WHY wouldn't he think she's going to do it again?
13: Boobs (See any of the above except item 11 and for all you know someone who met your sister is discussing her boobs, For items 1 and 12 there will be some discussion as to the boob quality of the wife involved and whether this absolves her of any responsibility for the offenses in question, usually if she has great boobs the general conclusion will be Well what the hell did he expect leaving her alone like that, she has great boobs!)

If anyone here tries to tell you otherwise they are flat out lying or have never been to sea.

Philosophy Rolls my eyes.

BZ - you just covered the conversations in outage break rooms, deer camp, fishin boats....... 

[Marlin]

heck no. I rarely post anymore but Philosophy or meaning of life questions? Nukes are knuckle draggers nor freaking PHILOSOPHERS HERE is what they typically talk about.

1: The guy who everyone knows his wife is banging the hell out of young sailors while he's gone.
2: Hot chicks
3: Movies
4: Movies with Hot Chicks
5: Hot Chicks in Movies.
6: Wild Things 1 (see items 2-5)
7: Sports
8: Movies about movies that have hot chicks in them.
9: I hope I don't have an STD.
10: The hot chick at the bar who got wasted and pulled a train with A Gang. (note this chick was 35 days underway /17 beers hot)
11: Our families, very common after about 40 days out and tends to lead to depression very touchy subject.
12: The guy whose wife cleaned out his bank account and sold everything they owned on the last 2 underways and WHY wouldn't he think she's going to do it again?
13: Boobs (See any of the above except item 11 and for all you know someone who met your sister is discussing her boobs, For items 1 and 12 there will be some discussion as to the boob quality of the wife involved and whether this absolves her of any responsibility for the offenses in question, usually if she has great boobs the general conclusion will be Well what the hell did he expect leaving her alone like that, she has great boobs!)

If anyone here tries to tell you otherwise they are flat out lying or have never been to sea.

Philosophy Rolls my eyes.

I remember those conversations but after a couple of minutes the adults moved on to other subjects.

[LivinginParadise]

1)) If we mutinied the boat, who would we keep, and who would we have to kick off to prevent getting caught.
2) How much money could you make in two runs from columbia with said mutinied boat?
3) How long would the cone survive if we cut them off?
4) If you had to let a coner sit/qualify anything back aft, who would it be and why?
5) Did you hear about XX, he slept/almost slept with a ladyboy in singapore.
6) Where did you hide your Habu Sake?
7) XXXXX's Wife is a WXXXE.
8)Pig and Chicken
9) How long would we survive if O-gang was actually in charge?
10) How long until a critique if O-gang stood all the watches back after for one watch?
11) Updating the epic hot women list
12) Turn everyone in the duty section into an animal. Justify your choices.
13) Read out of the quote book.
14) Singapore Buy-me-drink-me girls, or PI bar girls?

The list goes on and on.


And the things to do, since nobody's started that list yet.
1) AEA/EOOW Aux IC Challenge!
2) Brawling in ERF
3) Brawling aft of Maneuvering
4) Knock the notes out of the nubs hands. See how many different bilges you can get him to crawl through to retrieve said notes.
5) Pig and Chicken
6) Maneuvering scrabble
7) Lock the Khaki out of Maneuvering
AEA/RT sword fights.
9) Lock the nub in the bilge.
and of course...
10) The hypothetical question game

[crusemm]

Ah yes, the infamous things we do list.  My personal all time favorite game:  What can YOU make out of a roll of EB Green! challenge.  Said to me by MM2 Sxxxxxxxxxxxx  prior to a 6 hour charge / discharge watch onboard USS Xxxxxxx circa 1991.  Let's just say the list was long, varied, impressive, at times scatological, and caused all sorts of trouble.

[Marlin]

We had something that we called "oolies", they were questions meant to strain a trainee and to engage in a battle of wits on plant knowledge for the more senior watch standers. Our Captain and M div Chief had an ongoing battle for a dollar each time one stumped the other . The Captain had all of the Chiefs bills on his stateroom wall (bulkhead, yeah I know) labeled another easy Chief XXXXXX dollar and the Chief had his on the inside of a locker in the engineroom labeled another easy Captain XXXX dollar.

Is the term "Oolie" still used?

[crusemm]

Is the term "Oolie" still used?

Yes, Useless Little bit of Information.

ULI

"Ulie", "Ooly", "Uly" or other variations

[modex]

The first thing the nukes are going to talk about are all the things they can think of to make you uncomfortable.
Then irritate you.
Then offend you.
Everyone has buttons, and they are going to find yours.
The salty ones find much joy in embarrassing nubs and "hydrating" them in the ER.

[Cycoticpenguin]

Youtube" tubedaze". Its fairly accurate.

[730SMAG]

Personally, I stood my watches IAW the watchstander's manual without any extraneous, non-official conversatio...

Oh, who am I kidding?  If I wasn't working on collateral duties or the cleaning hitlist, I was at the ERF/ERLL flood control door talking with ERLL when it wasn't the dumbass ERLL who puked purifiers every watch.  So...  I spent a lot of time working on collateral duties, watching ERLL stand at the door beseeching me to walk over and converse with him to stave off his boredom.

[Gamecock]

Youtube" tubedaze". Its fairly accurate.

How would you, a surface sailor, know whether its accurate or not?

[namlive]

1) If we attempted to shoot out all the ELTs out of the torpedo tubes, which ones would fit?
2) In Smokey and the Bandit, the sheriff gets out of the car and closes the door. In the next scene the door is open and being taken off by an oriental truck driver.
3) Why does Sarge continue to play poker when he is so bad at it?
4) You don't have to fake a heart attack to get poppers from the "Doc."
5) Should we tell the chief we gave his coffee cup a rimmer?
6) What movies should we keep, other than Smokey and the Bandit, before we swap with the Skipjack?
7) What do you want to be when you grow up?

[MMM]

Don't forget, who would we need where to take over the ship.