O come on, you mean to tell me you guys didn't joke back and forth about subs vs surface and mechanics vs elts in your day too. Sometimes it's the little stuff like that, that makes 15-16 hour days even bearable.
Nah. Unlike sub-marine-ers who are so bored that they spend their time brainstorming reasons that they are superior to everyone else, we usually talked about sports on tv, stuff on the internet, reflected on our time off, or visited with the people around us.
Besides, we still had to stand watch and keep all of our racks and lockers organized. I barely had time to stand in line at Starbucks before watch and iron my clothes after the laundry department was done with my uniforms. Who had the time to rate bash? I don't think I ever heard a mention of submariners in our berthing once...... Not once.
Lack of specialization on the boats due to small crews give a broader base of responsibilities and experience than a carrier. We handled lines as we had no Boatswain's mate on board (that was us), participated in weapons drills (ELTs anyway), no segregated berthing by departments, all hands functions were all hands, we had no damage control personnel (we were them). Even in rate you have a more diverse participation in all functions.expectations, awesome etc...,
1) you go listen to air heads ask the same question every week about new uniforms and stricter pt regs. I didn't. In port it's picnics and holidays, neither of which you are getting.
2) if you want to play with lines, you can go do it. BM's love help. Working party volunteers needed too. Why does line handling help you?
3) how do you know about tolerance differences? We didn't make sad pandas and tunas left and right because of our hug sessions .
4) Nukes fight every plant fire and have a role in repair lockers. Turns out the whole navy does that dc thing
5) More diverse operations? Subs don't do s**t at sea. I'd love to see a sub do an equivalent of a tg bearing inspection or a feed pump turbine overhaul ( I did both).
slackers, slow qualification on engineering quals or ships quals were met with pressure from your chiefs and fellow shipmates to come up to perform up to expectations.
I have to agree that ex bubbleheads on average are better performers in the civilian world. I am a bit prejudice about the boats, I am the base commander for my local chapter of the United States Submarine Veterans and the District Commander for seven bases. We have sub vets from WWII up to a couple of active reservists in our local chapter the sense of camaraderie in ex boat sailors is stronger than the targets.
Marlin MM1(SS) ELT
Confirmation bias? Anyone?
The highest two people at my plant were not sub-marine-ers. They were low standard bearers of the specialized topside navy.
To the op: the phones never work, internet is slow by the 90's standards and the computer:sailor ratio is about the same as the attractive women onboard: total crew ratio. AFN commercials suck and there's nothing like a foreign port with your 6000 closest friends.
It's what you make of it on either. I know a lot more sub guys who had short sea tours though. From what I've gathered SSBN life is prob the most cake of them all but I suggest you look up hot racking.... Personally I never considered volunteering subs. Wasn't a tough call.
Good luck and I'm sure a few years on either, you will be proud of what you did and think the other guys are full of crap.
