First ones on, last ones off?

[Bighouz107501]

honeycomb, I've seen it posted numerous times that as being a nuke you will be one of the last ones of off ship/sub. If so how much longer does it take for Nukes to get the green light to go have fun or leave the ship/sub?

thanks,
Dennis

[Fermi2]

On my boat the guys who were having duty the next day got to leave right away. Those who had duty that day had to stay onboard, the other guys were usually out within about 8 to 10 hours, it depended on whether we were cooling the plant down and how cool we were taking it.

On the other hand, if you're pulling into port for just one or two days don't count on getting off the boat.


Mike

[taterhead]

I broke this out into another thread...

Like many answers here, it all depends on the policies of the ship, department, and division.  Obviously, this is a surface answer...

I have had Reactor Officers who would wait until 12 hours prior to underway to start up, and I have had one who wanted to be critical and ready to roll 24 hours prior to pulling out.  Generally, the more comfortable the RO is with the competency of the department, the later he (or she) will delay startup.  So, that means that Rx Department watchteams must be manned up and ready to go prior to startup.  However, most departments I have seen will allow "watchstanders' liberty" (you can leave as long as you don't have watch) on the day prior to underway.  Liberty for the entire crew will usually expire the night before an early morning underway, or 4 hours before a late morning or afternoon underway.  Again, this is the CO's call, and it may depend on if the crew has shown that they can show up on time for underways.

When it comes to pulling in and shutting down, when you leave the ship will be determined more by your divisional chain of command.  Some divisions just allow the "on watch" watchteam to shut the plant down while everyone else gets off the ship at "liberty call".  Other divisions, usually the MMs, will require that all off watch personnel come down and help shut the plant down, then everyone (except duty folks) goes home at the same time.

Let me clear up a misconception here...no one gets off the ship for liberty as soon as it ties up to the pier.  A crane must lower a brow, usually the officer's brow first.  Essential personnel are then allowed to go ashore and assist with connecting services, etc.  Liberty call for the crew is typically 1-1.5 hours after pull-in.  In my experience, it can be an excruciatingly long time to sit around and wait to leave.  At least if I am shutting the plant down, I am busy.  Also, liberty is called by rank from the top down, starting with the officers, Chiefs, E6, E5, etc in descending order.  There is generally a big logjam at the quarterdeck, so waiting an extra few minutes will ensure that you avoid this clusterf#$% at the brow.

Are you first on, last off?  Maybe, but usually only a few hours either way if at all.

Of course, YMMV...

Taylor

[Fermi2]

That's a good synopsis. The nukes who had duty the day before an Underway were pretty much stuck. My boat always went critical at the pier so we'd bring in a start up duty section about an hour before start up. They'd do the actual start up. I won't say how long that took because I'm pretty sure it's classified but I will say it wasn't a huge inconvience. My boat left the same time of the day whenever we went to sea so the other members of the crew, including the rest of Engineering would usually have to be onboard about 2 hours before we went underway. We weren't a normal USN Submarine so it was probably different on other boats.

A guy on the CVN 65 told me they all had to be on board the night before they left.

When we came home as a rule the nukes were the last off, then again shutting down a nuclear reactor and getting her ready for the yard isn't as easy as turning off a switch. The Engineer would let some people go almost right away, the rest was  up to the LPO. The longest I ever stayed, outside of being the duty section, was maybe 8 hours.

Mike

[Wirebiter]

Ahhhh, the fine print they DON'T tell you when you sign up.  As others have said, it can vary from platform to platform, command to command.  Having served onboard SSN's and SSBN's (submarines) I can say that the average time doesn't exist, . 
My SSN would have the start up personnel onboard (about 30% of the department) 3-4 hours before the the rest of the entire crew had to come to work, sometimes the night before.  My SSBN experiance called for those same people to be aboard maybe 2-2.5 hours prior to all hands returning to the boat.  These times grew longer if we were visiting another country/port.

Going on liberty is very sporadic.  Many times it depends on how fast your Electricians can bring on off-hull electricity.  If they are proficent, and get some help from the mechanics and ET's, then  the reactor shutdown can commence pretty soon after pulling in.  However, if you are visiting another country, expect it to take longer.  I have waited 8hours for weather to clear in Pueto Rico before we could go topside and BEGIN our preperations.  6hours in Scotland trying to understand/translate a thick Scottish accent into instuctions for starting a pier Diesel generator, and 13 hours because of a failed AC current meter in Norfolk.

Any way you look at it though, you won't be getting off the boat when all the non-nukes can/do.  A strong engineering department may help shutdown before anyone leaves, whether they have to or not.  Then again, you may pull in some where and not shutdown at all.  You get to listen to all the stories from the non-nukes who got to leave the boat for a while.  It can be very....... frustrating to say the least.  But hey, you won't have to stand watch in the pouring rain topside for 6 hours in the middle of the night, like non-nukes do. 

Pick your rate...............

[M1Ark]

Getting off the ship on a carrier is crazy.  I pulled in to Seattle once and was tied up across the pier from the Nimitz.  I was on a nuke surface cruiser and was able to leave as soon as the brow came down.  I might have been the first one off.  There's no such thing as an officer's brow.  We didn't have duty call by rank.  Needless to say we waited a long time for my buddy to get off the ship.  I'm not sure if nuke cruisers still exist but it was the closest thing to submariner life without submerging.  If I had to do my surface time on a carrier I think I would have volunteered sub at prototype.

[KAMFRO]

When i was in on the SSBN 742, We used to plan for criticality at about 0530 for a 8-10am departure, and we would leave about leave about 4 hours after doccking.  The longest part was getting shore power on, so we could start shutting down.  The shut down goes quick.

[Fermi2]

That sounds about right for the SSN 687 too.

Mike

[KAMFRO]

Pretty much our shutdowns went so quick because the entire dept came back to help with shut down.  E Div was turning people away they had so many helping them with shore power.  And then when the shutdown started there was a monkey at pretty much every vavle that needed to be manipulated.  Usually RC div handled the EWS, and EO jobs to allow extra E div personnel for shore power.  And then once the shut down started, there was another RO in manuvering to take the logs and so forth while the On watch RO drove the rods down.  All of this was voluntary also.  We had a pretty strong Eng Dept.  I guess thats why my last ORSE we got a AA, they said we actually earned an E, but it was a new ORSE grading system and we were the first boat to get evaluated with it, so they couldnt justify an E.  Didnt make sense to me then either.

[shayne]

I'm not sure if nuke cruisers still exist but it was the closest thing to submariner life without submerging.  If I had to do my surface time on a carrier I think I would have volunteered sub at prototype.

Second that.  The crusiers are gone.  In 1998, USS California and South Carolina were the last to be decomissioned.  With that being said, made my decision to get out easy since there was no nuclear cruisers in the fleet to do a tour on.

[Fermi2]

Dude uh, your shutdowns weren't any quicker than just about any other boat in the fleet. ORSE ratings are purely political and based on a bell curve.

Mike

[ChiefRocscooter]

On the ORSE thing , DITTO way political and on a curve , not sure if it was bell or some fourth order function .
As far as the shutdown goes unless you scram and go on diesel then no you were not the fastest (not that many did that often but I have seen it).

Only thing made boomers quicker was that stupid shore power tower with cables that dropped down to you.  If I had a dollar for every grunt I made pulling cables on the Pier in New London CT well...  Oh yea we had to pull them down this little aluminium cable holder that held one well , two barely, and three hardly!!

Rob

[KAMFRO]

I never said we were the fastest....and secondly i didnt say we were so fast because of the ORSE..i said we were so fast because we were a tight department.  and i feel we did well on ORSE because our dept worked so well together

[ChiefRocscooter]

Hey o one doubts you were tight but that is how its was on my boat back in the day!! Hell the best man at my wedding was a buddy from E-Div (I was RC div).  Tiht is how nucs survive the life in a tube!  You did weel on ORSE and that showed you were working together period.  The grade really has no bearing either you pass or not once you pass then the politics come in (I was on fleet inspection team I KNOW).

As far as the light off thing,  was on surface ship for a tour and they lit boilers on Fri for monday underway!!!

Rob

[KAMFRO]

pretty much my whole point was we didnt come in 12-24 hours prior to an underway to start up and we usually were only an hour or so behind the coners on shutdown...and we worked together to get this done...that was it...