Sub Life

[PWHoppe]

you guess wrong......but you must be used to that. my iq has too many digits for that 'circle'

Now, Now! Let's be nice

[ChiefRocscooter]

Well I was basing my guess on the fact that you were discussing a topic you knew somthing about.  After all you were the one who brought up prison and the goat locker now it seems you are saying you do not know about one, next you will say you were never in prison.  I was only saying that the guys back aft on a boat our amoung the best you will ever get to work with as a group.   However you feel it necessary to insult people who choose to make a career out of serving thier country because you are to smart to do that.  Very impressive!

[hamsamich]

concerning sub life, I've known plenty of excellent chiefs, as well as many chiefs who aint all there.  The ones who decide to stay in to make things better on the subs are truly golden.  I have to say sadly,  though, that there aint enough of the good ones it seems.  good chiefs as well as bad chiefs have a huge impact on sub life, for better or for worse.  from what I've seen, the ratio is about 1 good one for 2 bad ones (through in a few border line chiefs here and there that don't fall into either catagory).  You love it when you find a good one though.  Like chief A mmc aboard uss norfolk back in da day.  on some subs, like the NR-1, this ration is probably incorrect.  many good guys aboard a sub like that, making sub life better I would think.

[PWHoppe]

Oooops, once again we are drifting off topic

The young gent who started this thread merely wanted to know what life was like on a sub, being an ex-bubblehead myself I could tell many a sea story, but I digress. The deal is fellas, this is not, I repeat NOT a sniping mission. I am grateful for all those who choose to serve our country whether it be for 4, 6, or 20+ years.

Let's try to stay on topic...OK? 

your friendly neighborhood moderator

[illegalsmile]

Sorry for the drift. Just showing 'senor' some examples of the banter he can expect to hear and participate in if he joins the 'some boats are 'sposed t'sink' yacht club. Seriously, you can expect to work under some of the most trying conditions you'll ever encounter. You can expect to get training that is so much more than just a technical education (although you will get a incredibly solid and deep technical education). You will learn to evaluate situations so completely that 'root cause analysis' will be a natural process to you. You will hate and love your crew (no pun or reference to prior postings intended) and learn to work with them without regard to your feelings. You will learn to take (and give) abuse.
I don't know if it's still the case, but when I was in, the Nuke program had a higher drop rate than the Naval Academy, so you will work with the best of the best, and (sorry if I hit a nerve, Chief) you will learn from the best of the best of the best. (BTW-my opening post was what we used to tell people sub life was like when they asked us.)
You may decide, as I did, that you'd rather choose another course to steer your life on, but part of you will always be at 400'.
Think you've got the stuff? Then go for it.....or spend your life wondering if you could've made it.
RIGFORDIVE!!!!

[PWHoppe]

Sorry for the drift.

No Blood, No Foul...

Great Post, Karma to ya! 

[ChiefRocscooter]

Back on target !!
Roger that !!
In some ways it was like prison (although I only have TV and moives to based that on) but the people were great.  Hard part was, at least on a fast boat, alway having the plan change every five mins and often it seemded as if for no reason!  You just get used to it the bull and march on
Rob

[ChiefRocscooter]

illegalsmile has it right in his last post (hey no nerve hit just thought you could do better than an insult, insult was always the retort of last resort on the boat!). Life on the boat can be like living with 40 best friends, 40 jerks, 10 moms (Chiefs )) and 10 ;big sisters but it is still something that will stick with you the rest of your life.  I have been on both surface and subs so I have the persepective to say sub crews are closer, the nuc topside are close but not with the rest of the crew and the animosity between nucs and crew on surface ship seemed higher than on a boat.  Not that they were killing each other, just know that on a boat you will have more friends who are not nucs than on surface ship (skimmer ) .

   

[ChiefRocscooter]

Oh day to day life is oh so hard to really describe cause it varries so much.  Believe me if you are a creature of habit and routine then you will learn to change! Underway likely 6 on 12 off is your watch routine with maintenance/training/eating/sh.../and anything else squezed into the 1st  6 off try and sleep during second six.  Sleep that is if you can cause there might be drills or training, sometimes you sleep 1st 6 work second six, sometimes you do not sleep that off watch rotation.  Food is good, for the most part, they serve 4 meals a day, yep one evey 6 hours, so if you like to eat that is a bonus but remember to work out a little or you might get stuck in hatch!  I had a friend, RO named Dennis Roth....er who ate 4 meals a day for something like six weeks, poor guy over slept one day and missed a meal not sure if he set record or not but he was bummed cause he wantred to make it to every meal for the underway!
Inport: just be ready for what ever you setup yesterday to change today

Rob

[bigpapa]

Having spent over 9 years at sea on various Fast Boats I would have to agree with Chief and illegal, The only thing typical on any given day there was nothing is typical, everything changes depending on anything, nothing,or something inbetween, and there will be training.   

Craig

[Itzhakway]

Is there any Seaman Subfarer submariner on this forum, past or present?

[ChiefRocscooter]

not likely as most sub guys here are Nukes, but any sub guy can answer just about any question about subs you have (its part earning your fish to learn about crew and thier jobs)

So shoot....

Rob

[BuddyThePug]

Is there any Seaman Subfarer submariner on this forum, past or present?

Is that like Horatio Hornblower, or Marmaduke Surfaceblow, or ?

[LaFeet]

Ahhhhh  the good life..... reading every book in the library, selling cigarettes for 1$ apiece at patrols end, listening to the sounds of another boat's screw....... why oh why did I give it up?  Oh yeah, I make more in a week now than I did all month back then.

[Warmonger711]

If you guys cant decide on a fast attack or a boomer then try for the Slow attack, the SSGN, you have the joy of shipyard duty every biyearly with dual crews and the fun of offcrew. But you get to enjoy the company of a 100 extra bodies who do nothing more than camp, eat , drink and shit onboard. Mind the gripes about the quality of life but you do get port calls which a boomer does not recieve

[still_in]

Define "new MM."  I enlisted in 2001 and even I can draw an 8k from memory.

[Preciousblue1965]

please draw and explain the principles of operation for an 8K evaporator;

Some of us were REAL men and played around with 100K D/Us(on a side note, I have actually been to the plant that makes those units and the soon-to-be installed RO units in my current job).

[Already Gone]

Ahhhhh  the good life..... reading every book in the library, selling cigarettes for 1$ apiece at patrols end, listening to the sounds of another boat's screw....... why oh why did I give it up?  Oh yeah, I make more in a week now than I did all month back then.

A WEEK???  How about two days?

[Marlin]

I read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archepeligo and the Silmarillion by Tolkien on patrol. No one ever brought enough to read and had to swap for fresh reading material, Zane Gray and Louis L'Amour is what I had to resort to at the end of a patrol after I exhausted my SciFi and Biography stash.

The 18 hour day on a sub may be coming to and end by the way.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/04/navy_sub_hours_042509w/

[G-reg]

... skimmer "dog waches" ...

aka, Vulcan Death Watches 

[JustinHEMI05]

well I have a bigger *&%@^!!! 

Justin

[Neutron Whisperer]

I was just curious how the typical nuke life is onboard a sub, like how does a typical "day" go....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx9wklrgrPc

[HydroDave63]

Loved the video...showed the "who needs to check for surface contacts?" Hampton crew in its native element...

[bigjer25]

I have been an enlisted and officer on a sub, and if I could change anything I would have gone surface.  Same job, much better quality of life, better officer bonus.

[mm1cabrera]

First thing, it really depends on what type of sub you want to go to. Tridents or "boomers" are usually more predictable and have more personnel than fast attacks. Tridents also are extremely large and more spacious than fast attacks. I am a fast attack sailor myself, and recently toured a trident in the shipyard. It seems like better quality of life and like the crew is more happy in general, but hey, if you like going to sea and a relatively unpredictable schedule along with SSN (Saturdays, Sundays, and Nights), then by all means go fast attack. That's what we're all about, man. No sarcasm intended. You have to enjoy your job so much that you would rather be at it more often than you are home. And that is the bottom line, really. A positive attitude will help you along the way, and stay away from the "mopers", or people who have given up on their duties and are more interested in their prospective transfer date than doing their job. If you keep to it, submarine life can be rewarding. Its an elite group regardless of what anyone says and most regard submarine sailors as the most disciplined in the navy, there's a reason for that.