Submarines

[dawagarage]

idk, cuz im bored.

so i am a US navy submariner. when i "volunteered" for sub duty, i had absolutely zero knowledge about subs, just as the majority of my sub brethren. a few random facts.

-are there windows on submarines? NO you silly bastard.
-how deep do you go? it's classified. seriously. but i can tell you that we "only" go 100s of feet. not 1000s.
-all US subs are nuclear powered. with a diesel engine as a back up. the nuclear powerplant provides propulsion, electricity, lighting, etc
-we make our own water and air

any questions?

[Edwin562]

do you get sea sick faster in a sub than on a boat??

[dawagarage]

thats a good question. sea sickness is rare. we usually cruise at a few hundred feet so the waves dont affect us as much. and if theres a storm overhead we usually go deeper. sometimes we have to come up "less than 100 feet" to transmit messages and such, and sometimes the seas are pretty bad then. ive gotten pretty miserable and nauseous at those times, but never threw up.

[CharleyWopp]

How do you make your own air and water? Is it and endless supply as long as you can make it? How cramped are they? From movies and such it seems their not very big walking around in but again movies.

[AsleepAltima]

is it true that 100 sailors go down on a sub and 50 couples come up?


jk bro, army vs navy humor :)

[EnemyS15]

My uncle is an engineer that builds subs. Very fascinated machines. Although the aubs are pressurized, do you feel any increased pressure when diving at "low" depths?

[dawagarage]

air: we have oxygen generators, big tanks that store o2. we recirculate the same air over and over. we have co-h2 burners and similar systems to rid the unbreathable and byproduct gases. we have an air monitoring system to see exactly how much, h, o, co, co2, etc is in the air at that given moment.

for water we just purify seawater via boilers or reverse osmosis.

room: everyone's opinion of a submarine is that it is packed like the small WW2 movies depict, but we've gotten bigger. we have ROUGHLY 2 types of subs, fast attacks, which are approx 360 feet, and 3 levels (i think.) and then ballistic missile subs, capable of housing 24 nuclear missiles, those are 560 feet, and have 4 levels.

couples. yes this is true.

[dawagarage]

where is your uncle? im guessing CT, Maine, or WA perhaps? subs are pressurized to simulate regular atmosphere as best we can. once youre in & down, you wont feel any pressure change. sometimes we come up less than 100 feet and extend a "giant" snorkel until its above the surface and we equalize ship's pressure to sea. you can usually feel it. similar to when youre driving and you change elevation, your ears pop but thats about it.

[Okinawandrifter87]

Is the food crappy on subs?

[trickey1991]

do you have to get the air out of your blood like divers have to before coming up since you're so deep?

[dawagarage]

food is an interesting subject. to make things easier, submarines have a 21 day menu, meaning they have breakfast lunch and dinner planned out for 21 days. at the end of the cycle, it starts over again. this makes ordering and managing the food easier. as you know, fresh food goes bad if not eaten, so the majority of our food is frozen or canned. but what really makes food taste good or not is the cooks and how much they love/hate their job & their talent. but for the most part the food is good. and we have the occasional lobster, and steak and such.

we dont have to worry about decompression sickness and the like because we are in a contained/regulated/pressured atmosphere that simulates regular surface atmosphere.

[jesse_s13]

food is an interesting subject. to make things easier, submarines have a 21 day menu, meaning they have breakfast lunch and dinner planned out for 21 days. at the end of the cycle, it starts over again. this makes ordering and managing the food easier. as you know, fresh food goes bad if not eaten, so the majority of our food is frozen or canned. but what really makes food taste good or not is the cooks and how much they love/hate their job & their talent. but for the most part the food is good. and we have the occasional lobster, and steak and such.

we dont have to worry about decompression sickness and the like because we are in a contained/regulated/pressured atmosphere that simulates regular surface atmosphere.

How long do you guys go with out being exposed to the sun?
:tweak::tweak:

[fliprayzin240sx]

So my question is, are you one of the lucky folks to have females or start having females in your crew?!?!

[dawagarage]

the ballistic missile subs, which is the kind i was on, usually go out (and stay under) for 2-3 months at a time. they dont really pull into port because the nukes (missiles) make us a prime target for terrorists, as well as countries dont like nukes in their port.

the fast attack guys stay out to sea longer (stay away from home port longer) but they get to pull into ports all over the world.

[dawagarage]

they started integrating female officers onto the ballistic missiles subs because they can better support females since theyre a bigger ship. they get a seperate female head and bunkroom. not every ballistic sub has females yes, because the whole 'females on subs' is still in its testing/try out phase. i did 5 years on a boat and now im in shore duty, but i rotate back to a boat at the end of this year. so i still havent had to 'deal with' females on a sub yet.

[feito]

3 months living under the sea, daammn, anyone ever freaks out/gets claustrophobic down there?
And sucks about the windows, i though u would be able to see fish and weird creatures under there...

[CharleyWopp]

3 months living under the sea, daammn, anyone ever freaks out/gets claustrophobic down there?
And sucks about the windows, i though u would be able to see fish and weird creatures under there...

^^This. Would be cool as in your down there so long atleast let me see some cool stuff. Crazy shark feeding frenzy, something! That was my next question, since the pressure and such and claustrophobia kick in, can your body feel that your below the sea? And how do yall get extracted from the sub if you cant pull into a port?

[dawagarage]

freak outs and claustrophobia are few and far between. sub duty is volunteer only, so they cant MAKE you do it. there are a lot of 'filters' and screening processes that get rid of the majority of people who cant hack it. and the few that make it through are allowed to leave. if someone freaked out at sea we would have to surface close to shore and have a boat come out to take them off and bring em to shore.

EVERYONE thinks theres gonna be windows. but at that depth, you couldnt see anything anyways. and exterior lights arent an option because we are supposed to remain undetected almost at all times. we are sea ninjas! plus the windows might put us at a tactical disadvantage, they would be the 'weak point' of the sub.

[dawagarage]

if we were to 'sink'.... as long as we dont sink til 'crush depth' (the depth at which the sub would implode) we would be able to be rescued. they would do it by sending out a diving bell to extract the crew in groups.

http://cdn1.wn.com/pd/75/c5/a17fcb2fa03d39d77d4761cb0dc6_grande.jpg
they would manually send this thing down to us from the surface, it would mate to our hatch, and groups of guys can go in there. it is also pressurized to regular atmosphere so that again you dont succumb to decompression sickness etc

[dawagarage]

oh and if we're shallow enough we have these steinke hoods... picture a life jacket with a hood but instead of regular buoyant shit its filled with breathable air. you can ascend to the surface from the sub with those on. it would save you but you would suffer from the bends

[dawagarage]

http://www.dcfpnavymil.com/Personnel%20Protection/Subs/isuit/1.gif
this is the new version of the steinke hood, i forgot that it had come out.

[Juantwo3]

what happens if you fart

[dawagarage]

typical elementary school humor. people will laugh, etc. the flatulence itself gets sucked into the fan room and then the methane gets burned/converted back into regular breathing air.

[brizanden]

lol best part of the thread ^right here

[myKAl]

dope/interesting thread man,3-4 levels i thought only two, pretty cool

question 1 what happens if they find out you snitched about how deep you go? jail or something
and
question 2 how fast are you guys usually going in these thing?

[dawagarage]

jail time is a possible outcome for divulging those secrets. they make you sign a bunch of papers saying you wont give up/out classified information. but i can tell you that a lot of the info can be found online or even in the book 'submarines for dummies' freedom of information act or some shit.

top speed is classifed as well but i can say we can go faster than 25 knots submerged. pretty fast for something so big.

[az_240]

So everything is mapped out for you guys so you don't run into anything or is it just sonar? Ever plow into a whale or other large sea creature? Can you see stuff like that on the sonar?

Ever use the periscope?

[rob22]

what happens to all the crews piss and shit?
just dump it into the sea water?

[dawagarage]

mostly everything is mapped out for us, yes. however, there was an incident in 04 when one of our subs ran into an underwater mountain. the charts/maps they were using were really old/not updated. one of the crew members died. which is a sad day in the sub community because the 'death rate' is pretty much non existant. as for whales and all that, i think they probably keep their distance but it can happen. sonar does hear sea creatures, theyre called biologics. sometimes the sonar mean hear schools of whales and dolphins.

human waste, food from the garbage disposal, and grey water (From sinks/showers) is all stored in tanks until the tanks are close to full and then we pump it out to sea. we cant pump within a certain distance of land however, so beach goers dont have to swim in it. marine life end up eating all the waste so it isnt that bad.

[EnemyS15]

My uncle lives in Pennsylvania, but is flown around the world doing work. He designs the engines and other aspects he apparently is not allowed to talk about.

Question..... Each section of the sub is made with bulkheads that could hold water , in case of flooding. If a sections was to flood out. Do each section have ways to drain the water ? Best way to describe what I'm asking... The movie league of extraordinary gentlemen: when cpt nemos ship was flooding and Mr Hyde came down to purge the water from the sub.

[Quail]

Excellent thread. I'm definitely not cut out to live on a sub for several months at a time. I had a friend in the Royal Navy that used to do 5+ months at a time!

When silent running, is it true you can't talk or move around? (I assume it's a lot more extreme in a combat situation).

[dawagarage]

My uncle lives in Pennsylvania, but is flown around the world doing work. He designs the engines and other aspects he apparently is not allowed to talk about.

Question..... Each section of the sub is made with bulkheads that could hold water , in case of flooding. If a sections was to flood out. Do each section have ways to drain the water ? Best way to describe what I'm asking... The movie league of extraordinary gentlemen: when cpt nemos ship was flooding and Mr Hyde came down to purge the water from the sub.

the fast attack sub has 2 comparments (forward & engine room) while the ballistic missile sub has 3 (forward, missile, & engine room.) we have multiple dewatering and flood control methods. we have submersible pumps, that suck up 60 gpm, and we have stationary bilge suctions. the problem with those 2 is that although they get rid of water in the people tank, they have to put that water in another tank, so we arent losing weight but meanwhile we will be pumping all our tanks to see to lighten us up. if we are taking water, we have the ability to close the penetration with 'flood control' which will route high pressure hydraulics (cant remember if its 3000psi or 4500psi) to the valve and close it that way. but if we are taking on LOTS of water and sinking fast, we have "emergency main ballast tank blow" in which high pressure air is forced into all the ballast tanks (that are filled with water to allow us to sink.) the deeper you are, though, the more pressure being put on the sub, so the less water that is able to be displaced from the ballast tanks.

Excellent thread. I'm definitely not cut out to live on a sub for several months at a time. I had a friend in the Royal Navy that used to do 5+ months at a time!

When silent running, is it true you can't talk or move around? (I assume it's a lot more extreme in a combat situation).

we have different levels of 'quiet.' one of the interesting parts of being on a sub is learning how to live quiet everyday. learning to slowly put up and down the toilet seat is one of the biggest ones. we wear tennis shoes underway as opposed to steel toed boots so we make less noise when we walk. things like that. when you have to go 'ultra quiet,' meaning there is or there might be an enemy sub in the area, then yes you want to keep talking and moving to a minimal, non essential personnel are actually sent to their racks. but we arent at war at sea right now so we dont really worry about that unless we are playing war games with an allied country.

[LoneStarSilvia]

This whole sub things sounds pretty intense. I'm an AF guy working rescue HH-60's and I can neeeeeeeeeeeever imagine myself in a sub for months on end. I'm in the desert right now and it gets pretty monotonous going to work for 12+ hours, go back to my little jail cell of a room, then going back to work and seeing the same people everyday for months on end.

What do you guys do to keep yourselves from going stir crazy (besides the man-love stuff, I had to throw that in there)?

[GeneStarWindGSW]

Working the geedunk right now, FML. NAS Coronado, little bit better then subs though lol

[Redstar]

Great thread! Very interesting stuff.

What do you guys do for recreational activities? I imagine that it may be hard to not get bored after a while since you're under water for so long.

Also, is/has fire ever been a major concern for you guys? If so, what do you do to prevent fires from breaking out and killing everyone?

[Brian]

awesome thread. Silent Service!
Do you guys ever have to intercept other subs from other nations and make sure they don't come too close to US Soil?

[fliprayzin240sx]

This whole sub things sounds pretty intense. I'm an AF guy working rescue HH-60's and I can neeeeeeeeeeeever imagine myself in a sub for months on end. I'm in the desert right now and it gets pretty monotonous going to work for 12+ hours, go back to my little jail cell of a room, then going back to work and seeing the same people everyday for months on end.

What do you guys do to keep yourselves from going stir crazy (besides the man-love stuff, I had to throw that in there)?

Doesnt deployment suck when you're only on station for 2 years? I never figured that shit out, spend 8 months out of that time down range or prepping for it.

[dawagarage]

entertainment
consists of a "crew's lounge" that has a big flat screen tv and an xbox 360/ps3 and a bunch of games. people "burn a lot of flicks" (watch movies.) space is a premium but we find places to squeeze a couple treadmills and stationary bikes as well as some weights. almost every single person has their own personal 5-7" dvd player, and a lot of us share porn. theres a Crew's study, that will have a few newer computer games. on my last patrol they had set up a lan between the computers and dudes were playing WOW out to sea together (not online, we do not get internet.)

the days are 18 hrs instead of 24, so you work 6 hours and have 12 hours of, of which youll use at least 6 to sleep. we sleep a lot to pass the time, we call our racks 'time machine's cuz they help travel thru time faster.

internet/email
like i said we dont have internet but we can send and receive email. not 24/7 however. we have to come close to the surface, and transmit. we dont do that as often because we're trying to remain undetected. it sucks not talking to loved ones back home for times when you have to stay undetected for WEEEEEEKS.

[dawagarage]

as for interception and tracking, thats what the 'fast attack' subs do. they go out and stalk bad guys, as well as maybe go off another countries coast and spy on them. even my buddies who have done that shit cant talk to ME about it, even though im a fellow submariner. we do have subs that just go up and down to guard the coast.

but we also have this place on land that has.. pretty much HUGE microphones (hydrophones) in the water and they monitor the sea to listen for other subs. and they can hear for like MILES out i think. that whole system is crazy, i dont know too much about it.

Coronado huh? im across the water in Point loma Subase, obviously ;)

[dawagarage]

Fire
every one of the crew is trained to fight fires and every other casualty that might occur (flooding, hydraulic rupture, air pressure air leak, attacks from pirates/terrorists/etc)
you learn about all the classes of fires, and the type of extinguishing agent that best fights that specific fire. we have different types of extinguishers throughout the boat as well as a fire mains (similar to fire hydrants.) if a fire were to happen at any given time, an assigned group of people (called the fly away team) will immediately grab the appropriate extinguisher and run to try to fight the fire. in the mean time, assigned guys are dressing out in Fire Fighting Ensembles (what fire fighters wear) and SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus, the air tanks,) and theyll grab the nearest hose to fight the fire. meanwhile the guys 'driving' the ship will be working to bring us to the surface so we can start to emergency ventilate the compartment of the smoke. fire is one of the scariest things because it can consume the ship and you have no where to run. thats why its important that every person be able to fight all the casualties that may occur.

[word sux]

Fire
every one of the crew is trained to fight fires and every other casualty that might occur (flooding, hydraulic rupture, air pressure air leak, attacks from pirates/terrorists/etc)
you learn about all the classes of fires, and the type of extinguishing agent that best fights that specific fire. we have different types of extinguishers throughout the boat as well as a fire mains (similar to fire hydrants.) if a fire were to happen at any given time, an assigned group of people (called the fly away team) will immediately grab the appropriate extinguisher and run to try to fight the fire. in the mean time, assigned guys are dressing out in Fire Fighting Ensembles (what fire fighters wear) and SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus, the air tanks,) and theyll grab the nearest hose to fight the fire. meanwhile the guys 'driving' the ship will be working to bring us to the surface so we can start to emergency ventilate the compartment of the smoke. fire is one of the scariest things because it can consume the ship and you have no where to run. thats why its important that every person be able to fight all the casualties that may occur.


I cannot even imagine how this could be.


has it ever happened were a sub "burned down" under water?

[dawagarage]

not in the history of the US Navy, to my knowledge. the sub community did suffer from a fire recently, however. luckily the ship was in dry dock and no one was hurt. dry dock is a sucky place to be. they still arent 100% sure what caused the fire. and it was on the weekend so only a minimal amount of the crew were there, around 1/4 or 1/3. so lets say 25 guys give or take a few. that fire burned for hours. since it was in the dry dock, local fire fighters were able to assist the fight. they did MOST the fight, from what ive read. but theyre more trained than us, i think something like 70-100 fire fighters were fighting that fire, because they kept having to swap out guys due to air depletion of their tanks.

but yeah, disasters in the sub community are very very few and far between. because we have such a great group of guys, because there are so many filters in effect to ensure we get good quality guys and not idiots. (for the MOST part.) as well so many safeties in place to prevent mishaps and what not.

[MADE]

This is good stuff, I been to Point Loma several times before I realized they actually had subs on that side. From the top side they look rarely small or noticable.

[TheWolf]

got a lot of friends that are on subs from kings bay,GA..

kinda cool to see one of them come in. They really don't surface till they get near the shipping channel.

[Tearlessj]

Amazing stuff in the thread. How is the pay? I'm sure it's worth it?

[Redstar]

Fire
every one of the crew is trained to fight fires and every other casualty that might occur (flooding, hydraulic rupture, air pressure air leak, attacks from pirates/terrorists/etc)
you learn about all the classes of fires, and the type of extinguishing agent that best fights that specific fire. we have different types of extinguishers throughout the boat as well as a fire mains (similar to fire hydrants.) if a fire were to happen at any given time, an assigned group of people (called the fly away team) will immediately grab the appropriate extinguisher and run to try to fight the fire. in the mean time, assigned guys are dressing out in Fire Fighting Ensembles (what fire fighters wear) and SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus, the air tanks,) and theyll grab the nearest hose to fight the fire. meanwhile the guys 'driving' the ship will be working to bring us to the surface so we can start to emergency ventilate the compartment of the smoke. fire is one of the scariest things because it can consume the ship and you have no where to run. thats why its important that every person be able to fight all the casualties that may occur.
That's good to know. Glad that incidents like that do not happen often, and have not resulted in casualties really. I can imagine how scary that would get.

[OutlawLui]

sounds like fun

[lewisfk]

One thing Mr. Navy Guy! OPSEC, OPSEC, OPSEC!!!!!!!!!!!

[LoneStarSilvia]

Meh, he hasn't said anything you probably couldn't find on Google or Wikipedia.

[Matej]

Are there any medical risks or precautions, when locked in with a nuclear reactor?
I am curious how safe it is now. When nuclear power first started being harnessed to drive things, one could not count on having kids in the future or living forever. :)

[AsleepAltima]

Amazing stuff in the thread. How is the pay? I'm sure it's worth it?
aside from any special duty pay - we all get the same pay according to our ranks and time in service. they have to do that or the services would be lopsided.

[AsleepAltima]

One thing Mr. Navy Guy! OPSEC, OPSEC, OPSEC!!!!!!!!!!!
i think hes being pretty careful. nothing is specific or what a recruiter couldnt answer.

[chato de shamrock]

Since you could hear marine creatures with the sonar, ever caught any pods of dolphins wigging out from your sub's sonar? Once pulled into port, ever wonder how many marine creatures your sonar must have fudged during your two, three month stint?

[dawagarage]

This is good stuff, I been to Point Loma several times before I realized they actually had subs on that side. From the top side they look rarely small or noticable.

the subs at point loma are the smaller guys, and you really cant appreciate any ship's size until you see it in dry dock. then youre like "damn"

got a lot of friends that are on subs from kings bay,GA..

kinda cool to see one of them come in. They really don't surface till they get near the shipping channel.

yeah the safest place to be for a sub is submerged, so we dont like to come up until we have to. we're too much of a sitting duck.

Amazing stuff in the thread. How is the pay? I'm sure it's worth it?

we get our basic pay, as well as sea pay just like any other sea going sailor. the only additional pay we get is 'submarine duty pay' which for me right now is $275 extra a month. the guys that work directly with the nuclear reactor get 'nuke pay' as well, which i think is 150 a month. but when you go out to sea for a few months, youre not spending the majority of your money so when you come back its like a little bonus.

Are there any medical risks or precautions, when locked in with a nuclear reactor?
I am curious how safe it is now. When nuclear power first started being harnessed to drive things, one could not count on having kids in the future or living forever. :)

in regards to nuclear risk, etc... there arent any really. we all wear devices on our belts that measure the amount of radiation we receive, theyre called dosimeters. every few months the dosimeters are sent in to a lab to be checked to see how much radiation each of us has been exposed to. the safe 'limit' that the navy has set in place for us is actually LESS than what the safe limit is for the average citizen.

Since you could hear marine creatures with the sonar, ever caught any pods of dolphins wigging out from your sub's sonar? Once pulled into port, ever wonder how many marine creatures your sonar must have fudged during your two, three month stint?

we rarely if ever use active sonar, which is more harmful. i dont really know how harmful passive sonar is. however, sadly i do know that marine life is harmed. i think it was in the newspaper a couple months ago about how a whale was beached because it had been hit with sonar. sad story. personally i think it sucks, but its one of those 'evil necessities.'

[theicecreamdan]

Meh, he hasn't said anything you probably couldn't find on Google or Wikipedia.

welcome to the world