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).

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dawagarage

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.

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.

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formerly known as "hotboiblaze"

ratsun: dawa (73 datsun 620)
clublexus: properD (97 sc300)

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)?

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GeneStarWindGSW

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

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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?

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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?

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fliprayzin240sx

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.

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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.

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ratsun: dawa (73 datsun 620)
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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

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formerly known as "hotboiblaze"

ratsun: dawa (73 datsun 620)
clublexus: properD (97 sc300)

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.

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formerly known as "hotboiblaze"

ratsun: dawa (73 datsun 620)
clublexus: properD (97 sc300)

word sux

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.

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ratsun: dawa (73 datsun 620)
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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.

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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.

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Tearlessj

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

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Redstar

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.

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OutlawLui

sounds like fun

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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.

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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

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

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

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"

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.

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.

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.

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.'

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ratsun: dawa (73 datsun 620)
clublexus: properD (97 sc300)

theicecreamdan

welcome to the world

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