Ask a nuclear submariner.

In My Humble Opinion
1

The recent coverage of the USS Hampton, the fact that it appears no one has done this yet, and that it was specifically requested in a thread on “Ask the…” threads.

I’m currently on a 688i fast attach submarine (Los Angeles class).
I R NUKE- so I may by able to answer questions about that, too.

Some answers may be necessarily vague, of course.\

As for the Hampton…
From what I’ve overheard, it was an infrequent analysis (not daily) that has no impact on reactor safety or chemical/radiological control of the plant.

2

Sorry to hear about the gun decking. And now, on to the questions:

  1. Are you a Bluenose?

  2. Do they still call patrols 4 Knots To Nowhere?

  3. Do you hot rack?

3

rhythmonly

  1. Doesn’t seem to be much call for North Atlantic action since those godless commies aren’t operating like they used to. Have crossed the equator a few times, though.
  2. I have heard that phrase, yes.
  3. Usually.
4

  1. What the heck is hot rack? It sounds like some icky special at Denny’s.

  2. How long do you usually stay under water at a stretch? How long can you stay underwater?

  3. I understand modern subs are a lot larger than their ancestors, but does anyone ever just go, “Oh shit, I’m stuck in a little tube underwater!” and kind of freak? I’m only a little claustrophobic, but I think after a couple days under water, I’d have some sort of psychotic break.

  4. Can you smoke on board? I saw that in a movie once and thought it was kind of a dumb idea, but what do I know?

  5. Say you sink an enemy ship, and there are no other ships of any kind around. What are your legal obligations, if any, to the survivors who wind up floating in the water? Are you supposed to try to pick them up, and do you have the facilities to do so? Can you take prisoners?

5

How much stuff do you have?

Personal items, like clothing, books, whatever?

I’ve seen video of the ‘wet trainer’ for training how to fix leaks. It doesn’t look fun. Is it?

What is your favorite submarine movie?

6

Are there regular tense standoffs as often as the movies would have you believe? At all?

/one ping only

7

Cool, we were just arguing about this yesterday.

What medical reasons would cause you to surface during and extended tour?

Appendicitis? Infection? Wisdom Teeth?

Thanks!

yancey

8

Have you ever broke the conning tower through the ice like in the movies? If so, do you get to leave the boat and goof around out there like in the movies?

What is a blue nose?

9

Is the food good? I saw on a show somewhere that the submarines had the best food in the Navy.

10

Did you ever feel claustrophobic ?? If yes how did you get over it ??

11

Hot Rack or “Hot Bunking” is where you share a rack (bed, cot) with the guy who’s on the opposite shift as you.

That single concept alone kept me out of the Navy.

USAF – oorah!

12

Is the USN and Russian navy still playing cat and mouse? It strikes me as being very dangerous-and probably unwise. yes, its good to know a potential enemie’s weaknesses-but to get into dangerous situations, maybe not a good idea.

13

How are the shower facilities?

14

Darn.

As a former ELT myself (ELTs - Engineering Laboratory Technicians - are the dudes who were supposed to be performing the chemical and radiological tests), this is an embarrassment to all Navy Nukes.
We were required to run our primary coolant tests daily in order to get the jump on nastiness such as corrosion or fuel element failure.

That sucks :frowning:

I’m sure the Navy will treat them appropriately.

15

Bayard
*1) What the heck is hot rack?*When they assign a single bunk to multiple people on different shifts.

*2) How long do you usually stay under water at a stretch? How long can you stay underwater?*Usually only a few weeks at a time. The upper limit is based on how long our food loadout lasts.

*3) Does anyone ever just […] kind of freak?*Yes.

*4) Can you smoke on board?*Yes. We already have air handling systems to deal with the various crap put out by equipment. Plus you don’t have a bunch of people going through nicotine withdrawal trapped in a tiny metal tube under the sea.

*5) Say you sink an enemy ship, and there are no other ships of any kind around. What are your legal obligations, if any, to the survivors who wind up floating in the water? Are you supposed to try to pick them up, and do you have the facilities to do so? Can you take prisoners?*I think it’s the Geneva Conventions that would require us to render aid to survivors. There’s not a whole lot we could do about it, though.

** Zebra **
How much stuff do you have?
Personal items, like clothing, books, whatever?
You’ll end up with about two-thirds of a rack pan. Or two 1/3s of two rack pans. How much can you fit in about 24x24x4" of space?
*I’ve seen video of the ‘wet trainer’ for training how to fix leaks. It doesn’t look fun. Is it?*Nukes don’t commonly go through sub school, so I’ve never been through the wet trainer. The water is reportedly very cold.
What is your favorite submarine movie?
Crimson Tide or K-19 for the unintentional comedy. Pretty much anything they show that has anything to do with Hollywood’s concept of ship’s layout or operation.

Not recently.

Anything the on board medical personnel felt was beyond their capability to keep from becoming life-threatening.

You become a blue nose when you cross the Arctic (or Antarctic, presumably) circle. It’s “Shellback” for the equator.

I haven’t been above the arctic circle, but the boat I’m on has done the whole breaking through the ice thing. There’s a video on the ship’s LAN of a polar bear trying to figure out if the rudder is edible.

More is budgeted for our food than anywhere else in the Navy on a per man basis. They do serve steak and lobster from time to time. However, it’s a quantity over quality issue. It’s not bad, but it’s not that good, either. It probably is the best food in the Navy.

No.

We don’t tie up at Russian piers.

Imagine the smallest closet in your house lined with stainless steel panels and you’ve got the idea.

The showerhead is an Alsons 650-series (652C or 650CPK). One of the best high-velocity water saving showerheads I’ve ever come across.

Keep in mind the hysterical irrationality associated with all things nuclear, the fact that they aren’t going to have any specifics on what was or wasn’t actually done, and the need to write a story that’s interesting.

16

Yikes! Can you expand on that answer?

17

A friend at work here used to work on a sub with a nuclear payload. He told me all non-senior officers we not even allowed to look at the nukes. When he was required to do some repair in the area of the nukes, he had to turn his back to the nuke and scuddle past them until he couldn’t see them anymore. Is this an actual regulation on your sub? Do you carry nuclear weapons at all?

18

Do you ever play 688 Attack Sub on your time off?

19

Thanks for answering my questions. Cool thread.

Another one occurred to me: Do you have a way of getting ashore except at piers? Say you really needed to get people off for whatever reason, and you’re not near a friendly place designed for subs to tie up. Maybe you’re taking water and you’re several miles from Gilligan’s Island or something. Is there some kind of inflatable boat you can pop out and head off to the shore? Or do you run the sub aground and hope for the best?

Are there Marines on board? Do you have any way of engaging land-based enemies except by nuke?

20

Not to hone in on ** 1010011010**’s thread, but I thought I’d join in, too. I was a junior officer (JO) on a Los Angeles-class 688I fast attack submarine, and I also did one patrol on an old boomer (ballistic missile submarine).

Going thru the questions raised in the thread so far…

Never saw anyone freak out, but on my missile patrol (which lasted about 70 days without surfacing) , we did have one midshipman who used to spend hours in the Machinery 1 compartment just staring up at the hatch. People were wondering if he’d just decide to leave one night… :eek:

Regarding smoking—up to the late 80s, you could smoke anywhere on board. On my boat in the mid-90s, smoking was relegated to the aft-most lower level compartment in the engine room. You’d find at least a few people there smoking any time of day. A few boats in the 90s tried to go smoke-free, but it generally didn’t go well. I knew one officer who went UA (headed for Vegas) rather than go back to sea without his cigarettes.

As a JO, I didn’t have to hot rack, so I had a whole rack pan and part of a closet to store my gear. I did go to the Arctic twice (so I’m a bluenose); the first time, we had so many riders (scientist-types) that every sailor who was more junior than a Petty Officer 1st class was hot-racking. Hot racking usually means that three sailors (in three different watch sections) share two racks (bunks).

The submarine wet trainer (which simulates flooding) is loads of fun. The control room watching over the action has windshield wipers.

My sub was the first 688 to break through the Arctic pack ice back in 1993. We did get to goof off with “ice liberty.” We hit orange golf balls and played football on the pack ice. :slight_smile:

I never felt claustrophobic; it helps to keep the air temp low (in the forward section of the boat), and moving with the ventilation system.

Not to get into any specifics, but the point between U.S. and Russian subs was not to play “cat-and-mouse,” but to protect the nation. If the ball had ever dropped and WWIII had started, a certain number of Russian missile subs would have been sunk by the U.S. sub following them before they got any missiles off.

The showers sucked, because you had to conserve water. Two minutes tops with the water running. You got wet, turned off the water. Soaped up, washed your hair with the water off. Rinsed off as fast as possible.

Regarding nukes, it is policy that we can neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons aboard any U.S. Navy vessel.

Other than piers, subs can tie up next to submarine tenders (large surface support ships). There are emergency rubber rafts as well on board. If you just need to transfer someone off the boat, you typically just transfer the person from surfaced sub to a tugboat. We had a case where a guy broke his arm during “angles and dangles” and we transferred him to a tug out of Halifax.

No Marines on board, usually.

Fast attack submarines can engage land targets with Tomahawk cruise missiles. They generally carry conventional warheads.