Years ago when I was in the Navy we spent 121 consecutive days at sea. It was brutal and it was the record at the time. We only did it as they had recently reduced deployment times for West Pac from 9 months to 6 months.
They use to do 9 months and hit a lot more ports. This sounds like a better deal, but only if you’re single. For married guys or guys in committed relationships, it broke up a lot of relationships. Before the change, sailors had the highest divorce rate, ahead of even police officers. I believe this change did help, but not sure.
So with 121 days at sea we started getting a little crazed. Fights increased & lots of odd behaviors. Some sailors stopped showering. All kinds of weird stuff happened. And this was on an Aircraft Carrier. 1000’ long with 5000 men aboard.
I can’t really imagine how much worse it is on a Destroyer with only 370 crew and a lot less facilities. At least the crews are mixed gender now; that probably helps. 208 days is a good psych test for those that do the first Mars mission I guess. I’m not sure what the current thoughts are for travel time to Mars. But I’m thinking 250 days is what I heard most recently.
Just some tech stuff now:
USS Stout , an Arleigh Burke -class guided missile destroyer
Deployed as part of the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group in early 2020 to the 5th Fleet area of operations. Switched to a different task part way through the deployment guarding commercial ships as they pass through Strait of Hormuz. They provided “overwatch” for over 550 vessels.
Hopefully all the crew came through this experience well and their relationships back home in Norfolk, Virginia survived.
God bless 'em. That doesn’t sound like any fun, but the United States Navy is second to none and if there’s a tough job that needs to be done, I know the crew would be up to the challenge.
Didn’t nuclear submarine crews used to spend six month tours at sea (or under the sea if that’s the correct term). Not quite 208 days but a submarine is an even smaller space than a destroyer and it doesn’t have contact with other ships in a task force.
3 months continuous at sea as far as I know. Thus why the USS Ranger’s 121 days was the record way back in 1987. Also that’s the ballistic subs and not the fast attack subs.
Sub duty is very hard and even better training for space travel. The Navy’s elite is pretty much SEALS, followed by submariners then our Carrier Pilots I guess, though it pains me to say that as an old snipe.
I saw no indication of the return date either and I read parts of 3 articles.
Yeah, after a while at sea things get weird. My (much smaller) record is 103 days at sea on a pipelay vessel. Ours was roomy in comparison (650 feet, but only 240 crew), but it still gets to you after a while.
After an all-night poker party where we cut up thousands of Cyalume sticks and slung the contents all over the walls*, and were too hung over to work – the boss told us to take some time on the beach to relax.
*Actually, it looked really cool with the lights off. These were the gigantic ones that attached to equipment that was sent down to the divers, so there was a LOT of green glowing light.