Get Pocket-
Living in a machine with over 100 sailors requires a person to be flexible socially and sometimes physically. I spent two decades on United States Navy submarines performing sonar duties among eccentric personalities in incredibly stressful situations. When sailors report to their first submarine, they are joining a work culture unlike any other. Surrounded by crew members busily moving about tight spaces and narrow walkways, announcements over the circuit boxes, roving watchstanders, equipment humming to 400hz fans, it can be anxiety-inducing to any sailor.
That is why every new crewmember starts as a NUB. But, if they work hard and learn the systems, they will earn their dolphins and become a member of another entirely unique subculture within the grander social hierarchy that exists within the confines of the submerged tube they call home for months on end.
Here’s is what is expected of a new crew member and a bit about the various ‘unique’ groups of people aboard the submarine, one of which the NUB will find themselves an integral part of once they get minted a submariner.
The NUB
A new crewmember is a Non-Useful Body, or NUB. He or she uses our limited supply of space, water, food, and oxygen. They are not welcome, but BUPERS (Bureau of Personnel) keeps sending them. The NUB is easily identifiable as he will be the only crewman wearing a command ball cap with the ship’s name and no Dolphins symbol on the front. They have their qualification card in their rear pocket at all times and had better have a small notebook in their hand for studying. They do not have movie privileges unless they are a “Hot Runner.” Hot Runner refers to a torpedo self-starting despite the fact it hasn’t been launched yet. Very dangerous, but Submariners like that kind of initiative in the NUB. more here
h/t Doc.
I imagine a continuous 400 Hz fan would permeate my soul…
You have to have a very particular mindset not to constantly think about being in a steel cylinder at the bottom of the ocean.
My hat is off to you sir!
Fun article!
Of course the Bidenministration will remove the requirements, except for ‘preferred gender’ and skin color.
So much seaman. So little time.
My stepson is a sonarman aboard a sub mentioned in the article. Very proud of him. Just never hear from him.
Bubbleheads. There’s 400Hz fans in avionic equipment too.
As an Engineering Laboratory Technician (ELT) nuke MM1 having served on four separate submarines (3 fast attacks & 1 slow approach) I can say that his description is just about spot on (I fortunately didn’t have any Docs doing ‘morale checks’). He didn’t describe why you never leave a drinking container unattended. I’ll mark that up to it has been over 20 years since I’ve been out and maybe the act of “rimming” the cup had disappeared during his time. He also didn’t describe the sleeping racks stacked 3 high like coffins in a morgue, but maybe that was in a separate article he’s written.
Oh yeah, and we referred to coners as Forward Area Guys.
Just wait until the diversity promotions take their toll on the sub fleet. Look at the photos in the article and ask yourself the obvious. Imagine what it’s going to look like when some dindu crewman sucker punches the cook because there is no more fried chicken. By the way, today is the anniversary of the loss of the USS Thresher nuclear submarine. Sad day in Naval history.
I like that I can leave my co-workers behind for some significant portion of the day myself.
Pass.
50 years ago I knew 2 submariners; both good men!
Menotu
AT 4:49 PM
“Oh yeah, and we referred to coners as Forward Area Guys.”
F orward.
A rea
G uys.
…ICWYDT…
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/681-i-see-what-you-did-there
Up at OMSI in Portland they used to have the Blueback (a diesel boat) on permanent display. One quick tour through it was more than enough for me. I could never be a submariner.
My dad exited high school early to join the navy at 17 in 1957. Was on the old diesel electric subs starting then and through the mid 60’s.Cold war artic patrols…that was a whole different breed that could take that on with considerably smaller, less conveniences, and way less safer subs. He loved it and got his GED on board, but chose to join the Air Force so he could do college courses, not possible back then on subs. He was very smart but not a pilot, Got sent to Vietnam to do weapon systems on the F-4s.
I joined the Navy with the intent to become a sub sonar tech. Fortunately for me there was a high demand for Hospital Corpsmen…especially in the Fleet Marine Force where I was accepted into the Brotherhood.
Not one regret in the world and would do it again in a heartbeat!
I would have gone totally bugfuck sealed up in a tube, I once had to tend to a patient in a Hyperbaric Chamber for several hours and that was long enough for me. I’ll take the jungle anyday over that.
When you’re out at sea for extended periods of time, I don’t care what kind of Navy ship you’re on board you lose all track of time working 12 on (and a lot of times longer than 12 hrs. especially during full flight ops on board the Kitty Hawk) and 12 off, 7 days a week. I didn’t know what day of the week it was most of the time since I was always either working or sleeping. And generally, the only way that I knew it was Sunday was when I heard the Chaplain come over the PA to announce religious services forward on the Poop deck. Don’t ask me why it’s called a Poop deck, I never figured that one out. We called newbies FNG’s. And besides when you’re in the middle of vast Pacific or Indian Oceans, it doesn’t matter, where and what are you gonna do besides work. It also doesn’t help adjusting the clocks (forward an hr. Westbound and back one hr. Eastbound) seemingly every other day due to passing thru one time zone into another. And then you cross the International date line and it’s tomorrow already.
I have a cousin who served on a sub tender out of Point Loma in San Diego who tried to take me on a tour of a sub once, I declined. In Subic Bay in the Philippines, we would occasionally see the subs coming into the bay heading to the sub base at Subic City just N. of Olongapo.
These people are VASTLY more vetted than Obama or Biden ever was. Or Pete Butthead. Or the transvestite suitcase-stealing freak formerly in charge of nuke waste. Or ANY clown in the Biden administration.
I went on a tour of a diesel-electric when I was in elementary school. It was way too small for me, even in 6th grade! I can’t imagine what it would be like for a full-grown adult.
I worked with a guy who was on the USS Miami attack sub. He was a natural born smart-ass. I couldn’t figure why his shipmates didn’t stuff him in a torpedo tube one night and launch him into the abyss. The USS Miami was eventually destroyed by a dipshit during an act of arson while in port for upgrading. It wasn’t worth repairing after the extensive damage.
No mention of the CT’s? Those secret guys listening in to the world’s communications, eh?
Oh that’s right we aren’t suppose to talk about the spooks.
Ping
One ping, Vassili. One ping only.
Honestly,
You are some very interesting people on IOTW.
It is Fun to read these types of threads.
Menotu,
“rimming the glass”?
I can guess but let’s hear it.
A CT? I was a Marine CT…50 odd years ago…NCDF Hansa Okinawa then Homestead Fla…
Kcir, rimming the glass refers to rubbing the genitalia on the rim of the container. If I ever lost sight of a glass/mug I never drank from it again. Still have that habit today, two decades later.
Proud mom of a Navy Nuke submariner here. My son is very tight lipped about life on the boat. I think he takes OpSec a little too seriously because he tells me…nothing. I learned more about his job reading this article than he has ever told me.
@ Geoff the Aardvark
The term ‘poop deck’ derives from the French word ‘la poupe, meaning the stern of a ship.
What’s that line about 100 sailors go to sea and 50 couples return to port….
You know what is the easiest way to wake up a submariner from a deep sleep?
Total silence.
When the fans go off, everyone is immediately awake because something bad is either about to happen or already has!
Peter the Bubblehead, so true. I had the ventilation duct right above my head and whenever there was an emergency the ventilation was the first to go, the sudden quiet would wake me up, then the announcement would come over the 1MC.
Guys today have some females on board to take care of them. When I was 17-21 at the 82nd Airborne, the cooks used salt peter to flavor our meals to keep our libido in check. When I joined the 75th, the salt peter was lifted and I became a a cross between rock and porn star thereafter.