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........Never thought to ask what it was like living in a sub. Couldn't get past the horror of drowning.
Of the various ways to go.......
Thresher, they were pulverized/incinerated in a blink of an eye when the hull failed (implosion).
Scorpion and INS Dakar, they probably drowned but it was probably a very quick drowning. There's an interesting question or two or three. In a sudden violent flooding of an compartment, does the shock of the water hitting you knock you out? Does it pulverize you like dropping hand grenades on a swimmer? If one is still alive when something sinking rams into the ocean floor, is it the sudden deacceleration that kills you instead?
ARA San Juan sounds like it imploded, a quick death......maybe. While the submarine was found in many pieces on the ocean floor, indicating an implosion break up, there is always that question of what happened before it reached crush depth.
Generally, find a submarine intact on the bottom can be indicative that when it got to crush depth, it was already flooded; find it crushed or shredded, then it probably was filled with "air" when it reached crushed depth.
One thing to keep in mind with at least diesel electric submarines is that if they are in a death dive, they are only a few seconds of the travel time of the length of the hull to reach their crush depth.
Chinese Romeo (Ming) 361 asphyxiated while the Kursk was explosion, flash fire, carbon dioxide and monoxide poisoning and if that didn't get them, there was always hypothermia waiting.
Carbon dioxide poisoning is also what killed the divers in the lockout chamber of the Johnson Sea Link accident in 1973 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_Sea_Link_accident They were, however, also looking at hypothermia and decompression sickness.
K-219 (the Yankee boat off the east coast) had some crew killed by explosion, toxic gas, and asphyxiation.
But if designers did away with the conning tower I'd have thought the periscope and radar masts could be housed in the hull and made telescopic so they could be extended waaay above the surface, but what do i know?
Our periscopes and radar masts are made to be separate compartments they can each withstand sea-pressure at terrifying depths. For them to be telescoping they would likely fill with water.
Quote:
Originally Posted by twinkletwinkle22
I had a friend join the Navy out of high school and he was assigned to subs, don't remember if he requested that or how he ended up there. After his 4 years were up he switched to Coast Guard and was a lifer there. He commented on lack of space on subs probably because he was 6'.
There is an amount of screening we all go through.
For those volunteers over 6 foot tall, when they arrive at Sub School, each week they will be asked to spend a day touring a couple of the boats down at the piers.
If they still wish to volunteer after spending a few days touring various boats, then they are welcome to do so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by john3232
I had an acquaintance who died a few years back that often wore a navy jacket from WWII. He was 17 when he joined the navy and worked in the control room of the sub. during the war. I don't recall what his job was but he would often rotate. He was never with one sub for very long. Four times he said the sub he'd just been in was sunk shortly his transfer.
From what you wrote, if I had to guess I would guess that your friend was either a FireControl Tech [FTG], or a QuarterMaster [QM].
FTGs work on a system that takes target data [distance, heading, speed] from sonar and/or the periscope, or ESM and manipulates that data into a 'FireControl solution' [meaning all the data a torpedo needs so that when it is launched it may properly introduce itself to the target]. That is fed it into a torpedo. We normally like to keep a FireControl solution programmed into every torpedo just in case.
For every surface target vessel that comes within 100 miles of a sub, there should be a firecontrol solution already programmed into a torpedo, waiting.
QMs also spend most of their careers in the Control Room. They are busy charting our position and trying to keep us safe from running into seamounts and other obstacles. Driving full speed into a seamount is a bad thing.
I was in the Submarine Service from 1961 to 1965 on diesel boats. The last diesel boats were built in the mid-50s thus nuclear powered was what all the new boats were. I was on SS-365, USS Hardhead attached to SubDevGrpII (Submarine Development Group 2) based in New London. The USS Thresher SSN-593 was one of our boats. I had several friends that went down with her.
While in Sub School, we would go out on day cruises (including multi diving and surfacing) in Long Island Sound on various diesel boats. We would rotate from compartment to compartment. One thing the instructors looked for was how were students handling the whole experience as in were any abnormally nervous, sweating, etc. The next day any student with issues was called away and dismissed from Sub School.
We also did a 100 free ascend in the diving tower. Some refused to do it. Some panicked while doing it. They were gone the next day.
I rode a few nuclear boats (USS Tullibee SSN597 and USS Skipjack SSN585) but only for a few days each as part of an proficiency team evaluations. Never as a crew member.
When I see You Tube, Videos, etc. of modern subs, the first thing I think is wow, look at all the space and fresh water (showers and clean clothes), etc. they have. Luxurious living. No hydraulic oil or diesel food leaking on to their food.........LOL
The routine of a Boomer will kill me. I want excitement. Different things, different places, etc.
Contrary to popular belief. There were no physical size restrictions on sub sailors. Performance, not size mattered. At that age I was 6ft tall and 220 lbs. There were bigger and taller guys on boats than I was.
You guys certainly know a lot about subs. I know nothing. I don't suppose subs take tourists on board? A breach of security? I would pay for a ticket.
So you work 7 days a week? No days off? And you don't miss females?
What happens if a man makes mistakes or doesn't remember things? Or does not have the strength
for the job?
Speaking as a surface guy, I'm curious about the difference in space between an attack boat and a boomer. Boomers are much bigger, so I've heard that makes a difference when it comes to livable space. Is that the case? Is there a lot more space on a boomer? Are you still hot-racking on a boomer?
Speaking as a surface guy, I'm curious about the difference in space between an attack boat and a boomer. Boomers are much bigger, so I've heard that makes a difference when it comes to livable space. Is that the case? Is there a lot more space on a boomer?
Yes. The difference is huge.
Quote:
... Are you still hot-racking on a boomer?
--
The Navy has a lot of inspection teams.
ORSE - to ensure that the Engineering department of a nuclear-powered vessel is operating their reactor(s) in a safe manner.
DASO- certification in a Demonstration and Shakedown Operation
FOT - test launches of FBM ballistic missiles.
INSURV, etc, ...
When one of these teams of 20+ men come aboard they bring with them a list of evolutions they wish to observe our crew perform. Those teams will be assigned birthing, that was previously occupied by crewmen. That is what causes hot racking on boomers.
We have sufficient birthing for the crew and officers. Shortages occur when we host a lot of guests.
Just an idea to combat feelings of claustrophobia in a sub-
Perhaps every bunk could have a small tablet-sized screen attached to the wall so that the occupant could hit a few buttons to display a map of where they are in the world, their depth, speed, route, the sea temperature and the surface weather and local time of the day etc.
incidentally should we think twice before buying a beachfront property?
I mean, enemy subs could easily sneak up to within a mile or two and spy on us with their periscopes, or even worse send a terror squad ashore to upset us real bad..
Just an idea to combat feelings of claustrophobia in a sub-
Perhaps every bunk could have a small tablet-sized screen attached to the wall so that the occupant could hit a few buttons to display a map of where they are in the world, their depth, speed, route, the sea temperature and the surface weather and local time of the day etc.
On many boats the bunks are wired with a 'Sunstrand' system. Twelve channels of audio and a headphone jack. The ICmen maintain a cabinet loaded with 12-hour reel-to-reel tapes that auto-reverse when they reach the end of a reel. Once those tape machines are loaded they can play continuously for 100 days.
The crew are invited to bring any music they have and the ICmen will gladly transfer that music onto the tape reels.
On one of my first patrols the music that the crew donated was all Frank Zappa. That was a mistake. Nothing but Zappa on all channels, all the time for 100+ days.
incidentally should we think twice before buying a beachfront property?
I mean, enemy subs could easily sneak up to within a mile or two and spy on us with their periscopes, or even worse send a terror squad ashore to upset us real bad..
All this talk about Fast-attacks and Boomers, but nobody wants to talk about the other types of submersible vessels the US Navy has.
USS Parche (SSN-683) and USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23) were both 'spy' boats. Modified to sit on the bottom on top of an inter-continental communications cable, to splice into that cable, and to decrypt messages.
USS Kamehameha (SSBN-642) and USS James K. Polk (SSBN-645) were both boomers later converted to troop transports, redesigned reactor coolant systems allow these boats to settle down into river silt and mud, to park in position awaiting their teams to launch and return.
Another interesting vessel is the USS FLIP. It does 'research' on the oceans.
I have also known a few submariners whose careers had them rotating between boomers and TAG-S ships.
USNS Pathfinder (T-AGS-60)
USNS Sumner (T-AGS-61)
USNS Bowditch (T-AGS-62)
USNS Henson (T-AGS-63)
USNS Bruce C. Heezen (T-AGS-64)
USNS Mary Sears (T-AGS-65)
USNS Maury (T-AGS-66)
They did most of the detailed mapping of the ocean floors, and the mapping of gravity anomalies that subs use to navigate by. It was men on TAG-S ships who originally located the wreck of the Titanic and allowed our subs to use it as a navigational landmark, in the 1970s.
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