Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ever serve on a submarine?

I spent 6 years on them out of New London Conn.

No one wants to serve on a Submarine that fails.

Had the opportunity to get the tour on an active duty sub at pierside, Point Loma CA back when I was on active duty.

Pretty impressive. very close quarters. Food stacked everywhere (that's the first thing they run out of on patrol. They were nuke powered, and made the water and air they needed.) . The torpedoes are a lot bigger than I imagined. Had lunch on board, that was intersting how small the galley/mess was. It takes a special kind of sailor, and they were a tight crew.

I've been in the U505 in Chicago. Cramped quarters for sure. Some of those wooden berths couldn't be more than 5 feet long which would suck if you're north of 6 foot.

The WWII sub the Silversides is here in west Michigan still afloat. It's a floating museum with an amazing history - one story is of the pharmacist mate performing an appendectomy while underway using homemade instruments from the galley. There are tours and the Boy Scouts regularly camp on it, giving tours during the day. Read about it here:

USS SILVERSIDES

My uncle did 30 yrs. in subs, retired as a COB to Cape Canaveral, he loved every minute of it, especially the last few yrs. His ashes are spread in SC and the Trident Sub Basin at the Cape.

The good old Ohio, the first , the finest, the fattest.


It is an inside joke only Trident sailors would know about. A little mistake that cost several good people their careers. My team and I helped fix the problem.

Not personally, though have a cousin that spent most of his 20 year career in the Navy on 6-9 month nuclear sub deployments.

Yep. Two of 'em. USS Redfish and USS Razorback; both WWII diesel boats that were commissioned in 1944.

The Redfish was decommissioned in circa June of '68 - then sunk, as part of an exercise, by the USS Medregal a couple years later..

Razorback is currently in the maritime museum in North Little Rock, AR. and is (according to the boys at the museum) about 90% operational..

I was a TM-3 (SS) and in from '66-'69 with two patrols in the war zone during the Viet Nam era..


(added) - I should have read a few below first..

When I was 9 years old our family visited the U505 in Chicago. It was right then that I knew I wanted to be on a submarine..

Calhoun's statement about headaches also reminded me of the first times I got on board the Redfish. Took me a week to learn exactly when to duck my head to avoid a pipe or valve hanging from the overhead (it's NEVER called the ceiling --- ALWAYS known as 'the overhead'.. )

Every time that I see that thing sitting there, I am amazed at how small it looks on the outside. Never been inside. miles

1986-1989 USS Andrew Jackson (SSBN 619). We were stationed in Holy Loch Scotland, did 2 patrols and decommissioned in Charleston SC.

I recently read a great book about WWII sub warfare in the Pacific, The War Below. It follows the stories of 3 subs (and their crews), Tang, Drum, and Silversides. It's an engaging story of these boats and their crews, taken from official records and the private correspondence of crews. Very good reading.

I have never had the urge to get into a submarine, and after reading the book, my claustrophobic tendencies have been confirmed. Kudos to the guys who do it, though!

While in Charleston SC, wife and I walked thru the WWII sub by the Yorktown. Talk about tight quarters! Got to give the men that served on them a lot of credit. I would like to go on a tour of a newer/bigger sub sometime.

One of my co-workers in a Navy veteran that served as a nuclear engine mechanic on modern subs and is very serious about keeping secret,secret.

You should really go and take a tour, seriously.. As long as you're not claustrophobic you'll do fine..

I took my son down there back in 2010 so he could see what they're like.. Spent nearly a whole day there. Brought back a lot of memories..

Spent most of my time here:




Used a lot of brass polish too..

Even more impressive than being aboard is watching them launch missiles. I've been aboard the Range Sentinel escort ship several times, during live-fire tests. I've watched sub-launched Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident launched from the deck of the Sentinel. My wife remembers one such VIP cruise as one of the highlights of our years at the Cape.

I was also there as one of the Air Force brass squad when Jimmy Carter decided to take a joy ride aboard a sub. We AF types didn't get to go along, but had to shake the Great Inflator's hand as he boarded and debarked the sub. He was cool to the AF guys. Rosalyn was a truly gracious Southern belle, however. A real lady.

My boat did what I think was one of the first Trident C4 launches off the Cape. This would have been 1982-ish. I have a terrific picture in my shop of the missile just breaking the surface taken by some shipmates who were riding the Range Sentinel. Unfortunately about a mile up the missile turned tail and came back down pretty near us. I remember like yesterday the sage old chiefs explaining to the newbs what the various sights and sounds of the launch signified. The tube door closing was supposed to be the last loud noise. When the unburnt fuel from the missile ignited on crashing, the WTF? look on their face was priceless.

I did. I spent 4 years on a 637 class fast attack boat out of Pearl in the early 90's, the USS Pintado, SSN 672. I was an auxillary mechanic, pretty much took care of all mechanical things that weren't propulsion. Hydraulics, air, atmosphere control, trim and drain, firefighting, plumbing, refrigeration, you name it. I wasn't a career kind of guy, yet I wouldn't trade those years for anything.

There might be something seriously wrong with me, but I can listen to stories about people blowing schitters on themselves until it's just too painful to laugh anymore.

Hell,that was a regular occurrence to the new guys.

Whether the "Blowing Sanitaries" signs have been posted or not, it is always a danger indicator if there are little bubbles leaking past the ball valve in the crapper. Yeah, find another time to use it, you didn't really need to right now.

As the junior qualified Sub-Safe QA inspector at the time, I once had the distinct pleasure of having to dive into the San-2 tank to monitor and certify the correct installation of a new TLI. For those not in the know, San-2 was a black water tank. Otherwise known as the [bleep] tank. The rule was not to wear anything down there you ever wanted to see again because it was going straight in the trash when you got out.