Join the Navy and see the world... I did get to visit some interesting places. Here is my old boat, the USS Whale (SSN 638) at dock in Gibraltar. We did a run through the Mediterranean in 1995 on an around-the-world tour. The Whale has since been decommissioned and turned into razor blades. She was old and tired. We were glad to recycle her.
Part of my time in the Nav was spent in the Kitsap Peninsula of Washington State, where I had the idiotic idea that I should own an old pick up truck. It's a 1976 lowered GMAC shorty. What a piece of junk. My old Navy friend Chris (see the Moto page) can attest to that. Lucky for the guy that sold it to me, I had no clue about vehicles at the time. I bought it for $1,500 and proceeded to put $3,000 worth of work into it. I ended up selling it for $400 because the engine was shot, the suspension was shot, and the paint job was done with a spray can, probably about an hour before I bought it. However, after owning that hunk of junk, I now know A LOT MORE about vehicle repair and maintenance. On the positive side, it was loud as hell and fun to drive around Bremerton (where the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is) and Silverdale (where my apartment was).
I spent 1990-1996 in the US Navy as an officer in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program . It's a program that accepts engineering and science majors from college (entry requirement was about a 3.3 GPA in an engineering or hard science major) into the Navy to become officers on submarines and aircraft carriers. The idea was pretty exciting when I was a senior in college because it was the recession of 1991 and being a desk jockey really didn't interest me.
While the submarine force wasn't anything resembling a good time, it was a good experience that I don't regret at all. Maybe the best thing about it is that now I realize that no matter where I am or what I'm doing, it's better than being a submarine officer in the Navy. No kidding. If you love the Navy, don't take that the wrong way, because many parts of the Nav are a good time and a good place to be. But if you like to work 36 hours at a crack without any sleep in a little steel tube under incredible stress with people that really don't want to be there, then come to Wall Street or be a lawyer and make a lot more money! Ha, that's a joke because the working conditions are a lot better on Wall Street.
After signing the dotted line, I still had a few months left in college. I didn't do ROTC or have a scholarship. Instead, the people in my program attend OCS (officer candidate school) after graduation. At that time, OCS was located in scenic Newport, RI. I had the good fortune of attending in the summer. Newport's a great place to be in the summer. In the winter, I'm told it's a different story. Since then, I understand OCS was moved to Pensacola, FL. Not a bad place either.
After a successful, if stressful 4 months in OCS, "nukes" (as nuclear propulsion trained military are called) are sent to Nuclear Power School (Nuke School for short). In 1991, Nuke School was located in Orlando Florida. That base has since been shut down and I'm not sure where the school relocated. I think it's in New London, co-located with submarine school. In any case, it's too bad they shut down the Orlando Navy Base because it was a decent place to be stationed. The winters are easy and the city populace is fairly young. I enjoyed being in Orlando, though I don't think I'll move back to Florida in my lifetime. The six months at Nuke School was quite stressful. Between a fifth and a quarter of my class failed out and was either separated from the Navy or sent to the non-nuclear surface fleet (submariners call them "skimmers"). Work days were long. Usually between 13 and 16 hours. Classes took up about 8 hours if I remember correctly, and the rest was study time, which was needed. Imagine drinking from a fire hose. The program is designed to force feed all the necessary knowledge to safely operate, maintain, and handle emergencies on a naval nuclear power plant, either in an aircraft carrier or a submarine.
Assuming one passes Nuke School, the next stop in the training pipeline is Nuclear Prototype, which is an operating nuclear reactor in one of several locations in the US. Most people don't know these things exist in their own backyard. The one I went to was in Balston Spa, not too far from the halfway point between Lake George and Albany, NY. The purpose of these "training" nuclear reactor plants is to provide officers and enlisted men practical experience of shutting down, starting up, maintaining, and most important of all, fighting casualties associated with a nuclear power plant. The fact is, these things are safer than crossing the street. It's probably just as well people near these plants don't know they're there because it would cause needless worry. Besides that, the power plants are small. A small fraction of the size of a standard civilian nuclear power plant.
Nuclear Prototype was also stressful. Several of my peers didn't pass. I sometimes wonder whether my passing was a good thing or bad thing. I think I would've been more upset at failing, so I'm glad I passed. But I wasn't prepared for what was waiting for me in the submarine fleet. Nuclear plant operations were no problem. It's the culture and morale of the submarine force that jolted me. More on that later.
Following Nuclear Prototype, officers head either to surface warfare school (for officers going to an aircraft carrier) or submarine warfare school (for officers going to the submarine fleet). Of course, I went to sub school in New London. The program was two or three months and a breeze compared to the nuclear training we all went through. Upon graduation from sub school, officers are finally assigned to a submarine.
My assignment, to be blunt, was somewhat of a disappointment. Every newly minted sub school graduate would like to go to a front line, brand new fast attack submarine. At the time of my graduation that meant a third-flight 688-class (aka Los Angeles class) submarine. Alas, my assignment was to one of the oldest subs in the fleet, the USS Whale, a 637-class (aka Sturgeon class) submarine that was built before I was born (keel laid in 1965). I quickly got over the disappointment because it was in my first-choice port, New London, CT, close to where I grew up.
My time on the USS Whale lasted three years, from 1993 to 1996. It was challenging. I learned a lot about myself, people, and practical application of engineering theory and management skill. In other words, how to fix stuff in less than ideal conditions and get people to work when they really don't want to. And that latter point is really what was a shock to me. The overwhelming majority of crew members did not enjoy the existence. In fact, most of them could only talk about leaving the Navy. I went into the Navy with the intention of making it a career. But working in those conditions with that level of morale sucks the life out of you. That was ashame. When it was time to decide whether to continue to another assignment or leave the Navy, I decided to apply to business school and make the transition to civilian life. During my three years on the USS Whale, one out of 12 officers of similar rank decided to stay in the Navy beyond seven years. The rest ventured out into the civilian world.
Here's a few of pictures from my time on the USS Whale, SSN 638, aka Black Angel of Death (that nickname was a little joke in the wardroom):
We also went to the North Pole. The mission was called Ice-X 1994. Every year one or two submarines goes under-neath the pack ice to do various experiments. We had a couple of scientists on board doing various things. However, for our captain, the real purpose of the trip was to practice for our next ORSE (operational reactor safety examination). So we scrapped a lot of the experiments that we were supposed to do in order to practice for the exam.
It was darn cold up there. If memory serves, it was around 40F below zero. These two pictures are from a surfacing that we did south of the pole. I've a couple of pictures that I'll dig out that were taken at the North Pole which was on a nice sunny day. The weather was overcast this day.
If any visitors to this page were on this patrol with me, let me know. I've lost track of all my old shipmates. Go to the home page and press the "Email" button.
