{"id":5528,"date":"2020-12-19T14:52:02","date_gmt":"2020-12-19T19:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/awarningministry.com\/?p=5528"},"modified":"2021-01-27T15:34:09","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T20:34:09","slug":"from-poopie-suitswhat-does-it-take-to-be-a-submariner-in-their-own-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awarningministry.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/19\/from-poopie-suitswhat-does-it-take-to-be-a-submariner-in-their-own-words\/","title":{"rendered":"FROM POOPIE SUITS:WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A SUBMARINER – IN THEIR OWN WORDS?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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December\u00a017\u00a0at\u00a09:24\u00a0AM<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0FROM POOPIE SUITS:WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A SUBMARINER – IN THEIR OWN WORDS?Part 2 of our story about Wally Bishop and the Secret Sauce:The introductory handbook to the US Navy, The Bluejackets\u2019 Manual, contains this description of submarine duty in its 19th edition published in 1973:Submarine duty is different from anything else in the Navy; it requires a certain temperament which not all men possess.In an attempt to better quantify the \u201cspecial sauce\u201d that typifies an outstanding submarine sailor, we posed this question to the many submarine veterans who follow our Facebook group page entitled Poopie Suits and Cowboy Boots: \u201cWhat do you think is the \u2018certain temperament\u2019 that The Bluejackets\u2019 Manual describes?\u201dWe received many answers. Readers offered a range of interesting thoughts about the nature of \u201cthat certain something\u201d \u2014the special quality that perhaps sets the submariner apart from other sailors. To borrow the title Tom Wolfe\u2019s classic book about the Mercury Seven astronauts, what constitutes \u201cthe right stuff\u201d for submarine service? Here are the results.\u2022 You have to be a bit thick-skinned. A sub crew is like a family; you can fight with each other but no outsider better step in.\u2022 It is the calmness that improves with confidence. Some people react instantly to a bad situation, thinking that any action is better than inaction. Some people never react because the situation freezes their mind. Bu the submariner is always the calm one in any situation (and I\u2019ve worked with lots of ex-military including submariners, skimmers, and various others in the 32 years since I got out and I\u2019ve worked in the utility industry so we have plenty of bad situations to test people). We don\u2019t \u201creact\u201d as others do. We think and then act and nothing makes us freeze up. I\u2019ve even had people comment that, \u201cIt\u2019s weird that all you bubbleheads respond the same way to everything\u201d. And that is what sets us apart. Part of it is training. Part of it is our experience. But the first part is always the fact that we are people who thought we could function completely sealed inside a machine that took us down into the most inhospitable place on earth.\u2022 A submariner finds that fresh air stinks after three months of not breathing it. He finds that body odors, no matter how pungent, just don\u2019t register after a while. Most importantly, regardless of race, creed, color, faith, or sex, being a submariner is a little like the main characters of The Three Musketeers: \u201cAll for one and one for all!\u201d\u2022 In my mind, it has to be the ability to put one’s life on hold when you drop down that hatch and then to focus on your job, for the duration of the operation. The ability to keep the situation at home, in the back of your mind, without dwelling on it, knowing that there is nothing you can do about it. I watched three men crack up and have to be stabilized for the duration of the deployment, as they could not deal with the separation anxiety that overtook them. I rode the boats in the sixties and seventies, during that time when there were no communications with the home front. On fast attack boats at the time separation was total, from the time we left until the time we came back.\u2022 In submarine service, you have to be a self-starter. If you are not a self-motivated, then you probably won\u2019t want to teach yourself everything you need to learn about your boat. After absorbing all of that classroom information, it\u2019s a shock to the senses to be introduced to the real thing. But once you report aboard, no one is going to hold your hand and explain how she is put together. That\u2019s your job. You have to physically trace out the system components, valves, switches, and the like, and then you have to be able to draw all key components as they are connected. This task is yours to accomplish on your own. Otherwise, you will not make it. The older guys will help you after you\u2019ve learned almost everything; only then is it okay to ask for help with the fine details. If they sense you are trying to slough your way through the qualifications, the word will get out about your poor attitude and that you are a slacker just looking to get easy sign-offs on your qual card. Qualification suddenly becomes twice as hard.\u2022 All are volunteers with a tested IQ of 140 or better. (Editor\u2019s note: There is no consensus that this statement is true. However, it is abundantly clear that becoming qualified in submarines requires a versatile intelligence that enables one to learn every system backward and forward.)\u2022 We are gypsies at heart.\u2022 When I would shut the upper hatch in the Engine Room using a hydraulic hand pump and watch that last bit of sunlight disappear, I was filled with a resolve to do my best, because I was among the best.\u2022 It\u2019s a question of attitude. We had to volunteer so many times before you get to your first boat. Everyone on that boat had to want to be there.\u2022 Submariners’ temperament? Let\u2019s go way back and say that a lot of that temperament, probably the majority, came from childhood upbringing. I was raised with a set of values and ethics that I still live by today at age 80+. I visited the parents in their homes of several shipmates while in the Navy, and always felt comfortable and relaxed just as I would when home with my parents. Childhood core values\u2014they shape the character of the adult. We, the \u201cBrothers of the \u2018Phin\u201d, mostly shared those same core values, officers and enlisted alike. I sailed with hundreds of shipmates in my 10 years on subs and can only think of two shipmates whom I would consider as complete a-holes. I doubt if any others military or civilian organization can say the same.\u2022 Wild, intelligent, adaptable\u2026misfits.\u2022 Submariners are unflappable\u2026okay, maybe not entirely. But overall, they have a very limited \u201cflappability.\u201d\u2022 Many submariners grew up reading stories or watching TV shows or movies about submarines at war. The same sense of adventure attracted the same crowd to consider becoming a race car driver or a fighter pilot. But then when you make it to a boat, you realize that five things are different about submarines:o Parachutes don\u2019t apply;o No medics or ambulances can help;o You are confined in the same space for months;o Surrounded by a deep and merciless sea;o Meaning that one mistake and everyone aboard could perish.That\u2019s why we drilled so hard. There was no time to think during an emergency. You had to know what to do in an instant, so you practiced and played out all the scenarios while you were on watch. There was a real sense of discipline required that not all sailors were wired for.\u2022 Temperament to me is one’s mood swing, attitude, aggression factor, etc. and unlike on a surface ship where separation is possible between two that don’t get along, we cannot do that on a submarine. Sub sailors are “Brothers of the Sea” and as such, are family. I believe the “certain temperament” posed in the question may be whittled down to one word . . . maturity.\u2022 Big balls of steel!There’s a lot more, plus Part I at www.facebook.com\/2hoodssubbook<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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