What brings a man to willingly sign up for submarine duty? I can't think of a single more mentally taxing service in the entirety of the armed forces. Easily the most harrowing thing a serviceman can subject himself to, to seal yourself into a metal coffin under metric tons of oceanic pressure without seeing the sun nor breathing fresh air for weeks on end, knowing that if anything goes wrong you are 99.9999999999% sool, and these frickers do it WILLINGLY. What am I missing?
Bonus pay, high skilled crew and coworkers, and knowing you're making a difference by protecting the world from them.
>bonus pay
50 bucks a month
>high skill
lol, lmao
>making a difference
15 turns to nowhere
tldr hookups for frickups
FWIW as an ELT I was able to walk into any open nuclear plant job that wasn't I&C or electrical maintenance. I was a SRO, but I went to RP because I was tired of hanging out with 6 year and out ETs and indians.
Agangers make good marine mechanics and get paid extremely well if they swap to cruise ships or go work for BAE.
>protecting the world from your coworkers
Yes. Why do you think THEY ended up on the sub?
(if they seem like decent dudes, it's probably you who's being contained undersea)
Lower standards. Things used to be held to a lot higher standard not even 10 years ago, hazing or not.
kek
>can't think of a single more mentally taxing service in the entirety of the armed forces
EOD guys have the satisfaction of being able to solve a complex problem few people can and are considered heroes by damn near everyone. It's stressful, but incredibly rewarding, and the stress is also unique in that it all comes on at once and is resolved quickly.
They're also an incredibly strong community that takes good care of their own. They have their own charities, they all know each other, they're very tight-knit both during and after their time in.
Nukes get smaller amounts of stress over long periods and no payoff. They're mostly autists.
Cool turtleneck sweaters
With all the extra hazard pays you’re making six figures easily
if you're american, or western NATO, not so bad. highly trained and well compensated with valuable skills that may be transferable to the civilian sector after you get out. if you're r*ssian, yeah hell no.
>Easily the most harrowing thing a serviceman can subject himself to
homie, unless you're claustrophobic it's like getting paid a ton of money to work in a small windowless office and dorm for months. Even in shithole countries like Russia fatal submarine accidents are rare.
>extremely low odds of dying to enemy action
>marketable skills after getting out of service
>can spend months living out your blowbang b***h fantasy under top-secret discretion
>marketable skills
really? What positions have skills that transfer outside of military service?
Really any of the nuke (engineering rates) and not just in Nuclear power. Most of the Nukes on a submarine tend to go to high level quality assurance roles. The Sonar and Fire control guys often go into intel or civilian DoD jobs. IT/radio also intel and sysadmin jobs. A gang usually gets into manufacturing or steamfitting for DOD contractors.
Hell even the cooks can go into hotel and management roles if they aren't too dumb.
The worst job on submarine is A-gang since literally they own 3/4th of the boat and if something breaks is often them getting called in on a Saturday to fix it. Nukes also have it really shitty especially the electrical people since they have to do so much studying and often get relentlessly shit upon but they do get paid way more money.
former 688 A-gang here
I make $120k + OT working on scanning electron microscopes. I kinda want to get into law enforcement or go back to college but it's hard walking away from this easy money.
Working on EM has got to be a pretty comfy gig, no? You'd have to become a high ranking officer to make that sort of money.
Is there a plan to reverse this sort of culture? Or "Suck it up, b***h" the actual plan? I've been reading stories of the navy sucking ass for years now, having real trouble recruiting & retaining personnel, etc
The issue is that nobody capable of fixing those problems stays in long enough to attain a position where they can do so, so the answer is no, there is no plan.
Anybody good at their job or at least hardworking sees that there is no reward for any of that, watches shitbags promote ahead of them, and leaves out of disgust. My direct superior (my Operations Officer) who just transferred elsewhere is legitimately dumber than any of the teenage yokels who used to work fast food with me, but he is going to stay in for twenty years without anyone doing a damn thing about him. He will promote to at least Commander because his competition will all get the frick out and the Navy won't have a choice.
I thought the idea with promotions is to do a wide search to find good candidates and *not* promote a guy beyond his abilities because he's been there a long time.
Am I wrong?
When it comes time to fight the chinese (~5 years) will they be ready? Or will the warm bodies have to suffice?
Isn’t that sort of the problem in almost all big bureaucratic organization nowadays? The people who actually know shit and put in hours fall to the side to the people who are buddy buddy with upper management?
That's the idea, yes, but in practice when all of your candidates who aren't moronic frickups leave because the civilian world will reward their talent, all you can do is pick your favorite moronic frickup.
>will they be ready?
Generally yes, our technological advantage is just too massive. An unbelievable amount of effort specifically goes into taking that huge technological advantage and allowing it to be run in combat scenarios by barely-literate twenty year olds too, that part is legitimately impressive.
We genuinely do not have true peer adversaries. Anyone who downplays or denies how hard we'd curbstomp literally any other country on the planet doesn't know enough about the problem set.
There would be cases of extreme dumbassery that would certainly get very embarassing (I think a large chunk of younger enlisted would crack permanently), but we wouldn't lose.
I don't see any way of fixing the culture when the chief's mess has been a boy's club for moron rejects since the gulf war. They trained the 2008 market crash gays that currently stumbled their way into leadership. They self select for people just like them now. It can't be fixed. It's why loss of confidences are so common now instead of fricking hazzarding a vessel charges and court martials. From the top all the way down to OCS graduates and reenlistees with nowhere better to be.
You're honestly better off homeless. I slept in my car because picrel was the state of the barracks. I was coughing blood because I developed asthma from this shit.
>pic
Jesus frick what the hell
>loss of confidences
>hazzarding a vessel charges and court martials
I'm guessing that loss of confidence means you fire the commanding officer, but quietly? I haven't served, but when was the last time an officer was relieved of command and faced a court martial for doing a bad job (Not counting sexual harrassment bullshit)
That pic alone makes me feel a lot better about not enlisting
All of it transfers to the maritime sector. The seatime and experience that you would have by the time you're done would net you close to if not the highest license you can get from the CG so long as you pass the test. However this means you'll still be on the water though and after a stint with the navy, I bet alot of people want to get as far from the ocean as possible at that point. Though the private maritime sector can be as painless or as painful as you want it. Could work a pie job as captain of a car ferry and sleep in your own bed at home every night or end up on an ocean tug pulling duties just as long as the ones you took on the sub. You'll have priority for either job as far as those hiring are concerned so the world is your oyster really.
I did OP, as a sonar tech in a fast attack (US navy).
I did it for the pay which in reality even the extra bonus pay is shitty for what I honestly consider NEET tier skills (Acoustic intel/active and passive Sonar). But maybe I'm being too harsh
Back in the day of the early to mid Nuclear powered subs there was a prestige about being on a sub getting your Fish/warfare qualifications. These days, yeah there's definitely an awe aspect but its not like what it used to be. I feel like they are so desprate for people they are taking anyone that can pass a Top secret SCI clearance and medical which means I kid you not I've had sonar techs that were literally inbred next to me on watch (which is terrifying if you think about it).
I don't want to b***h but the US navy is a shit show and its infected the subforce.The worst part of being on a sub isn't the job so much, but rather the single digit IQ people you have to deal with on a daily basis and unlike a real job you can't just quit the military. There's a culture of blame and covering ones ass, and its getting worse by the day as people who are smart get out, and those who are leading as Chiefs and department heads are the leftovers who couldn't hack it in the real world or are so indoctrinated they can't live without the navy.
It really isn't that bad OP.
Once you're underwater, it is basically like being in any industrial building with no windows for a month or two. I found the worst aspect of submariner life to be having all of my time consumed doing maintenance and standing watch, but that is not unique to submarines.
t. former 688 EMN
I truly feel for the nukes in a sub, I don't think the general population realizes how shit-on they are. Especially in a trash tier rate like a nuke electrician.
I don't envy any pro-pay or bonus they get for that job.
Our EDMC was a mega homosexual, I had more free time port/stbd ERS than I did in port. It was always overhaul with casreps, surge deployment, BSP to pick up the ORSE team, surge deployment again, BSP to pick up the TRE team, surge deployment again where we'd do some shit like open circuit the battery at sea, then return on casreps again and repeat. We joked Guam was a good liberty port when it was our home port. All our apartments and cars would be broken into when we're back. We had a suicide attempt monthly.
Went through 3 triads in my 5 years on the boat. It was supposed to just be 3, but I got stoplossed.
I briefly considered joining the Navy after college, but was told by both a recruiter and /meg/ that I would almost certainly be disqualified due to having taken medication for depression and ADHD. I was disappointed at the time, but now I think there's a good chance I would have killed myself if I had joined.
My buddy did it. He was able to stash away the vast majority of his income and buy multiple rental properties with the accumulated pay and bonus cash (nuke techs are very well compensated). Now he's living a great relaxed life at a relatively young age living on his landlord bucks and using his GI benefits to take interesting courses and hang around college girls.
But he did have to spend prime years underwater in a tube with a bunch of dudes. The stories of desperately trying to bust a nut on shore leave... yeah. And he said there were some extremely stressful times (understatement).
>What brings a man to willingly sign up for submarine duty?
To be a man among men
Probably all the gay sex.
As a current EMN1 at a sea duty, I can say the extra pay isn’t what makes people do the job. Submarines are far smaller communities and you actually know the other people on board. A sense of belonging and family goes a long way on a long deployment. As for being a nuke, I like my work with the equipment but I hate the navy’s way of life. I hate work controls that are so tight it takes hours to even get to the point of opening the covers on a machine. Everything is so incredibly inefficient that it’s a miracle we get underway on time. Also frick orse, bunch of wiener suckers
I think most people get tricked or coerced into it actually.