Chapter 2

Unlike many people who join the military, I was perfectly suited for my role. My small stature and mechanical abilities made me an invaluable asset on the submarine. Living your life with 154 other men in extremely close quarters is, however, very difficult unless you are comfortable in your own skin. Privacy is practically nonexistent on a sub, even one the size of the Ohio. When we would go out on patrol, we would carry enough food for approximately 60 to 90 days and could travel anywhere in the world, underwater, completely undetected, which meant that for at least 60 days we would not see the sun. In fact that was our primary reason for being. We were the United States most lethal weapon in the cold war; its most effective first strike deterrent. The knowledge that if we were ordered to fire our missiles at any enemy location meant that all hell had broken loose and most likely the world was close to Armageddon; it was a very sobering thought.

It's amazing how quickly you fall into a routine when you're on board a submarine. Each "morning" (when you're underwater there's no difference between day and night) I'd get up, dress, have breakfast and report for duty. I was part of the engineering department and my primary responsibilities included maintaining the atmospheric systems; the cooling systems for the air, the air quality systems – scrubbing the air of CO2 and maintaining the level of oxygen and the water purification and recycling systems. On a new boat, after shakedown, the systems are pretty much trouble free, but you still have to maintain them. A typical day is eighteen hours long. The crew is divided into 3 watch sections; each watch is 6 hours long. When a crew-member is on watch he is actively operating his assigned equipment. After watch a crew-member spends the next 12 hours engaged in various activities, such as attending training sessions and studying for advancement examinations or to qualify to stand watch at other workstations. Some perform routine preventive maintenance on their specialized equipment. In our free time we can watch movies, play cards or various board games, exercise in our gym and have our meals. After an eighteen-hour day it's easy to fall asleep.

Our living quarters are called berthing areas; each man gets about 15 square feet for sleeping and storage of personal items. The berths have a reading light, a ventilation duct, an earphone jack for the boat's audio entertainment system and a curtain to provide a small, but welcome, measure of privacy. Because of the challenging living conditions aboard a submarine, the crew builds a strong bond of fellowship to one another.