Harrier Dude
Living the dream
Joke or not, I'd bet that this happens for real some day sooner than you think. I wouldn't be surprised.
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female submariners in 2009
- Thread starter DSL1990
- Start date
Your right. My Commodore said he attended a brief on this very thing last year. The red flag for him was the PCO part. To command a Nuclear submarine you must go through all the steps from a JO through DH and so on. He also told me of research they did in the nineties for this. The conclusion, even quoted by the CNO at the time was..."yea, it is possible but why?" After multiple females doing TDY's on subs, none of them even wanted to work in that type of enviroment. The biggest adversaries were the spouses of the current submariners. It's whole different environment than a ship.
whalepelt
New Member
Especially if the manning (har-har) issues they're having this year continue. Excluding women reduces the number of eligible warm bodies.
It's a lot easier to airlift a pregnant sailor off an aircraft carrier than a vessel 500' under the surface of the ocean.
Edit...misread your original reply. You are correct in regards to the rad exposure, but I think the crew issues are more relevant.
Last I checked, the Aussies operate SSKs (diesel subs), not SSNs.
Harrier Dude
Living the dream
I got to tour a sub recently, and while fascinating, I liked it in a 'I-wouldn't-want-to-do-it" kind of way. Very tight spaces and absolutely ZERO room for personal privacy that I could see. Kind of like putting 10 people in a Winebego. And not the NASCAR driver style one either. More like the "Cousin Eddie" style. Putting females on board would be problematic at best.
That said, the navy will still do it eventually anyway, even if it doesn't work. Remember, mission accomplishment can never take priority over appearances.
That said, the navy will still do it eventually anyway, even if it doesn't work. Remember, mission accomplishment can never take priority over appearances.
IF the Navy allows females to serve on submarines they will more than likely start with SSBN/GN's. They are large enough to allow for co-gender crews. I just don't see how they can do it on fast attacks. Its just too small. Thats not even counting the issue of hot racking (for the enlisted side). I don't think the issue is with women doing the job. There are females out there that could be way better sonar supervisors than myself. Its just the issue of cohabiting with the opposite sex for long periods of time under the ocean and everything that comes with it.
Many countries have integrated crews. The best example I have is Holland. The Dutch operate some very, very nice diesel boats and do some good duration, extended operation. I got to tour one of their subs in Charleston when I was in Power School and it was a real wake up. Not only were the crews integrated, they shared heads and showers too. We asked the PO, JO and skipper who were giving us the tour in various ways if "it was a problem" and they all replied with surprise that it wasn't ever an issue. No seperate shower times...no nothing. The skipper's response was that its all what you are used to, (think about nude beaches there vs. here) and their "frat" rules where nearly the same as ours.
Again...its all what you are used to...they also had a Heineken tap in the middle of the crew's mess table.
I still contend that until American society changes...US subs will never work as integrated crews.
EDIT: Nittany...not sure what you are getting at with the SSK aspect...they are even more cramped than our nuc boats...as for deployment length...yeah they can't stay gone quite as long...but three weeks is still plenty of time.
The latter was more what I was driving for, but it appears I was using the wrong end of my alimentary canal for purposes of speech.