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Woman + Subs

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
And for every woman who helps man the sub community, how many men are going to leave because they were forced to hotrack while 2 women shared a 9-man room?

A bit unrealistic from what little I know of subs, I doubt that many racks would go empty even if there were women on board because of space and manning issues.
 

CommodoreMid

Whateva! I do what I want!
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
You never know the pool of interested women unless you open it up or poll all women at USNA and all the ROTC units or something. I will say if I were to be drafted into the nuke community, I know I would go subs over SWO nuke if I had the option. I can't speak for all women, but that would be my preference.

And to the few women taking up a 9-man while men are hotracking issue, I'd imagine they'd probably stick female officers and enlisted together in a 9 man before it came to that. Hell, on surface ships they already do that. One of my best friends is a SWO on deployment right now and she's in enlisted berthing. It's not ideal, but I could see it happening.
 

PropAddict

Now with even more awesome!
pilot
Contributor
I heard that Spec War needs to plus up; why don't we just open up BUDs while we're at it?

Different issue entirely. Pushing buttons underwater and wondering how to separate the heads is not analogous to being an elite operator humping a massive pack and possibly having to throw your 200 lb shipmate over your shoulder to get his body out.
 

Mos

Well-Known Member
None
I can't believe this thread has been going on for 6 pages.
Guess what? If the Navy is ordered to allow women to serve on submarines, then every single person in the submarine community is going to say "Aye, aye sir" and carry on with their duties. Period.
And now it's eight. Who cares if we don't make policy, no harm in a civil discussion about the issue.:D
Most of the female nukes that I knew were already enjoying all of the attention that came with being one of the few females in a mostly male group. Several of them got married just to get the boost in BAH. I am sure that getting knocked up and missing a deployment would just break their hearts.
Can you clarify how it is that you know the intentions of these females? And even if this is what they're thinking, how is this anecdotal "evidence" any better than phrogpilot73's about his wife? Not saying your experiences don't matter in debates like this, but I always understood that the best evidence usually comes from studies that benefit from the law of large numbers, such as a formal survey.
If a young HS graduate wants to join the Navy (roughly 18 years old), then the deal is that the Navy is going to train her in a skill and expect her to use that skill to the benefit of the Navy, it's should not be to much to ask for her to live up to her part of the deal and not require a year off (or more) of sea duty to have a kid. After 5 years (boot camp, A-school, sea tour) she wants to go to shore duty and have a baby (at the ripe old age of 23)..good for her. Same for officers. 5 years is roughly equivelent to flight school + a JO tour. Graduate college at 22, finish your JO tour at 27, be a happy mom by 28 if you want. Anything short of that, is irresponsible.
I see what you're getting at with mission readiness importance, but I think your expectations are bit unrealistic and unreasonable. It seems like you're saying that women entering the Navy should expect to have no aspirations outside of being a successful sailor for that period of time. But first of all, isn't that different from what the Navy really espouses? Aren't we encouraged to have other things to live for, like a family for instance? It seems pretty normal and expected that a male sailor get married and have kids when he so desires, though we're educated to plan for it. Seems a bit unfair that women be expected to put such aspirations on hold for an arbitrary period of time. Secondly, on a practical note, if we do impose that arbitrary restriction, can we really expect it to be effective? As phrogdriver pointed out earlier, as human beings, we're hard pressed to keep those sexual urges at bay for long periods of time; and just because a woman is hell bent on being the best damn sailor going in, doesn't mean she might not get wistful about being with someone or having kids a year or two down the road. Is it better to just regulate everything, or pick and choose your regulations, knowing that inevitable human errors will just jam more paperwork between regulatory hard places?

Personally, I agree with previous comments that integration on the subs is inevitable, and I doubt that it will make the sub force less effective if all other variables, especially training and leadership, remain the same.
 

Spekkio

He bowls overhand.
And to the few women taking up a 9-man while men are hotracking issue, I'd imagine they'd probably stick female officers and enlisted together in a 9 man before it came to that. Hell, on surface ships they already do that. One of my best friends is a SWO on deployment right now and she's in enlisted berthing. It's not ideal, but I could see it happening.
Think beyond officers. I was referring to enlisted male sailors being forced to hot rack in favor of enlisted females getting their own 9-man. Unless you're saying that men and women are given the same room on surface ships, which, to my knowledge, doesn't happen.

Even if it is just on the officer end...say you have 2 enlisted sailors and 1 female officer aboard a sub. You stick them all in a 9-man. Great, that's still 6 racks unused.

If you want to talk officers, what do you do with a female DH on the sub? Make the 2 other male DH's share rooms with enlisted sailors? I'm sure senior LTs and LCDRs would love that, as if officer retention in the sub community wasn't bad enough already.
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Think beyond officers. I was referring to enlisted male sailors being forced to hot rack in favor of enlisted females getting their own 9-man. Unless you're saying that men and women are given the same room on surface ships, which, to my knowledge, doesn't happen.

Even if it is just on the officer end...say you have 2 enlisted sailors and 1 female officer aboard a sub. You stick them all in a 9-man. Great, that's still 6 racks unused.

If you want to talk officers, what do you do with a female DH on the sub? Make the 2 other male DH's share rooms with enlisted sailors? I'm sure senior LTs and LCDRs would love that, as if officer retention in the sub community wasn't bad enough already.

Think beyond simple numbers, your getting way too much in the weeds. There simply is not enough room on a sub to fuck around too much with sleeping arrangements. I don't know too much about sub life but from what every sub guy has told me that is the case.

And give the Navy a little credit, they ain't going to screw things up that bad, especially in the beginning. This is not a military college in South Carolina that throws together a plan in two months on how to introduce women into a new environment. If done by the type of sub officers I have known it will be planned out to the gnat's ass detail with the utmost of professionalism. They don't fuck around, they get the job done and do it right, period. They will do this right too.
 

jfulginiti

Active Member
pilot
None
If a young HS graduate wants to join the Navy (roughly 18 years old), then the deal is that the Navy is going to train her in a skill and expect her to use that skill to the benefit of the Navy, it's should not be to much to ask for her to live up to her part of the deal and not require a year off (or more) of sea duty to have a kid. After 5 years (boot camp, A-school, sea tour) she wants to go to shore duty and have a baby (at the ripe old age of 23)..good for her. Same for officers. 5 years is roughly equivelent to flight school + a JO tour. Graduate college at 22, finish your JO tour at 27, be a happy mom by 28 if you want. Anything short of that, is irresponsible.

It is not an issue of reproductive freedom to me, it is an issue of keeping a unit mission ready. CO's need to know that the people they have assigned to them will be there to do the jobs that they are spending valueable time and money training them to do. Sailors and wardrooms should not be asked to pick up the slack for a female shipmate who gets knocked up while on sea duty. That whole "gender equity" thing should go both ways.

If our medical departments can force a flu shot on sailors in the name of readiness, we should be able to "vaccinate" our female sailors against pregnancy for the exact same reason. I can't "choose" to take my chances with a virus that will make me feel cruddy for 3 days, but women can "choose" to cause themselves to miss entire deployments to have a child. There is no logic to reasoning like that.

You can't apply a "cure all" to something like this. I agree that a woman getting intentionally pregnant on cruise causes problems. And I don't know what you're experiences are but they are certainly not the norm. I personally have never seen a woman get pregnant on purpose (or by accident) to avoid a deployment. As a matter of fact, all the women I know that have gotten pregnant planned it around deployments and continued to work basically until they went into labor.... my wife included. She flew through the first 6 months with both our kids and then was required to stop. The last three months she still went to work everyday to do her ground job, stand duty, whatever. And she was back to work as soon as the 6 weeks convalescent leave was over.

A woman gets pregnant on purpose/accidentally and a man seriously injures himself off duty because he was being stupid..... either way, it was irresponsible and the command is out one person and needs to find a replacement. But which one is "worse"?

In this particular case, the way you present yourself is irresponsible and unprofessional. Given the chance, would you REALLY stand in front of the CNO or SECDEF and suggest we temporarily sterilize ALL females entering the armed services? I seriously doubt it.

EVERYONE gets a flu shot. Suggesting that all women get a mandatory procedure to sterilize them is discrimination..... unless you're also suggesting that all men get a similar procedure.
 

jfulginiti

Active Member
pilot
None
On the otherhand pregnancy underway should have severe career consequences. We have all seen countless officers relieved underway for sexual misconduct, and I see no reason why a pregnancy underway would not be in the same category of fuck ups when it came to the consequences.

The "sexual misconduct" you're probably referring to usually involves a senior officer/enlisted having sex with a junior officer/enlisted.... one or both of which are married. Obviously bad.

Two unmarried sailors having consensual sex on port call and one winds up pregnant isn't "sexual misconduct". Nothing illegal about that. However, the woman may eventually get sent home and her "career consequences" could be less time at sea then her peers, less chances for advancement and possibly a less than stellar FITREP.
 

Spekkio

He bowls overhand.
Flash said:
There simply is not enough room on a sub to fuck around too much with sleeping arrangements.
Which is exactly why integrating women into the community is such a challenge.
 

Miya808

New Member
I have very little to add to this wonderful conversation. I'm a woman and I don't think women should be on subs and that's all I'm going to say about that.

I will say that I am completely horrified by this:
that law is an abortion on toast.

And only because that has got to taste awful. :) Phrogdriver, I really needed that laugh today. Thanks!
 

Alecta

New Member
I'm a woman and while I'd rather hang by my toes than have to serve on a sub, more power to the women who are qualified and want to be bubble heads.

A few submariners are friends of the family and if their personalities are indicative of the types of men in that service, I can honestly say that when the word comes down to integrate, they'll come up with a rock-solid plan, execute it flawlessly, and do it without a word of bitching. They thrive on bat-shit crazy challenges.
 

jfulginiti

Active Member
pilot
None
Which is exactly why integrating women into the community is such a challenge.

What if you just replaced all the guys in a berthing space with women? Would that work? No one would be "displaced", have to share racks, or cram extra guys into another space.
 

Spekkio

He bowls overhand.
What if you just replaced all the guys in a berthing space with women? Would that work? No one would be "displaced", have to share racks, or cram extra guys into another space.
It would work, but it's nearly impossible to hit that perfect number and keep it there. The number of women and men in the Navy is not constant, and they all have different sea tour schedules.
 
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