Nuclear Submariners routinely cheated on qualifications

[TLAM Strike]

During my on-board training, while I studied more than 70 hours per week, my fellow officers regularly warned me, “Don’t let knowledge stand in the way of your qualifications.” They urged me not to, “learn too much… just check the box and get qualified.” But when my exam arrived, it seemed impossibly difficult. I failed miserably, despite having made a very serious five-month long effort to pass.

My fellow officers were surprised by my failure, and wondered aloud why I hadn’t used the “study guide.” When my second exam arrived, so did the so-called study guide, which happened to be the answer key for the nuclear qualification exam I was taking. I was furious. Defiantly, I handed back the answer key to the proctor and proceeded to take the exam on my own. I failed again. My boss, the ship’s engineer officer, started to document my failures with formal counseling so that he could fire me.

The most competent junior officer on our ship ran to my rescue, confiding that none of the other officers had passed the exam legitimately; the exam was just an administrative check-off. “Swallow your pride,” he told me, and just get it done.

The ship’s engineer and executive officer didn’t believe me when I complained of the cheating, and swept my allegations under the rug. It took me five attempts before I finally passed the “basic” qualification exam. Unbeknownst to me, senior members of my crew even went so far as to falsify my exam scores in order to avoid unwanted attention from the headquarters. But strangely, the exam was anything but basic. The expectations on paper were astronomically high compared to the banal reality of how our ship actually worked.http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-22/the-submarine-nuclear-scandal/

[SteamWake]

In before O bashing. :haha:

Sounds like typical military hurry up and wait to me.

I feel for the guy.

[ETR3(SS)]

As a submariner I am infuriated by this. But it's no surprise to me. Our Corpsman forged radiation records for the non-nuclear part of the crew. The navy's way of fixing it was to court martial him and kick him out with a DD. Oh and then they wiped the slate clean of what my received dosage was and didn't even make note of it in my service or medical record. So my actual exposure is double the official record.

[Bilge_Rat]

Agreed. Since the days of Adm Rickover, the US nuclear submarine service advertised itself as being extremely safety conscious. It is disappointing to find out they were cutting corners like this. :nope:

[Aramike]

Very interesting. My only problem lies with the fact that the author couldn't help but to interject allusions to his political views into an otherwise stinging indictment of the Navy submarine culture. As such, I question his credibility to an extent, as it seems as though he may have an axe to grind.

[geetrue]

This man was an officer ... I like officer's, but I always thought they were held to a higher qualification.

Enlisted nuc's have falsified records they keep on the reactor and were court marshaled or transferred.

These are not just regular USN officer either. These are nuclear trained for duty on a nuclear submarine officers.

Not all officer's serve in the nuclear field, yet they still have to qualify and know everything there is to know about that chuck of hot rock.

Some become weapons officers, navigation officers, supply officers, communication officers, operations officers ...

dive officers to OOD they have other things to learn and master.

They have more to worry about than a test about a nuclear reactor keep up with.

So they fudged a little ... they are still very smart at what they do and look at the rest of the problem the test itself.

Spells job protection to me.

Back in the early 60's all we had to do is pass a walk through with a chief, COB and an officer to qualify for your dolphins.

What most of you don't know is that you had to do it again every time you changed submarines, which was three times for me SS 572, SSBN 608 (B) and SSBN 609 (B)

They took it easy on me due to just being a sonarman, but I saw one torpedo man that they didn't like and they made him learn the serial numbers of the torpedo's.

After he learned the serial numbers and came back ...

they had changed the torpedo's he copied the numbers of and said, "Sorry Charile"

God is good ... men are crafty and cunning and full of mischief

Forgive even as you have been forgiven