Here's another question for RL submariners...

How does HotBunking work? Is it just a matter of two guys one bed, whoever gets there first gets to sleep?

Or is there something more to it? Just curious.

Ok, here is an easy way to understand it.

1) Subs are on 18 hour days vs your normal 24 hour days. That is three 6 hours watchs in rotation that make up each 'day'.

2) 3 people share 2 racks. They are all on a different watch. That way ONE of the three is ALWAYS on watch and thus not needing a rack. The other two can thus sleep if they need to. You work out who gets what rack beforehand if you have to get picky. For the most part, unless you get a real retentive rackmate, you just grab the empty one.

3) Of the 2 rackpans, One guy each gets 2/3 of a pan and the 3rd guy gets the remain 1/3 of each rack for his stuff. In case you are wondering, it is not a lot fo space. About the equivelant of 1 medium sized dresser drawer and you have to make sure that nothing breakable is in it.

4) Called "hot racking" becuase when you get off watch, you can climb into a pre-warmed bed.

And there you go.

Hm... that doesn't really sound that bad. Since a person on shift isn't using there rack its a waist not to put it to use... as long as the person in the rack before you doesn't smell like crap:o :doh: :dead: :lol:

And as long as the patrol sock caught everything.

Did you guys get Jell-O on your ships, also?



And how often can you shower/bathe?

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Darn...Bill doesn't have a 'barf' emotioncon.

As long as your fellow rackmates shower fairly regular and the bedding is washed weekly it is not too bad. Patrol socks are HIGHLY discouraged among hot rackers. You take matter in hand elsewhere..

Speaking of laundry. You have ONE day a week that you may do laundry. That is, your division is allotted one day a week. Thus only so many people can do laundry. Normally, we assign a laundry queen for that day who does all the laundry they can for everyone else on 'our' day. Once you get ahold of the ONE washer & drier on board, you do not want to let it go.

Remember that little rackpan I told you about? What if I told you I could fit 30 pairs or skivvies, 30 tee-shirts, 30 pairs of socks, 6 'poopie suits (one peice blue jumpers), 4 pairs of dungarees, toilety articles, a few books, music, some candies (hey, the creature comforts count!), shoes and a backpack all in there and still make it close. Why 30 pairs of undergarments you ask? Well, you will find that you can re-wear your outer stuff for days if you have to, but you want some clean underwear daily and you might miss your laundry day due to 'operational constraints' I.E drills, the desire to minimize the use of water, sound considerations ,etc etc etc. 30 pairs means you can go for about 3 weeks and do not laundry if you have to.

Sometimes, although I don't recall it being a poular item. For desert everyone likes it when the soft serve ice cream machine is up and loaded. Just grab a cone and eat away.

You could normally take a shower daily unless drills or other operational constraints caused reduced water usage to be ordered. Usually not for too long since the boys that work back aft make the water and they don't like getting all stinky. Unlike the machinists that work up front and make the air and remove the CO/CO2.

Showers should always be submarine showers however. Meaning you get wet, turn off the shower head and soap up. The turn the water back on rinse and get your ass out. 30 minutes standing under the spraying water is very much frowned upon. Again especially by the aft machinists that have to make it. Overdoing it is called taking a hollywood shower and is not something you want to be associated with unless you wear lots of gold.

:|\\

and a quick comment on hot racking. It is not unheard of (especially if you are a nub(very junior)) to have 2 guys sharing 1 bunk. But not to fear that usually means they will put you in port/starboard duty as well. Meaning you are 6 hours on and 6 hours off. I can remember at times when we were carrying riders having to share bunks that were just metal trays slid into torpedo storage racks in the bow, or even sleeping on an air mattress in the sonar equipment space. I like the sonar space better since you seldom got disturbed as the sonarman never clean the compensators like they are supposed to. The TMs on the other hand seem to need to move weapons around multiple times daily. Especially whe I was off watch:damn:

Of all the ones I've read, this is the scariest - I can't function unless I can take a 30 minute shower in the morning! :lol:

Heh, I once woke up to the bedroom floor being flooded due to a water heater malfunction in my apartment. Had I been in a sub at the time, I'd probably of been reduced to a gibbering idiot...lol

These are great! Please keep sharing!

Here's another question (I have a billion of them... becuase I live vicariously thru other people :p ... and I'm researching for the sub novel that I will one day write when I'm old enough to retire:cool: )...

... since subs aren't deployed year-round... how much time off do sailors get between deployment?

For example, I've heard that USN SSBN have two entirely different crews... what does the 2nd crew do during six whole months of shore time?.... besides party? I'm thinking training of course, some paper shuffling problably... but other than that seems like there should be a lot of opprotunity to relax with the family and friend for the next 6 months. Am I right?

here's one, how close did your ship ever come close to firing on another ship?

It would be nice if it were that easy. SSBNs do have 2 crews(Gold crew and Blue crew0, so only one is deployed at sea at any given time. That just means that the off crew works out of a building when off patrol. They are busy training, preparing for the turnover loadout/refit, and also taking some leave if they can. Just like everyone else you just get 30 days of leave a year. They are fortunate to get to work pretty much 8-5 M-F on offcrew time with little watchstanding. But far from an R&R time. Closer to being like shore duty.

SSNs on the otherhand have only one crew and still spend 50%+ of their time actually at sea. Difference is when they are in port 1/3rd of the crew min needs to be on board at any given time. That is a sufficient number to set sail if required and maintain a safe/secure watch on the boat 24X7. Essentually that means 3 section duty. So once every 3 days you don't go home. You would typically have to stand 6-8 hours of duty watch on your duty day. Of course none of this precluded you from working the other weekdays you didn't stand duty, often beyond the 8-5 workday. So you could actually expect to get a Saturday AND a sunday off about once a month in port. Assuming you were not in some kind of workup or god forbid DINQ!:88)

Not sure we have discussed quals much, but that is where the word Dinq is derived from. A derogatory shortening of delinquent. Meaning off the required pace for qualifications, earning your dolphins. Esentually anyone newly assigned to a sub must obtain a qualified in submarines status within 1 year. This can be extended slightly with the Captains permission, but that pretty much means you are a perm. DINQ and will probably still get some flak from the boys even after getting qualified.

A great breakdown can be found here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_Warfare_Insignia

I was on a fast boat and we had a saying....

One Boat, One Crew, One Shaft and One Screw

We had the boat 24/7/365 and if you were not deployed you were working up to deploy, working up for a cert (TRE,ORSE, Etc etc). In port my boat was on 3 shift duty days. Meaning every 3rd day you were on the boat 24 hours. When you did not have duty you mustered at 7am and left when the job was done. We did not have things like 'day after duty' when you left as soon as you were relieved. So as you can see, it was not uncommon to have a 110 hour work week.

When you were on duty you had to stand watches and handle the normal day to day things. Sometimes you could have the non-duty people help you but they did not have to if they had other jobs they had to do. Once they left for the day the duty section had the whole show.

By doing the 3 day watch rotation, they always had enough crew on-board to get the boat underway in an emergency. It would not be fun, but you could do it (I did it once and it sucked.. NO watch relief!)

Oh the stories some of us could tell you.......

But we ain't called the silent service for nothing...