Quote:
Originally Posted by nikimcbee
Ha, they were talking about this on the radio. On guy called in, a former submariner, and said they had tested women on his sub along time ago. The experement didn't go to good because the "feminine hygiene products" totally clogged the pluming up.  They also had an interview "naval-expert" from someplace talk about the subject. The person (a woman), was totally against the idea for a plethora of reasons, mainly it's too big of a distraction vs the risk invovled. well duh  . |
That would have been the USS
Minneapolis–Saint Paul (SSN-708), or as we called her the Menopause during that little experiment. I did not serve of her, but I knew folks who did. They hated it overall. Oh how we howled about the things they bitched about.
They took all of 21 man berthing in forward compartment lower level and converted it to female berthing. They did that because there is a head right across the passageway from that berthing space. Oh, and it was deemed by the powers that be that ladies do NOT hotrack, thus EVERYONE e-6 and below was now hotracking.
One problem was that it was between the torpedo room and AMR. I heard it made it a pain for the watchstanders. While it is not a HIGH traffic zone, there are NO low traffic zones on a boat. Underway you have had to yell "male on deck" everytime you went down the ladder. Oh, and the ships laundry was right there as well. Not to mention that the majority of the crew is now restricted to ONE head.
As for the problems with the plumbing?? Oh yeah.. the poo-pump could handle a turd without a problem. It is squishy after all. But put something solid in the tank (like an apple core or hygene product) and the pump would lock up when it tried to pass it. Taking apart the pump was not too bad, but the STENCH... wow. In the meantime you had to resort to blowing the sans. That makes a LOT of noise. Pumping them was the prefered, if slower and quieter, method.
Do I think they (the ladies) can do the job? Yes indeed. Can they do it and stand up to the close quarters and sexual innuendo? I think SOME can, but not all. Like it or not, there WILL be jokes, comments, and grabass games. Sailors are sailors regardless of gender. We got ROUGH with each other. If you heard us talk to each other you would would be SHOCKED to hear what we said when it was just us.
If it was a lady on board once i got to know her she would be 'one of the guys'. I would cut her NO slack for she volenteered for this duty. To treat her in any was different would from the rest of the guys would, IMHO, be more insulting to her than treating her like a sexual object.