RL Submariners

[Bellman]

'' Unlocking the key to the flatulence-free bean has been something of a holy grail for some time.''
Let us not forget the latest cutting edge research into this problem:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbtoday/F27...thread=1434169
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...7/ai_n14158626
http://www.nutraingredients.com/news...ans-flatulence

Further learned contributions can be sourced at 'Bilge' :

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...ghlight=Bilges

[Bubblehead Nuke]

Originally Posted by LoBlo

Here's a real life submarine question I've always wondered about...

How many toilets are there on an LA? :p
I'm thinking for 115 guys... one bad night for the cook and no matter how many there are its not going to be enough!

1 full service in the CO/XO head, 1 standup and 1 full service in the officer head, 1 full service in the goat locker, 1 standup and 3 full service in between forward and aft crews berthing, 1 full service in lower level across from 21 man berthing.

6 showers among the whole thing as well.

BUT, as someone stated, any old drain funnel will do in a pinch. ANY bubblehead who says they have not whipped it out and relieved themselves in a funnel is full of it.

Oh, and someone asked what if the cook screws up?? Well... In Lisbon, Portugal, a certain FT Toptorp and I know put 100 times too much chlorine in the potable water we received just before we left. It gave the WHOLE crew the screaming meanies if you know what I mean. It was the ONLY time I ever heard them say TAKE A HOLLYWOOD! to the whole crew. Leave it running. They had to flush both the potable water tanks. We ran the rain maker pretty much 24 hours for a few days lined up to the potable water tanks. A-gang was blowing the sans 2-3 times a watch. The whole crew did not become regular for 3 or 4 days. Offgoing watch was running from the head, releaving the on-watch so they could dash to the head, and then run back themselves. Normally, you could take care of biz and read a book or relax in the ONLY place you could truly be alone. Well, they had to put a watch in the heads (all were open to the crew except the CO/XO head which was reserved for control/upper level folks at the time) to ensure you got in, and got out... and to pass the paper when they ran out.

The FT in question was hiding pretty much the whole trip back to the states. The CO never did anything to him, he figured that it would pale compared to what the CREW was going to do to him.

[LoBlo]

heh heh. Good stuff. To be honest with you that's a lot more heads than I was expecting... I was thinking 1 toilet and 1 shower per deck... guess the lines would impinge on productivity.

Here's another question for ya... (its always the little things that amaze me btw)... how much food does it take to feed 120 guys at one setting?

I mean, whenever I think of catering for 100 people the amount of food is huge... and to think that the cook has to do that for 4 meals per day and store enough food to last 3 months. It just amazes me to think that that much food gets squeezed into such a small space. I'm thinking 130 cheese burgers would fill my entire frig... multiply that by 3 meals per day times 90 days = 32400 cheeseburgers!! It would take a semi-truck sized frig to store that it seems.

Is there just one huge store room where all the food it piled in?

[Henson]

Big storeroom, yeah. Well, kinda big. Small, actually.

The rest gets shoved into nooks and crannys of the engine room on the (flawed) theory that putting eggs outboard of a heat exchanger allows them to keep longer.

[timmyg00]

Not everyone eats at every sitting... a lot of the off-watch guys are sleeping. Probably 2/3 to 3/4 of the crew is eating at any given meal... but if any all-hands evolutions are taking place (field day, drills), more people are interested in eating... so then you get closer to the whole crew being in line for chow

TG

[Rip]

I can remember before going on some very long cruises actually walking on a layer of #10 cans which covered much of the decks in the forward compartment. It took us 3 or 4 weeks to eat down to the floor.

Managing what goes where and in what order was a very difficult and important task. Things needed to be in a certain order so as to not need to dig to the bottom of a storage area for the box you needed. Nothing would piss the supply officer off faster than having to go to the old man and tell him they couldn't find a needed ingredient for something on the menu. No one wants to be the supply officer on a nuclear sub. No respect from either direction and lots of grief from both.

[timmyg00]

Originally Posted by Rip

I can remember before going on some very long cruises actually walking on a layer of #10 cans which covered much of the decks in the forward compartment. It took us 3 or 4 weeks to eat down to the floor.
Managing what goes where and in what order was a very difficult and important task. Things needed to be in a certain order so as to not need to dig to the bottom of a storage area for the box you needed. Nothing would piss the supply officer off faster than having to go to the old man and tell him they couldn't find a needed ingredient for something on the menu. No one wants to be the supply officer on a nuclear sub. No respect from either direction and lots of grief from both.

Oh yeah, good old diamond-tread on top of the cans...

On 688(I) there's a berthing area for E-6 (Petty Officer First Class, a fairly senior NCO) in the forward compartment lower level. Presumably, it's supposed to be a benefit of attaining such seniority that E-6s get their own berthing area. Well let me tell you, it was only a benefit for the guys in the outboard racks. The inboard racks were subject to all the noise of people transiting lower level between the torpedo room and AMR, the people hanging out near the laundry shooting the sh!t, the people in the smoker's line (our official smoking area was AMR, max 2 smokers at a time, so it got busy right after chow), the line of guys waiting to use the lower level head, and last but most certainly not least, the mess cranks diving into the Aux Trim Tank to retrieve ingredients for the next meal. Most often, the ingredients were canned items, which the cranks gleefully plopped onto the deck right in front of the inboard racks in 21-man berthing. Seems the galley caused cranks to forget about sound silencing...

I had better racks as a non-qual and an E-5!!

Man, how did I miss all this stuff in my Almanac article!!

TG

[Captain Norman]

Im interested in knowing what kinds of foods u guys eat, whether u always bring hotsauce with u to improve it if it sucks :P, and whether or not anything they make is good.

[Bubblehead Nuke]

Originally Posted by Captain Norman

Im interested in knowing what kinds of foods u guys eat, whether u always bring hotsauce with u to improve it if it sucks :P, and whether or not anything they make is good.

We ate well. Too well in fact. You could REALLY pack the weight on if you were not careful. All it took was a few barbs and you would start to watch what you ate. If that did not work, you HAD to do something when you could not get into your uniform. It was not like you could go down to the PX and buy new ones.

The food depended on who was reading the reciepe cards. If you had someone who did it all by the book, then things were bland but, as we used to say, 'It makes a turd'. If you had a cook who was not afriad to play with the reciepe you could have some REALLY outstanding food.

As for types of food?

Breakfast was mostly scrambled eggs, muffing, bacon sometimes, grits & grits, oatmeal, and sometimes pancakes.

Lunch and dinner? Well,I remember LOTS of corned beef, or, as we called it Babboon Ass. Fried Chicken, Hamburgers (sliders), shrimp, pasta and other pretty ordinary items. I remember pizza was every friday night. Beanie Weenies or coldcut sandwiches were common on the midrates.

You have things that you could freeze a LOT of, be high in nurient content, and be as compact as possible. If you could not find it frozen, it had to be availble in #10 cans. Frying was used a LOT. If the deep fat fryer was broke, the variety of meals drops WAY down.

If you want to be a RICH man, figure out how to can FRESH lettuce and other easily perishible items. When a bubblehead hits port, the first thing he grabs is NOT a beer, but a FRESH glass of milk and the largest FRESH salad you could lay your hands on. Then you wash it down with a beer.

[Captain Norman]

Interesting, that doesnt sound half bad lol
I guess its a good thing Im goin to culinary school then, ill open up shop outside a navy base

[sonar732]

It seemed that we ate Ravioli all the time on mid-rats. :rotfl::rotfl:

[Captain Norman]

Originally Posted by LoBlo

Official answer huh? What's the unofficial answer... when you gotta go,... pee into the nearest equipment hole! [j/k]

Lmao oddly enough, I can picture that happening. But hey, when u gotta go, you dont care where it is, as long as u can find a place.

[Rip]

Originally Posted by Captain Norman

Im interested in knowing what kinds of foods u guys eat, whether u always bring hotsauce with u to improve it if it sucks :P, and whether or not anything they make is good.

There were certain periods of time away from port that were key. A few weeks out no more fresh milk or lettuce etc. A few weeks late no more eggs. I for one couldn't stand powdered milk or eggs. Anything that was frozen or canned was good for the duration. Although with the limited size of the freezer, at the end of a long trip it was canned or nothing.

I think the 2 most popular meals other than Surf&Turf was Pizza or Sliders(Cheeseburgers). Pizza was usually scheduled for poker night, which IIRC was Saturday night.

[timmyg00]

Slider night (Thursdays) and pizza night (Saturdays) were very popular, as were the major holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving... the MSC didn't mess around. We had a full spread for those meals! As the oncoming watch after one of those meals, i was so stuffed with food as to be nearly useless...

I didn't mind the powdered eggs too much... it beat eating cereal with powdered milk!

One of the things that really brings me back is whenever I smell bread baking in an oven... I remember a lot of the smells from the boat... most of them ranging from unpleasant to horrendous... but the smell of rolls baking in the galley was something altogether different. It felt like home, and made us look forward to eating the rolls - if nothing else about the meal with which they were served :p I liked to smell the bacon being cooked for breakfast too.

TG

[sonar732]

Ahhh....White Death...good times, good times. :rotfl::rotfl: