RL Submariners

[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

[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:

[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:

[LoBlo]

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.

[Bubblehead Nuke]

Originally Posted by LoBlo

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.

[LoBlo]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead Nuke

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

[Molon Labe]

And as long as the patrol sock caught everything.

[ASWnut101]

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



And how often can you shower/bathe?

[sonar732]

Originally Posted by Molon Labe

And as long as the patrol sock caught everything.

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

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

[Bubblehead Nuke]

Originally Posted by LoBlo

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

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.