Building the Boats
It sounds so simple: building the boat. Yet this is a process that starts years before the submarine enters the fleet. Remember, in 1969 the U.S. Navy was considering the design of the Los Angeles-class submarines, which began to enter the fleet some seven years later. Even today, if you could order one (the line is being shut down to produce the Seawolf-class boats), it takes six years from contract signing by the Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) in Arlington, Virginia, until the completed boat is commissioned into the force. This process starts in the steel mills of the eastern United States and the computers of the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics. It also starts in the cities and towns of America, where the raw materials for the crews are born, raised, and educated. Let us take a quick look at how it is all done.
The Sharp Edge-The Crew
It's hard to separate the steel and electronics of the boat from the flesh and blood of the men who will serve as her crew. In a manner of speaking, the crew is a part of that machine headed to sea. I suppose if robots could do the job of men, they would have taken over the submarine force by now. But the day when a robot can survive the shock of an explosion, the rush of flooding water, and have the cunning of a man is still years away. And until that day comes, men will go into the sea in the steel cylinders called submarines.
Where the crew come from is, quite simply, everywhere. From every town and village, from the largest inner city, the suburbs, and the rural countryside. What motivates each of them is probably a little different. For Admiral Chester Nimitz, the World War II Commander in Chief of the Pacific and himself an early submariner, it was the desire to see a body of water larger than the mud puddles of west Texas. For some who want submarines, it is the desire to work on one of the most powerful and sophisticated pieces of machinery ever built. Others see the Navy and the submarine service as a way out of the poverty and despair of whatever situation they may have been born into. Whatever the reasons, they have all come to the Navy to find something to build their lives around.
Let's say that a young man who has graduated from high school wishes to join the Navy and "see the world" from the voyages of a submarine. That young man (sorry, ladies-men only on subs at the time this book is being written) would probably apply at his local recruiting office. From here he is transported to the local personnel recruiting depot for basic training. Some weeks later, he moves on to his specialty-electronics, sonar, machinery, etc.-or "A" school, which gives him the skills necessary for his job when he joins the boat. If he has decided to select nuclear power as his specialty, he goes to six months of nuclear power school (NPS) in Orlando, Florida, followed by six months of training on one of the nuclear reactor prototypes. Assuming that he has selected submarines as his service, the young recruit is next headed to the home of the submarine, the U.S. Navy Submarine Base in Groton, Connecticut, to attend Submarine School. Sub school teaches the recruit the basics of what he needs to know about life aboard submarines. From here he moves onto the crew of a boat for his first tour, which will probably last a couple of years.
One of the advantages the submarine service has in attracting the cream of the Navy's new recruits is money. Ordinarily a new sailor who selects nuclear power as his specialty would be given the rank of seaman apprentice, but the submarine service immediately makes a new recruit a petty officer. This is important because of the pay differential. While it might not look like much of a difference, it can be enough to let a young man get married so that he can start and support a family. The submarine service asks much of the young men who drive their boats, and the need for every sailor to have a home and someone in it is a cornerstone of their tradition.
Once aboard his first boat, the new crew member's first major career task will be to qualify for his "dolphins," which certifies him as a submariner. From there, he is expected to take his qualification boards and move up the promotion ladder. After this first tour, if he chooses to reenlist (and many do) he will probably be given the opportunity to move to one of the various schools as an instructor. This might be at one of the reactor prototypes or the firefighting school in New London. Wherever it is, he will be asked to put back into the new recruits some of the knowledge and experience he has gained. And this is the cycle that he will follow for most of his career.
Qualify and earn promotion, that is the key. Eventually the submariner might be given the chance to become a warrant officer, or perhaps go to college to become an officer, or "mustang," as they are known in the Navy. For those choosing to remain as enlisted men, the ultimate honor is to make the rank of master chief, who is usually given the title Chief of the Boat, or COB, on a submarine. This position is considered the equivalent of the executive officer (XO), in charge of the enlisted men on a boat. These are frequently well-educated men with graduate degrees. And to say that the commanding officers (COs) of submarines respect their opinions is something of an understatement. If anything set our service apart from that of the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, it was the cohesion or "glue" that our noncommissioned officers provided the Navy. They are the keepers of what corporate America might call corporate memory or tribal knowledge, or what in the Navy they just call tradition.
The route of an officer is somewhat different from that of the enlisted men. For starters, the Navy is rather particular about who gets to drive their nuclear boats. So while the Navy might be satisfied with a psychology or history major driving an F-14 Tomcat or Aegis cruiser around the block, for their nuclear officers they want engineers. Or, more correctly, university graduates with hard science degrees. There are several ways for a young man to get into this career path. Certainly the most conventional route is the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. There also is the Reserve Officers Training Program (ROTC) in place at many U.S. college campuses. This four-year program helps provide tuition, books, and a small monthly stipend to help support the young man, who is commissioned an ensign when he graduates. The final way for college graduates is just to volunteer through the Officers Candidate School (OCS) program. In this case they will be put through a three-month training program, hence their nickname of "ninety-day wonders," after which they are also commissioned as ensigns.
The first step on the road to becoming a U.S. Navy submarine officer starts with selection by the Director, Naval Reactors (DNR-NAVSEA Code-082E). This involves a series of personal interviews with the DNR (a four-star admiral no less) to assess the candidate's technical knowledge and ability to handle stress. When Admiral Rickover used to handle these interviews, the questions took on a sometimes bizarre and personal nature, but as people in the submarine community will tell you, it seems to have produced a very capable corps of submarine officers. At this point the new submarine officer heads off to a year at NPS and the reactor prototype schools.
Once this is completed, he will be sent to the Submarine Officers Basic Course (SOBC) at Groton, Connecticut. SOBC takes three months and is roughly equivalent to the enlisted men's Submarine School course. Upon completion of the SOBC, he finally is assigned to his first boat, where he will probably spend the next two to three years. Much like his enlisted counterparts, he will spend much of his time standing watches and qualifying for his "dolphins." He will also be assessed in his ability to handle and lead the men assigned to his division and watches. Even at this stage of a young officer's career, he is being tested for his ability to command a boat in the future. During his first sub tour he will take the engineer's exam, again supervised by personnel from DNR. This is a critical exam because it is the first major stay/leave criterion, allowing him to stay in submarines or pointing him to some other part of the Navy. Success means that the officer is now qualified to be assigned as chief engineer of a boat. From here he will probably do a shore tour on staff at a sub squadron or as an instructor at one of the schools. He also will probably have been promoted to lieutenant by now.