HMAS Waller
Posted on 02/24/2009 7:31:48 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Crisis as sub crews prepare to abandon ship
Cameron Stewart | February 25, 2009
THE navy's submarine fleet is in danger of becoming unsustainable because of a chronic shortfall of qualified sailors, with almost half of all submariners wanting to leave the navy as soon as possible, according to a confidential Defence report.
A psychological study of the submarine arm, obtained by The Australian, reveals almost half of all submariners intend to abandon the navy as soon as they can, at a time when it is already so short of crews that it can barely put three of its six Collins-class boats to sea.
The report questions the sustainability of the current Collins-class fleet at a time when the Government is preparing plans, revealed in The Australian in 2007, for a future fleet of up to 12 submarines in the forthcoming defence white paper.
It finds that morale has crumbled, with submariners saying they are overworked, underpaid and unappreciated. They feel alienated from the navy.
Officers are bitter about being exempt from the navy's submarine retention bonuses, which has led them to be paid less than the junior sailors they command.
The study found a quarter of the navy's submarine crews suffer chronic sleep deprivation and believe their job of roaming the world's oceans is meaningless.
"The career intentions results raise serious concerns about the sustainability of the submarine fleet," according to the report on a survey of navy submariners by the Defence Force Psychology Organisation.
"With between 34-48 per cent of submarine respondents reporting an intention to leave the navy in the short term the (submarine service) seems to be facing a possible crisis.
"All submarine crews report fairly low levels of commitment to the navy,
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
HMAS Waller
Morale dives on navy’s saddest boat
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25103399-31477,00.html
Does the Aussie media put down its military like the USA media?
Exactly.
Coming soon to a military base near you.
The current worldwide economic crisis oddly enough is being seen by some military planners as being the savior of the services as more people are put out of work many are flocking to the army/navy/airforce for attractive, stable careers with relativly low entrance requirements. Maybe the fleets of all the NATO countries will get back to full manning (although I know thats a pipe dream).
” believe their job of roaming the world’s oceans is meaningless.”
Hard to keep up the excitement level riding around underwater for twenty years.
The Airborne soldiers don’t have as much a problem with boring routine.
Is that doggerel or dingo-erel?
A Tasmanian Devil made me do it.
Maybe Ash hauling should be the name of a secret island military base in the Pacific somewhere and visited ever other month for "small arms" training. I bet that would increase the retention rate.
It might give "Liberty" a whole new meaning.
Good idea, there are answers to these type of problems and the military should give some thought to ideas like that.
I'd put the "excitement level" on a submarine in the "Be careful what you wish for" catagory.
“I’d put the “excitement level” on a submarine in the “Be careful what you wish for” catagory.”
Also if you are ever asked to transport North Korean commandos, say no, they are hard on submariners.
Sad.
Go back to the old rules. Wenches, doxies and roundheels on ships.
A select group of women stationed on the submarines.
Dive, Dive, Dive allofasudden becomes an order requiring clarification!
As an ex Fast Attack submariner my major complaints were and always will be:
The officers by and large are complete arrogant aholes.
The 4 hour field days every Friday cleaning a 10x10 space that in the real world would take 10 minutes to clean.
The fact that the Navy finds it absolutely necessary that you dress like a complete DORK when leaving the boat.
The constant non-descript BS when in port.
Port and Starboard duty when underway (6 on, 6 off, 6 on, 6 off) Keep in mind that doesn’t include drill times, showers, FIELD DAYS, training, the time it takes to wind down from 6 hours of watch.) So in reality you’re getting maybe 4-5 hours sleep a day for weeks on end.
The constant, “My wife she...” excuses from the married guys thereby bagging the single guys with all the end of the day work.
3 day duty section in port in which you NEVER get any sleep. Then its a full work day the next day. So in essence you’re basicall working 32-36 hours before you get sack time. Repeat two days later.
In the Fast Attack fleet, you’re in 1 day gone 6. In two weeks gone 1 day. In 4 days gone 3 weeks. Therefore you never have time to attend any college courses. (see all above reasons as well.)
Its just the endless BS that never stops from the Squadron Admiral on down to you lead petty officer.
Oh, the benefit of 30 days leave a year. Actually you get like NO vacation if you count 3 section duty and weekends are counted against leave.
Other than that, it was great!!!
Which boat were you on? I’ve been on the Portsmouth a couple of times as a visitor.
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