Posted on 05/28/2012 4:32:46 PM PDT by beebuster2000
The USS Illinois, the first Navy submarine to be staffed by an all-female crew, received the support of the White House on Memorial Day.
On Monday, First Lady Michelle Obama officially sponsored the Virginia-class submarine, which will be one of the newest nuclear-powered boats scheduled to enter the fleet by 2015, according to a White House statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
On a sub there is no time for chivalry.
You all be dead.
Don’t we need an all-black sub, too? And a gay sub?
Isn’t Affirmative Action wonderful?
Pray for Our Troops
Spin up tubes one through four, target package designated Mike Echo November (MEN)...
You’re right in your (implied) statement that lesbian fraternization may be (heck, probably WILL be) a problem. However, now that it’s “everything goes” for gay men in the service as well, that exact same problem will exist with all-male sub crews.
So. What’s your solution?
Women have not yet been crew members on US Navy subs.
Therefore, an all woman crew is totally without sub experience. Not just the ensigns and seamen; everyone.
Skipper, XO, all division heads, all chiefs, all engineers, pipefitters, etc.
Really DUMB idea, but it will sure make Obama, Michelle, Pelosi, Rachael Maddow et al. feel good about the “100 Fathom Ceiling” finally being broken for women.
Yep. It wasn't likely - you wouldn't need only a training pipeline full of women but ones who were already qualified and experienced - E3 through E8 and department-head level officers. They're just not there. And you can't run a submarine without them.
Even now, after five decades of coeducational experience in the surface Navy, it'd be tough to run an all-woman ship, at least for very long. The simple act of manning (sorry) a ship from the pool of existing sailors precludes that sort of selectivity - people qualify, are promoted, transfer in and out, leave the Navy for civilian life; it isn't a static problem. Maintaining readiness under that sort of flux is the Navy's primary personnel challenge.
I do see that Nuclear Power School graduated some women last year. That's a start, but it's a very small one. My congratulations to the graduates - that's a really tough course.
I can parallel park in places my husband won’t even think about parking! I do a darned good job of it, too.
Non-qual junior officers are typically rather meek and quiet...every once in awhile you get a real A-hole though. They can only throw their weight around so much before getting squashed by the higher-ups. This is one of the very unique characteristics of submarine life. The officer/enlisted relationship is unlike any other Navy billet. Those who haven’t served on a boat simply have no idea.
“The strength factor. Everything is heavy on ships/subs. On a mixed u-boat the gals would have male help not so with an all girl crew. The Army had problems with women crews driving trucks because most could not change the tires.”
This is the first SENSIBLE criticism I’ve read on this thread.
>>“Coming up on tonight’s 10 O’clock News, military leaders in Moscow are on high alert due to intelligence reports indicating it’s ‘that time of the month’ aboard the American Navy submarine Illinois. ...”
That may not be as funny as it looks at first glance. There are studies that show that women who work in close proximity tend to get on the same schedule! That could really happen!
Hah! the first time I went out, I was hot racking with my sea pappy.
He thought it would be funny to slip a TDU weight into the rack pan each day.
The damn thing just kept getting heavier and heavier.
I thought the sheets and stuff were bunching up in the hinges and just kept grunting away at it.
Anywhoo he finally got fed up with it after about a month because he had to deal with it too and he told me I was a dumbass for not figuring it out. LoL
There were plenty of TDU weights because some dumb asses forgot to load out the TDU tubes.
We ended up securing one of the showers to store the dry refuse we could not jettison on station.
You need experienced people to teach new sailors, a Chief of the Boat and a Chief's mess to run things, diving officers, a good Chief Engineer. None of those exist with only three years in submarines. You may be able to get a competent CHENG from the nuke surface fleet, but she isn't going to know anything about making a submarine go other than making steam with the reactor.
Gives new meaning to “blowing sans”.
Bingo.
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Where will they get the crew to run this boat? It is not that easy and requires a number of skilled people trained as nuclear equipment operators, machinist, torpedos and then there is the diving and surfacing of the boat. This requires lot of experience to safely do it. I know being a Chief of the Watch, and eventually a Diving Officer. on a 8,000 ton boat (USS TRITON). This would require a bunch of split tails getting experience on other boats prior to that sub.
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