Never has been. You could always spot a Soviet submariner by the fact he was bald and sterile.
Ouch. Rough life.
~Never has been. You could always spot a Soviet submariner by the fact he was bald and sterile.~
LOL. It is a popular myth in Russia too, but it barely projects into reality.
I had a classmate who dreamed to be a submariner since 5th grade despite a fact that Navy is not as popular as Army and Air Force (if you opted for Navy you had to serve compulsory 3 years instead of two for other branches at the time).
Not only he served his compulsory term on a nuke sub, he also signed a contract and sailed another year.
He should have spend longer in Navy if not for his mother who had enormous influence with him.
He was of Jewish ancestry, his family had extensive (relatively) jewelry business here and they thought his military service was a kind of protest against the family. She was a kind of annoyance for other kids and officers and she has finally forced him to resign aged 22.
Why am I talking about it? We have laughed that he might have left his balls on the boat or fed to the fishes but he got married and had four children before 26.