WeekEnd Submarine RoundUp

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Short Timer Humor - Submariners have always been volunteers, so did the term 'short timer' disappear when involuntary conscription (the draft) did? No, but perhaps the slack attitude it described did. And submariners have at least one thing in common with inmates.

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All of the Hospital Corpsmen I have ever known on various boats or later (worked with one in industry for more than 15 years) were intelligent, upstanding gentlemen upon whom we could rely as much as our Marines had. And every one was something of an unique character in his own right. One kept a monkey in his home as a pet; one sold serapes he would buy in Tijuana, etc. Now, thanks to "Doc" MacDonald, we are reminded of another hospital corpsman everyone probably knows. He is a character, too, of course.

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Submariners during extended submarine patrols, 1997 to 1999 - Rates of accidents and injuries during U.S. Navy submarine deployments have not been evaluated previously. A database designed to monitor the health of submarine crewmembers was used to examine the rates and causes of accidents among deployed crewmembers aboard 196 submarine patrols between 1997 and mid 1999. Does this surprise anyone else? - Among submariners working in supply departments, the rates were more than two times those of crewmembers working in other departments. source

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EXCLUSIVE: Did You Read What a Kitsap 'Banger' is? (Hint: Not a sausage) Would the U.S. ever convert missile tubes on SSGNs to fire Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOP) at enemies, if necessary? It goes hand-in-hand with the stealth nature of those submarines," he said. "Being able to launch them from platforms famous for being very hard to find is an inventive use of those platforms," said Philip Coyle, also of the Center for Defense Information. link The thinking behind this move dates back to 2000 or earlier.

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After the Hampton (SSN-767) incident, the aftermath should not be an eye-opener for submariners. Some very bad apple stuck roaches in our noses while we slept. Here's the 'mickey-mouse' page for the nukes who still have not got it right: