Sub vs Carrier Duty

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jonathan Cooper on January 17, 2012 at 12:41pm

Thank you Ric this was indeed helpful

Ric Pallson said:

Don't know exactly but subs have only a dozen or two dozen Nukes.

Carriers -- where my daughter works -- they have a hundred or so Nukes.  When the ship posted their division picture on the Facebook they had to do it in parts.  Subs vs carriers -- like small town vs city.

A co-worker was a bubblehead a-ganger -- it is totally different.

Sub -- the CO is an O6 or an O5 and there are only  a few hundred ratings aboard.

Carrier -- the CO is an O6 and there are another half-dozen O6s aboard plus the Admiral plus 3000 -- right three thousand sailors and two thou air wing. Humongous.

Reactor department on a carrier has near as much crew as the whole crew of a sub.

Totally different world.

"Bubbleheads" vs "targets" or "skimmers" -- don't want to get into that controversy.

Permalink Reply by jeremy mcelroy on February 22, 2012 at 7:56pm

Well he is still early for that decision. He has all the way up until prototype to volunteer for submarine duty. So tell him to wait until then!!! As for basing the decision on wanting 3 months on and 3 off that isn;t going to work. As you have read that is a boomers schedule, although not exactly correct. If he gets a fast attack he will be out for the same 6+ months a carrier is, cramped and with none of the perks the carrier has like phones, satellite tv and what not. he also doesnt get the pick of which type of submarine he gets, it is a roll of the dice.

But also even if he volunteers for sub duty he may even still end up on a carrier. i got lucky and was accidentally given orders to a boomer when i was not a sub vol. so i pretty much had the option to keep the orders and sub vol or turn them down and go on a carrier. because i was just about to get married and wanted the better schedule i stayed with the boomer orders

Permalink Reply by Bill on February 29, 2012 at 9:12pm

My son asked me many times which way I would go if I had been faced with his choice when I served. Since I was a GSE, we were surface, but 200 man crew max depending on type of ship.

Many things I read above are true regarding subs, and we shared that in destroyers:  Small crew is awesome since you are part of a tight team out there all alone. Short chow lines, easy off the ship for liberty, small town style where you could be rescued from local LEO by a chief after a drinking overdo or late to work moment and have nobody know beyond your div-o, who may happen to be your scuba buddy too.

We often looked at the "bird farms" as a horrible way to serve, just a cog in a giant machine...and gangs and cliques and people you've never met.

That said, surface:  More liberty ports, but for the bird farm, it has to be a BIG port.  Kinda limits things.  Liberty call can distort the local prices of everything from beer to "local entertainment" just due to the # of people dropping into a 3rd world small port.

The value of watching a sunset in the tropics, the Milky Way on the weatherdecks at midnight, or the sight of an albatross following you for days:  priceless after a horrendously stressful day.

Swim call:  I don't thinks subs do that as surfacing is sort of verboten.

My son's answer was I will go surface and stick around long enough to be a plankowner on the first nuke destroyer!  I told him to not hold his breath on that...

Permalink Reply by Gerald H Darby on March 6, 2012 at 2:16pm

My son is a nuke,he is in power school. We are so proud of him he is doing great.

Permalink Reply by William in Nashua on March 7, 2012 at 11:37am

My son is a sub volunteer and an ET, he graduates from power school in 3 weeks.  He has been a sub volunteer since the day he entered the DEP program before he enlisted.  I sure hope he gets chosen to be on a submarine because that is what he wants; he wants an attack sub in the Pacific.

Permalink Reply by Kerry Anderson on March 7, 2012 at 11:51am

William,

Best wishes to your son.  I'm sure that you are proud of him.   My son graduated from Prototype in Goose Creek in August of 2011.  Almost immediately, he got his assignment to the USS Albuquerque in San Diego, and he was thrilled, as he too, had requested fast attack subs in the Pacific.   About 1 week after his arrival in San Diego, he was flown out to Guam to join the boat in it's 6mo deployment.  He was at sea for about 3 mo, and then returned to San Diego.  Currently he works pretty much 24hrs on duty, then 24 hrs off with a extra day off once a week or at least once every two weeks.   The boat has also gone out on a 3wk patrol and will be doing some more short sea duty assignments in the near future.  He has also been told that they will do another 6 month deployment either starting later this year, or early next year.  As far as he tells me, he loves his work and is doing great with life aboard a sub.  His wife is not quite as happy about the load of time that he is away, but overall, they are doing OK as a family.  I hope that this is what your son is looking for and if you have questions about "life in the fleet, assigned to a fast attack sub"  feel free to ask ... again congrats on your son's progress, and blessings to you and your son.

William in Nashua said:

My son is a sub volunteer and an ET, he graduates from power school in 3 weeks.  He has been a sub volunteer since the day he entered the DEP program before he enlisted.  I sure hope he gets chosen to be on a submarine because that is what he wants; he wants an attack sub in the Pacific.

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