"Enlisted Women to Serve on US Subs" Topic

The Navy has released the outline for its plan to have enlisted women serve onboard submarines starting in 2016.

In a series of messages administrative messages released Wednesday afternoon, the service outlined its plan to incorporate enlisted females into the force starting with the Blue and Gold crew of the Ohio-class nuclear guided missile submarine USS Michigan (SSGN-727) in 2016 and new Virginia-class nuclear attack boats starting in 2020.

"Initially, sailors will be selected and trained for rating conversion to serve aboard SSGNs and nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) previously integrated with female officers. The first two crews will be integrated in 2016, with an additional two to four crews added each year through 2021," read the message…

link

So the navy is running out of seamen? :)

Oh, Zargon.

In all seriousness it will be interesting to see what fraternization problems crop up. I know the Navy has had significant issues with Pregnancies in the surface fleet.

Women like to go under too. Okay, it's terrible but Zargon started it.

Something something Fist Full of Seamen *mutter*

Good. After the apocalypse the sub crews will be able to repopulate the earth.

Gives watching those submarine races a whole new vantage point.

Also, creates a whole new definition for "baby-boomers".

Yayyyyy more variety for the shower videos!

Actually Mako those would be 'boomer babies…'

I guess it depends upon which way you look at it goragrad, but your term is quite good as well.

I was thinking in terms of a baby outbreak on the boomers, hence the term I used, since they'll be breeding grounds under the seas' surface.

Both are quite applicable, and will no doubt be a reality, unless enforced birth control is required during service on them.

Agreed, if carriers are seeing a 15 percent rate, I doubt subs will be far behind.

Wonder how many new shore duty jobs they will be able to create.

Interesting that as the DOD is looking to cut personnel that they are creating the need to 'overstaff' to meet deployment requirements.

On the other hand, they might be able to add nurseries to carriers for example…

The problem is that pregnancy is considered a non-deployable "injury", so if a woman gets pregnant she will not be deployed.

A bigger problem will be that there are only 2 bathrooms onboard an Ohio-class sub for the enlisted. Two showers and 3 or 4 porcelain thrones in each. As you might imagine, trying to restrict the male crew to one of the two… is not conducive to morale or health&safety for extended periods.

I hope there are at least ~30 females assigned to the subs to reduce the strain on whichever head they are assigned.

And yes, I did serve on Ohio-class. USS Georgia before her conversion to SSGN and USS Kentucky. Midshipman operations with females onboard sucked. The only way we could make it work is because we only spent 5 days in those conditions before pulling into port for the weekend!

Oh, this will go well.

Stock code for Pampers….?

I suspect the real complication will be when the pregnancy occurs, and/or shows up during deployment at sea.

Morning sickness will be hard to hide in such close quarters, and I doubt the "seasick" excuse will work 50 fathoms under the sea.

Brings new excitement to "hot bunking".

Is the sub force a voluntary service still, or not ?

Sub fleet has always been volunteers-only. Even in WW2, even during Vietnam. You might get drafted into the Navy, but you had to stand up and say, YES, I want to get stuffed in a soup can for months on end.

I suspect the real complication will be when the pregnancy occurs, and/or shows up during deployment at sea.

Well, if it happens within a couple weeks of port call, there's a question about when exactly things happened that won't result in getting court-martialed. Though the proof of sexual relationship inside the same chain of command (aka fraternization) is usually when someone goes to the doc with symptoms of an STD, not pregnancy.

Morning sickness will be hard to hide in such close quarters, and I doubt the "seasick" excuse will work 50 fathoms under the sea.

Depends on how bad the weather is, but subs usually prefer to go deep under storms to avoid rocking and rolling like a drunken pig. (Subs don't have a keel, so they're really prone to rolls in rough seas.)

I knew someone would pull that one doc mcb :)
Amazing not one of us was 'brimful' on this idea. I guess peacetime soldiering is what 'this' PC duff is all about.
Guess what the Russkies ant doing it, and they seem to be just fine ( what with the dangers of submarines and all) me, I'm tired of the gals are just as tough as the boys tripe. What ever happened to women in dresses being a good thing? Maybe I'm getting old 'finally' (yeah I too was once a weirdo who listened to loud and brash music :)
Cheers and good luck to these navies etc. emulating Star Trek

Wow. That's gonna be interesting.

Is it true that sound travels better through water than through air?

Dan

Hey, if the guys snoring in the Chief's Quarters aren't being heard outside the hull, some girl … "loudly enjoying herself" won't either.