On an S5W platform (prototype) the popular spot was in the tunnel forward of AMR2 UL. Or Neucleonics. As for the officers, it didn't stop several of them on my ship from... ah... getting involved. But from my experience, females with higher ASVAB scores seem to be better at using birth control.

same here. On my last deployment we were in port in Chile and 5 or 6 officers (male and female) snuck alcohol in their quarters and proceeded to have a little party. One of the watches on his rounds heard a bunch of noise and reported it. They got a slap on the wrist...they couldn't stay out past midnight (officer curfew was 2AM IIRC); and had to have a lieutenant or higher escort them. If it was enlisted personnel they'd have strung them up by the toes. Restriction, deduction of pay, and probably rank too. The double-standards are just insane

No use, which ship were you on? I was in Chile with the Reagan about 5 years ago. And I was more referring to officers having fun with enlisted sailors- a LOT more of that occurred than is generally acknowledged.

I see only one problem here that I think has not been raised yet......

They say that there is nothing worse than a woman scorned, and I know that a woman who went through all the training would be a well disciplined individual, however, "if" a female crew member were to flit between one crew member and another, what would the infighting between the involved men be like in the confined quarters of an SSN?

This could bring morale down big time.

Also, Subs are at the forefront of a first strike. If a male crew member was having a relationship with a female crew member and she bought the farm, would the guys emotional state allow him to continue his duties adequately in a battle situation, when he might be needed as priority?

I'm all for equal rights, but I can see a lot of issues on this one.

I'm one of those guys that made it my business to never go anywhere near the reactor or Nuke-country spaces. That crap gave me the heebie-jeebies, so Nucleonics would have been out of the question (besides all the Nuke Chemists that I knew were nut-jobs who claimed to know how to make Meth-Amphetamine, and I believed them).

AMR2, I can see, but it was the LL on my boat that was less frequented, so that would be the spot. Jeezus! I can't believe I'm actually thinking about where it could be done! Clearly this is a bad idea!!!

-Skater

I'm not a sailor but I have been known to work onboard a long haul passenger train on occasion and can attest to the fact that both "intimate fraternization" and "flitting" are an inherent and ongoing problem.

I've always had a deep respect for submariners.

It's a duty I simply can't see myself doing.

Gotta have land and sky.

We get that... In port!

-Skater

That's an interesting point, Andy.

In my experience, I've never seen two guys on a ship fight over a girl, unless it was at a bar over a civilian girl at an overseas port. Now, I HAVE seen several catfights over guys on the ship- unfortunately, it was always between, the ugliest, nastiest girls onboard. I'm pretty sure that most guys realize that the women on board have all the power and KNOW IT, and therefore realize that it's really not worth it to fight over. Especially since many females on my ship had no problem having 3 or 4 boyfriends (or 10 or 12) at the same time.

Of course, it usually only lasted until we hit a port call, at which point almost every guy on the ship would forget that there were women on board, as we'd see MUCH hotter, less stuck-up, easier, foreign girls, and the boat goggles would quickly clear away and we'd mostly ignore the females from our own ship.

Until we pulled out again.

I was on the Jack, SSN-605.

There are potential benefits if the idea comes to pass. How they stack up against the potential problems, and how policy / practice / etc. is implemented to mitigate them, remains to be seen.

As for hygiene aboard subs... lets just say that things typically get relaxed a bit when at sea. Things may be different in more recent times, but back in my era it was common for fresh water to be at a premium. As such, you didn't get to take a shower whenever you felt like one. When you did get one, it was literally, "turn on the water just long enough to get wet, turn off the water, apply soap/shampoo, turn on water just long enough to rinse off, get out of the shower before your shipmates make you regret taking too long". Newer class boats may have more distillation capacity with an eye toward crew comfort/hygiene... then again, it might not be much more, if at all. On my boat, the enlisted crewmembers head had 2 shower stalls. One of them was routinely used to temporarily store trash that was awaiting the next time the Trash Disposal Unit would be operated... that should give you a better idea of where showering fell in the order of things.

Hey, at least it wasn't as bad as it was for hero submariners of WWII... those guys had to settle for salt water showering. I get itchy just thinking about that!

I served on 637's and 688's... We definitely had to be conscious of our fresh water usage, especially when showering or using the Head.

That said, the 688i (Flight III) had a lot more fresh water capability that both the 637 and the earlier Flight I and Flight II 688 boats... Nothing like the 774 or the 21 though. The 774 has so much fresh water, they actually use fresh water to flush the Heads! And the heads on the 774 are a pocelain job that flushes just like the one you have at home, 3 Gallons at a pop!

Of course, nothing beats a boomer. The 726 has everybody taking Hollywood showers.

lol

-Skater

You didn't think that one through did you ?


Wheels

Like I said in one of my earlier posts we had two crew members (male and female) get punished and shipped off to different duty stations because they couldn't get along with each other after they broke up. It can be a problem on smaller ships and subs where you see and work with the same people every day for months at a time

Heck, you can have that happen with people of the same gender! There was another EM1 in my division that several people (myself included) could absolutely not work with. For the morning turnover one of the chiefs or Divo's would have to sit between him and the rest of us.