Beautiful new destroyer...

[Ace-Garageguy]

I figured he was the FTB who lit the fuses on the warheads just as they launched the missiles.  

Or maybe he's just copping a smoke out of the wind behind the conning tower. Gets kinda stuffy down below. 

Edited September 17, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[10thumbs]

....stuffy down below. 

Maybe they sent him up on deck so the others could get a cleaner whiff.

That must be the loneliest place on Earth,  the deck of a nuclear sub, all alone, and no friggin land in sight.  He must have flubbed up big time.

Edited September 17, 2016 by 10thumbs

[russosborne]

Not positive, but odds are good he's the safety guy for the photographer. One person wouldn't be allowed topside alone. And he most likely is on the sound powered phones talking to the Control Room.

FTB lighting the fuse.
nope, we stayed down below. We lit the fuses electronically.

Russ

[charlie8575]

G

I'm laughing so hard I almost fell out of my chair.

The Zumwalt reminds me of a Civil War-era ironclad. 

Charlie Larkin

[Agent G]

G

[10thumbs]

...."lighting the fuse" 

I visited the USS Constitution way back, lots of fusing was done there.

OK, here's one for our sea-legs members.

So, months at sea, under water none the less.  No foreign port visits, no bars or girlie fun.  I can understand when nature calls, and you get to barking at the moon and all that jazz  But geez, a whole ship full of young virile dudes waiting to get at the head for some relief....!!   Do they put anti-erectile potions in your chow?  Or is it....wait a minute boss before we can blast, cause I got to finish.....first?  

Any sailors here? 

Man, I did some flying back in the day, good that the longest stretch was doable in this respect.   Off in the morning, on in the evening.

[Agent G]

I cannot speak for the sailors. 

I kept my Marines so busy aboard ship no one had the time to think about that. Me included. 

G

[russosborne]

Some used what was called a "patrol sock", patrol being that was what our time at sea was called. SSBNs (like the one in the picture earlier) had two crews, each had the sub for about 105 days, 70 or so of those were under water out to sea on what was called a "deterrent" mission. Cold war was pretty active those days, idea was the Russians knew we were out there and if they launched we would launch enough back at them to destroy the world essentially before they could stop us (41 SSBNs, most out at sea at any given moment), so supposedly that kept them from launching. Us as well, as they had similar subs out in the ocean. I was on a Polaris/Poseidon class sub, the Trident class had just started being put in service at that time.  We could carry 16 MIRV missiles, the Tridents could carry 24. MIRV=multiple independent reentry vehicles (warheads), meaning each missile could carry more than one warhead. Classified, but look up a Jane's book on naval vessels. They were pretty close.

My sub-USS John C Calhoun SSBN 630 was scrapped 22 years ago this month if I remember right. Bummer, I always had dreams of having it turned into a house, like some do with old airliners. But the SALT treaties were still in effect and it got chopped up.

Don't know what it is like in these PC days, but back then late nights had lots of porn on the subs (had a VCR in the crew's lounge and people brought tapes). Not all was porn. Someone taped quite a bit of MTV (this was in 82ish) and there were regular movies on tape. That was in addition to the movie projector and movies that were officially sanctioned. Had over 70 of those each patrol, one scheduled a night. None of those were porn, but there was a fair bit of T&A in some of the movies.

Not sure what the officers watched. They had their own stuff.

GEE, what a long answer for how sailors relieved themselves while at sea.

Oh, we had private bunks, at least they had curtains. So most of any relieving took place there. If you are interested, look up some of the documentaries for the Trident subs. Their bunk system was the same as ours pretty much.

Russ

Edited September 20, 2016 by russosborne