Lady Submariners

It's official: Women will serve on subs.

By Russ Bynum (AP Military Writer):

KINGS BAY NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE, Ga. – The first U.S. women allowed to serve aboard submarines will be reporting for duty by 2012, the Navy said Thursday as the military ordered an end to one of its few remaining gender barriers.

The cramped quarters and scant privacy aboard submarines, combined with long tours of up to 90 days at sea, kept them off-limits to female sailors for 16 years after the Navy began allowing women to serve on all its surface ships in 1994.

There were some protests, particularly from wives of sub sailors, after the military began formulating a plan last fall. But it received no objections from Congress after Defense Secretary Robert Gates notified lawmakers in mid-February that the Navy intended to lift the ban. The deadline for Congress to intervene passed at midnight Wednesday.

Rear Adm. Barry Bruner, who led the Navy's task force on integrating women onto submarines, brushed aside questions from reporters about the potential for sexual misconduct or unexpected pregnancies among a coed crew. "We're going to look back on this four or five years from now, shrug our shoulders and say, 'What was everybody worrying about?'" said Bruner, the top sub commander at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in coastal Georgia, where the announcement was made.

The first group of women will consist entirely of officers assigned to guided-missile attack submarines and ballistic-missile submarines, which have the most living space in the Navy's fleet. They'll be assigned to two subs based at Kings Bay on the East Coast, and two others at the West Coast naval hub of Bangor, Wash.

Limiting women to officer slots lets the Navy, for a time at least, sidestep the more vexing and cost-prohibitive problem of modifying subs to have separate bunks and bathrooms for enlisted men and women. Enlisted sailors make up about 90 percent of a sub's 160-sailor crew. No timeline was given for integrating enlisted women onto subs.

Bruner said 24 women will be able to begin training for submarine officers, which takes at least 15 months, this summer. They'll be divided up so that three women are assigned to each sub's two rotating crews. That grouping will let all three women aboard a sub share a single stateroom for sleeping. The single bathroom shared by a sub's 15 officers will be equipped with a sign to show if it's occupied by men or women. Otherwise, most changes will likely be behavioral shifts by male sailors who aren't used to having women aboard, said Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Lombardo, executive officer of the submarine USS Alaska. "The guys are probably used to walking to the restroom in their boxer shorts and stuff," Lombardo said. "But all in all, I think the adjustments for the crew are going to be minor."

One of the most difficult groups to win over on the concept of coed subs has been women themselves — at least those who are married to submarine sailors. On blogs and online networking sites, wives of submariners have warned that close contact between the sexes at sea could lead to temptation and allegations of sexual harassment. "There's a lot of Navy wives worried about their husbands cheating," said Petty Officer 1st Class Glenn Gray, a missile technician on the Alaska, who said his wife isn't crazy about the idea. "I've told her not to worry, because I'm married to her."

The Navy declined several requests by The Associated Press to interview female sailors and cadets at U.S. bases about the policy change. Women are currently allowed to serve on subs in a few countries, including Australia, Canada, Norway, Spain and Sweden. About 52,446 women serve on active duty in the U.S. Navy, or about 15 percent of total personnel. Navy officials said women also make up about half the pool of potential recruits with educational degrees that qualify them for training as submarine officers. "We literally could not run the Navy without women today," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in a statement.

Sailors interviewed aboard the Alaska at Kings Bay on Thursday said they're not opposed to the change. But Petty Officer 2nd Class Chris Merceri predicted there will be "a little more anxiety" when female officers come aboard for the first time. "Everybody's going to be really up on their P's and Q's, very formal and careful of what they do," Merceri said. "After that, everyone will be relaxed and comfortable. It'll be another day at work."
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Associated Press writer Pauline Jelinek contributed to this story from Washington. Russ Bynum has covered the military based in Georgia since 2001.
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Now I wouldn't want to serve on submarines myself, but that's just because of the normal reasons: it's super cramped, you don't visit ports, there's lots of rules about secrecy (more than on surface ships) and I'm sure there would be a few more if I thought about it longer. I think it's just fine that they're integrating them... I would be a little nervous at first, because of the close quarters, but as with anywhere in the Navy, I think it's just something to get over.

Nautical Weekend

On Saturday the 24th, I visited Naval Station Bremerton for the destroyer museum ship and museum.

and on Sunday the 25th, I ran/walked the Bellevue 5K after my recruiter told me about it last Monday.

Ever since I had to do those push-ups I've remembered to call every Monday to check in. :) Speaking of push-ups, I had a sudden fear Saturday morning that I wasn't doing enough to work on improving them, so I busted out as many as I could... and I went up to 16. Little by little!

First Official Workout

Because I was curious about what went on at these bi-weekly PT gatherings that are only during my regular working hours, I decided to go today. Went to work early so I could leave early and make it there by 1100. I was only a couple minutes late (time got away from me at work) and the other ten or so recruits were already breathing hard when I walked in. Petty Officer Jordan was leading this meeting... the next thing we did was pretty easy: going up and down on the balls of the feet over and over (40 times).

There were push-ups and squats and flutter-kicks and windmills and lunges. While doing jumping jacks, we kept repeating a silly story about 50 cents and an elephant: "I asked my mother for 50 cents to watch the elephant jump the fence; it jumped so high, it touched the sky and didn't come down til the Fourth of July. One, Petty Officer" (repeat up to 15 times... which can really make one lose their breath if they're not careful). Talking and jumping is not a good combo.

And then I learned how to do an 8 count push-up. Gosh, it goes so fast... I really do need to practice that one. And now I know why they are so disliked. From a standing position (one), squat on the floor (two), assume the position of a push-up (three), do a push-up (four), stay in that position and spread the feet shoulder width apart (five), move the feet back together (six), come back to a squat (seven), and then stand up (eight). Except it's fast and we were supposed to do 10 or 15 of them. It sorta felt like a thousand.

After we kept this up for about 40 minutes we then went down the hall and did pull-ups (well, some of us :) Then we came back in, stretched, and went on a formation run, twice around the baseball field behind the building. I got to be in front and we even sang a cadence about how my grandmother at the age of 92 "did PT better than you", and at the age of 93 did it "better than me"... at 94 I think she did it some more... by 95 she had died... it was rather fun.

And from all this I gleaned that I have a lot of work to do before September 21.

Right at the end of run he had us stop, left face, and say the Creed. We did some General Orders and then were questioned about what a CPO's rank looks like. There were a couple people there who I had never seen before that haven't contracted yet and were interested in a book or something so they could learn all this. So I passed on my Navy Knowledge page address to them. Maybe it'll help...

Oh! And I weighed in at 172 on the April Fool's Day meeting... and today I was at 168! Only one pound over my limit! Yay! Here's to portion size and exercising! And now for some more portion size and exercising... :)

A Look Back

Just received the 1944 Bluejacket's Manuel in the mail from eBay this noon! That was a quick ship! It would have been the edition my grandfather used when he joined the Navy and sailed on the USS Roi in the later parts of WWII. It is generations away from the one I read last year, and includes how to man a turret gun, how to do calisthenics with your M1 Garand... and identifications for US Navy ships, from carriers (CV) and Battleships (BB) all the way down to a rubber landing craft. And I loved the page with "Flags of Major Maritime Nations" that included (obviously) a Nazi flag, the Imperial Italian flag, the USSR (with a "man-of-war" flag that I'd never seen before) and a Imperial "rising sun" Japanese flag. It's just incredibly awesome to hold that in print in your hands and remember how frightening that must have been then. USS Roi only had one battle star. I think they shot down a Japanese plane. It was a small transport carrier that only served the last couple years.

Navy Knowledge

Due to this last meeting, I thought it proper to add a "military bearing" section to my "Navy Knowledge" page. I hope it actually helps some poor recruit out someday... I just learned some of it myself last week.

It's linked on my list of links, but here it is anyway:
Jen's Navy Knowledge

6th Monthly Meeting: 1 Apr 2010

And it was no joke.

We had a joint regional meeting of the Naval Recruiting Stations from Lynnwood, Northgate, Woodinville and Bellevue (mine). Our Chief was leading the meeting, and there were probably around fifty recruits and a dozen recruiters.

We formed up at first like normal to say the Sailor's Creed. I love getting in the front row so I can say it loudly for the Chief. We went through a bit of drill & ceremony, practicing the transitions from Attention to At Ease to Attention to Parade Rest and so on, and the rules associated with each. He went through the ranks and asked individuals to say whatever General Order he asked them to say. I never got to say one, but he gave me a big compliment... he looked at me and said, "I know you already know it." and then asked the guy next to me to say it. I have to admit, in a setting like that it would have been hard to shout out the order. I do know them, but I need to be able to tell them to the Chief in front of fifty recruits while at attention. For some reason, that situation intimidates me.

The rest of the meeting was spent talking about rather dull things. We talked about "a healthy lifestyle" and stress and suicide prevention. There was also a bit about resources for families for active duty Sailors. I am ultra motivated if I can stay motivated for the Navy after a meeting like that.

I was very happy to tell my recruiter that I told my boss about the Navy, and he was glad to hear it. I told him when I'm quitting and when I can be more active, coming to program workouts.