| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Ray Mabus | ||||
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Ray Mabus, the Secretary of the Navy did an interview on the Daily Show last night. One of the topics addressed was that of women serving on submarines.
Some of you may have been following the long debate about this issue going on over at Bubblehead's blog. Some people are in favor of women serving aboard subs, some are opposed, and some other people probably don't really care and just want to go to the rack when they get off watch.
From what SecNav said during the interview, it doesn't seem that there is any debate going on. When Jon Stewart made the statement that women aren't allowed to serve in submarines, Ray Mabus replied "That's right. They will soon." The part where he talks about women serving aboard submarines starts just a little over two minutes into the interview.
He also said, innacurately, that there would be a delay because all people that serve on submarines are nuclear-trained. For the non-submariners out there, not all sailors that serve on subs go through nuclear power training. All the officers, with the exception of the supply officer are nuclear trained. The enlisted nuclear power plant operators are also nuclear trained. The other enlisted sailors go through submarine school.
I suspect that the Secretary of the Navy has a general idea of what sort of training that submarine sailors go through before they hit the waterfront. I guess this may be a clue that the first United State female submarine sailors will be officers, most of which are nuclear trained. No surprise if that is the case.
One of the people that left a comment on Bubblehead's blog had a link to a news article that said the first women may hit the submarine fleet in 2010 or 2011. The writing is on the wall and change is coming whether the men currently serving on subs want it or not.
At the shipyard, I have been working with the nukes from an aircraft carrier. Some of them are women. Seems like they can do the job that they are doing. Doesn't seem to be any obvious friction or inappropriate behavior between the men and women on the crew. The men and women both appear to be professional adults doing a difficult job. No surprise there, either.
When we begin to integrate women into submarine crews, it will probably result in a few rough patches on the road. We may lose some people. It will be their own fault, but they will blame the fact that we are allowing women to serve on submarines. Some people will have no difficulty aside from having a longer line at the shower. Some people won't care at all.
Most of the people who think it is a stupid idea can probably think of several other policies that have been implimented at their command that they thought were stupid ideas. They learned to adapt to the stupid policy and move on. This will be the same.
3 comments:
I figure it doesn't really matter. I was at the Boat School when "they" brought in women.
Somehow we survived! :)
I'm actually more curious about the statements made that the modern navy is more professional and has somehow raised the standards in terms of the quality of the men and now women that serve in it. Does anybody think that maybe we've also lost something of value by not having as much of the sheer crazy attitude of marines and sailor of the past?
Well, Being and old S-girl Sailor (also 616 & 640 boomers and 688s, I just can't see the habitabilty issues being solvable. In my current job I watch detailers and captains try to man the ships with the right mix of NECs and skill sets, but what it always seems to come down to is BUNKs. The crew may need an MM3 for A-div , but the only racks available are female and the only female available is an FC3, so guess what, the ship gets an FC3. Submarines do not have the luxury of overmanning one division while undermanning another, just to fill bunks. There is ZERO margin. The only way to really be able to make this work is to make everything UNISEX. Berthing, heads would all be UNISEX. Otherwise you end up with a female E-3 in the Nine man (which would probably be turned into female berthing while an E-6 LPO is stuck in the main berthing space. Not that the E-6 couldnt handle it, but how do you create two Goat Lockers, and even the O-staterooms, what if you have an odd number of female officers? does one get a lone stateroom while a bunk goes empty? Unlike surface ships, we live and work in the same spaces and don't have a "work day" while underway. the submarine 18 hour day poses a much different set of issues with watch standers and off watch time. I guess I could ramble on, and while I think that submariners are professional enough to handle the "sexual" issues, I think the stresses of submarine life are enough without throwing another monkey wrench into the main reduction gears...
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