Bruinsrme Posted February 1, 2005 Author Share Posted February 1, 2005 Having been on two new commissioned boats, the scariest moment in my life was on board the USS Tennessee SSBN734. It was my first time experiencing a dive on a sub and it was the first time the sub ever submerged. There was an deadly silence shortly after the boat lowered its number 2 periscope. As hundreds of flash lights bounced off of the bulkheads the reports started comng in. All good. but at 70 feet that aint nothing. In the end there were a few minor leaks that sealed themselves from the pressure, like the periscopes. When we got back into port it was party time. Being a periscope tech I was the point of contact for removals, installs and the QA/subsafe packages. Upon sea trials after the replacement the Captain and I were standing in control and it was a junior officers first time on the boat and first dive. Well, it was play time. When we dove the periscope leaked like there was no tomorrow. The entire control room started panicing and the captain started barking out, people running around and then the Captain turns to me in an ever so calm voice and asks, Scott what do you recommend. I said deeper captain. He responded with great idea, he commanded the sub to 100 feet deeper. The look on the Ensigns face was priceless as caught on the polariod picture. The poor guy was whiter than white and the entire control room party was laughing their butts off. Teh good ole times.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruinsrme Posted February 1, 2005 Author Share Posted February 1, 2005 colterphoto1, Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Adams Posted February 1, 2005 Share Posted February 1, 2005 Being an Engineer (mechanical) and dealing with structures, I am simply amazed and humbled by what I see in those photos. There's obviously super-structure damage and slight deformation, but the hull's deck planks look to be "wrinkle free" and devoid of any real serious buckling. I'm truly amazed how that hull withstood the impact. Even if the ballast tanks dissipated some of the energy, the rate at which that much potential energy gets converted into kenetic energy is unreal. I have little doubt that the stress engineers factored in certain g-loads, but I seriously doubt their safety factors included hitting a wall at 30 knots! First and foremost, that crew should be incredibly proud with the way they handled that accident. It's a testimony to their training and skill. And to the folks that developed the training scenarios, they too should know that their efforts paid off. It also sounds like the boats' command did well in keeping folks focused. And the folks that designed & built that boat should be proud that they delivered something robust enough to protect the lives of those sailors. It's sad that one man died, however, many were sparred. Hey bruinsme - I got the opportunity to see the inside of the USS Tennessee (which is a Trident class sub guys - i.e big mo' fo') down at the Kings Bay, GA sub base. The Captain was Ronald Deering. Know him? Very nice guy. LOL...the reactor Officer was the one giving the tour and when we got to so-called Sherwood Forrest, I asked him if they removed the Trident missles when in port for retro-fit or did they just leave them in their tubes. The reply was, "Sir...I can neither confirm nor deny what might or might not be in these tubes Sir." I looked at him and said, "I get your drift." He said thanks and we moved on. That was one awesome boat. Wow.... Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Flynn Posted February 1, 2005 Share Posted February 1, 2005 Tragedy narrowly averted. Surprised that there could be unfound objects in the ocean of this mass, but now knowing that they do not operate with active sonar full-time for security reasons, accidents like this can sadly occur. I used to be arms lenght friends with a couple of submariners and have read some. Sub navigation is a to a large degree; "driving while blind". Historicals are used to determine course. Stealth in a sub has its risk. I am not sure how long they go without an outbound radio transmission or generating a sonar ping. A very serious chess game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruinsrme Posted February 1, 2005 Author Share Posted February 1, 2005 Hi Tom No I never had the pleasure of meeting Captain Deering. While you were in Kingsbay there are three large buildings. Two off to the right and 1 off to the left. The Left is the dry dock, which is freaking huge and the other two are EHFW's, Explosive Handling Wharfs. There are 2 EHW to support Brits and US boats. Normal refits are performed at the piers. The 130,000 pound missile does require special cranes and other equipment. so during a normal refit it is not likely, note the lack of confirmation, that a missile move would occur. It is a very costly operation to move the birds. The marines are scattered about providing VERY tight security. They are locked and loaded and they have no sense of humor what so ever. Here a good link to learn about how our tax dollars are spent http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/slbm/d-5.htm While launching a missile the sub acts in a very strange way. How one may ask. Take a piece of licorice and hold it in the middle with two fingers, now move it up and down, that is what the 560 foot long 42 foot wide sub does for about 15 seconds. It is wicked cool, the second time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddvj Posted February 1, 2005 Share Posted February 1, 2005 Not to make light of the subject, I honestly thought when I saw this thread that 'sub' meant subwoofer. I was wondering what you meant that a subwoofer hit an underwater mountain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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