I am a submariner. AMA.
I am a submariner. AMA.
SSBN. ETV. Will not respond to questions about sensitive or classified subjects. My views are my own and I do not represent anyone.
Hi there!
Edit: since this has been asked several times:
SSBN stands for “submersible ship, ballistic missile, nuclear powered”. That is, the same overall type of ship as the Red October.
ETV stands for “Electronics Technican, Navigation”, because N was already taken by Nuclear Electronics Technicians. I work with everything from interior communications and announcing circuits to Electronics, shipwide atmospheric monitoring, navigational inertial gyroscopes, strategic nuclear missile navigation, and tank level indicators to basic underwater submarine navigation using the voyage management system and even helming the ship itself.
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Does the smell get as bad as I'd expect on extended duration missions?
No, we take regular showers and use deodorant, and if you genuinely smell the ship's Doc will force you to shower with someone watching you.
How about the boat itself? I've read some pretty critical takes of the atmosphere, though a lot of that was early -- like, diesel fumes wouldn't be a factor on your SSBN.
googles
https://teddit.net/r/submarines/comments/b30qkm/does_a_sub_leak_does_it_smell/
This is more modern. Here's a guy who said that he was on two 688s:
how is the "air" in a sub ? Dry ? Humid ? I know there are oxygen systems, and I've read here that the air is cleaned all day long so - is it like living in an aircon flat ? does it smell (oil, grease, metal, food, etc ?)
The air sucks. Straight up huffing lightly oiled air that smells like a fart rusted. If you're not on the boat for awhile you can smell it as soon as you get down the hatch. Then you get used to it after awhile. My first long deployment I thought there was something wrong with my washing machine. No matter how many times I washed my uniform it smelled like a mix between amine (ammonia) and something vaguely metallic (like you licked a nickel, but a smell instead of a taste). Underway the air is usually moist because once you get deep enough, no matter where you are in the world, the water is coooooold (no sunlight). So most people usually bundle up pretty tight, especially if you work around electronics (like sonar or fire control); they keep these spaces extra cool to make the electronics happy. We do have "air conditioning", but like I said, these are more for the electronics. I remember one underway putting my shoes on day after day for watch, and each passing day my shoes went from dry, to moist, to damp, to wet. No matter where I put them to dry they wouldn't, resulting in prune feet that wouldn't stop peeling for a few weeks.
An Royal Navy submariner in the same thread:
I'm an ex RN submariner but I still work in the business, so to speak.
I was on a boat still in build a few months ago and it already smelled of boat, which leads me to believe that not only does the smell come pre-installed, but it must be part of the original design requirements.
So, not just submariner fart and hydraulic oil. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Someone on the USN side again:
The boat does get pretty smelly, yeah. On VA--at least when I was in--SONAR stood lookout while surfaced. It's the best watch, chilling out on the sail... fresh, moving air...
Until you have to come back below. It's like a giant fist of farts and ballsacks and fried hamsters dragon punching you in the face as soon as you get back into the hatch... hell just leaning over the hatch. Only time I ever came close to retching on a submarine.
Smells like amine, rust, hydraulic fluids, paint chips, and 100 sailors stuck in a can, yes. You get used to it, and it's actually not noticeable in some places with good ventilation.
This page blames it on the CO₂ scrubbers, in part:
https://www.wired.com/2014/11/nano-sub-co2-scrub/
I take that back, the air is gross, because the chemical used to remove CO2 smells like old diesel mixed with a dash of sulphur, and it permeates everything on board. This chemical, called amine, is known by every submariner (I was one for 3 years), as well as every submariner's wife, husband, or anyone else who encounters that sailor's laundry.
I worked with a former submariner on a destroyer in Charleston, South Carolina before the naval base shut down in the 90's. He explained that the smell was bad enough it permeated through all his clothes. He would throw away all his clothing and buy new between deployments. I seem to recall that he'd put his civilian clothes in ZipLock bags to keep them fresh smelling to wear when in-port overseas.
Man, was in army (conscripted), and there were some guys I interacted with who definitely could do with a forced supervised shower. Cannot imagine that level of hygiene in a sub.
That's why, for all that other branches tell me they couldn't imagine voluntarily going into a sinking ship, I can't imagine rucking in the Army or jumping out of a functional airplane. Everyone has their own little insanity, mine just happens to be willingness to lock myself in a tin can and diving into the abyss.