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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How much training did you need for your role?
Once you had your initial set of training, how often does it get refreshed?
8 weeks of boot camp to become a sailor, 8 more weeks of basic submarining school, a month of rating specific apprenticeship school, a month of SSBN specific school, and then on the job training from there. The on-the-job training and qualifications process never stops, and you're expected to be constantly working on certifications and qualifications for new roles, reading technical manuals and publications, memorizing regulations, and getting to know your equipment even better than when you woke up. Every year we get general naval training requirements, such as basic operational security and counterintelligence, and every time we return from a deployment we have to undergo recertification to return to sea as a crew at the training simulators.
Jfc the Navy gave you less training for sub life than they gave me to work on aircraft.
To be fair, I'm a Nav ET. Nuclear ratings get a whole year of training in addition to boot camp before they get to the ship. Some even come to the ship as an E5.