When you think your job is difficult:

I know exactly what you and the crew are going thru as I am an ex Navy ET and served aboard the subtender USS Hunley AS 31 in Charleston and on Guam. I worked on a classified system and had clearances to go aboard the subs that came along side for maintenance and crew change. This was in the late 70"s and early eighties and I mostly worked on the old SSBN's and occasionally a fast attack. I have been aboard every SSBN in service at that time on the east and west coast. Previously I served aboard an old Aircraft carrier the FDR CV 42. WE had a collision in the Med and it was decommissioned and I was part of the decommissioning crew. My job on the FDR was very laid back and easy to cope with compared to my duties on a subtender.

When I reported to the Hunley I thought life would be great because the tender stayed in port and I could go home to my newly wed bride. I soon realized that although I was not trapped at sea my time would be limited at home. We routinely worked 12 on 12 off and stood duty 2 times a week spending the night working and sleeping on board the tender. The boomers had high priority and staying on their schedule was critical. We were always under pressure and were constantly being harassed to get it up and running sooner rather than later. I worked on a system that had water integrity and when I did repairs on it records were kept where me and my coworkers would sign off on steps taken in maintaining the water integrity so in the event of a failure they could come back and blame us. It was a lot of pressure and I was in a constant state of fatigue and learned to drink a lot of coffee.

I had a collateral duty on the radiation casualty team and trained with the nuke division to respond to radiation accidents. The subs as you know had reactors and carried nuclear weapon systems. The nuke division told us the backup team would be just that and would only be used in catastrophic conditions which would be rare. One day I am on board a boomer working when a alarm went off while loading missiles. Everyone on board started reaching for their air masks and I yelled was this a drill and they screamed back "NO GET OUT OF HERE! I scrambled up the ladder dropping my tools and test equipment and ran back to my space. Every one was told to go to their workspaces and not to go outside. Not long after I got to my work area they called the radiation casualty team so I ran thru the interior of the ship to report to the nuke division thinking we would just be sitting there while the experts took care of the situation. But when we assembled the backup team including myself were ordered to suit up and take the geiger counter instruments to check for radiation on the deck next to the sub and the subs crew topside on the sub. We could not find any radiation thank God and it was declared as a false alarm. Afterwards I wondered about the back up team designated as the first responders being expendable protecting the nuke guys from exposure.

While on Guam I had an accident that almost took my life. I was working on a power supply being so fatigued and not paying attention I touched one side of 350 volts dc and the other arched across to my other hand sending it thru my chest. It knocked be back and I was out for a second or two. Later that week my heart began pounding and beating very fast. I went to sick bay and the Doc determined that my aortic valve was leaking badly and needed surgery. I was sent to Balboa Naval hospital in San Diego and later had an artificial valve implanted and 37 yrs later still have it and am so grateful that I have lived this long. Believe it or not when I was scheduled to have the surgery in April of 81 the surgeon told me that he was on call to Bethesda because Ronald Reagan had been shot. He was never needed so I had the surgery. Thought it was cool that the surgeon that performed my valve job was good enough for the President. I was discharged from the Navy on a medical and am forever grateful on how the Navy took care of me. My son was born while I was in the Navy and he is currently a reserve Lieutenant Commander as a civil engineer in the Seabees. Grey mouser, thank you and all veterans for serving our great country especially those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.