Life Aboard a US Navy Submarine

Shrimp feasts, destroyer pings, a three-boat rendezvous at the North Pole, and the toll of months without sunlight

America’s submarines have come a long way since the first hand-cranked wooden rigs. Today’s state-of-the-art vessels can support hundreds of sailors who work and live together underwater for months at a time. Serving on a US Navy submarine takes courage, stamina, and deep expertise, quite literally.

“I don’t think being on a submarine is for everybody. I think you have to be somebody that can be comfortable with no sun and no outside communication. Submariners are different from everyone else in the Navy. There is also a different kind of camaraderie down here,” said Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Khamani Conklin, a Torpedoman’s Mate aboard the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Maine (SSBN-741), in the article Living in the Deep on the Department of Defense website.

Former submariners have shared what that life was really like: the food, the sounds, the missions, and the psychological strain.

The Cooks Who Beat the Canned Food

US Navy Culinary Specialists work as part of a team in kitchens, dining areas, living quarters, and food service storerooms aboard ships and onshore bases. Culinary Specialist Submarines (CSS) serve aboard submarines. They receive extensive training in cooking, baking, dining and living area management, and they can also improvise meals, sometimes in unconventional ways.

Richard Morris, a former US Navy submariner, recalled one such system on Quora:

‘The cooks and the sonar gang worked out a genius system, with the Old Man’s approval.

‘Whenever we were steaming at periscope depth or slipping on batteries—and not on ops—sonar would notify the head cook. The head cook in our case was a miracle of a man: Jim Banneck. The man could make anything out of nothing. Never came up short. Always wowed everyone on the boat. Rumor was, the Old Man pulled solid gold strings to get him transferred to his command when he was assigned as CO.

‘Jim would take sonar’s intel, relay it to the Old Man, and the two of them would discuss menu options! Seriously. Menu options. Spices.

‘On one occasion, Sonar notified Jim that we were passing through snapping shrimp. Jim called the Old Man, we surfaced, the cook crew scurried out on deck, scooped up buckets full of shrimp, and presented the crew with Shrimp Scampi, Shrimp Biscuits, Shrimp and Kelp Omelets, Shrimped Brioche, Shrimp Ceviche, Shrimp Lasagne—bearing in mind that this was a 66-person crew on a five meals per day rotation, so the variety was much appreciated by all.’

He continued:

‘On another occasion we caught a tuna and assorted other edibles that fed us through seven rotations. That’s 35 meals. 35.

‘Jim was a magician. I’m glad I had the opportunity to work with him. As the NFG, I washed dishes, took care of stores, prepped, tried to keep the galley clean enough to satisfy our very, very scrupulous Chief Corpsman (medic), and did whatever Big Jim told me to do.

‘As a newbie in sonar, I learned to relish opportunities to be a bit player in the conspiratorial drama that would deliver us all from the hell of canned food.

‘When I evolved to the level of shipmate, dolphins proudly displayed, Jim and I would talk about his love for cooking, his hope for painting satisfaction on the faces of his shipmates, his understanding of what it meant to be part of something bigger than himself.’

Morris concluded:

‘Jim Banneck was a big man—a very big man.

‘See you on the other side, Big Man.’

Pinged by a Spruance-Class Destroyer

Sound is everything to a submarine, and not all of it was welcome. The thirty-one Spruance-class destroyers were developed for the primary mission of anti-submarine warfare, including operations as an integral part of attack carrier forces. Using highly developed weapons systems such as the AN/SQS-53B Hull Mounted Sonar and the AN/SQR-19(V)3 Tactical Towed Array Sonar, they were designed to hunt down and destroy high-speed submarines in all weather. They could also engage ships, aircraft, and shore targets, and provide naval gunfire support in conjunction with Marine amphibious operations worldwide.

Despite these capabilities, the US Navy retired the class somewhat earlier than planned and decommissioned the last ship in 2005. Most Spruances were broken up or destroyed as targets, while the former USS Paul F. Foster (DD-964) went on to serve as a Self Defense Test Ship for experimental US Navy weapons and sensors. The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer succeeded the class as the Navy’s main destroyer.

James Clark, a former US Navy Submarine Chief Petty Officer, recalled on Quora what it was like to be “pinged” by one:

‘I have been pinged once by a surface ship. We were entering port near dawn, and our Officer of the Deck was doing his periscope sweeps before surfacing. He sighted a nearby ship and then announced they had launched a helo. We dove deep and went full ahead.

‘Within fifteen minutes, this weird sound started emanating in our ship. It’s not a ping. It sounds more like a blue whale has decided to open up an EDM club and is showing off its sick new beats. It’s a wavering sound that goes up and down in pitch.

‘The surface ship was a Spruance-class destroyer. It had sighted our periscope and decided to prosecute. We ran for a while, let them have some ASW training, and then surfaced and went into port.’

Clark concluded:

‘When I am saying pinged once, I am referring to hearing the SONAR through the hull. It could be heard on the mess decks over the TV burning a flick. The sonar operators heard plenty in sonar. Most of the time when we conducted PASSEX the SONAR was either passive only or the Active SONAR was far enough away that it could only be picked up by our sensors.’

Three Submarines at the North Pole

Some of the most demanding submarine missions took place under the Arctic ice. On May 6, 1986, three US Navy Sturgeon-class nuclear-powered attack submarines rendezvoused and surfaced together at the geographic North Pole. They were USS Ray (SSN-653), homeported in Charleston, SC; USS Archerfish (SSN-678), homeported in Groton, CT; and USS Hawkbill (SSN-666), homeported in Pearl Harbor, HI.

The event took place during Arctic Ocean operations known as “ICEX 1-86.” The submarines’ mission was to collect scientific data and test submarine force readiness under Arctic conditions without logistics base support. The operation included experiments to determine how torpedoes, sonar, and other anti-submarine warfare gear operate in frigid temperatures. It also involved locating underwater currents to determine where cracks in the ice might develop, through which missiles could be launched without requiring a submarine to surface and expose its position. Newspapers reported that Navy officials acknowledged the disclosure of the operation was intended to signal to the Soviets publicly that the US was boosting its attack submarine presence in the Arctic in response to heavier concentrations of Soviet subs there.

Was surfacing through the ice cap at the North Pole dangerous? John Jones, a former Sonar Technician (Submarines) 1st Class (STS1(SS)) who served in the US Navy Submarine Force from 1979 to 1988, answered on Quora:

‘Only if you screw up and surface through very thick ice (or fail to break through), but even then, the most you’d get is damage to any topside fairings, and potentially, any GRP fixtures. During our historic North Pole mission in 1986, before reaching the Pole we’d surfaced several times prior, twice specifically to deal with Freon leaks we’d been dealing with before getting underway. Unfortunately, we were forced to leave before all of the leaks were found and fixed in order to meet our Mission Schedule Requirements (we were one of three Submarines working together). We kept a close eye on Freon levels, ventilating as required while we were still in open water transiting to the ice pack. Of course, once we made the transition from open ocean to under-ice operations, the problem became more serious, ultimately needing us to find a thin spot in the ice twice to Surface & Ventilate in order to remove the toxic levels of Freon that had built up.

‘During one surface, we drifted into thick ice at the last second and wound up with a lot of topside damage, but not to the point where it was severe enough to force us back into port. We were pretty well prepared, and the ice at the North Pole was only about 6″ thick. Remember that a boat searches first for thin ice (a Polynya) using Under-Ice Sonar (essentially a set of topside transducers that ping up and forward – instead of down) to surface through.’

He continued:

‘The ice at the Geographic North Pole isn’t always very thick, though if you look at the aerial photos you can distinguish the heavy, thick pack ice from the relatively thin ice areas. The Polar Ice Pack is in constant motion; high winds and temperature fluctuations are always causing the ice to shift and break apart, causing open water areas (Polynyas) to form, which then rapidly freeze back over due to the extreme cold (as cold as -60°F), so it doesn’t take long for the open water to refreeze in those conditions. Polynyas freeze over very quickly, however, but a Polynya is what we look for when searching for a spot to surface.

‘Once Sonar has found a potentially good surfacing spot, the boat will hover (station-keeping maneuver), then slowly rise until the top of the sail (fairwater) is resting against the ice. After that, enough HP air is put into the ballast tanks to give the boat enough positive buoyancy to eventually break through the ice. Boats that still have Fairwater Dive Planes will have them manually rotated to a 90-degree Vertical position during hovering and before ascending. Failure to rotate and lock the Fairwater Planes in Vertical Configuration can result in the Planes being sheared off if the surfacing boat hits thick ice.’

Jones concluded:

‘Again, when we surfaced at the Pole in 1986, the ice was only a few inches thick; we’d found a huge Polynya, which was good because we were making the first 3-Submarine rendezvous at the Geographic North Pole in history. Given the 3 crews, we also set a record for the most people at the Pole as well. Here are some Official Navy photos taken from an ANG C-130 from Thule AFB, flown up with photographers.’

The Strain of Life Underwater

The same environment that made these missions possible also took a psychological toll. Did anyone in a Navy submarine ever lose their mind while stuck underwater for months at a time?

‘Oh, yes. I have even been a witness to that firsthand,’ said James Thompson, a former Electronics Technician aboard US Navy submarines, on Quora.

‘During a 6-month deployment, we had a sailor who had a mental break during covert ops (basically we were supposed to remain as quiet as can be for weeks/months in a row to do surveillance). I happened to be on watch in the engine room when this sailor came back in the engine room and grabbed a wrench and started bashing the cabinets that controlled the engine room equipment. When I came across him, he was ripping parts off of one of the cabinets that provided backup (local) control of the reactor. He ended up cracking the “local control” switch for the control rods before I was able to intercept and subdue him.

‘Long story short, we had to divert for repairs as soon as we were able to do so (we also had a bad bearing in one of the Main Sea Water pumps, that resulted in a reduced ability to maintain higher propulsion speeds), so we had to go “off station” and get parts to conduct repairs. As soon as we were in port for repairs, that sailor was taken off due to his mental issues.’

Thompson concluded:

‘Having a sailor have a mental issue that resulted in temporary or even permanent reassignment was pretty common during that CO’s tenure on my submarine.’

Photos by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Rex Nelson, Lt. Ed Early, Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Hana’lei Shimana, Chief Journalist Alan J. Baribeau, and U.S. Navy (via John Jones) / U.S. Navy