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.

  • @Vex_Detrause@lemmy.caEnglish
    15•1 year ago
    1. Do you guys ever see light of day during deployment/port to port?
    2. Do you guys resurface and just sunbathe for a few minutes then dive again?
    3. What are the alarms, not sure if you can answer this, inside a sub?
    4. Is there a man overboard event in a sub?
    5. So you ever need to learn how to scuba if you’re a submariner?
    • wanderingmagusOPEnglish
      10•1 year ago

      1. Unless there’s a swim call for some reason (which never happens on an SSBN), no.

      2. Nope. Unless there’s some emergency, or we’re replenishing food or repair parts.

      3. Alarms:

      • General Alarm - some kind of general emergency like fire or security violation
      • Diving Alarm - diving and surfacing
      • Collision Alarm - collision or danger of collision, flooding
      • Power Plant Causality - engine room emergency like radioactive material spill or steam line rupture
      • Missile Jettison Alarm - something is terribly wrong with a missile and we need to jettison it.

      1. Yes but only when we’re surfaced, for obvious reasons.

      2. No, it’s not required, but I learned anyways in my own free time!

    • @nukeworker10@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3•1 year ago
      1. Subs have crew members who have formal Navy diver training as a collateral (extra) duty. I think it came with some extra pay. They are there for emergencies, and have to do extra work to maintain their qualifications. They are there if we are away from home port and need underwater work done on the ship. Pretty rare, only happened twice on the boats I was on.