I am not a proponent of women on submarines

I worked with and for women on both of the submarine tenders that I was assigned to under “nuclear circumstances,” without issue. My reasons are purely selfish and they are these:

I liked not having to worry about making gender specific comments (like “quit being a little sally!!” or “hey you guys” and the like).

I did not like not being able to talk about how much I liked or disliked certain physical attributes of some or all women.

I did not like having to continuously remind myself that there are fat, ugly, nasty male sailors too, and that I could not treat a female shipmate that was that way differently.

I did not like having to not get assigned to work with certain shipmates and to not look at those shipmates when they were working in a Drape CSCA (because man, did she look good in anti-c’s).

I did not like having to tell my electrician buddies that they couldn’t make a “dick out watch” as payment for a bet.

I did not like feeling like I needed to keep my teeth brushed and plenty of deodorant on when working.

So overall, it was inconvenient for us to all not act like a bunch of rude horny teenagers with bad mouths and poor hygiene. On both ships, if you acted unprofessionally, you got what you deserved.