Some good reasons to not allow women on submarines????

Berthing/heads/hot racking- hey all these issues have their negative side, and with planning the lack of space can be dealt with.

Feminine products-
I seem to remember a male sailor flushing a pair of underwear down the toilet (for whatever reason-stupid coner nub) and when they opened the SAN tank to recover them, he went in. It was a great objective lesson for the entire crew.
On surface ships female sailors are have the same storage area for all of their stuff as their male shipmates and still stock their “things” along with other hygiene items (just like the ELT’s on the boat). So, yes it would be tough for a long deployment or a detergent patrol but, the guys do it.

Strength/stamina-from experience I can tell you that there are some pretty weak male sailors in our submarine fleet and that I have seen two female sailors carry a hydro rig up five decks on surface ship ladders, so this is a wash.


Eve’s curse-I have allowed, on occasion women who worked with/for me to “take it easy” for the day during their menses; however, it was at about the same frequency that I allowed my male shipmates to “rest” after a night of “heavy steaming” or being up with a sick child/spouse/girlfriend/dog.


Fraternization-there are specific regulations on this subject and as several of my submarine brethren have noted, Submariners follow the rules. So, a female sailor who gets fraternizes and/or gets pregnant onboard/underway is definitely in violation and gets punished as applicable.

Pregnancy-There is an entire instruction dealing with this issue (OPNAVINST 6000.1C dtd 14 JUN 07). Service women “Are expected to plan a pregnancy in order to successfully balance the demands of family responsibilities and military obligations.” “Are expected to perform military duties within the limits established by their condition.” And “Have the same rights and responsibilities and are subject to the same administrative and disciplinary actions as all other naval personnel.” So what this tells me is that if a sailor gets pregnant to avoid a deployment, or on deployment or at any other time to avoid her duty, she is derelict and should be punished much in the same way as a sailor who fails to get enough rest or gets too much sun exposure and cannot perform their duty would be punished. This would also be implied for a lack of planning that results in a unplanned pregnancy.


And lastly, I hate to even address this issue but MM brought it up over at TSSBP: “equality for blacks and minorities, there is still huge disparities with them in the sub service.” While I doubt MM’s credentials to actually make this statement, in my experience there is a deviation between demographics in the country and in the Submarine Service. I attribute this to two things neither of which is as nefarious as MM implies. First is opportunity outside the Navy. If a person of color has the academic chops to get past the NFQT and volunteer, he has a better chance at getting a scholarship than his pale counterpart, so why sign up when college is a “better option.” Secondly, is opportunity inside the Navy. I have seen several nukes of color both in the pipeline and after get snatched up for some great programs to make them officers. Once there, I was told by one, he looked downstream and determined that he didn’t “want to go through the hell that Submarine JO’s go through” and he is in the supply corps now. I forsee the same happening with women.