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Submarines Are WAY Scarier Than You Think... Here's Why
Submarines Are WAY Scarier Than You Think... Here's Why
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0:00
Right now, deep underwater, there are killers - submarines with the power to change the world. The
0:05
men aboard them spend months at a time in a metal can, hoping they’ll never receive an order that
0:10
means only one thing… the end of civilization. The crews that work on the Ohio Class Boomer subs
0:16
are some of the most highly trained sailors in the U.S. military. What they do, where they go, even
0:22
what a day at work is like, is a tightly guarded secret. For roughly 70 to 90 days at a time, they
0:28
vanish, not even able to tell their spouses or girlfriends where they are or what they’re doing.
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Ask one of the crew what their job is, and they’ll tell you they preserve peace.
0:36
It sounds good on paper. But they know that if they ever use the weapons on board, they won’t
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be going home. There won’t be a home left. But beyond threats of global destruction,
0:46
the job itself is incredibly hard. These boats often operate hundreds of meters below the
0:50
surface. The men are trapped. A crew of around 155 spends weeks at a time in cramped areas surrounded
0:57
by pipes and dials, an endless array of switches and gauges. And they’re never far from a weapon.
1:03
Where they sleep, eat, or use the toilet, missile tubes are just feet away. When they retreat to
1:08
their curtained-off bunk, they're never sure if they will be jolted awake by a drill - or worse,
1:13
the news that the homeland is under attack. On this submarine, the work never stops.
1:18
The crew are usually woken around 45 minutes before their shift begins. They get dressed,
1:23
and have their first meal of the day. Whether that’s breakfast, lunch,
1:26
or dinner will depend on the rotation. After 6 hours, they’ll be relieved,
1:30
but after more food, there might be cleaning duty, maintenance, training, or meetings.
1:34
On paper it’s six hours on, six hours off - but in reality, you’re never really off.
1:39
By the time they get back to their bed, they are exhausted. Six to as many as 34 men will
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sleep in three-tier bunks that are stuffed together in a room like sardines in a tin,
1:49
their worldly belongings packed into a small shelf. Only the captain and a
1:53
few officers have a private cabin. For the rest, subs make prison cells look spacious.
1:58
Privacy ends at the curtain. There’s no space for a gym,
2:01
so men do pullups on pipes or push off against walls. They find spaces to lift dumbbells and use
2:07
exercise bikes and treadmills. The crew’s mental health is a top priority, the reason why the food
2:12
on Boomers is better than anywhere else in the US military. The Navy chefs cook up a storm,
2:17
feeding men in what looks like a diner from the 1950s. It’s one of the only places where they
2:21
have space to move around freely and chat about life. Burgers, apple pie, Italian food, and tacos,
2:27
the crew of the Boomers is well taken care of. Still, you can forget about spending time alone
2:32
with your thoughts. One man’s snoring is another man’s nemesis. Thankfully,
2:36
the men work in rotation – about a third of the crew will be asleep at any given time – making the
2:40
sleeping quarters less noisy and more private. At the end of the room is the bathroom, shared by all
2:45
the men in those sleeping quarters. The “submarine shower” usually means getting wet for 10 seconds,
2:50
turning water off to soap up, then turning it back on for 10 seconds to rinse, using around
2:55
4 gallons of freshwater total for a 1–2-minute shower. Taking a long time in the shower or on the
3:01
toilet isn’t tolerated. On a submarine, you follow the rules – it’s all for one and one for all.
3:07
That’s why the men maintain good hygiene standards. They have to.
3:10
Smelling bad or looking disheveled is bad for everyone else’s morale. There’s a tiny space
3:15
where a crew member acts as the submarine barber. These days, there are often women on board too,
3:19
but of course, they don’t sleep alongside the men. Separate berthing areas are one reason
3:23
submarines were slow to use mixed crews, but it’s still mostly a man’s world under the ocean.
3:28
Boomers are massive, multi-deck machines. The upper levels house command spaces like control
3:33
and communications. The middle areas include crew messes and living spaces. And the lower sections
3:39
are packed with engineering systems, missile compartments, and propulsion machinery. When
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the ship is ready to dive, the order will come to submerge. The subs weigh thousands of tons – about
3:48
18,000 when submerged – but that doesn’t mean they just sink. Filled with air, they’re buoyant,
3:54
displacing enough water to float like a steel island. To submerge, large ballast tanks are
3:58
opened, and seawater floods in. That increases the submarine’s density, and it can dive.
4:04
You obviously don’t want a submarine banking too hard, or worse, losing control, but that
4:09
just doesn’t happen. Subs do sometimes perform steep angles to test systems or in emergencies,
4:15
but anything over 30 degrees is extreme. So, the added bonus about life on a
4:19
submarine is that you don’t get seasick. As for propulsion, they can reach about 20
4:24
knots submerged (23+ mph). The reactor produces heat, and water becomes high-pressure steam.
4:29
That steam spins turbines, and those turbines turn the submarine’s propeller,
4:33
pushing it silently through the ocean. The steam is then cooled back into water and reused
4:37
in a closed loop. Because no oxygen is needed, they can keep going indefinitely. Maintenance,
4:43
food stocks, and the crew’s sanity are the reasons they come into port, not lack of fuel.
4:48
But what about breathing? Well, the nuclear reactor supplies electricity,
4:52
and that’s how a machine can split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen – electrolysis. The oxygen
4:58
is released into the sub, and the hydrogen is dumped overboard. Then you have machines that
5:03
remove carbon dioxide from the air using special chemicals, so the crew doesn’t get poisoned. Subs
5:09
also carry backup oxygen in tanks or chemical “candles” that can provide breathable oxygen.
5:14
Subs move through the pitch black of the ocean, which can be brutal – months without sunlight or
5:19
wind on your face. But these machines are made for stealth, not comfort. They glide through the
5:24
water, barely making a sound because of noise reduction engineering. That kind of technology
5:28
doesn’t come cheap. Boomers cost around $2 billion to build when the Ohio-class was first designed,
5:34
but that would be closer to $4 billion today. Part of that cost is their destructive
5:38
potential, but much of it is the technology that allows them to navigate, detect, track,
5:43
aim, and survive - all while remaining hidden from sonar, visual observation,
5:47
and just about anything else. In silent mode, they’re even quieter - men aren’t even supposed
5:52
to talk loudly. There are times on a submarine when all you can hear is the constant whirring
5:57
of fans or buzzing of electrical equipment. Other than the orders to end the world, the one
6:02
thing submariners fear is fire. Even a small fire in such confined spaces can fill compartments with
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toxic smoke - and there’s nowhere for it to go. If a serious fire breaks out, there may be nowhere to
6:13
run. A blaze in one section of the boat could damage propulsion, navigation, or life-support
6:18
systems, leaving more than a hundred people trapped deep under the sea. 118 men were lost when
6:23
a fire broke out on the Russian nuclear submarine K-141 Kursk in 2000, condemning it to the seabed.
6:30
The crew won’t feel scared when underwater, but unfamiliar loud noises or the smell of smoke
6:35
will certainly get a man’s attention. And these aren’t regular submarines,
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they’re nuclear ones. If a fire were to spread into the reactor compartment, the very worst-case
6:44
scenario would involve radiation. As it stands, though, crew on nuclear subs are not subjected to
6:50
dangerous levels of radiation. And fire and leaks are highly unlikely because reactor spaces are
6:55
heavily isolated and have lots of safety systems around them. Still, crew members are constantly
7:00
drilled on fire response and containment. Before a submariner can get the insignia of a
7:05
submarine to pin to their uniform, they must “earn their fish,” also known as getting your dolphins.
7:10
That partly means every last one of them must qualify as a first responder. Breaches, fires,
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flooding, toxic gas, a man collapsing clutching his chest, everyone onboard is expected to know
7:20
what to do. Not only will these sailors know about nuclear propulsion and complex systems,
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but they’ll also be able to step into the role of medic or firefighter at the drop of a hat.
7:30
If things get serious, parts of the submarine can be converted into a makeshift operating theater.
7:35
A Duty Hospital Corpsman, the Doc, will be on board, but he’s not prepared to give you heart
7:40
bypass surgery. Anything serious will mean the submarine has to surface or rendezvous,
7:44
something they really don’t like doing. A former Boomer crewman said online that in the two and
7:49
a half years and five patrols he served, his boat broke radio silence just once - when a
7:54
crewman developed appendicitis. Then there are viruses, too, which on a submarine will be shared
7:59
around. One sailor said colds and other minor illnesses cycled sometimes two or three times.
8:05
It’s not just physical issues you have to worry about. Down here, even small
8:09
psychological problems have nowhere to go. Extreme confinement, isolation, artificial
8:14
lighting, and a massive lack of privacy can take a toll on the mind. Mental health is a serious
8:19
concern for submariners. Especially among the newbies, the risk of anxiety or depression is
8:24
high. That’s one reason selection standards are so strict. Only a few thousand sailors
8:28
each year make it into the nuclear submarine force. Even so, submarine crews are constantly
8:33
evaluated. Signs of serious psychological distress are taken seriously – you really
8:38
don’t want a man losing his mind underwater. If that happens, they’ll be disembarked at the
8:42
first opportunity and likely won’t ever come back. New arrivals, known onboard as “pukes,” or “nubs”
8:48
-non-useful bodies - are like children entering a new world where the adults don’t pull their
8:53
punches. Each job is specialized, but every submariner must understand how the entire ship
8:58
works. A torpedo technician won’t know the reactor the way an engineer does, but everyone must
9:02
understand the basics of every system. The faster you learn, the more respect you’ll get. That first
9:07
year is very tough, so you can forget having much downtime and anyone treating you with kid
9:12
gloves. One former submariner put it like this: “You are breathing my air, eating my food, and
9:18
filling my sanitary tanks. Get qualified, nub.” The reason for all this seriousness is obvious.
9:24
Submarines demand everyone works in tandem like a finely-tuned machine. And let’s not forget that
9:29
Boomers are equipped with Trident II ballistic missiles. Even way down in the ocean, those
9:33
missiles can reach targets around 7,000 miles (11,265 km)away. Launch authority rests entirely
9:38
with the President, and after that, everyone has a job to do. The Commanding Officer cannot act
9:42
alone; there are strict nuclear safeguards and authentication procedures - so multiple
9:47
officers work together before anyone dies. Someone will announce, “Standing by for fire
9:52
order,” followed by confirmations such as, “Concur with fire order.” These sequences
9:56
are practiced again and again, something no one on board ever wants to perform for real.
10:01
After launch, there’s nothing to do but stay submerged and wait.
10:05
But if a strike ever did go ahead, a Trident II would reenter the atmosphere traveling as fast
10:10
as Mach 24, or over 18,400 miles per hour (29,611 kph). It will then break up into eight independent
10:16
reentry vehicles, and each of those carries between a 100 and 475-kiloton nuclear warhead.
10:23
Within one minute, the commander could order a salvo of 192 warheads, enough to turn 24 cities
10:28
into ruins. Meanwhile, the men on that submarine will know that for everything they are firing,
10:33
Americans in their homes will no doubt be receiving. Between all the Boomers,
10:37
there are around 240 missiles active with almost 1,100 warheads - enough destructive
10:42
power to pull the plug on civilization. To get through stress like that,
10:46
many men spend months underwater like monks in a monastery. There’s certainly no social
10:50
media for distraction. For fun, you might play cribbage and chess over dinners of salmon and
10:55
oxtail soup. There will be books to read, too, usually in your bed under a fluorescent light.
11:00
When movies are scheduled to be watched in the mess, it’s often through a projector, and the
11:04
films get repeated. Free time on the submarine is not like having time off in the regular world.
11:09
It’s like living at work, and you’re expected to be ready 24 hours a day if called upon.
11:13
As one Boomer crew member said online, time off needs to “be taken with a pinch of salt.” At
11:18
some point, there’ll be morale-boosting events, maybe pizza or Surf &Turf day,
11:22
maybe even frozen lobster. They work hard, but they’re treated well for having one of
11:26
the most important jobs in the world. And at least they can tell their wife
11:30
and kids they’re alive. Submariners are allowed to send emails home to let family know they’re okay,
11:35
but those messages are heavily monitored. On missions, there are no emails. If tension builds,
11:40
they exercise. If they’re overwhelmed, they often keep it to themselves, but ships usually have a
11:45
spouse’s group or someone who can counsel them. This constant pressure is one reason submariners
11:50
will tell you that being likable and able to make people laugh is one of the most valuable traits
11:54
you can have underwater. Funny men are like gold dust. As the U.S. Department of War once put it,
12:00
these people “depend on each other.” Submarine life is absolutely not for
12:04
everyone, but if you’re suited to it, the camaraderie is something you’ll never forget.
12:08
Boomers don’t stop working when they reach port. Each submarine has two full crews,
12:12
known as Blue and Gold. While one crew disembarks after a patrol, the other is already preparing to
12:18
take over the same boat. The handover is quick. Supplies are restocked, maintenance is handled,
12:22
and within weeks, the submarine heads back out - often with an entirely different crew aboard.
12:27
The mission never really ends; only the people rotate.
12:30
Still, after 70 days aboard, no matter how much you like your fellow sailors,
12:35
you’ll be desperate to arrive in port. Civilian life feels strange after months of confinement
12:39
and buzzing sounds in your ears. Driving can be dangerous at first because their eyes are
12:43
accustomed to tight, artificial spaces. The brain slows down on the submarine because
12:47
it has adapted to an environment with far less stimulation than the outside world.
12:51
They ease themselves back slowly into a world that they hope to God they’re
12:55
never asked to fire their nuclear weapons at. Now go check The Greatest Submarine Rescue
13:00
Ever - Escaping Sinking Submarine USS Squalus. Or click on this video instead.
