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 Writings about things that have occurred in my life. Not in Chronological Order |
| Things that have happened in my life, good or bad. The entries will not be in Chronological order |
Submarine & Watch Standing Qualification As A NUB When you're a Nub (New, Untrained Body), some old timers resent you because what you do is breathe air, eat food, and hopefully qualify in Submarines (Earn your Dolphins), and qualify on watch stations. Here is the list of Qualifications I was faced with when I reported aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt SSBN 600. Submarine Qualifications: Your progress is monitored by the qualification Chief Petty Officer. You have to show him your Submarine Qual Card. Each signature has is dated, and has a certain number of points assigned to it. He's interested in points, nothing else. There is a qualification curve (based on how long you've been on board) you have to be above to not be considered 'delinquent', or a dink (shortened term). If you were delinquent in qualifying on Submarines, you weren't allowed to watch the nightly movie. Keep in mind that this was 1974-75, we had no DVD's or personal devices to view movies on. All we had were the old reel-to-reel movies, one per night. I was never a dink. I did just enough to remain above that curve. When your Qual Cared is complete, you take a written test. After that, you are given a walk-thru of the boat by an Officer Qualified as Officer Of The Deck (OOD). If you know enough, he signs your Qualification Card, and the Commanding Officer pins your dolphins on you during the next Awards Ceremony. I will admit that my knowledge level was weak, I guess the Officer took pity on me and passed me. I'm kidding about that. If he felt I wasn't worthy, he never would have passed me. Nuclear Plant Qualifications: There were several stages to this, you qualified Junior Watch stations first, then moved up, so to speak. I will list the qualification path for Electricians, my rate in the Navy. Each watch station qualification required passing a written test with a grade of 80% or better. The questions were not multiple choice or fill in the blank. They were essay questions. Every test was essay questions, no exceptions. Once you passed the test, you had an oral board consisting of an Engineering Officer Of The Watch (EOOW), an Engineering Watch Supervisor (EWS), and a person qualified on that watch station. (There was no oral board for BEQ qualifications. This was done in conjunction with your Submarine Qualifications. In order, from Junior to Senior Watch Stations. 1. Basic Engineering Qualification (BEQ): This involved learning, often tracing piping for Mechanical Systems, knowing where to isolate a circuit on a switchboard or power panel. Answering questions about each system during an 'oral checkout' by a designated, qualified senior watch stander. For me, this qualification was required to be completed as a prerequisite for Electrical Operator Qualification. Prerequisites were never waived. That was a rule we never broke. The test for completing this qualification took about four hours to complete. 2. Auxiliary Electrician Aft/Shutdown Electrical Operator AEA/SEO for short. Two Watch Station qualifications, very similar in tasks. One Shutdown, one operating. While working on Submarine Qualifications (Earning my Dolphins, which I earned in April 1975), and BEQ, you had to complete AEA/SEO Qualification. Again, there was a timeline associated with this, usually 2-3 weeks at most. You had to get checkouts from designated, qualified AEA's, and complete hands on exercises. These were evolutions (such as shift Propulsion to the Emergency Propulsion Motor (EPM) during a casualty drill. There were a good 15 or so evolutions you had to complete, and an equal number of oral check outs to complete. 3. Throttleman: You had to complete AEA/SEO Qualifications before completing this qualification. As you can imagine, this operator controlled the Main Engines (Turbines). Just like the AEA/SEO Qualification path, you had to get checkouts from designated, qualified Throttleman, and complete hands on exercises. These were evolutions during a like answering bells on the Engine Order Telegraph, logging hourly readings (Every watch station did this), completing certain casualty drills, etc. There were a good 15 or so evolutions you had to complete, and an equal number of oral check outs to complete. You could work on Throttleman qualification in conjunction with AA/SEO qualifications. The same goes for every other watch station qualification. 4. Electrical Operator (EO): Complete BEQ Qualification, complete Throttleman Qualification, complete AEA/SEO qualification. Receive Oral checkouts from Qualified Electrical Operators and complete the required Evolutions and Casualty Drills. You were expected to complete this by the end of your second patrol, maybe at the start of the third patrol if you were a little slow. I completed mine during my second patrol. 5. Shutdown Maneuvering Area Watch (SMAW): Right after I completed qualifying this watch station, the name was changed to Shutdown Reactor Operator (SRO) by NAVSEA. Completion of all In-rate watch station qualifications (AEA/SEO, Throttleman, & Electrical Operator, and of course Basic Engineering Qualification. This should be completed within one year of reporting aboard. I was a little late, but not too late. As you can see, your first 18 months or so on a Submarine was spent with 6 hours on watch, essentially 6 hours after watch performing scheduled maintenance (Preventative Maintenance), with qualifications squeezed in somehow. Oh, and if you were lucky, 6 hours of sleep. That didn't happen very often. |
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