Hot Rack In The Torpedo Room

From: Repent 5000 Times

It’s funny to run across a picture and even though I have no clue exactly which sub this picture came from but I know it is a sub and where in that US sub exactly the picture was taken. Well that’s not entirely correct, I know it is probably a Diesel sub or early nuke Fast Attack because that there is a real Squiddly Diddly back when they made such men.

See Fast Attacks, which is the type of submarine I served on, and Diesel subs shared some common endearing traits despite being completely electric running. They were both fully diesel capable of running like giant sideways smoke stacks with some of the most gunky craptastic smelling fumes from hell and of course Diesel subs won at being THE most craptastic smelling of the two since that is all those poor guys ever had to charge their batteries with. Real sailors I respect because I know what smelling like that meant day in and day out on a long deployment. You get numb to it eventually but when they open that hatch woah!

So even though I served on a slightly larger and more modern nuclear Fast Attack yeah we had a diesel engine which got used more often than not while I was standing topside watch in my summer whites which turned more gray than white.

Oh and both types of subs were hella cramped and totally out of space when fully manned. Something less likely to occur on the modern Boomers.

That my friends is where this picture comes in to play with my memories. Hot racking in the torpedo room on the torpedo racks above the battery compartment. A very very old submariner tradition experienced by young sub sailors on their first journeys underway while serving in some of the most cramp ass quarters found in the entire fleet. Nothing like laying right next to something that may or may not have a nuclear warhead which may or may not be radiating your guts like some doomsday teddybear.

Those were the good old days I tell you.

Memories…

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