Ohio Sea Trials Trip Report

Photios provides his long-awaited report of how things went on USS Ohio's sea trials. It's pretty interesting, especially his description of the all-important rack situation:

"Those racks in SOF berthing in Missile Compartment, 2nd platform, port, are terrible. The inboard racks are not too bad, but the outboard ones are completely closed off. To get into one you have to hoist yourself in the end feet first (if in the lower or middile racks), or head first (if in the top rack). There are no handholds to lift yourself up with. The middle rack guy has it the worst, not high enough to climb up to, to high to raise both feet into simultaneously. And then the coefficient of friction between clothing and bed linen (serious wedgie problem). Seeing a 250 - 300 pound Navy SEAL do this is going to be fun (need to get video)."

And for those who think I was trying to be sarcastic by calling the rack situation "all-important", you'd be thinking wrong. In my experience, the two most important issues for submariners, other than flooding avoidance, are 1) how comfortable are the racks, and 2) how good is the chow. Everything else is secondary.

Photios also addresses the broom situation I discussed earlier.

Going deep...