"Submarine Officer" Video From The 80s
Check out this unintentionally humorous 1988 Navy propaganda video trying to get people to become Submarine Officers:
The funniest part is where the JO actually relieves as DOOW.
(Personally, I only stood Dive once after I qualified, which was when the CO wanted to to meet with all the Chiefs at the same time. Another officer stood COW, and we completely screwed up the trim as a prank.)
posted by Bubblehead at 5:40 PM
43 Comments:
1st ship, never saw a JO stand DOOW. No need really, what are the CPOs gonna do. CO considered it a prac-fact, like standing ERS/EWS for EOOW. I can count with zero fingers the number of times I relieved the watch as DOOW.
2nd ship. Crappy weather. Me and 2 JOs and CO are only supervisors standing. JO takes the watch for DOOW to dive. Smooth trip. At 150' the COB shows up, "Need a relief?" JO says "I got it." A rare time when the Os got to help out the CPOs, usually it is the other way around.
6/20/2009 6:15 PM
Here's what I can't figure out: are those real Sailors (i.e. hand-picked pretty people) or actors?
It's actually pretty well done. It's a reminder that people weren't so spastic back then!
The pr0nstache on the DOOW was hilarious....
6/20/2009 6:16 PM
At 4:30 our hero goes into the AMR to spend considerable time qualifying as the EOOW. He must have been spending his time looking for relative bearing grease.
Though I never recall this one, I do remember the Shatner and Heston recruiting videos.
6/20/2009 6:22 PM
OK, a 5 down to go 50 feet? wow.
Why is an O4 manning a stack in sonar?
Entertaining, but wow, are there some gafs in that flick
Three words: Trying to hard.
Joel--definitely unintentionally funny.
6/20/2009 6:24 PM
Sappy.
6/20/2009 6:39 PM
That was really cheesy.
6/20/2009 6:51 PM
Another officer stood COW, and we completely screwed up the trim as a prank.
Sure. Keep telling yourself that. :)
6/20/2009 6:52 PM
Very inauthentic as nobody is getting screamed at. I do like the look in the Ensign's eyes when he relieves as DOOW. ("what is all this stuff? I have no idea what I am doing.") That was pretty accurate.
6/20/2009 6:52 PM
I relieved the COB at DOOW for about 45 minutes for a Goat Locker meeting. "I grabbed another cup of coffee because the boat didn't take a 15 degree angle during the meeting, so I guess you did alright". We changed depth a grand total of about 5 feet, and I spent the whole time getting a checkout from the COW. I think I spent another 15 minutes over four other occasions giving piss calls. So ended my career as DOOW.
-LT L
6/20/2009 7:39 PM
Another officer stood COW, and we completely screwed up the trim as a prank.
Sure. Keep telling yourself that. :)
Sounded like a good occasion for a trim party.
6/20/2009 7:44 PM
The CO was taking the long way around to Radio, I guess - ducking through CSES (???). Had to laugh when the JO was headed back aft to spend his "considerable time qualifying on the ship's nuclear propulsion plant." The A-gangers need to show him where the tunnel door is on a 688. CHEESY.
6/20/2009 7:45 PM
I qualified DOOW as a PO1 to help with my LDO package and CPO. I did it quietly and pretty much only a handful of people knew I was qualified. We got a new COB and sure enough I got tagged every time there was a CPO meeting. It was fun to see the look on people's faces when they saw the EM1 nuke on dive. A couple of years later I was OOD on a CVN. Never saw a JO stand DOOW on four different boats.
6/20/2009 8:02 PM
Supply Officers stand DOOW a lot. I think DOOW for nuc officers is a hard watch to get a handle on because theory is overcome by reality. Sure the book gives pretty diagrams and formulas, but nothing beats pressing the "I believe" button and flying by the seat of your pants.
6/20/2009 8:36 PM
I wouldn't say DOOW is something the officers "Can't get a handle on" we just don't stand it, so we don't get good at it.
Standing dive is definitely an art, not a science, so unless you stand it a lot, you just don't get the feel for the boat.
6/20/2009 8:58 PM
I agree with the above comments... At the helm/plane for two years and then QMOW for the last two years of my enlistment, I spent my entire time standing watch in the control room. Only saw one O-Ganger stand Dive a couple of times. And he was a former E-5 A-Ganger that struck up a commission. I would take a couple of MM1 A-Gangers on dive over many of the Senoir Chiefs that were standing the watch...
6/21/2009 1:10 AM
I think this must have been a "stretch hull" 637. I didn't recognize the space when the officer went down the ladder into AMR1. Also, there was a fourth CCS stack (at the forward end of Control) that the non-stretch 637s didn't have.
I still miss those boats. They were loud rust buckets, but they seemed to have some personality that the 688I and 774s don't have. This video brought back a lot of memories.
6/21/2009 6:09 AM
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6/21/2009 7:36 AM
The video credits the Jack, Hammerhead, and Boston, so there were three classes of subs represented in the video. I can add that that passageway is NOT from a 640 class SSBN :)
6/21/2009 7:44 AM
Back in the old days, JOs stood DOOW prior to qualification in submarines. Only dolphin wearers were OODs submerged. I was fortunate to qualify on a diesel boat before going to my first nuc. I spent many hours on the dive at PS snorkling across the Pacific. On my nuc, the ADIV Officer was ships diving officer and stood Dive during battle stations. Chiefs became the norm on the dive during my XO tour although the occasional JO besides the CHOP would serve on the dive. The diesel boat tradition was that the surface OOD would become the Diving Officer on submerging.
6/21/2009 10:53 AM
Lots of good comments - DOOW is an art that you need time at; you can't just learn the numbers, it requires a feel. On my two boats, the Chop always stood Dive. The line officers didn't stand Dive regularly because the the OOD/JOOD/JOOW/EOOW watchbills were always so short. Even more so, the chiefs had the run time and were top notch dives, so no need.
6/21/2009 12:55 PM
OK, I'm just an old knuckle dragger, but when the CO gave an order directly to the helm, does not that mean that the CO has the conn?
Then what does he do? He walks out of control without turning over the conn. Smart move.
Someone please tell me that I just missed something here.
6/21/2009 3:47 PM
"Someone please tell me that I just missed something here."
You are right and that's the way it happens in real life.
But this is just a movie!
6/21/2009 3:53 PM
Ahem...
While I believe that with JO's standing DOOW and COW the trim was in fact "screwed up", I find myself a bit skeptical regarding the "as a prank" part.
Just sayin'. :)
6/21/2009 3:53 PM
Interior shots were 688 (Boston I suppose) while most/all of the exterior shots were either of the other two boats mentioned in the credits or stock footage.
6/21/2009 5:41 PM
Was that the Knight Rider theme music at the beginning of the video?
6/21/2009 6:19 PM
No way that leading exterior shot is a 637, stretch hull or not. Those passageways do not look the least bit familiar to me either, based on my 3 yrs on a badass 637.
6/21/2009 6:30 PM
Was that the real C.O.? Get aload of those eyebrows! Must be related to Zumwalt!
6/21/2009 6:32 PM
Never saw a khaki close the door on one of the tube doors after she was loaded...
6/21/2009 7:41 PM
Looked like a warshot to me. Maybe exercise weapons looked different in 1988 than they do today.
6/21/2009 8:12 PM
Wow! Didn't that suck?!!
I've never seen so many reel cuts and active splices in one little bullshit picture. This whole thing was a joke, plain and simple.
Made in the 80s, gee ya think? Sonar and Weps did a decent job in faking their part of a "drill", but that was about it.
Well, at least it is safe to say those bastard commie Reds won't get a whole lot of "useful" intel from this "Top Secret" film.
Let's not show this hokey piece of shit to new recruits. We're undermanned in more then enough areas as it is at present.
6/21/2009 10:29 PM
Very Hollywood.
Quite the Unibrow on the CO.
I liked the Captain going forward into the command passage way and into CSES to go to “Radio”.
And going into AMR to qualify on the Nuclear Power Plant.
I never saw the OOD use the COW’s 27mc
Or a Chief on the sonar stacks or the Captain with the headphones on in Sonar. Like he would know what he's listening for.
Or the Captain shaking the OOD’s hand after a successful shot.
I was qualified COW and DOOW on my last boat. The Chop always stood the mid-watch, I usually had the morning watch and the COB took the afternoon watch with one of the other Chiefs rounding out the evening watch. While I liked the Supply Officer, he burned me once on Comps so I never relieved him until everything was done to compensate for house keeping.
I agree with feeling the boat on Dive. I would always stand while going to PD with my hands in my pockets so I could feel the boat. The COB always sat. It’s a personal thing. My COB also said that any COB worth his salt was Battle Stations Dive and usually the A-Gang Chief was Battle Stations COW.
That Damn Good Looking Aganger From Iowa
6/22/2009 8:07 AM
Aganger from Iowa:
Damn right, COB on the dive and A-gang CPO as COW, thats how Battle Stations should be. As for DOOW being a "feel" watch, aren't all the supervisory watches that way? As much as we focus on books and what not in the Engineroom, don't good EOOW's get a "feeling" for driving the plant, same with a good EWS. My second ENG on the Usta fish always emphasized that a proficient plant supervisor knew procedures, a good one could use procedures to "drive" the plant. Same is true for OOD's, you may not be feeling the same things, but to be proficient you have to understand the behaviour of the ship, easily demonstrated by the OOD's that never quite grasp how to really work with a DOOW in situations where accurate depth control required correct use of the rudder/bell/direction of seas.
That being said I was a typical O-ganger, qualified DOOW and stood about 2 hours total in a 40 month JO tour, mostly midwatch piss breaks.
6/22/2009 9:17 AM
as a JO I got thrown on the DOOW watchbill for 5 days after qualifying.
Then a year later as we were in yet another training exercise in NORLANT working up for a mission the CO decided that all JOOWs, JOODs and DOOWs would take turns on the Dive (we were in some pretty rugged weather) for a couple of weeks. If you broached at PD you had to man the dive for each PD evolution until the CO decided otherwise (always at least 2 days worht of PDs)
6/22/2009 1:35 PM
DOOW was the watch that the ships Doctor stood onboard SSBN's. JO's stood just enough time on the watch to say they been there,done that and then to Qualboard. Chief's stood the watch and took it during battle stations. The movie shows a lot of 1MC action and the use of the general alarm. The 1MC was the bigest sound short we had on the 41 for freedom
6/22/2009 2:26 PM
A-gang Chief that always stood Battlestations Dive. I've seen several Chops stand Dive and really only seen 1 that knew what he was doing. Rode a 688 during Desert Storm because they didn't have enough qualified DOOW (that wasn't their only problem). The Chop was qualified but they wouldn't let him stand the watch except for head calls.
I most always stood COW for the Manuevering watch. That gave me the chance to massage the DCA's comp and set-up for a smooth dive and next watch.
It seemed like the CO and I knew what each other wanted and made it happen. One time while in the rack I felt us leave PD at a good angle. The next thing I know the messenger is telling me the Capt. wants me in control. WTF. Walked into control and the Skipper says get in the chair Chief, we're running under this guy and coming up for a "peak". Oh,yea it's bright and glassy. Those were the days! Best Skipper I had! Dave Stanley.
panamared
6/22/2009 7:47 PM
FYI I was on BOSTON (SSN 703)when this was made. The O's were all actors and they used actual enlisted crew members. We thought the thing was pretty cheesy back then. The DO was the actual COB (Dennis Sulzer) and a first rate DO & COB.
6/22/2009 11:36 PM
Prior to Drum getting put into moth balls in 1996, one of the best dives I got to watch was MMCM Conrad Gillaspie... Spent 20 some years aft and got the COB Billet on the usta fish. Was a damn good Dive despite working aft for twenty plus years... Then during decom, he gets orders out and the EDEA takes over as COB while at PH Naval Ship Yard. Being a coner, I still am proud to say that the best COBS/Dives I served with were nukes. You either got it or you dont. MMCM Gillaspie has since passed away but I will never forget his ability to deal with the coners and drive the ship.
6/23/2009 12:23 AM
Let us not forget Sonar unmanned while U/W when Battlestations was ordered not to mention the Dive being told to use a 5 down then going full dive on the fairwaters. I mean, geeez.......I also bet that whoever got hit by that "practice" fish was pretty pissed off. At least for maybe a minute. LOL
6/23/2009 7:06 AM
not to mention the Dive being told to use a 5 down then going full dive on the fairwaters.
You do know that 5 degree down bubble was what they meant? And that the bubble is controled by the stern planes and not the fairwater planes. Full dive on the fairwater planes is not unusual when you want to get deep and you are only allowed a 5 down bubble.
6/23/2009 2:45 PM
I was on my first boat from 1984 to 1987. While qualifying, I spent a lot of time as DOOW U/I with a crusty old CPO who taught me quite a bit about ship and depth control. I spent some time on the watchbill standing DOOW - even after qualifying as OOD and in submarines. Due to poor planning, the CPO quarters went through a near complete turnover, including the COB that left the boat short of qualified enlisted DOOWs. I had a great time, learned a lot more and think it made me a better OOD. I dumped the contents of my first XO's desk a couple of times using the COSO limit on ship's angle (5 degrees per 100 feet not to exceed 15 degrees). He eventually learned to rig his stateroom because the CO would not change the COSO. On my subsequent boat assignments I had my JOs spend some time in the DOOW seat.
6/23/2009 5:08 PM
Definately believe inside the hull was a modified first flight 688 (complete with spare radio room in the capstain's space and alternate maneuvering in the diesel booth). It wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't so adament about behind THIS door.....
Speaking of strange watch configurations did have one time on the 701 in the yards (during testing), where the CO relieved as EOOW and the RCLCPO (a senior chief) relieved as RO when I was EO. Just about everyone who walked up to maneuvering looked around confused, as if they thought for a brief second that the real EOOW must have finally figured out how to fit under that desk to blow the captain...
6/23/2009 8:46 PM
Anytime I couldn't sleep, I'd head straight for Control. First, offer relief for OOD, then DOOW, and any watch (for which I was qualified, of course) that could use a head break. You know, a "douchebag" (I think that's Navy slang for 'just wants to help and follow the rules but ultimately looks like a kiss-ass'). At the least, I was one JO that didn't end up on mando proficiency watches.
6/25/2009 5:46 PM
This video was great! thank you for posting it and letting me see my brother Dennis Sulzer again! R.I.P. Deny, Love you very much, your little brother.
12/20/2011 4:34 PM
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