Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em...
...except if you're on a submarine, as of today.
Happy New Year to all the Submariners and their loved ones.
posted by Bubblehead at 8:23 AM
Friday, December 31, 2010
About Me
- Name: Bubblehead
- Location: Meridian, Idaho, United States
I'm Joel Kennedy -- a married, 50-something year old retired submarine officer and esophageal cancer survivor with three kids who has finally made the transition to civilian life. Politically, I'm a Radical Moderate. (If you don't like something on this blog, please E-mail me. Don't call me at home.)
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- USS Boise Returns Home For Christmas
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28 Comments:
The smokingest boat I ever saw was the USS Bremerton. Many in the crew, including the XO, smoked heavily. And their COB literally lit his next cigarette with the previous one as it was going out. I don't know how they would have survived extinguishing the smoking lamp.
12/31/2010 8:45 AM
I like how USS RI has a master chief in charge of the Engineering department.
I am disappointed in his characterization of smoking as a way to relax, though. All a smoke is, is a temporary forestalling of withdrawal. It might feel like relaxation, but- no.
12/31/2010 10:30 AM
More "smoke 'em if ya got 'em" surfacings???
12/31/2010 1:28 PM
Happy New Year to you as well Bubblehead and thanks for another year of great posts.
I do not smoke, and didn't mind the smoke onboard before they changed the smoking policy last time (1991-1992?) to limit smoking to specific smoking areas. Afterwards, there was a noted difference in most spaces, and it was an improvement.
However, in my opinion, the total smoking ban on submarines is ridiculous. Once each boat had designated smoking areas, you wouldn't even know people smoked onboard unless you went to one of those areas. Really no harm/no foul for most of the crew.
Makes you wonder when the last time some of these policy makers were even on a boat. Did they even look at the fast boats? (Conspicuously absent in the linked articles comments from the SSBN and SSGN personnel.)
Didn't we used to be Steely Eyed Killers of the Deep? Death from Below? Wouldn't want any of those guys (or gals) to get a nicotine hit. Oh wait, we've still got the patch!
12/31/2010 4:31 PM
Old Man from the Sea has it right...but the PC crowd has the votes! In over 110 years life with smoke on a submarine was okay now suddenly it's not....good thing diesel exhaust isn't banned yet:) And I was never a smoker.
All in the prep work for the females...and nothing less. Too bad the leadership spine left when we won against the commies. But it has taken almost twenty years for the PC crowd to win. What next....or did the repeal of DADT just answer that???
12/31/2010 5:21 PM
Happy New Year to those on the front lines, those who were there and those aspiring to be there! And for the rest of us...go smoke a fag!
12/31/2010 5:45 PM
BH, my dispatch will certainly need no translation for the typically above average intelligent members of the submarine community. Gledilegt Nýtt Ár!
12/31/2010 5:55 PM
I wish they would have done it when i was in 86-94 it turned the engineroom in to an ashtray before and after each watch 75% of the smokers were coners, it seems like i signed something when i joined saying i would not start smoking so by now there should almost no one still smoking, well happy new year
12/31/2010 6:04 PM
Old man from the sea has it correct. If it is legal in society, how can SUBFOR stop it at sea? PC B.S. in my book...and I am a diehard reformed ex-smoker...
12/31/2010 8:23 PM
Glad to hear they are going smoke-free. Something I wish they had done while I was on my old boat. The smokers were worse than crack addicts, always trying to sneak one while the lamp was out.
1/01/2011 8:55 AM
"If it is legal in society, how can SUBFOR stop it at sea?"
Wild stab here: Probably the same way they stop drinking, long hair, beards, etc....Navy Regulations! Not really too hard if you think about it.
1/01/2011 11:59 AM
I got out in 90 and my boat had designated smoking areas at sea - shaft alley and sonar equipment space. In port it was topside and the ER if the SRO allowed it. When I was SRO I never allowed smoking. Not only did I hate to be around it, but it also drastically increased the amount of lagging painting that had to be repeated.
1/01/2011 3:32 PM
I'm glad. I remember when the saying was "Smoke free by 93!" Never happened of course. This was long overdue.
As a non-smoker I never enjoyed having to pick up butts on the boat/pier and didn't like hanging my poopie suit on the same hook with a Marlboro (Red) man's.
Didn't like scrubbing or repainting overheads because the designated smoking area overheads had gained a dingy yellow-brownish tinge.
I think E-div will notice the difference when they go to do certain maintenance as well.
There is gum, chew, chewable pills, etc. I've seen those used onboard already and none of them bothered me at all. So there are ways for the smokers to get their fix w/o resorting to the NPQ subs prescription drugs.
1/01/2011 3:45 PM
A number of years ago a CO was relieved for getting underway (from Cape Canaveral) with a stripper on the Sail.
I wonder how if a CO will now get relieved for having a cigar on the Bridge?
1/01/2011 5:05 PM
Between this, the wailing about women, and the wailing about the end of DADT, I have to say that I'm losing an awful lot of the respect I had for submariners as the world's biggest badasses.
1/01/2011 5:38 PM
Between this, the wailing about women, and the wailing about the end of DADT, I have to say that I'm losing an awful lot of the respect I had for submariners as the world's biggest badasses.
Considering the source of this comment - a software geek - I'm not too concerned about what you think. Next time you attend a NOW convention, be sure to pick up a pair.
1/01/2011 6:37 PM
thankfully the day has come. damn tired of smelling like a cigarette and having to endure 6 hours of people getting their fix
for people who see no problem with it, it's because they've never had to stand watch near the smoke pit.
I don't smoke, but I've been forced to breath that toxic crap for years because inconsiderate jerks can't control their addictions.
I applaud the Navy for this. You quit smoking in Boot Camp. Shame on you for starting up again afterwards.
BTW, that comment about the smoke not affecting the entire crew is pure stupidity. A submarine is a closed environement. You can open a can of paint in the Engineroom and shortly thereafter smell it up in the forward compartment. The toxins in the air don't really ever get filtered out. So they get recirculated around continuously...getting breathed in/out by everyone. So too does cigarette smoke.
BTW #2: 726 class, Virginia class, and 688 sailor here. Smoke pit and the nasty shit from it is a problem on each class. Take a tour of one before you make random generalizations about how smoking isn't such a problem
1/02/2011 2:52 AM
I always enjoyed it when the o2 dropped far enough that the cigs went out in the ashtrays.
1/02/2011 9:15 AM
Good riddance. I'm tired of all the damn complaints this year.
OH NO... GAY PEOPLE!
OH NO... WOMEN!
OH NO... I CAN'T SMOKE ANYMORE!
We're in the military, you have to conform, get over it. If you can't handle it, don't stay in.
1/02/2011 11:52 AM
Next time you attend a NOW convention, be sure to pick up a pair.
This from a guy lacking the stones even to attach his name to his words. Pardon me if I'm not trembling in my boots.
1/02/2011 4:03 PM
FYI, the no-smoking ban on submarines was another was to reduce medical spending related to smoking related illnesses 30 years plus down the road. I think Tricare cranked out a study to support this and eventually looking to put an additional premium on tricare standard and retirees if you identify yourself as a smoker, though the confined environment on submarines just added fuel to their fire.
1/02/2011 4:09 PM
Pardon me if I'm not trembling in my boots. High heeled, thigh highs I'm sure.
1/02/2011 5:31 PM
High heeled, thigh highs I'm sure.
And still no name. So long, gutless.
1/02/2011 9:44 PM
This topic has generated alot of negative discussion in some other submarine related blogs I've read. The smoking areas (in port and u/w) are chock full of kids smoking because they think it's cool. Don't give me any of this "it's an addiction" or a "stress reliever" crap. I remember smoking while in Sub-School, but that was quite literally cuz everyone else was doing it.
This Just In - SMOKING CAUSES CANCER (it's no longer just a theory).
Oh, and for the "first DADT repealed now this" crowd, I've been around gays on boats before (I've worked with FTs ;-P), and I've never, not once, been affected by second-hand gayness.
STSCS(SS) USN (Ret) '85-'05
1/03/2011 11:23 AM
When I joined the Navy smoking a dick was against the law, then it became optional. Thank god I retired prior to it becoming mandatory.
1/03/2011 6:37 PM
I've never, not once, been affected by second-hand gayness.
Except during your annual prostate exams when you realized that the doc had both hands on your shoulders.
1/03/2011 7:02 PM
I had no idea you could smoke on submarines before.......... Just not something I'd put together I guess.
1/25/2011 3:09 PM
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9/12/2012 1:20 PM
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