How to fight a fire or flooding on a Nuclear Submarine

Thanks for the info.. Thats amazing.. Thank you for your service!

Steve Jones

"DID YOU ORDER THE CODE RED?!" "YOU'RE G!@ @#$$% RIGHT I DID!" - the movie 'A Few Good Men' ruined me.

Foxymophandle

You don't. When "casualties" happen, one of the first things that Control will do is go to "periscope depth." This allows for exhausting smoke, steam, etc. and also allows for messages to be sent out for help/info.

Man, I absolutely hated the "testing" phase of the 8 hours. It's crazy that some people liked them and others hated it. I honestly think it's how the boat handled the schedule. Being a nuke, our training and drills were just horribly scheduled, making us get even less sleep than on the 6 hour rotation. I so badly wanted to like the 8's, but couldn't since our scheduling was just awful...

We call them a "Code Red". It's not a full on fire drill with the entire crew responding. Usually just the on watch crew members. They only last about 15 minutes and are intended to keep the watchstanders sharp on fire response. But, yes, we typically do them 3 times a day, schedule and operations permitting.

Brian Henley

Can someone help me out here.. He said they did these fire drills once per rotation, and then said the rotations were 8 hour shifts.. Surely they're not having a fire drill on every 8 hour shift, 3x per day? What did I missunderstand? Anyone know?

Steve Jones

Im an Aussie to, First time Ive supported Patreon with anyone, didnt think he would send baseballs out here👍, maybe I will get one too🤞

Russell Harris

Received my baseball today, all the way in Langley, British Columbia! Thank you so much I was so happy to open it and see your signature. You have 100% earned my long term support! Amazing what you do for your supporters.

Michael Bonetti

I could not imagine how hard it must be to patch a pipe while you are waste deep in ice cold salt water and getting sprayed by the leak at high pressure. Great video!

Unfortunately i don't have the funds to keep on being a patreon sub. Glad i stayed for the months i did tho! I really wish i got that baseball but i know that you're busy so i get why u never messaged back. Good luck with future endeavors will always support u

Just wanted to say that I am amazed. I am a brand new patreon. Supporting at only $1 per month because that's all I can spare. I live all the way over in Australia. And a baseball just turned up in my mailbox! You've certainly secured my support! Shipping from USA to Australia is not cheap in the best of times!

Sir Uncle Ned

Thank you so much @Jeff Ward and @Brian Henley for your answers. Thank you for your service most importantly!!! 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Yes, the manuals and procedures are all classified. Also, the arrangement of the equipment and layout is classified. The Navy is also quite particular about unnecessary radiation exposure. That's not to say that we get a lot of exposure. In a typical 6 month deployment I get less than 1/10th the radiation exposure as I would have received from celestial/terrestrial sources.

Brian Henley

I've been a submariner for almost 16 years now. I started off with the 3x6 hour shifts like you and now we do the 3x8 shifts. Some people hate it, but I absolutely love it. Standing 8 straight hours of watch can be miserable at times, but the trade off is so much better sleep. I was never able to get fully rested with 6 hour watches. Circadian rhythm is definitely a thing.

Brian Henley

When we have any sort of fire or atmosphere contaminant onboard the ship we can ventilate by drawing fresh air into the ship through an induction mast without having to surface the ship. We call it the snorkel mast( it's literally a giant snorkel). We either use the ships diesel generator or a massive blower. The exhausted air is just pushed overboard. In this case, though, they have several feet of ice above the ship and can't snorkel because the mast can't punch through the ice. It definitely makes have a casualty onboard that much more exciting.

Brian Henley

I was Air Force, not Navy - but my guess is that all of the maintenance manuals and related documentation the nuke crew uses are classified, even if what they refer to looks like a bunch of expensive plumbing to the casual observer.

I was a submarine sailor in the Navy and retire in 1985. In the 35 years since then, things have really changed from the way we did it.

Thank you so much @Brian Re and @John Joyce - Your answers have really helped and thank you for your service! I guess the only other question I still have is what is secret in the room (assuming that it's papers and documents) Thank you so much for answering these questions from someone who's never seen this kind of sub!

I've always heard the U.S. Armed Forces are cooperative with, and will go out of their way to accommodate, friendly film makers. Love your content, Destin! Thank you.

Gday from Downunder. Been thoroughly enjoying your videos, these USN ones have been very interesting, as was the Astronaut-SEALs one. In the videos you appear to not really have much of an idea about general stuff in them. I'm hoping that's just you asking as basic questions as you can for anybody who isn't an engineer or serviceperson. I'm sorry if this comes across badly, it's not my intention to insult anybody. I'm former Australian Army Electronics Tech, so have a basic understanding of most of it.

TL;DR version: Did I hear the skipper right when he said the crew worked a 3 shift 8 hr rotation? Long version: I served on the USS Memphis (another boat in the same class) back in the 1990s and we did a 3 shift 6 hr rotation. It really messed up most everyone's sleep rhythm & in the years since it occurred to me that if you set it up right you could actually do 3x8 shifts on a submarine. Kinda wish it had occurred to me back then, but I had lived a lot fewer days in which to get smarter😀. Love the series! Love the channel! Thanks for the baseball!

Vincent Engler

the rest of this series! This whole Sub series is awesome and fascinating, So was the astronaut Navy SEAL segment! the insight to the military you're capable of attaining is excellent, and makes me appreciate the military that much more! your sit down with the four-star general over the Pacific Theater was also fascinating!

Got my baseball, Thanks!

Great video. A fire would be terrifying on a sub. That would provide loads of motivation to take those drills seriously. As an aside, thanks heaps for the baseball you shipped all the way to Vietnam !! Kids had never seen a real baseball nor heard of a Trash Panda. So that was a two in one learning experience right off the bat. Brilliant.

As a plumber, the entire segment involving the "strongback" was incredibly familiar. Very interesting how they melded the mechanics of temp patches intended both for copper and steel pipe. On one hand very straightforward. On the other, very little room for error.

I’d love to know how they clear the smoke. Do they just let the air filters clean it? Kick them into overdrive perhaps? Special equipment just for that? Also, thanks for the baseball! Gifts not required but certainly appreciated!

Jason Williamson

That's awesome man! What a blessing to even be able to work with these guys and for them to teach you the ways of Submarining. Love your series here so far!

Doug Fullerton

As a retired Navy guy who sailed the oceans on the surface, I enjoy this series immensely. Keep them coming.

Thanks for the ball. Kind of surprised it shipped from Montana.

Awesome video Destin. I’m super glad you got this opportunity and I feel like you’re really doing these professional submariners justice by letting them show off their skills to a potentially unaware audience (I’ve never thought about how they fight fires or floods on a submarine). I’m so excited for the rest of this series!

Andrew K

How do you vent smoke under water?

Thanks for another awesome video from the Submarine! I'm going to be so sad when this series is over, but until then, I'll keep enjoying them as they come out!

steven statzer

I am loving this series. My dad started in subs. Now I know what he did. He was “drafted” into subs by his uncle. I am finding this fascinating.

Michael Coolidge

Thank you Destin! This series is so awesome and I still can't get over how they let you do all this! It's a testament to the awesome person you are and the aweseome values you show and share with the world! I can't wait for the next one!

Enrique Nieto

Throughout this series I’ve been thinking about how life on a submarine is similar to living on the ISS. The environments are different but both very “harsh” in their own way. I’ve been looking forward to this episode since I’ve always figured fire/flood response on a submarine would be similar to emergency response on station. Boy was I wrong... haha! Keep up the great work, Destin!

Great video! I'm actually currently in a tech elective course about submarine propulsion (but it really covers just about every part of a submarines inner-workings), so it's really cool to see the cross-over in these videos!

Hey Destin. As a firefighter, I'd like to share some pretty important advice with our friends in the submarine. When they are fully equipped with their fire protective gear, I see an awful lot of tapping. We learn to avoid touching that clothing as much as possible. The layer of air between the protective clothes and our skin creates invaluable insulation. When someone taps that, that layer is removed and the skin is much more vulnerable to burns. If they are anything like our clothing, that is. We use helmet and air tank taps for physical communication. Or just shout our guts out, of course 😉. Thanks again for the baseball and keep that amazing content coming! Cheers from Belgium! Edit: oh and I was wondering one more thing, do they do any CFBT (compartment fire behaviour training)? Because those are seriously useful. Just give me a call if you want to know more 😉

Loving the content and thanks for the baseball, it showed up at the perfect time. I recently acquired a bridgeport that is in worse shape than expected and luckily for me, the postman showed up with the baseball right after I figured that out and was the perfect thing to offset my disappointment in getting a clapped out bridgeport that sounds like it has a box of rocks stuck in the motor housing. So after a bit of thinking, baseball in hand at the time, I've decided to rebuild the head on the thing and that the first thing to be made on the mill will be some kind of display stand for a special baseball. Most of all, thanks for being a reminder that goodhearted people still exist in this day and age as well as reminding us all to keep thinking and keep doing stuff.

Zenfold

I like the switch between submarine and other topics. That way your content doesn’t become one-note. I also got my baseball and took me a Inn’s t to remember where it came from so it was kinda a double surprise

Iriscilla Ayala

Sprinkling the sub videos is the way to go. And thank you for the baseball!

Kristy

Got my baseball, thanks! I told my wife about where they came from, she expressed sympathy for your wife and figured you gave them away because she didn't want those things around the house anymore, haha.

Loving the videos. It's a delight to get the submarine videos sprinkled in. I got my baseball! Thank you!

Andrew N

I can confirm, as a (relatively) tall person, that I know where every single low spot is onboard each of the boats I've served on! I was sure you'd be given a Damage Control overview, and I'm glad to see you took interest in it! Now put your engineering hat on and consider the conversion of a solid material to ash, heat, and gases (or even better, a petroleum-based fire) and how that would affect the self-contained atmosphere inside a submarine unable to surface. The second- and third-order impacts of various submarine activities can be "brain-tickling" to think about!

Ryan Moody

Got my signed baseball. Very cool!

The Lost Pages

Haha the slobber monster got it!

Smarter Every Day

Go NAVY!

Robert Keiser

That’s really fun man. Thanks for supporting little minds!

Smarter Every Day

Sweet! Where are you located? International?

Smarter Every Day

Thanks Paul!

Smarter Every Day

Also thanks for such great insight and the thought you put into these videos - I've seen such cool stuff through your channel that I'd never see anywhere else. It's like of like the Randal Munroe "What if" version of real engineering - that alone is enough to convince not only me of how interesting science and engineering is, but to draw in all the kids that are on-the-fence to being an engineer or scientist in 10 or 20 years. God only knows how much we're going to need them to help us tackle future challenges...

RHall

Everyone on the boat has different levels of security clearance, the two main being secret and top secret. Most of those technical spaces require secret clearance and are marked as such and a few require top secret for you to enter. There's not a watchstander standing outside each of the spaces because the sailors' rate usually gives away what their level of security clearance is and whether or not they should even be in that space. Not many are tempted to violate those rules and snoop about because of the fear of NJP/the UCMJ, and their chiefs.

Thanks for the baseball - a very nice touch after watching the video. Seeing, even on video, something go supersonic was really, really cool.

RHall

I'll watch it tomorrow, after I wake up, it's far too late to watch it now.

Greig Burges

Thanks @Brian Re This is going to be a "dumb question" but do we need security for the engine room if everyone on board is a US Navy sailor. Also, as you mentioned, you can't learn much from looking at the outside of the reactor, so I'm assuming there are other confidential machines/instruments/papers/ specifications that the US Navy would not want released? Thank you for your response!

I love the submarine series. I put in 10 years at EB designing submarines, and your series has shown me more than I’ve ever seen on site! Thanks for the baseball, my 10 month old Cocker Spaniel found it and it’s his now!! Thanks again for what you do!

Thank you Destin for sharing this with us. The Navy has shown here that they are well trained and dedicated individuals in all aspects of their jobs. Thanks to them I feel safer because of it. Felix

There is a lot of physical security and locked doors, as well as watch standers in the spaces 24 hours a day 24/7 to provide security. No just looking at this you could not build one. Having said that, the technology to build a standard reactor for energy production is available in every public library. What isn't available are the exact specs and "numbers" for our plants. To clarify, the base knowledge is straight out of physics/nuclear engineering books that are readily available...

Brian Re

Amazing, loved the perspective. I understand nuclear reactors are tricky, but what exactly stops them from allowing you in the reactor room? I don't think someone can build a reactor looking at its outside, right? :)

I love the first hand experience, awesome upload!

Awww the memories! Thanks, I love seeing this through the eyes of people new to the environment!

Brian Re

Loving all of these!

I’m loving this USN themed bunch Destin, keep them coming!

Jose Martinez

My 10 year old niece discovered your channel independently of me and we have got to have all kinds of great conversations. I got the baseball and knew it needed to go to her. She was so excited. Thank you for being who you are.

I really like this series also thanks for the baseball destin got mine last week

jan-pieter Wouters

Love the ongoing story and I find it quite nice that it is spread out !

Your too late. Already watched the video. Thanks for the baseball btw.

Michiel Stikkel