Floro bulbs and digital scales??

[RetiredUSNChief]

You can't leave us minus the ending of your Submarine story!.....how did it end?

It ended well. We had a limited window of opportunity to resolve the issue (5 days) and then the boat had to re-deploy. The problem was that their symptoms didn't reappear, no matter what we did to try to make that happen. The last available day they wanted us to ride the boat on "sea trials" as they drove in circles around the island to show us that the problem would reappear. That got cancelled at the last minute as they needed to re-deploy and they wanted engineers on the boat during the deployment to resolve this.

That required a phone call back to my wife (This was in December and I'd miss Christmas at home and we had our 20th anniversary plans scheduled early January.)

Got the OK from my wife, packed my stuff, and deployed with the ship, myself and two other engineers from Huntington Ingalls to be working under me. We regrouped, mapped out a plan...and as soon as we got underway, the symptoms reappeared. We narrowed the problem down in just a few hours after casting off, Ship's Force fixed/replaced the suspect components, and the equipment was working normally by the third day.

We were still stuck on the boat until the end of the deployment, which was about three weeks. I spent the time working with Ship's Force troubleshooting/repairing several other systems that popped up while underway, played a lot of Euchre with the crew, grabbed cleaning equipment and participated in field day, did some training for the ship on certain repairs, sat in on their training, etc.

The Chief of the Boat (COB) was a former shipmate of mine back in the early 90s on the Narwhal, which was the submarine that the propulsion system on that ship was based on.

As a side note, I got to celebrate my tenth anniversary from never having to deploy on a submarine by deploying on a submarine, transitioning from Fleet Reserve (20 years) to actual Retired status (30 years) while underway. As a civilian. In a combat zone.

And made it home in time to renew our wedding vows the next day, then leave for our Bahamas cruise that afternoon. Where I got to celebrate 20 years with my wife on a ship that I didn't have to clean, operate, maintain, repair, or conduct drills on (with the exception of the obligatory muster drill).

 

[GW Staar]

Great story....America is lucky to have dedicated service men who don't need to be coerced to serve and whose wives & families support them. Such tend to serve well. Hope that never changes. Thank you for being one of them! And your wife for her support!

 

[hk940]

When you called your wife and said she OK'd it, was that an option?
Intermittent electrical problems are a nightmare!
I had a Chrysler 300 like that one day it was fine the next it would just die, Towed to a dealer, stayed there several days. One morning it would start. After the third time I said it's time to trade it in!
Thank you for your service.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

On the subject of the digital scales, just to drag this back on track...

Lots of electronic equipment can be affected by EMI from other sources. This can be flourescent lights, large electrical loads starting, electrical contacts opening or closing, poor shielding on either the equipment having the problems or the equipment causing the problems. Noise interference can be caused by improperly grounded shielding, and even operating a battery powered device while plugged into its charger.

This is why I say anybody with an electronic scale used for something as important as reloading should check their scale to see if it's going to operate properly in whatever the working location is under normal lighting conditions, and to re-check this whenever anything changes.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

When you called your wife and said she OK'd it, was that an option?
Intermittent electrical problems are a nightmare!
I had a Chrysler 300 like that one day it was fine the next it would just die, Towed to a dealer, stayed there several days. One morning it would start. After the third time I said it's time to trade it in!
Thank you for your service.

Yes, it was an option. My boss made it clear that it was a priority for him to get his engineers back home in time for Christmas with their families. I could have come home. But my opinion was that our shipyard motto is "Any ship, anytime, anywhere" and this was just another example. As a retired submarine Chief, I also felt the pull to do these people right. My wife knows how strongly I feel about this, but I still made that call.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Yes, it was an option. My boss made it clear that it was a priority for him to get his engineers back home in time for Christmas with their families. I could have come home. But my opinion was that our shipyard motto is "Any ship, anytime, anywhere" and this was just another example. As a retired submarine Chief, I also felt the pull to do these people right. My wife knows how strongly I feel about this, but I still made that call.

MATS motto was “Anything, Anytime, Anywhere.” A common phrase during the Cold War adopted by a few services. Glad the Dolphins had you, Chief.
One of the nicest and most humble guys I ever met had wings, the Dolphin and a Leg - and three gems in his Purple Heart. Little guy, big heart.