Every sailor that joins the Navy and is accepted into the Submariner service attends the Submarine Enlisted School. Experiences at the Submarine school are designed to give a sailor the education and skills necessary for a career on any of the Submarines in the U.S. Fleet.
Sailors participate in a leaking vessel program during their training. Seventeen sailors are packed into a small room, which represent a typical space on a Submarine. The room, referred to as the Wet Trainer, is one that is flooded with a variety of damage control tasks and skills taught to be able to “save the ship.â€
Damage control is just one aspect of the Submarine school. Trainers at the school take a group of raw recruits, many just out of Navy boot camp, and begin to teach them the skills and talents necessary to thrive, and survive, beneath the waves. Sometimes the training deals with fire, other times smoke and water, other times toxic fumes. But no matter what the damage control task, the trainers of the Navy School are on hand to make sure that everyone is safe and that mistakes are learned from, and then the task re attempted till they get it right.
Only thing is, here practice is possible. Underway, in possible battle conditions, it is necessary to know what to do and when to do it, the first time. So the school was developed to train and instruct sailors on the proper procedures and safety for life under the sea.
The stress of the Damage Control final training sessions is the hectic week that preceded it. The School is four weeks in length, and they are busy every single minute. “I believed that it would be a lot slower pace,†said ET Seaman Recruit Joseph Drawns. “But they keep us going from first light to the last moment of the day, always learning,†said Drawns.
The life of a Submariner is stressful. So the training to become a member of the Elite Submarine Force is also stressful, but mistakes are not punished. Rather it is better to make a mistake, and learn how not to the next time, while in school. Making a mistake on your duty station at sea under tons of water can ruin your whole day.
Learning all the information for Submarine duty takes a longer than average day of instruction. After beginning early in the morning, there is a break for lunch, and also one at 4pm. But then school starts again at 6pm for the nightly three hours of study.
