Sleep? We don't need no stinkin' sleep...

I ran across this tidbit in an online version of the JFMM.

b. (Submarines only) All trial periods must be organized such that each member of the crew has an opportunity to get six uninterrupted hours of sleep during each 24 hour period. Sea Trial events which can be accomplished by normal watch sections may be conducted concurrently with crew rest periods.

Having done new construction and a few turns through the yards (and being en route to a yard bound boat, USS Olympia), I call b*llshit on this one...

I remember my first sea trials, which was also USS Tucson's first "Alpha" trials. Every major evolution had a special watchbill, with yours truly as the Reactor Technician for all of 'em. We'd done a "2-1-2" fast cruise, during which we did a compressed version of sea trials on one 2 day period, fix-er-upper work for a day (or so), and a 2 day "spillin' and drillin'" exercise, after which I was BEAT. Of course, I had the duty, midwatch, and startup, followed by a 38 hour sea trial that I was on watch for about 32 hours of (my 6 hours "off" consisted of a couple of hours of cleaning, as Admiral DeMars was riding, a quick bite of chow, my own personal test of the middle level head, a period waiting in "standby" as CAT for the obligatory three sections of drills, and a turn as a drill monitor...oh, yeah, about 45 minutes in the rack, during which we did our first EMBT blow).

Thus my amusement for the JFMM statement above. In a period of about 158 hours (the fast cruises, fix it day, and sea trials) I recall about 10 hours of sack time, and no time longer than about 2 hours at a stretch.

I'm bookmarking this page for Oly's sea trials in '08. :)

posted by Robert Schumacher @ 10:39 PM