US Navy Submarine School | NSB New London | Groton, CT | A Day in the Life of a Submariner
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- čas přidán 15. 11. 2023
- An in-depth look in the day and life of a US Navy Submariner-in-training.
Submarine Veterans can take a walk down memory lane, and newcomers can explore Naval Submarine Base New London.
0:00 - Intro
1:38 - Checking In
2:11 - Barracks
3:15 - Officer Quarters
3:36 - Rock Lake
4:17 - First Phase of Training
4:28 - Basic Enlisted Submarine School
4:57 - Flooding Trainer
5:31 - Firefighting Trainer
5:40 - Submarine Escape Trainer
7:05 - Physical Training
7:45 - Gym/Weight Room
8:25 - Galley/Cafeteria
9:29 - Commissary/Supermarket
9:45 - Nex/Shopping Mall
10:25 - "A" Schools
11:50 - Movie Theater/Auditorium
12:05 - Officer Schools
12:55 - Submarine Force Museum & USS Nautilus
15:55 - Liberty & Recreation
17:35 - Conclusion
#usnavy #navy #submarines #submarine #silentservice #military #america #usa
I was at BESS in Groton in 1988. I can hardly remember the base; didn't actually see much of it. Our instructor kept us hopping. He mandated 3 hours of study every night Mon-Thur, whether you wanted it or needed it. (He was profiled in a video that I think your wet trainer footage came out of...he was pretty freakin' intense...but nobody had a greater impact on me getting my crap together than that guy.) I got really good at managing my time. I graduated near the top of my class and that boost in confidence set me up for success in the rest of my life. Thanks for the video. Really took me back.
I was there in 1990 and I hand mandatory study. Saved my butt.
That's awesome man. There are nice leaders and there are good leaders; very important to find the latter and appreciate every lesson they have to offer.
Sub school sure has change in 50 years. No more open bay barracks. Lots of things to do on base. Beer vending machines. I had a great time and loved every min of it in 1974.
Right on brotha🍻
Like everyone else has mentioned, nothing looks like I remember it (1977) But, thanks for making this!
"Perimeter road - where out of shape sailors go to die." Very well said! I still remember a senior chief on my first boat putting me in my place by offering to go running with me at lunch one day!
Went to BESS in 1980, and we were in open barracks until my C school, which was also in Groton. I remember the chow hall being deserted for a week after payday and then packed after everyone had run through their money until the next 1st of the month😆 I was junior enlisted, a Chief, then commissioned like you were and enjoyed every unique part of my career for a lot of different reasons. Great video👍
Changed a lot since 1968, but then again, what hasn't!
I went through Rotten Groton in 1988. I remember running those hills while working out, and early morning PT with our Seal Instructor Petty Officer Sealy. Great memories! Thanks for this video!
I did too, I think I had Sealy, I know I always had EXTRA PT, lol. So grateful for that place, not many of us can say we did that, went to the fleet, earned our dolphins and went on adventures. Like a lot of the cool stuff I dreamt about as a kid, I really got to do that stuff. Wouldn't trade a second of it for the world.
I went to "Rotten Groton" for my BESS, A, and C school as an A'Ganger after 911. Doesn't look like much has changed! Lots of memories... That slog up the stairs from the NEX to the barracks was no joke.
I bet the same Grotopotomus is still making her rounds too!😂
Probably! lol@@degenerateWA
I was and HTC/CWO ⚒ on a tender (AS-18 Orion in La Maddalena) in 1992. Not enough room for me. Since I was NOT a bubble head, I was sub-human. You guys were different, and did the job. I know the Nuke mentality, I was also on a nuc-cruiser USS Texas (CGN 39). Great series on Smithsonian Channel called "Hell Below" about submarines in WW2. Great stuff.
My sponsor through Chief season was a HTC. Solid dude, much respect🍻
I have fond memories of my time at BESS; although besides Rock Lake, nothing else looks anything like it did when I went through BESS in 1982. Our barracks didn't have rooms at all. It was basically like boot camp barracks but partitioned off into small three-man cubicles by lockers/wardrobes.
I reenlisted on the USS Nautilus when I was stationed in Groton.
Awesome video! I went to BESS in the winter of 88, then back to C-School in the summer of 91 and off to the fun world of SSN's (Saturdays, Sundays and NIGHTS, lol), so I got to enjoy all of those spots! Great memories, that gym had almost no equipment at all, other than jump ropes and a couple of tires to flip around. Those STAIRS! Man, in the winter they were covered in ice, guys were falling down all the time, it was hilarious. I remember my C school being really tougher than I imagined, I thought coming back from the fleet that I would have an edge, but I had to study like crazy, and weekly tests or see ya later gator. Brutal, but good.
I was in Groton in 1982 sure didn't look like that then 😅
I was there at that time also Dental Tech” X-ray Tech
I was there 2001 on 9/11 and ran outside the gate to the Golden Gate bar and grill and got hammered before we came back, knowing the base had locked down. No one got into trouble. 😁
And, I can't tell you how many steaks we cooked on those grilles behind the BESS barracks. I never want to walk up or down a set of steps again in my life. 😂
I remember the night I arrived to New London Submarine Base for BESS, and "A" school. Arrived back in January 2016 and left November the same year to my first boat the SSBN-733 USS Nevada. Fond memories, especially when navy medical almost killed me with the wrong prescription.
Gotta love Navy healthcare. Just make sure it's on your record for your VA claim😎
This old "Pig Boat" sailor hardly recognized anything from my time there in 1966. Things have sure changed in nearly 60 years.
Brings back some fun memories. I was on the Roton Groton SSN 694 MMFN (SS) Nothing like looking out of the class room window and seeing guys making little rocks out of big ones. Watching them guys swing them sledgehammers made sure I didn't want to go to the brigg 🤣
Hey “Bubble Head” 😎Great narration I was “Tooth Fairy” back in “81-83” was there Ohio was doing sea trials brought back memories gym still the same just added truck tires😎 You left out the Dental Dept you know you can’t get underway without Dental Clearance 😎
WOW great video brother definitely a trip down memory lane, I remember the guys meeting up at the pup for beers after an underway drinking beers and eating 10cent wings
Damn, 10 cent wings... I was there when they were 25 cent wings. Wonder what they are now🤣
@@TheDegenerateTraveler-ru9nl you might be right lol I was always drinking beers to remember
"Enter To Learn, Depart To Qualify."
When I was Groton, 1976-77, there was a catholic chaplin who was a WW2 submarine officer. After the war he’d gone to seminary. Later returned to the navy
My fondest memory of BESS was on weekends going off base to Spiro's Great Oak II pizza on Route 12 in Gales Ferry. Best pizza and italian subs ever!
Never served but I have great respect for those who did. Really good video. I spent the entire time wondering about all the young men who've passed through those schools, being far away from home and turning into men. ✌️
I appreciate that, thank you 🍻
Not only far away from home but submerged for (3) months at a time takes very special person that can do that they are called “Bubble Heads” for a reason 😎
My daughter just arrived there this last weekend. Not at all what I expected it to look like, very scenic. The video was well done and informative.
Thank you.
Excellent. Im glad I was able to provide you with some insight to her life right now.
Ahh Rock Lake, where sailors got beat over the head with a Jack Daniels bottle not once, but twice. When I was there you entered Wilkinson hall from the basement. 488 Triton hall was the Boot Camp barracks. And on hold I build and contributed to so much of how that base is now with NAVFAC
Wow. This brings back some memories. Did BESS, RM A and SETTS back in '87-88. Wasn't much to do on base then but get drunk, so its nice to see there are more rec options for the noobs.
Loved me those Cross Hall omlettes back in my day. That galley was top notch even back then.
Cool video, brother. Keep up the good work.
Much appreciated brotha🍻
Best meals I ever had on any military base.
Enjoyable and informative. Went to sub school in 68/69. After A school at Great Lakes and C School in Key West (thank God). One thing I did not see covered here is an Enlisted Men's Club. When I was there (including home port for my boat) the EM Club had Go Go dancers during the lunch hours. Bet that doesn't happen now.
I remember those days, San Diego EM and CPO had topless after dark. The old days are gone! ✌🧞♀
Ha Ha, and the hydraulic lunches. :-)
Sub school in 74, then stay there with orders to Pulaski Blue. In 78, back to sub school as an instructor. Taught sailors from the Imperial Iranian Navy communications and diesel boat theory on lower base. Returned there in 84 on a sub to bring midshipmen out to sea for a few days. That was a long two weeks.
I went there in 78. Seems like a lot has changed, except for Rock Lake. Sonar A school was in San Diego back then.
San Diego Boot camp and RM A school.
I was on Pulaski Blue in 89! Then off to fast boats, that was super fun!
Sub school in 75 and off to Dam Neck, VA for FTB A/C school before being stationed on Pulaski Blue in 77.
Thoroughly enjoyed this!
Awesome, thank you!
Thank you for sharing this walk down memory lane. Most appreciated, shipmate!
Appreciate it brotha🍻
I was only at Groton once. For surgery while I was on Recruiting duty in upstate New York.
Recruiting duty and surgery... really got the short end of the stick there. I did recruiting in Alabama. Great experience that I never want to do again🍻
1990 in the winter so I didn't see much plus I was trying not to fail. Thanks for the memories.
The winters are not fun there. Thanks for stopping by🍻🍻
I was stationed at Naval Hospital, Groton for two years (1988-1990) before attending the Naval Undersea Medicine Institute (NUMI) to become a Submarine Force Independent Duty Corpsman. I enjoyed my time in Groton, and the training was awesome.
Thank god for Docs🍻🍻
I was a Dental Tech there 81-83 my cousin was at “bubble head”Corpsman school at same time just before I got out he got assigned to a boomer there
oh yeah, Ive found Rock Lake wondering thru the woods a few times
Rotten Groton turned out to be one of the best places in my life! TTF in Bangor also. Met friends that will always be there no matter what! Thanks for this!
BZ! Well done video, and illustrating for me the changes at the base since I got out more than half a century ago. I was a nuke ET and all ETs in my time went to either San Francisco or Great Lakes for their A school. My nuke school was in Bainbridge Maryland and my nuke power site was in a fenced compound near tobacco fields in Windsor Connecticut. Physical training was not a thing when I was in, and in six years I may have run a total of a mile and a half, mostly in boot camp in San Diego. I never saw the inside of a gymnasium anywhere during my hitch. Cigarettes were 25 cents a pack and 17 cents a pack at sea. Our wet trainer was a WW2-era control room...with plenty of water and the conventional DC kit equipment of the era. The sub base appears to have been almost completely rebuilt since my time, as none of it was familiar to me, in this great video. The escape trainer was the old 110 foot tower, but it was OOC, account of a fire a short time before I got there. We all did go through a pressure tank, pressurized to approximately 100 foot depth, about 50 pounds. Great way to test your equalization ability and your ability to stay calm in an extremely noisy and pulse-raising environment -sweating profusely as the pressure is raised, and the watching frost form on the viewing ports as the pressure was vented off and the goosebumps raised on your skin. All computers were analog and single-purpose design...even in the nuke plants. All electronics were high-density discrete component design. NR-1 was rumored of and unseen and the X-1 was still in use and we never saw it or even heard of it. My qual boat was the Lafayette, SSBN 616 Blue and I was a Plankowner on the Billfish SSN 676.
I left the subs in December of '71 but they have always been with me...mostly good. Some habits have stayed with me. If you are "on time" you are late. I'm regularly checking tank levels and battery conditions in my camper, and I never let the fuel level go below half in any vehicles I have ever run or owned.
Sturgeon Class were the best class of boats ever built!
It's a shame the naval base in San Francisco is no more. Would love to see that brought back.
I was on the Mighty Memphis in 2000-2001. Will never forget
Ty for this video, I am leaving April 15th for bootcamp and picked SECF… wasn’t sure what to expect but I’m pretty hyped thanks to your video
Thank you so much for making this video. So many great memories. -STS1(SS/IW) now MSgt[Space Force]
Set to graduate my a-school from here in late january. Can’t wait to get out of this shit hole but I’ll definitely miss it
Right on brotha🍻
Lot of memories. Did a training cycle for the Brig while the boat was on a med cruise. Lived in Thresher when it was a boat barracks. Lot of memories. Thanks for sharing all of this.
Very cool!🍻
I do not know if the base looked like that when my late husband was there from 1963 to 1966. He wanted to be a dentist but got sub school. I remember him talking about going up a tub full of water and if you did not breath there was someone to make you breath. He was on the USS Tigrone and very proud of his time on the boat. Listening to this helps me to understand why he did not write me more often. He said he had lots of studying to do. He always seemed to be a little drunk when he called while on liberty. He gave me a small set of Dolphins to wear on my sweater when I went to school. Someone broke into our house and took a little box. I held his dolphins and mine and his dog tags as well as the ring that I went steady with him and I still have not been able to find a small find a set of little dolphins that I can wear. He was planning to go to a reunion of his shipmates.But two months before we could go he passed away. I asked some of the men that knew him to send me at least a story and they took the time to do that. A few of them told me the same story about how when he was carrying the trash cans in each hand to dispose of the garbage he fell off the in the middle of winner with the trash cans.They didn't know how he got back up out of the water and that his peacock was still dry when he took it off on the inside.
The Cantin told him he had to pay for those two cans. After the captain left he had a few choice words to say. I know he said a few times he didn't have any stamps to write back to me and that he was broke as usual a lot from playing poker I,m sure. I would send him a book of stamps just so I could hear from him.
He talked about beautiful the Bahamas and the Islands were that they cruised to and after a few years and the kids were grown.He took me on two cruises so I could see the beautiful blue water and go on the islands. The thrill was one night when we were standing on deck he saw a submarine coming in to that island and I think that was the highlight of his cruise is to see another sub.We had planned when he retired to go over to the east coast and he wanted to hang out in some of the places that he used to go to. I'm sure we would a went to the base so he could look back and then point out what it was he was doing while while away from me. The boat was in dry dock in Philadelphia and I asked him if he saw the liberty bell or Independence Hall and his reply was , "No but I knew where Mulligan bar was." I took a trip with my granddaughter to Washington.DC and then to Philadelphia and I stood where the liberty bell was and I looked up to heaven and I said," Dean this is what you were supposed to see."
Great video!
Thank you🍻
Thank you
You're welcome🍻🍻
I was there in December 1988. I had MM1(SS) Hartenstein for my instructor.
Our barracks back then was Bldg 430.
Old school a-ganger, probably tougher than shit.
@@TheDegenerateTraveler-ru9nl There were a few A-gangers that were instructors then. The ones I remember were MM1 Hartenstein, MM1 Souleau, MM1 Seagraves and MMC Toal. I’m sure there were others, but those were the ones I remembered.
2:24 thresher Hall was boat barracks back in the early 90s. We had those old ass barracks downhill from the base club. And they were open bay until you get to a school. Even then, you had to community bathroom.
Like a 5 star hotel!🍻
If memory serves me correctly, only the first floor was open bay for BESS and BERT. The upper floors were 3 to a room for A and C School students, but usually only had 2 per room.
A room? Back when I went it was barracks with racks, almost like Boot Camp.
I heard of this. Glad I missed that era.
I arrived in Groton in February 2002 and still remember all this like it was yesterday. Spent over 2 years there for BESS, 6 months loaned out to base security, FT A school and 2 C schools(got lucky) before leaving for Kings Bay.
Kings Bay, my old stomping grounds🍻🍻
That’s for this, I’ll be there in February 24’. Can’t fckin wait 🫠
Right on. Remember one thing: If you're not having fun, then you're doing something wrong.
Been there, done that! SSBN 634 ET3/SS.
I was there in 02 we stared in 488 then moved to thresher hall for A school and for me C school too. All my classes all the way through were in 533( BESS we were on 3rd floor, TM-A and VLS were on the bottom floor)
You're absolutely right. I got that wrong; I dunno why I thought TM A-school was in the same building as Aux A-school. I are stupid NAV ET so appreciate the correction🍻
Great video, thank you. IC2/SS SSN-606 '83. West Haven, CT
606...Was that the Dace perchance?
@@charlesbartholomew2910 dDace was the 605
@@jkelly2498 Thank you for clarifying JKelley
I really appreciate this. I’m waiting for some medical paperwork to clear so I can enlist. I think I want to be an STS, so it’s cool to see where I might be in a few months. That cafeteria actually looks pretty sweet. So does the gym, but it makes me sad there isn’t a wrestling mat in sight.
That's awesome, glad the video provided you some insight to Groton. Best of luck with the MEPS process. Let me know which rate you end up picking. (don't settle, you can always walk away and come back if the classifier doesn't offer any job that you want; it's a pain in the ass for your recruiter but who cares)
@@TheDegenerateTraveler-ru9nlI will be sure to let you know. Thank you for the advice.
What happened to Fluckey hall
Killer video. Should've gone Navy! 😩
Let's be honest, we all wish we went Air Force😂
@@TheDegenerateTraveler-ru9nl Well, you're not wrong!
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
That's the one🍻🍻
Didn't have Thresher Hall in my day. lol
I’m in a Temporary Holding Unit on RTC Base in Great Lakes, going on 2 months for medical hold just waiting to get there
That's gotta suck ass. Always a bummer when you're waiting for things outside of your control.
Hopefully things get moving quickly for you. All I can say is focus on the things you can control (attitude, diet, etc) and remember that life will get better🍻
Div?
Dawg how did I run into you again, this is the guy who you met in THU who ran into you on discord randomly. I got my orders a couple months back and am through BESS
@@CherryMosleyI leave on the 6th, finally got my orders 🎉
No BESS for this EM2/SS nuke!! 4 years on USS Skipjack (SSN-585) there 84-88. We had equipment just like the 571!! NR-1 was operational back then. There was a "HOBBY SHOP" were you can fix your car, did a clutch there. Big changes in 36 years!!
Did my tour here in 67. I just remember being scared I'd flunk out. Went to "boomers" as an A ganger.
I was there in 1964 July the school is tough I workrd the postoffice w I fktd sec uerty at parking lot it was all good memories
Rock Lake still looks the same, but everything else about the base does not look the way it did when I was there. How things change.
I was there in 2009 and so far not much has changed for me. Some things have been shifted around but it's all still recognizable.
I went to A School before Sub School. My how things have changed.
I do believe the Yeoman and Supply folk go to A-School first in Mississippi before reporting to BESS.
Anybody remember the dancer Susy Creme Cheese at a club we used to frequent need the base. Around early 1970's
No, but she sounds like an all-hands GMT waiting to happen!🤣🤣
Care if I share this video?
Not at all🍻
naval stair base
Admiral your Jim Bennett Floki your jean Ben Affleck it was a god at this facility he route he wrote the book on submarine warfare
Where is the escape tower?
it was taken down
I was put out after dessert strom i was had orders to teach damage control at the school dc3
02 STS3SS
2:26 bullshit TMs at the end of 23 was there the whole time
Indeed thats how it was when he went but not anymore
Good video but really could’ve done without the loud ass music.
Too much background music
I liked it. But that’s just me.
Attended BESS in January and February 1971 and does this place look much different! And all for the better might I add. The barracks were old and cold with ice in the showers and the food was about as bad as RTC Orlando!! Glad to have gotten the hell out of there!!!
This brought back a lot of great memories! I was an ESM ET, I was there for quite a while for school. I really did enjoy my time in Groton. Although, I could have done without the blizzards. I’m really surprised there wasn’t a mention of the Grotopotomus. Thanks for the video!
Lol! God bless the grotopotamus. We thank them for their cervix, erm, service🍻
HT on lower base. R-1 DIV, last of old building behind escape tower, did the sheetmetal on the 571 in 81, lived in Wave Cage.