News, Notes, And A Musing

Sorry for the light posting; here are some new discussion points:

1) Here's a story from Navy Times discussing how three of the eight total female Chops assigned to submarines were removed for "allegedly committing fraud prior to checking in at their boats". That's quite a coincidence, unless we're to assume that 37.5% of O-3 Supply Officers normally commit fraud.

2) The Chinese announced that they're researching using UAVs with "genetic algorithms" to hunt for submarines. Because that's a much better way of doing things that getting actual people actual experience in ASW. For my PRC readers: us American Submariners are very afraid of your new initiative. We really hope that you don't put all of your R&D money into this program.

3) The Navy has a new anti-excessive drinking initiative. Have you ever seen a Navy drinking initiative that didn't make you laugh your ass off that didn't involve displaying the wrecked car of a Sailor who had died in a DUI-related accident?

4) At work the other night, we found a broken chair, and because it was a "Friday" night and I was in an expansive mood, I opined that the cause of the chair breaking was "brittle fracture", and I kind of surprised myself by rattling off the approved NNPS definition of same. The fact that I remembered it after so long made me realize how strongly the Submarine Force really pounded into our heads those rules that we absolutely, positively can't violate. I started thinking of those inviolable rules, and came up with a few, in no particular order of importance:

** Don't violate BFPL
** Don't mess up seawater tagouts
** Don't run into anything (ocean floor, other ships, the pier)
** Don't get counter-detected when on station
** Don't go out of area
** Don't steal from your shipmates

How would you rank these rules in order of importance? And can you think of some other inviolable rules?