U. S. Submarine Changes Entire Crew While Underway

Being a past submariner I thought this was very interesting. It really demonstrates our stealth capabilities and our submarine fleet's ability to operate indefinitely without returning to port.

https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/N...2185/uss-alabama-conducts-crew-change-at-sea/

 

OP, Thank you for serving!


I'm sure it was well rehearsed and the sailors executed the crew change without a hitch. My only thought on this is, why even publish these articles on a public domain? Is OPSEC a priority these days?

 

It lets our adversaries know that our armed forces can be deployed without the common limitations and hopefully affecting the decision to provoke us. Strategic deterrence is a mighty force.

 

I don't really see the point of this, define at sea?
They swapped out crews, where. You had to transport 100+ sailors out to a spot, transfer 100+ ppl to vessel (not the safest evolution), relieve watchstanders, assume command then offload 100+ sailors, no real turnover between crews. To save what, a day to return to Port and head back out to sea. This is only applies to a boomer, as fast attacks don't change crews. And boomers have their 2 crews so that they can spend more time underway as is, blue comes in, crews turnover, maint is conducted, gold takes her out. Never a mystery that you could swap out crews at sea, we conduct personnel transfers all the time at sea. Simply a matter of cost, logistics and risk.

 

If I read the report correctly, the intent of the exercise was to show that FBM vessels would be able to continue with ship's missions even if the two FBM stateside ports were compromised by enemy action.
You are correct that a crew turnover, which is vital for the incoming crew to know the status of the ship upon taking over, is not taking place in the traditional face-to-face method. I would like to think that the FLTCOMs, SUBGRUs, and SUBRONs would have thought about that and provided a means of the outgoing crew to be able to turn over the vital information via computer or logs or something. The logistics aspect is not new to the Navy or submarine service so that would just be another routine evolution to deal with.

 

If Bangor was compromised, i.e. destroyed, in enemy hands, or under attack, cut off from sea lanes. How exactly are you going to assemble the shore based crew and extract them, get them to north pacific or artic ocean to swap out at sea. Wouldn't common sense lead you to wartime scenario, and crews deployed would continue to operate as long as they could with the manpower they had and the navy would have to figure out how to resupply and repair those vessels until the situation improved. Transferring blue/gold at sea isn't that difficult.

I'm not trying to beat you down, just don't see what was accomplished here other than wasting a lot of money to transport a 100 plus sailors out to sea, provide tugs or launches to transfer them and there possessions, then drag the original crew off the boat with their seabags and return them to port. Plus any stores that would be needed to allow the replacement crew to continue operations.

If your ports are compromised, would not your shore based crews in those ports also be compromised. And if your in a war scenario, do you really want a boomer sitting on the surface for many hours, conducting personnel transfers, unable to submerge quickly, cause they have multiple hatches open and the minutes to secure those operations and rig for dive, then actually submerge the ship would make you highly susceptible to attack. To me just sounds like a waste of funds to demonstrate an ability that anyone with a clue should of known we were quite capable of to begin with.

 

It seems like a way of telling the bad guys you can take Bangor and Kings Bay away from us but that ain't stopping us. I don't think it would be sustainable longer term. But it sends the message the you can't put a SSBN under seige and starve them out.

 

You do present some good points. They are worth considering. Truthfully, I can see both sides of the coin.

 

Wow that’s cool. I live near cleveland Ohio and they have a gato class ww2 submarine uss cod 224, my grandpa (ww2 pacific army vet) would take me every year and we would climb down into it, I’ve always been fascinated by submarines. One of my favorite movies is Das Boot, along with Hunt for Red October, I just watched another submarine movie recently on Netflix, The Wolfs Call. Check it out.

 

The movie Crimson Tide is a very good movie. The interior communications, uniforms and insignia, and other details were spot on. A small note on this movie: if you watch all of the credits til the very end they give credit to a CAPT Beard (Ret) as a military advisor. He was my Chief of Staff at COMSUBGRU-9 when I was stationed there.
I will check out The Wolf's Call!

 

I was almost in the Hunt for Red October, they wanted one crew member from the Dallas, they asked for a Nav ET, but the boat tried to use it as a reelistment carrot for a few people. Ended up sending a Qm, he had one line in the movie. "2 min to the turn Capt"

 

That's awesome! That would be very cool!
I was at COMSUBGRU-9 when the movie company requested permission from COMSUBPAC to get an unclassified tour of the USS ALABAMA. The request was sportive with specific conditions. No cameras. No writing instruments. No notes. No electronic recording devices of any kind. Just three or four people. That's all. They sent people down with photographic memories. They got a close to the real Control Room and other compartments that they could get without compromising classified information.
The footage of the USS DALLAS emergency blowing and broaching was taken in the Strait of Juan de Fuca using a really long range camera lense because the Navy, for safety and security reasons, would not allow the filming any closer. It was pretty interesting to be right there with the action as it was happening.

 

Former bubblehead myself. Fast boat sailor though.

If the home port is compromised, we’d be at war. The boat with an operational crew would probably continue to have the deck. I would
think the crew swap would be low priority.

If they absolutely had to swap, maybe the port of an ally would be a less riskier option. But maybe Tridents have port restrictions.

Demonstrating this capability is something significant but in peacetime it seems the risk outweighs the benefit.

Having open hatches in open ocean is a serious risk. Or was it performed in a harbor? Maybe they did it while maintaining integrity using the 2 hatches but that seems more drawn out.

Cool thread anyhow. My Navy days were the best of times, and the worst of times.

I just watched Top Gun Maverick. Great movie. Too many uncovered sailors

Jennifer Connelly is easy on the eyes for sure.

 

Filming, they used the Houston I believe for the emergency blows, Dallas wasn't used for any of the filming, lol

 

I saw a Gregory Peck sub movie the other day, post nuclear war apocalyptic type, Fred Astaire was also in it, think it may be one of his few non dancing rolls lol. Was called "On the Beach" had some of the sub stuff made me laugh, but only a bubblehead would know, lol

 

Thank you for your service, Brother! My wife and I just saw Top Gun Maverick this past weekend. God movie. Predictable but good.
Open hatches in the open ocean is a risk. Unlike a fast attack boat a boomer has the missile deck. It is less risky, although still risky, to have hatches open and personnel on deck than the turtle back deck on a fast attack. The Strait of Juan de Fuca is reasonably calm compared to the north Atlantic.
Definitely the best of times and the worst of times! Many fond memories of past shipmates and their antics! Good memories there!

 

I didn't know the USS HOUSTON was even in the film.

I'm not real good at watching submarine movies because my head keep going, "That's not the proper sequence." "That's not the proper word on the 1MC to do whatever evolution." Too many years on the boats in the Control Room, I guess.
I'll try to find that movie too.

 

The other side of the coin also says, our sailors can be attacked during crew the turn over rendering the sub inoperable.

 

True. That would certainly put every so involved in the transfer at great risk. That would be wartime anyway. We would certainly have other subs and air support to attempt to mitigate as much of that risk as possible. Still risky but doable.
My last underway on the USS HAMMERHEAD was a TRE run. I stood Chief of the Watch 3 section. One of my drills was to hover WAY outside the ships safe operating envelope, proceed to periscope depth in 50 foot increments, and deploy SEAL teams (they were onboard!) with their Zodiaks via the forward and aft escape trunks. I hovered on the trim pump for quietness (learned that on a boomer) until the sea state started pulling us up with a 5° up bubble. Noise then wasn't a concern. Damn that was fun!

 

We watched The Wolf's Call tonight. It was good. The French must do things a whole lot different than us. There was a lot of literary license going on. Only a bubbkehead would know though.
Thank you for the recommend!