SSBN. ETV. Will not respond to questions about sensitive or classified subjects. My views are my own and I do not represent anyone.

Hi there!

Edit: since this has been asked several times:

SSBN stands for “submersible ship, ballistic missile, nuclear powered”. That is, the same overall type of ship as the Red October.

ETV stands for “Electronics Technican, Navigation”, because N was already taken by Nuclear Electronics Technicians. I work with everything from interior communications and announcing circuits to Electronics, shipwide atmospheric monitoring, navigational inertial gyroscopes, strategic nuclear missile navigation, and tank level indicators to basic underwater submarine navigation using the voyage management system and even helming the ship itself.

  • tal
    4•1 year ago

    This page blames it on the CO₂ scrubbers, in part:

    https://www.wired.com/2014/11/nano-sub-co2-scrub/

    I take that back, the air is gross, because the chemical used to remove CO2 smells like old diesel mixed with a dash of sulphur, and it permeates everything on board. This chemical, called amine, is known by every submariner (I was one for 3 years), as well as every submariner’s wife, husband, or anyone else who encounters that sailor’s laundry.

    • Madison_rogue
      1•1 year ago

      I worked with a former submariner on a destroyer in Charleston, South Carolina before the naval base shut down in the 90’s. He explained that the smell was bad enough it permeated through all his clothes. He would throw away all his clothing and buy new between deployments. I seem to recall that he’d put his civilian clothes in ZipLock bags to keep them fresh smelling to wear when in-port overseas.