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.
One person started laughing in the lunch line for no reason and couldn’t stop for 15 solid minutes. We just stood there and let it happen, and nobody judged him for it.
As far as screening, the first thing you notice upon going to sub school is that there’s no windows in the classroom or the hallways outside, and you’re stuck there for a hot minute every day. The second thing are the tours and trainers. You’re required to take a guided tour of a “fast attack” submarine, to show you what the inside is like.
Then, at the flooding trainer, they lock you and your classmates in a room and start slowly filling it with water, and you can’t get out until you either stop the flooding, or the instructor deems you too incompetent to continue. They run the trainer until you pass or fail. Then they put you in a firefighting ensemble and put you in a room and set the room on fire.
Add onto that constant memorization, tests, and inspections, and by the time you graduate you’ve mostly weened out all the people too sensitive to come aboard.