Preparations
for this four-hour board require substantial personal efforts
from many more crewmembers than just Petty Officer Quarles.
Each set of silver dolphins earned onboard USS Alaska
(SSBN-732) (G) represents an incredible amount of work by
both the individual and his shipmates, who devote countless
hours to check-outs and instruction, plus setting the stage
for the board itself. Each event on every board is formally
reviewed and approved by the Chief of the Boat, the Executive
Officer, and the Commanding Officer and is designed to test
for the same basic skills.
With the
approved plan for Petty Officer Quarles’ board in hand,
the SNAPSHOT Team has already met after dinner with their
team leader, ETC(SS) Troy Harrel, and formally briefed the
sequence of events, safety considerations, and basic skills
the Sailor will be expected to prove in each event. There
is no doubt that qualifying submariners this way involves
a great deal more effort by the ship, but the pay-off in ship-wide
esprit d’ corps and damage control readiness
is incredible in comparison with the way submarine qualification
boards are normally done with only a formal interview.
The
SNAPSHOT Board Begins
Petty
Officer Quarles is now dressed and makes his way to Damage
Control Aft in Machinery-Two Upper Level. His board begins
with an introduction that emphasizes how Quarles will become
part of a heritage of heroes who have offered their very lives
to save their ship, their shipmates, and the mission. The
six members of the SNAPSHOT Team – dressed in their
red tee-shirts, blue and khaki utility pants, and black boots
– will serve as both his evaluators and his peers in
carrying out tasks he directs.
The introduction
picks up: “On 4 April 1924, the Medal of Honor was awarded
to TM2(SS) Henry Breault for the following acts of heroism,
quick thinking, and self-sacrifice. These acts have served
as symbols of what is best in submarining… If you succeed
in all areas of the test, you will be awarded your dolphins
and join the fraternity of submariners. Let’s begin!”
The crackle
of the 1MC is heard throughout the ship announcing, “There
is a ship’s qualification board in progress. Disregard
all 4MC announcements until further notice.” A few minutes
later, the Executive Officer is not surprised when he hears
the speaker next to his desk come alive with Petty Officer
Quarles’ voice saying, “Emergency report, emergency
report. Injured man in Engineroom Upper Level.” The
board is underway.
The concept
for this crucible event grew out of the Navy recruit-training
graduation exercise known as “Battlestations,”
where each recruit works with his team to complete a series
of drills over a very long night to demonstrate hands-on what
they have learned. When CMDCM Dave Lynch came onboard as Chief
of the Boat, he recalled his tour as the Recruit Division
Commander for the first group of recruits to participate in
Battlestations and set out to create the same experience onboard
Alaska. Book knowledge is necessary, but without
the ability to apply it under stress, it’s not worth
much to us out here at sea, so he inspired a core group of
superior Sailors to take the idea and turn it into reality.
Making up this team were STSC(SS) Chris Shanklin, MM1(SS)
Jeremy Bennett, MM1(SS) Tom Madden, MM2(SS) Nick Wallace,
MT2(SS) Ken Ekhart, YN2(SS) Jon Simons, STS2(SS) Alex Dudder,
MM2(SS) Mark Pearson, MM2(SS) Eric Stanton, MM1(SS) Justin
Buckman, ET2(SS) Tommy Erikson, MT2(SS) Nate Capps, and STS2(SS)
Chris Juroshek.
So far,
47 Alaska Sailors have completed a SNAPSHOT qualification
during two strategic deterrent patrols – MM3(SS) Brian
Haug was the first, and MT3(SS) Kelvin Coleman was the most
recent. Because of all the hard work that goes into the preparations,
there is a natural desire to see everyone get through, but
in fact some will not make the grade – a disappointment
for all concerned. To date, 17 boards have been failed, however
in all but one case, we were able to provide detailed feedback
and develop a plan for qualifiers to get through on a subsequent
attempt.
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| (left)
MM3 Williams fights a simulated fire (identified by the
red lights) in the three-inch launcher space.
(above) MM2 Wallace monitors MM3 Williams’
fire-fighting skills.
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Getting
Down to Business
EM3 Quarles
comes down the ladder, turns into the Machinery Room, and
sees a small “fire”. He makes a deliberate 4MC
announcement from the scene: “Emergency report, emergency
report. Fire in Machinery- One. Fire in the external hydraulic
plant.” He puts the handset down and races for the nearest
fire extinguisher, securing the external hydraulic plant in
the process. One of the SNAPSHOT team members prevents him
from actually discharging it but provides him a simulation
that the carbon dioxide is being applied to the fire, even
as it grows out of control, with smoke assumed to be filling
the compartment. The Sailor pulls an Emergency Air Breathing
(EAB) mask from the nearest locker, plugs in, and continues
to fight the fire with another extinguisher. However, when
a fire on a submarine grows beyond the capability of a couple
of fire extinguishers, it is time to start fighting it with
water. Quarles directs several of the facilitators to take
out and pressurize the fire hose while he, as the man-in-charge,
makes a full damage control report to Damage Control Central
on the 4MC. Now there’s a new problem – only a
trickle of water comes out of the hose. Quickly inspecting
it, he deduces that that the nozzle is clogged. After showing
the facilitator – who feigns ignorance – how to
clear the nozzle, he continues to lead the attack on the fire,
and it “goes out.”
Next,
Quarles is sent to Missile Compartment Third Level to monitor
atmospheres with portable equipment and then back up two levels
to Machinery-Two Upper Level, where Damage Control Aft is
located. “Petty Officer Quarles, don a fire-fighting
ensemble and an OBA [oxygen breathing apparatus] and conduct
a search of the forward compartment with a NFTI (Navy Firefighters
Thermal Imager),” directs one of the SNAPSHOT Team members.
Quarles suits up quickly, signaling that he had completed
the final step of lighting off his OBA by tapping on his face
shield with the cotter pin from the canister and testing his
new atmosphere. A fresh canister is expended for each board.
Without
a knock, the wardroom door bursts open, interrupting a qualification
board for Diving Officer of the Watch. Petty Officer Quarles,
encased in his OBA and bearing the thermal imager, is conducting
the search. He looks around and then backs out. With his hand
on the D-ring on the back of the OBA, ETC Harrel carefully
tends the Sailor for safety while he navigates the ship looking
only through the NFTI. Entering the Torpedo Room, Quarles
sees a warm figure lying on the deck, motionless. He quickly
checks on his shipmate and then calls for help from the Emergency
Medical Assistance Team on the nearest 4MC. He is then sent
back to DC Aft to remove the heavy gear. The board is going
well, and this opportunity to cool off and get dry is most
welcome – but it doesn’t last… “Rig
a portable submersible pump in Missile Compartment Lower Level”…
then, “Combat a flooding casualty in the Torpedo Room.”
And after that follows Quarles’ knowledge interview
in the Officer Study.
The
Knowledge Interview
The 1MC
barks the following an-nouncement: “Ship’s qualification
board is complete. Regard all 4MCs.” Our candidate has
completed most of the practical part of his board and moves
on to the academic portion. The corresponding announcement
last evening came one hour earlier – because that Sailor’s
board ended abruptly when he made too many errors and didn’t
quite meet the standard. (But he’ll do his re-board
in about two weeks and do well.)
A submarine-qualified
officer is required to certify the knowledge level of each
enlisted Sailor before he can earn his dolphins. Normally,
onboard Alaska Gold, two junior officers or a department
head sit on each board. Tonight, the Weapons Officer and two
senior enlisted submariners wait patiently for EM3 Quarles
to arrive in the Officer Study for his interview. Having just
applied a bandit patch – successfully – to a ruptured,
flooding pipe in the Torpedo Room bilge, he is very wet and
very tired, but he’s been provided a towel to dry off
with as he gets ready to demonstrate his knowledge of the
ship’s systems and damage control procedures.
Quickly
getting down to business, the interview team first probes
his knowledge of the trim and drain systems by asking him
to draw the system diagram and then answer a battery of questions.
How would you pump forward trim if the trim pump failed? What
is the purpose of the priming pump and header? How do you
pressurize the fire main? This portion of SNAPSHOT sounds
like a conventional qualification board, but now, the Sailor’s
physical and emotional fatigue adds another dimension of stress.
The interview
begins at 2130 and will last about 45 minutes. During this
time, the SNAPSHOT Team caucuses and reviews how Quarles has
done on each event. Not surprisingly, some went better than
others, but was he able to perform under stress? How much
help did he need to get through? Did he find all the injured
men? Was he able to pump the bilge in the Missile Compartment
with the portable submersible pump? All things considered,
it’s clear that EM3 Quarles has done very well so far.
If he sustains the knowledge interview, the team leader will
begin passing the word that there will be a dolphin presentation
in the Crew’s Mess at 2300.
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| MT3
Coleman rings the bell at the successful completion of
his SNAPSHOT board. |
MT3
Cuthbertson removes his dolphins from the “fishtank,”
at the completion of his board.
Photos
by MM1 Tom Madden, USS Alaska
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Taking
charge
Some of
the things that we see during these boards are amazing. When
stressed and a bit confused, Sailors do things like plugging
EAB hoses into their own “buddy” connection –
we call this recirculating, and it doesn’t work –
or trying to connect a non-collapsible hose to the submersible
pump without first removing the foot valve that is screwed
on at the bottom of the pump.
But stress
can also bring out the best in people. At some point during
the board, they really “get into” the scenario
and do whatever is required to survive and get the job done.
The most dramatic performance was by ET3 Jason Smith in rigging
a submersible pump, when he took charge of the COB and other
SNAPSHOT facilitators by directing, “You guys come with
me!” The ability of these junior Sailors to take charge
and lead casualty actions has been an unexpected but very
welcome result of the SNAPSHOT boards.
As expected,
EM3 Quarles passes his knowledge interview easily and is taken
to the Sonar Equipment Space, where he demonstrates how to
operate a main ballast tank vent manually, following each
step of the procedure methodically while supervised by MM1
Madden. Following procedures to the letter is the standard
for all operations onboard a submarine, and no less is expected
here.
The next
task: “Execute a submarine escape from the Mid-Logistics
Escape Trunk. Petty Officer Capps will be egressing with you
and you will need to lead him through it.” The ship
is at 190 feet going 10 knots, and since actually flooding
down the trunk and leaving the ship would be considered going
a bit too far, most of the procedures are simulated. Both
men enter the trunk through the lower hatch with their buoyant
“Steinke” hoods and walk through each step of
the evolution. By the time they are done, both are glad to
leave the cold damp and dim light of this tiny unheated space.
One more
hurdle remains – the EAB walk, where Quarles must traverse
every compartment of the submarine, plugging himself into
many of the hundreds of air connections throughout the ship.
Everyone who’s done this knows that it’s an exhausting
exercise, but making it to this point also means that the
board is nearly over.
Awarding
the Dolphins
Tired,
sweaty, emotional, and fired up by adrenaline, Petty Officer
Quarles pushes into the Crew’s Mess, pulls the EAB from
his face, and vigorously rings the bell on the aft bulkhead
signifying that his board is now complete. Immediately and
without any order given, all officers and crew come to attention
in honor of the Navy’s newest submariner. Flanked by
the Chief of the Boat, Quarles opens a hinged shadowbox, known
as the “fishtank,” and carefully removes a set
of dolphins engraved with his name and the date. He proceeds
forward to where the Captain is waiting and hands him the
insignia. The Executive Officer then recalls an episode from
submarine history by reading a passage from Theodore Roscoe’s
United States Submarine Operations in World War II about USS
Wahoo (SS-238), commanded by CDR Dick O’Kane. Wahoo
single-handedly sank nine ships in 10 days of action, including
one engagement in which the 20-mm machine guns jammed in a
close-range surface attack, and the crew finished off a 100-ton
trawler with a crate of “Molotov Cocktails” presented
to the them by U.S. Marines on Midway.
Alaska’s
Captain, CDR David Solms, unpins the red dolphins and sets
them aside. He likens Petty Officer Quarles’ efforts
in completing his qualification to those of the determined
and resourceful crew of the Wahoo, and as he pins
on the dolphins, the 1MC crackles to life again, “Electrician’s
Mate Third Class Mark Quarles, qualified in submarines.”
Two blasts of the diving alarm provide a biting exclamation
point to the announcement. Before ending, EM3(SS) Quarles
takes a moment to thank all those who led and encouraged him
in completing his qualifications. He has now fully earned
the right to be called a submariner, and each member of the
crew, some wearing dolphins, some not, congratulates him personally.
As for
the battered and beaten-up red dolphins, they go to another
Sailor just now starting final walk-throughs. He puts them
on proudly, knowing that they’ve served as a badge of
courage for many shipmates before him.
LCDR Monroe
and CMDCM Lynch are Executive Officer and Chief of the Boat,
respectively, onboard Alaska. LCDR Monroe is also
a previous Military Editor of UNDERSEA WARFARE Magazine.
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