Historic Day for the Submarine Force

Women to Enter the Silent Service

April 29th, 2010

Submarine service opens to female Naval officers. No word yet on when the opportunity will open for the female enlisted Sailor. I am of the opinion that it is the right thing – all opportunities should be open to all programs for those who can meet the requirements. We have the intelligence and technology to manage the berthing situation.

NAVADMIN 152/10 marks the historic occasion; the NAVADMIN in its entirety;

R 291213Z APR 10
FM CNO WASHINGTON DC//N00//
TO NAVADMIN
BT
UNCLAS N01000//
NAVADMIN 152/10
MSGID/GENADMIN/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N00/APR//
SUBJ/INTEGRATION OF WOMEN INTO THE SUBMARINE FORCE//
RMKS/1. THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE HAS APPROVED INTEGRATION OF WOMEN INTO THE SUBMARINE FORCE. SUBMARINES PROVIDE UNIQUE CAPABILITIES AND ARE A CORNERSTONE OF OUR NATION’S DEFENSE. OPENING THIS CAREER FIELD TO WOMEN ALLOWS THE SUBMARINE FORCE TO UTILIZE THE TREMENDOUS TALENT AND POTENTIAL OF WOMEN IN THE NAVY.
2. UP TO 19 FEMALE OFFICERS WILL BE SELECTED TO BEGIN TRAINING FOR SUBMARINE WARFARE QUALIFICATION STARTING IN JULY 2010. THEY WILL ATTEND NUCLEAR POWER SCHOOL FOR A SIX-MONTH COURSE OF ACADEMIC INSTRUCTION, FOLLOWED BY A SIX-MONTH OPERATIONAL CURRICULUM LEADING TO QUALIFICATION AS ENGINEERING OFFICER OF THE WATCH AT ONE OF THE
NUCLEAR POWER TRAINING UNITS. THE TRAINING WILL CONCLUDE WITH THREE MONTHS AT NAVAL SUBMARINE SCHOOL TO COMPLETE THE SUBMARINE OFFICER BASIC COURSE PRIOR TO REPORTING TO THEIR FIRST SUBMARINE.
3. OFFICERS WILL BE PREFERENTIALLY SELECTED FROM INITIAL ACCESSION SOURCES, I.E. THE UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY, NAVAL RESERVE OFFICERS TRAINING CORPS, SEAMAN-TO-ADMIRAL, AND OFFICER CANDIDATE SCHOOL VIA NORMAL SERVICE SELECTION/ASSIGNMENT PROCESS. APPLICANTS MUST MEET HIGH ACADEMIC AND MEDICAL STANDARDS FOR NUCLEAR AND SUBMARINE
ASSIGNMENTS. INTERESTED MIDSHIPMEN AND OFFICER CANDIDATES SHOULD CONTACT THEIR COMPANY OFFICER, PROFESSOR OF NAVAL SCIENCE, OR NUCLEAR RECRUITER.
4. ON A CASE-BY-CASE BASIS, APPLICANTS FROM OTHER UNRESTRICTED LINE COMMUNITIES IN YEAR GROUPS 08 AND 09 WILL BE CONSIDERED FOR LATERAL TRANSFER. INTERESTED OFFICERS SHOULD CONTACT THEIR DETAILERS AND COMPLETE AN APPLICATION PACKAGE IN ACCORDANCE WITH MILPERSMAN 1520-050. INTERESTED NUCLEAR SURFACE WARFARE OFFICERS SHOULD CONTACT
THEIR DETAILER AND COMPLETE AN APPLICATION PACKAGE IN ACCORDANCE WITH MILPERSMAN 1520-030.
A. THE DEADLINE FOR LATERAL TRANSFER APPLICATIONS IS 2 JULY 2010. SELECTED APPLICANTS WILL BE REDESIGNATED TO 1170 AFTER COMPLETING APPROPRIATE INTERVIEWS REQUIRED FOR PROGRAM ACCEPTANCE, INCLUDING INTERVIEWS WITH THE DIRECTOR, NAVAL NUCLEAR PROPULSION.
B. ALL LATERAL TRANSFERS ARE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE STANDARD 32-MONTH SUBMARINE DIVISION OFFICER TOURS REGARDLESS OF THEIR YEAR GROUP. DUE TO THE LENGTH OF THE NUCLEAR AND SUBMARINE TRAINING PIPELINE COMBINED WITH THE REQUIRED SEA ASSIGNMENTS, OFFICERS WHO LATERALLY TRANSFER MAY BE REQUIRED TO MISS A SHORE ROTATION IN ORDER TO CATCH UP WITH
THEIR PEERS WHO WERE DIRECTLY ACCESSED INTO THE SUBMARINE FORCE.
5. UP TO EIGHT FEMALE SUPPLY CORPS OFFICERS WILL ALSO BE ELIGIBLE TO JOIN THE SUBMARINE FORCE IN LATE 2011. THESE OFFICERS WILL ATTEND SUBMARINE OFFICER BASIC COURSE STARTING IN JULY 2011 BEFORE REPORTING TO THEIR FIRST SUBMARINE. CANDIDATES MUST HAVE COMPLETED SUPPLY CORPS WARFARE QUALIFICATION. INTERESTED SUPPLY CORPS OFFICERS SHOULD
CONTACT THEIR DETAILER.
6. COMMAND ASSIGNMENTS. FOLLOWING INITIAL TRAINING, FEMALE OFFICERS WILL BE ASSIGNED TO THE BLUE AND GOLD CREWS OF SELECTED SSBNS AND SSGNS HOMEPORTED IN EITHER BANGOR, WA OR KINGS BAY, GA. THE NUMBER OF INTEGRATED CREWS WILL EXPAND IN SUBSEQUENT YEARS.
7. RELEASED BY ADMIRAL G. ROUGHEAD, CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS.//
BT
#0000
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6 Responses to “Women to Enter the Silent Service”


  1. sobersubmrnr says:
    May 1, 2010 at 12:40 pm

    You’ve managed the berthing issues in the intel community? Are you aware of what a submarine environment is like compared to a surface ship?

    I have already been to sea on a SSN with women for extended perions. This is a bad idea. It’s also not necessarily a done deal, despite what the SECNAV and CNO might think.

  2. NCCM(ret) says:
    May 1, 2010 at 1:16 pm

    No, I have not served on a sub, but if the Royal Norwegian Navy, Royal Danish Navy, Swedish Navy, Royal Australian Navy, and the Canadian Navy all have females honorably serving on submarines – and they can figure it out – there is no reason we shouldn’t also be able to.

  3. Mikejonesdc says:
    May 5, 2010 at 3:42 pm

    NCCM(ret),
    I encourage you to read reports of the statistics of female submariners pregnant in the navies you mentioned.

    Moreover, I encourage you to read the same numbers for our surface fleet. It may not be politically correct or a pretty picture, but facts are facts.

  4. NCCM(ret) says:
    May 5, 2010 at 4:05 pm

    Because a percentage of females may get pregnant and have a period of time where they cannot deploy, all women should be restricted from an opportunity? Yes, I agree, a few women, but not all who become pregnant, get pregnant to avoid a deployment, but at the same time there are males (and females) doing other things in an attempt to avoid deploying – at least getting pregnant is legal.

    As I said, we are smart enough to figure this out – also, keep in mind, unlike the surface fleet, you must separately volunteer and qualify which has lead to a more “professional” force…

  5. SubSailor says:
    May 11, 2010 at 5:54 pm

    NCCM, you really have no clue what you are talking about, do you? the Navy wants to WASTE hundreds of millions of $$$ just so a relatively few women can ride a boat. This isn’t about career limitations for women, there are plenty of opportunities in the rest of the Navy as most sailors AREN’T bubbleheads. This is politics,pure and simple. Only 15% of the USN is female. Given that only a few of them would WANT to go on a boat, and only a few of them would actually make it to a boat, we’d be spending a helluva lot of money for exactly what? Some “feel good” policy? What do you think is going to happen the 1st time some E-3 female has her very own rack in her very own berthing room, with a couple of other empty racks in there with her, and there’s a couple of senior E-6 guys out there still hot racking? What are you going to do when one gets pregenant and can’t deploy and the NAVY can’t come up with a replacement female with the same NEC? that mean her rack goes empty and you stuff another guy on the boat where there is no room to start with? What happens when the Chief is giving out yearly evals and the female that works under him starts screaming “sexual harrassment”? Do YOU want to be the yguy that has to dive the San tank to fix a stuck valve because a tampon got stuck in it? What will you do when you are on a spec op and suddenly one of the females starts ‘spotting’? You gonna pull off station, surface and blow the mission? perhaps you should let the people who ARE bubbleheads decide what is best for them instead of backing some politically inspired social experimentation.

  6. NCCM(ret) says:
    May 11, 2010 at 6:15 pm

    SubSailor,

    The cost of reorganizing the boat to ensure there is sufficient habitability is a concern, those costs must be weighed against the overall benefit; of course. If it is too costly to change the current platforms, then the next generation of submarines should be built with accommodations for both sexes in mind.

    The other potential female issues you bring up, from the Chief and sexual harassment to the clogged valve could happen anywhere. Feel good, political policy? A good chunk of it just might be, but as RDML Bruner referred to today on the bloggers roundtable (RT), the pool of nuclear officer qualified, engineering disciplined, male applicants has been reducing, and the Navy will have an even more difficult time manning the submarine fleet over the next 20 years. There is no implementation plan for the enlisted female Sailor at this point. He suggested during the RT that the current plan is to evaluate women serving on subs over the next five years – I gathered from that, an enlisted plan won’t even be considered until at least then. I will be posting the entire transcript of the RT, once DOD types it up.

    edited: 1835/05May10

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