Teamwork

We take the best ships, designed by the best people. We use incredibly detailed procedures to operate them and we have the best sailors in the world. And so that combination of those three things together ensures that we operate our ships safely. As the executive officer on a submarine, I rely on the newest guy on board to do his job. So it's incumbent on me, it's important for me to help him figure out what his job is - help him learn it. And then those guys become a key member of the crew. Those are the guys I can count on. The level of interaction between the Officers and the enlisted is a lot closer and a lot more on a day-to-day basis here then I've seen in other parts of the Navy. There's not a single role that's more important than the other role. It's really a huge teamwork mindset that goes into being a submariner. We all rely on each other greatly. I think uh, it's 140 man crew so even though you are a culinary specialist, I expect you to know where all the major valves are on board the ship so in case of a condition that requires your action, you can take it quickly. A guy that ordinarily is a sonar technician listening to what's going on in the water, if we have a fire, he may be my point man on that fire hose putting out that fire. He's saving my life. So the level of training of the submariner before he even steps on board is extremely high. Once I get those men on board, on a weekly basis, I require each of those men to attend at least one hour of training. [Announcement on ship training exercise: "fire"] Probably the two things that we worry most about on a submarine are fire and flooding. On more than one occasion I've been involved in small fires on submarines, uh, that was also an opportunity for me to see the crew kick into action. The normal action for a submarine sailor when a fire breaks out is not to run away; they turn around and run toward it, and they fix it. And the reason is because of the training and the quick action and quick response of the crew of the submarine. [music]