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| Control Room |
I was surfing Facebook pages one evening I noticed some photos posted by someone who used to be on my boat during a Westpac. One of the pictures was of a nuke I served with the caption, “pretty cool for a nuke”. This made me think back to my days as a nuke on submarine and my dealing with my non nuclear trained counterparts.
I know on a lot of boats the nuclear personal does not interact with “coners” especially after submarine qualifications are complete. Fortunately, our boat operated a little differently since we all got along pretty well. My roommate was a mess cook and we are still in touch to this day. A quick glance at Facebook revealed a lot of “coners” are connected as friends with ex nukes even though it had been almost a decade since we all lived and worked on the boat.
Numerous “coners” were nukes who did not make through the nuclear pipeline for one reason or another. But once you arrived at the boat “coners” enjoyed more liberty and, perhaps lived with lowered stress levels, less duty and working hours and still left with the same DD214 nukes received upon leaving the service.
For the record, I can agree with the cone on the fact some nukes can be difficult to work with. I have found lots of Nukes to be obnoxious and condescending. These flaws, in many instances, have made them unpopular on both sides of the engine room hatch.
We all serve same nation, enjoy equal veteran status, and would wind up on the identical eternal patrol if it came down to not coming home. The aft portion of the boat may push but the cone navigates, drives, and when necessary shoots, all which are needed in order for a submarine to complete its missions. In closing I would like to thank those “coners” who chose to judge nukes by the kind of people they are instead by their rating.
