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| Image of Dig-It multi-purpose tool |
Every submarine, cruiser or carrier has a nuke on board who,
for whatever reason, no matter how often they get screwed (a typical example
would be defined as steaming for coner liberty) or are awake for 30 hours
straight doing drills preparing for ORSE or the long stressful hours or the
significant time away from your family, etc. Yet deep down they still “dig-it”.
In other words, they enjoy what would make most other people miserable.
The reality is, in many ways, why would anyone other than a masochist
“dig” a life like this? The fact is, after their first sea command half of the
nukes leave the Navy for better opportunities in the civilian word.
I cannot judge a person for digging something I would not, we
all are familiar with the term,”One person's trash is another person's treasure”. Nonetheless, I am unsure as to how this
occurs.
Here are some of my theories which come to immediately to mind: 1) you tell yourself you enjoy the misery in
order to get yourself through it 2) you believe there is nothing better for you
in the civilian world 3) you are trying to get into an officer program and
realize your time as an enlisted nuke is limited 4) you have physiological
issues which were not caught during the nuclear training pipeline.
In light of the possible reasons if you are still on or used
to be on a boat how can you tell if your fellow nuke is a digit?
1) Expressing no apparent desire to get off the boat and
enjoy a decent quality of life 2) discussing the occurrences of the engine room
while they are on liberty. In my case, being stationed in Hawaii there were so
many other things which might be discussed other than the latest engine room incident
with your engineering officer 3) Life after the Nuclear Navy is not a
discussion. Furthermore, a digit would
stay in for 40 years if the Navy would allow them to and had billets to fill.
4) Telling nuke jokes to the civilian community and not being able to figure
out why you get blank stares in return.
Do you remember any one on you past commands you could
describe as a “dig-it”. Anyone care to provide some insight as to why?
P.S. And what was with the Leatherman or Gerber multi-tool
every “dig-it” seemed to carry?
Image courtesy of www.leatherman.com
