Written nuclear qualification exams, a question of Integrity

Student cheating on test

I remember the moment as if it had occurred yesterday.  I had entered Nuclear Field A school as an ET after completing Boot Camp in May of 1995 and as we were about be processed EMC Paul Spracklin (at the time) addressed our group and the question he recommended we ask ourselves as we embarked on our training to become nukes was, “What are you going to do when no one I looking?”

                

           This quote came to mind when I read the Navy had discovered a cheating ring aboard one of its submarines, resulting in the firing of its commanding officer.

            

          A former officer wrote in a book published last year his superiors urged him to accept an answer key to pass a nuclear qualification exam. He said crew members received answers by email, and the submarines leadership ignored him when he complained about cheating.

        

       Chief Sparklin’s statement did not mean a lot to me at the time but during my career as a nuke I recalled instances where you had to make a call of doing the “right” thing with no one in khakis breathing down your neck making sure you did. 

                

       I remember an issue with an out of specification on our Power Plant Indicator (PPI’s) which if the Engineering Duty Officer had been notified RC division would be tasked to troubleshoot on the last night of liberty before a long underway. What call did I make? What do you think I did?

      

        In the case of the U.S.S. Memphis, the largest surprise is large numbers of the khaki’s involved in such a massive deviation of the integrity EMC Spracklin spoke to us on that morning in May 1995. On my boat I would have found it difficult to believe such deception would be pervasive at such high level. The officers and chiefs in our engineering department followed our Reactor Plant Manuals even when what they said made absolutely no sense. Did they not think someone would find out sooner or later? Then again I left the nuclear Navy in 2000. Could the nuclear Navy have changed so much since I left?  

Now the question I’d like to close with is,” How is the nuclear navy going to reestablish its integrity with everyone is looking? Hint: there is no answer key on this test.