Hello everyone,

I was wondering about the length of deployments on both the SSN's and the SSBN's. My recruiter told me that one crew of the SSBN's are at sea for 3 months, then on base for 4 months before deploying again for 3 months, etc...

I have heard regarding the SSN's that they will go out for 10 month deployments at a time. However, I've also read on the site here that the SSN's will deploy at a moment's notice, as well as come back into port at a moment's notice. I've heard that the SSGN's have the same deployment schedule as the SSN's.

I'm wondering if what I've "heard" is correct regarding the deployment lengths of the different classes. Also, if the SSN's are deployed for 10 month's at a time, when they come back in to port, how long do you have before the next deployment? Is it months?

My soon to be wife is thinking that if I am on a SSN for 10 months, and then come back to base for 6-10 months, then it would be all groovy. But if I'm gone for 10 months, and then back in town for only one month before shipping out again, then she doesn't really care to much for it.

We both understand that if I do pass sub school, it's mainly up to the Navy's need's on what type of boat I'll be on, but we're just trying to figure out what would be going on time wise.

Thanks,
Josh

This was MY experience doing 1 tour of a SSN

* Weekly ops - go out monday morning - back friday afternoon - training in local waters (nukes get alot of experince starting up and shutting down the reactor plant)
* extended weekly ops - out for a few weeks, training, excercizes - preparing for inspections.
* patrols - 6-8 weeks out to sea
* deployments - 6 months away from home port. Multiple patrols / attached to carrier group. (ex: westpac)

Things can and do change based on the needs of the Navy. After my ship got out of teh yards -we did daily ops (shipyard left a few items in our ballast tanks- took a while to find)

A boomer patrol is variable, but the cycle is about 3 monthsish. You will have 1 monthish period of time in port where both crews are working on the boat, called Refit. When the other crew is at sea, you are in "off crew" doing training, getting ready to go back to sea, and goofing off (if you are a cone).

The cycle on a boomer is much more predictable than on fast boats, which is why the boomer is highly sought after duty. The down side is you go out to sea you WILL be gone for 2+ months and you will be underwater most of that time not hitting ports like fast boats do.

There are now SSGNs as well. I've no idea what their cycles are like. After my time... though one of the GNs is an old boat of mine (Ohio).

Thanks for the info on the boomer patrol. I do like the idea of being back on base for 3-4 months between sea duties. That way I could possibly go "home" every night to my wife and son. Visiting different ports isn't too much of a concern for me. I'll definitely want to try to serve on each of the three classes of boats, that way I get the experience and see which I like best.

Now I just need to find out more about the FA boats.

Thanks,
Josh

quote:

Originally posted by jssmith76:
That way I could possibly go "home" every night to my wife and son.

Every night? no. Duty days keep you on the boat overnight when its in port. by overnight, I mean you work a work 24 hour duty day, then if the duty day ends on a work day you get to stay on the boat until work's done at 4 or 5 the next afternoon.

Some boats do combined crew refits, so you get to stand duty days for the other crew too. Still trying to figure out how they combine 2 crews that stand 2-3 section rotation (meaning a duty day every 2-3) normally and turn it into only a 4 section rotation.

Honestly, DH going to sea was better in some ways than refit.....though nothing was worse than ORSE on NR-1 (which had to be done pierside based on the way the boat was)

There are the strange occurrences when even boomers get underway on very short notice. We were two weeks into refit when the Yom Kippur war broke out. At 1500 we received orders to onload stores and weapons for a 0800 departure. Fortunately, things settled down just as fast and we didn't have to get underway but the Engineer did decide to just keep steaming for a couple of days since we were already hot. The nukes all got hot in a different way.

quote:

That way I could possibly go "home" every night to my wife and son.

You will have 4 section duty in port. Which means you will be on board for 24hrs plus work normal hours the next day. If you want to be home every night the Navy is not the place to be.

The big difference between boomers and attack boats is that you have a set schedule for underway on a boomer. On at attack boat you do not. Unless you are in the shipyard for an overhaul.

there is a mega divadvantage to the set schedule as well............

Ahhh so things have changed since I was in.

quote:

Originally posted by catherine0830:
Some boats do combined crew refits, so you get to stand duty days for the other crew too. Still trying to figure out how they combine 2 crews that stand 2-3 section rotation (meaning a duty day every 2-3) normally and turn it into only a 4 section rotation.

I can only speak for the boats that I've been on, but in Refit you get support from the other crew. Yes some of their guys get put on the watch bill, and stand duty days, but that is just one of the many assignments that can be pulled when you are the off going crew. We used to call it Crew Support. The guys stood watches, and helped do maintenance stuff like that. Everyone else did other stuff like paint crew, or sound silencing team, or what not.

Yea, the disadvantage is if you are going to be gone for Christmas... you WILL be gone, but at least you can kinda figure it out in advance.

That can be a bad thing with the holidays. I made four patrols and the only holidays that I saw were Easter and Labor Day. We did get to spend Thanksgiving in port (in Guam) on patrol #3, with a couple of wives flying over, but that was as close as we came to seeing a major holiday. I might have seen Christmas in port if I had done about eight more patrols on that boat as we did move forward a little bit every year.

quote:

Originally posted by ErikBloodaxe:
I can only speak for the boats that I've been on, but in Refit you get support from the other crew. Yes some of their guys get put on the watch bill, and stand duty days, but that is just one of the many assignments that can be pulled when you are the off going crew.

when we were in GA all the boats were going to complete combined crew. every member of the crew (except O-gang, if memory serves) stood watch and duty days for the other crew. It was markedly different from when he first got there and the off going crew was there only for support (random watches, tiger teams, etc). It was much more like they had never turned over.

quote:

Yea, the disadvantage is if you are going to be gone for Christmas... you WILL be gone, but at least you can kinda figure it out in advance.

I was thinking more along the lines of the infamous tide box incident. There's a reason why DH's first CO refused to give warnings to wives if the boat pulled in unexpectedly because something broke.....

Dh did both, FAs first then Boomers. He liked FAs first, but we know other people who liked Boomers better. It depends on what you want.

Boomers was out 2 to 4 months, back in 3 to 5 months including refit. Communications were less on a boomer with little or no port calls and emails only & mail drops occasionally (limits to size of letters). Half way packages had to be done before they left and stored on board. While back in port there was time off but also lots of hours at work & school. YNs can be busy at times depending on who the CO and XO are. Friend is a YN and often he would have to be at work at 6 am and didn't get home until after 9. He also worked weekends and holidays, plus brought some work home, so you do have to be prepared for that.

We joked about Boomers in that we said just gone long enough to miss each other and back long enough to ask when are you leaving again?

FAs gone longer from a few days to a few weeks to a few months to over 6 months. Sometimes gone 80% of the year one year and 50% the next. It varies again on where you are and what is going on. Communications to phone calls in ports, emails and letters/packages. Again long hours depending on the CO and XO.

I did know someone on the Parche before she was decommed and then they changed to the Carter. That one was difficult on the family. Moments notice to leave, no communications, long times away, etc...

Emails will have to go through Squadron being read and then XO before being allowed. So it can be edited and can be shut down at anytime. She can email you but not get emails back. You can have at times where you go over 45, 60 and 90 days with little or no communications. There will be lots of emails out in the undersea world that are lost and never gotten.

quote:

Originally posted by Navywifeinparadise:
Emails will have to go through Squadron being read and then XO before being allowed. So it can be edited and can be shut down at anytime. She can email you but not get emails back. You can have at times where you go over 45, 60 and 90 days with little or no communications.

Basically, the only emails my wife would be sending me are updates about our son and maybe a couple pictures of him. So, I would be able to receive emails from her (as they are allowed) but I would not be able to send her emails back?

Thanks,
Josh

Don't count on outgoing emails while at sea. Any transmission increases the possibility of detection. Also, don't count on getting pictures through email. That would quite likely make the size of the email to big to fit in the limited transmissions that go out.

Pictures not allowed via email. Only through good old fashioned snail mail. For sending back to her emails yes it is possible usually but there can be times when you can't answer her. I would get answers back sometimes very quicky and other times hours or days. You would have a slight advantage as the YN though.

On DH's boats, one email per day only a certain number of words (some wife was writing 5 page emails 3 times a day somehow and they had to come up with a formal restriction)

No pictures in emails. Take those on an SD card and put them in your PDA (I was able to send him and SD card during a mail drop that occured during a patrol that covered both our daughter's birth and Christmas, New years, and t-day-they had to search the files on the card first, though). they only have a limited time to recieve email. If someone takes up the time with pictures, no one else gets email....plus they have to recieve actual NAVY messages in that time.

The radio ET's (formerly RM's) control email. Dont **** them off

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