DESTIN: (NARRATING)
This is the USS Toledo,
a U.S. Navy Los Angeles-class
fast-attack nuclear submarine.
We're about to get onboard.
[HELICOPTER FLYING]
Thank you.
My name is Destin.
Arnell. I'm the chief
of the boat.
You're the chief of the boat?
Nice to meet you, Arnell.
Absolutely, no problem.
All right.
Following you guys.
--have to use
this door over here.
[HELICOPTER IDLING]
Normally, you guys would've
come in through here,
but we're not high
enough in the ice
right now, so there's a little
water over our shipping hatch.
So we can't open
the normal hatch.
Great.
Sounds good.
There's a drop-off.
Look up.
-I'm Shane.
You want me to go first?
Sounds good.
Cool.
Here.
Make sure you take a
good step, a good grip.
Nice to meet you.
What's your name?
Caleb.
Nice to meet you, Caleb.
Your steps are
right there and then
the rungs are on the left side.
On the left side?
Do you see them?
Yeah. Got it.
When you do go down--
when you get down to the
second set, they rotate.
Yeah?
Just be careful about that.
OK, sounds good.
Can I take my gloves
off or leave them on?
You can leave them on.
All right.
MAN:
Hey, how's it going?
How's it going?
You got some bags for me?
The bags will be
coming after me.
DESTIN: (NARRATING) To
enter the submarine,
I had to climb down a ladder
from the top of the sail down
into the heart of the boat.
Now when I did this, remember,
I was going from a negative
30 degree environment.
So I kept having problems
with my camera fogging up.
All footage you're
about to see has
been cleared through U.S. Navy
OPSEC, or operational security.
That being said,
the Navy has not
directed my speech or the
content of this video.
I am free to say
whatever I want.
[LOUD CLATTER]
I got it.
It was just a hammer.
[LAUGHTER]
How's it going, sir?
Good. How are you?
Doing well.
Welcome aboard.
Thank you, sir.
All right.
How's it going?
Good, good.
I'm Michael Mace.
I'm the supply officer.
I'm Destin Sandlin.
Nice to meet you.
Pleasure.
Camera's all fogged up.
Oh, yeah. That makes--
-What happened?
Oh, holy cow.
There's a bunch of you guys.
Oh, yeah. [LAUGHTER]
There's a ton of us.
What's going on, guys?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
-I'm Destin.
-Matt.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
How's it going?
-Destin?
-Yes, sir.
We're going to step out
of the way
so she can
come on down, please.
OK, which-- Which way
would you like me?
-We're going this way.
-Yes, sir.
Perfect, yep.
This is the Captain.
-Hey.
-How you doing?
Destin Sandlin.
Pleasure to meet you.
Thank you, sir.
Appreciate it.
Welcome.
So Chop's going to take care
of you for the next 24 hours.
-All right. So we're going
to come on down this way.
This is our executive
officer's state room.
He's asleep currently.
So we're just going to--
I'm going to have
the guys sneak in
and drop your bag
off on your rack.
You're going to be sleeping
on top bunk in here, OK?
We're going to go ahead
on down the stairs here.
DESTIN: (NARRATING)
Now's a good time
to point out that
every once in a while,
you'll hear a female voice.
That's Public Affairs Officer
Lieutenant Michelle Pelissero.
Her job is to make sure I don't
have any operational security
issues while I'm on the boat.
She's awesome.
When I first got on
board, the medical officer
handed me a dosimeter
so that they
could monitor the level of
ionizing radiation I would
be exposed to while on board.
Turns out, it's nothing.
He explained that I had
received more cosmic radiation
on my flight to the sub than I
would during my time onboard.
And then, Chop gave me a
tour, so I'd understand
where I was at on the boat.
All right, so this
is the crew's mess.
Food mess?
This is as real as
it gets right here.
This is as real as it gets?
What's up, guys?
How's it going?
You doing all right?
So this is just like
where people hang out?
-Can I go look at the--
-100%, sure.
-The map?
-Yes.
Hey, I'm Destin.
What's up?
Pleasure to meet you.
-What's up, man?
-[INTERPOSING VOICES]
I'm Destin.
How's it going, man?
-We're here?
-Yep.
How many levels are there?
So there are three levels.
There's three
levels on the ship.
Right above us there's going to
be Control and the Radio room.
This is the Crew's Mess.
We call it
middle level.
And the lower level is where
most of the engineering guys
work at, and the weapons
handling guys,
so the torpedo men.
DESTIN: Chop
explained that there
are three levels to the
submarine, one, two, three.
Right now we're in the
center of the boat,
and he explained that
about a third of the crew
sleeps at any given time.
And then he took me to get a
peek at what that looks like.
This is where the majority
of the enlisted crew sleeps.
So there's going to be people
sleeping in here right now.
But I just want to
show you, kind of,
how the guys live in here.
DESTIN: OK. Cool.
CHOP: You'll see there all
the rack curtains are shut,
all their uniforms
are hanging up.
Don't want to wear your uniform
when you're in the rack.
CHOP: Yep.
And they have three
high on each side,
going all the way down all
the way down to the room.
And then if we go in here,
there's going to be
a bathroom
that kind of splits forward
and aft crew's berthing
that all these guys share.
So you want to go
take a look at it?
-DESTIN: Yeah. No?
-All right.
Don't want
to wake 'em up?
You don't want
to go to that end.
[LAUGHING]
DESTIN: Chop continued
the tour by explaining
that for security and
safety, I would not
be allowed near
the reactor compartment
or the aft engine room.
After that, I was
trained on what
to do in the event of a fire,
which we'll talk about later.
And then it was time to dive.
Just tell me
when you're ready.
-Ready, sir.
- Ready?
Yeah, ready to dive.
-The ship is rigged for
dive, with the exception
of arctic full blow
and a sounding of 1490
fathoms beneath the ship.
Check with Charlie water depth.
I intend to stationary
dive the ship to 180 feet.
-All set,
submerge ship.
-Submerge ship, aye, sir.
Dive, stationary dive
the ship to 180 feet.
-Stationary dive the
ship to 180 feet.
Dive aye, [INAUDIBLE].
Stationary dive,
stationary dive.
[HORN SOUNDING]
DESTIN: (NARRATING) There was
a lot going on during the dive,
and we'll cover this
in a future video.
But I got to talk to the
captain a little bit.
He's been a submariner
for 20 years,
and he's got a degree in
physics and a master's degree
in engineering.
To be given the command of a
fast-attack nuclear submarine
is a responsibility reserved
for only the best
in the Navy's Submarine Force.
Now that we're underway,
it's time for us
to go down to the
wardroom, which
is where the officers
hang out, and speak
to the captain about the
challenges of being under ice.
We're on the USS Toledo.
This is Captain Castellano.
And thanks for having
me on board, sir.
Oh, Good morning.
-DESTIN: Yeah.
-Welcome.
DESTIN: I hear the--
I hear the ship creaking
right now, by the way.
Is that because--
Yeah. We're deeper.
We're coming up to a
little shallower depth.
So that's the hull,
actually expanding.
-Expanding and contracting?
-Yeah.
It's not a-- that's just not
a big deal for you anymore,
-is it? [LAUGHING]
-No.
The Navy allowed me
to come out for ICEX.
And it's amazing, but it's
very different than anything
-I've ever seen.
-Yeah.
We are under the
ice in the Arctic.
Yeah.
DESTIN: There's
something weird to that.
I mean, it's--
It's very weird.
It's very unique.
This is actually the first
time I've ever done this, also.
Very challenging environment,
very unique environment,
just to be underwater
with several feet
of solid, year-long
ice over your head.
It really changes
how you operate.
You don't have the option
to just come to the surface
or come to periscope
depth, as you normally
would if you had a fire
or some kind of casualty,
or needed to communicate.
That option's gone,
because you're covered
with ice for weeks at a time.
So that changes how
I think about things.
That changes how we
operate the ship.
And we practice a lot.
We prepare for any kind
of casualty that occurs.
But it does-- it is a very
challenging environment
in that respect.
It's also a challenging
environment--
the reason we're up at
ICEX in the first place
is to learn how to operate
in this environment,
to learn how our sonar system
is going to operate differently
because of the challenging and
quickly changing sound speed
profile of the water.
When you're up under the
ice, even the salinity--
stuff we usually
don't think about--
DESTIN: Like the
salt in the water?
CAPTAIN CASTELLANO: The
salt content of the water--
that's something that's usually
pretty normal, pretty steady
across the ocean.
But up under the ice, because
of the fresh water at the top,
the salinity changes all
throughout the depth column.
So that's one thing we have to
learn how to operate and learn
how our weapons systems
work, learn how our sonar
systems work, learn how
it affects the ability
to ballast the ship
properly, to maintain depth.
Because that changing
salinity changes
the density of the
water, which affects
both how sound
propagates through water,
and it affects how the ship
can maintain the proper depth,
because that density
constantly changes.
It can change by 10,000
pounds in a second,
and you have to constantly
account for that.
OK. So the Toledo
is an attack submarine.
Mm-hm.
So I assume your
mission is to attack.
[LAUGHING] Sure.
We can attack.
DESTIN: So what are you doing?
Well, our missions
are highly classified,
so I can't go into detail
about what we specifically do.
But I can tell you
the missions that we
train to, of tracking
submarines, shooting
submarines, tracking
surface warships,
killing surface
warships, intelligence
gathering, tomahawk strikes,
special forces insertion.
Those are the things we
train to and are good at it.
The main point of
a submarine is,
you know, anything that
you don't want the enemy
to know you're doing, you
put a submarine there.
Because wherever we're at,
no one knows we're there.
And that's the main
power of a submarine is,
you don't know if there's
a submarine lurking
close by to take you out.
-So stealth.
-Stealth.
So that is what we do.
Typically on mission we
get, you know, tasking,
and it's very broad
in most cases.
And, hey, there's a couple
of discrete things, missions
we want you to accomplish.
But other than that,
we're not talking back--
we're not reaching back to home.
We don't-- once we go
on a mission status,
we don't communicate, because
that can give away that stealth
that I just talked about.
So we're pretty much
operating autonomously
when we're at our mission areas,
until the mission is complete.
DESTIN: You're
given those orders
at some point in the past.
You go under.
Once you're underway,
you have the orders,
but you have to make decisions
and you don't talk back.
No. And sometimes you would,
obviously if there's--
certain things happen.
And we can always
passively receive new stuff
from off-hull.
So we're constantly receiving
intelligence updates,
any kind of changes to
what the priorities are.
But no, like, one of the
great things about this job
is, they put a lot of
trust and confidence
in us to be able to
make those decisions on,
hey, I see A, B,
and C happening.
I think B is more important,
so I'm going to go do B.
DESTIN: So the whole
time I was onboard,
I accepted that I
was under ice, which
is kind of like swimming in
a pool with a pool cover on,
but I could never really
visualize it, because there
are no windows on a submarine.
It wasn't until I
got back topside
that I was given
footage that showed me
the reality of the situation.
This opportunity arose
as a result
of the Navy's ICEX exercise.
It's a joint military
and civilian exercise,
meant to demonstrate
Arctic region capabilities
and perform scientific research.
It is a part of a
multi-national coalition.
I'm on a Zoom call with
Lieutenant Bradley Howard .
Thank you for being with me.
-Thanks, Destin.
-DESTIN: OK.
So it's my understanding that
we missed each other
at Camp Seadragon by a day.
LT. HOWARD: Yep. You flew up
with my research advisor
Henrik and two of the students,
Oscar and Ree, in my lab.
And then I flew with
another student, Dan.
DESTIN: To be clear, the Navy
did not set up this interview.
Lieutenant Howard emailed me
after she saw the last video,
and we wanted to talk.
Yeah. I was not expecting
to be interviewed
when I emailed you though,
I'll say. [LAUGHING]
I was, like, just use
my drone footage.
It looks really cool.
So you're in the Navy.
You are active duty Navy.
You're not in a
uniform right now. Why?
So the Navy gave me a
really awesome opportunity,
after I was done with
my first sea tour
to go get a master's degree.
Right now I'm a grad student
at MIT in the MIT Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institute
Joint Program.
So I applied to MIT
and they accepted me.
And the Navy said,
"That's awesome.
Go be a civilian for two years."
I'm still on active duty, but I
don't wear a uniform to class.
And basically when
I'm done, having,
really this amazing opportunity
to get my master's degree,
I will go back to the
submarine, doing what
I love as a department head.
This isn't a
recruitment video,
but it sounds like you got
a pretty sweet gig going on
right now.
So everybody was speculating
on what Henrik was doing there.
And you're on that team.
And you were, like,
doing research with him.
Can you briefly explain
what was going on?
LT. HOWARD: Sure.
Basically what we
were doing up there
was demonstrating a concept
for under-ice navigation
that is almost as good as GPS.
DESTIN: Oh, I see.
Because if you go
under the ice,
you can no longer
see satellites.
LT. HOWARD: Right.
DESTIN: So you have to figure
out another way to figure out
where you are under the ice.
And that's why being in
a submarine under the ice
-is such a big deal.
-LT. HOWARD: It is, yeah.
Being underwater in
general is a big deal,
but especially under the ice
where you don't have the option
to come up, and correctly
understand where you are
with GPS is
especially important.
DESTIN: Had you not
sent me this footage,
I would not have known what
it looked like under the ice.
Because when I was
on the submarine,
I couldn't see anything.
So what am I looking at here?
LT. HOWARD: We brought
our AUV, autonomous undersea
vehicle, on the Macrura
with us from MIT.
Macrura is being
deployed from the hole
that we had at Camp Seadragon.
So it's slowly moving down.
We're pushing it down
with a weight right now.
But at a certain depth,
the mission kicks on
and the tail cone takes over
and it drives itself down
to go do its mission.
DESTIN: So you guys
are controlling it,
like a video game.
LT. HOWARD: No, actually
it's fully autonomous.
So we can talk to it
once it's deployed,
but it has a preloaded
mission plan that it executes.
And we can update
it, but it doesn't
need to talk to us all the
time to know what it's doing.
DESTIN: So it's time to
understand the command
structure on the boat.
Now I knew there were officers
and enlisted service members,
but I didn't really understand
the exact functions of each.
The enlisted personnel
have specialties
with specific job functions
like torpedoes or engineering.
The officers manage
these enlisted personnel,
and they plan missions and
provide and assign tasks.
There are three main positions
of leadership on the boat.
Of course the captain
sets the objectives,
and then you have two
people that carry them out.
You have the executive
officer, and you also
have the chief of the boat,
otherwise known as the COB.
The COB on the Toledo
is Arnell Brantley.
He's a master chief,
which is the highest
enlisted rank in the Navy.
I learned very quickly
that he knows everything
about the boat and everything
about the entire crew.
All throughout
this video series,
you'll see that he's an
extremely humble guy,
but what you don't realize
is that he commands respect
in every room he
walks into, both
from the enlisted personnel
and from the officers.
These are the chief's
quarters, where
the senior enlisted personnel
come to blow off steam.
Let's listen to Arnell talk
about his role on the boat.
So you are the bridge between
the officers and the enlisted.
I am.
So we have, basically on the
boat what we call the triad.
So there's the captain, the
XO, and then there's me.
So captain's on top.
And then and me
and XO on the side.
I'm like the enlisted
advisor on the,
I like to say, the
people problems.
I do people problems.
And anything's that's going
on, I take care of that.
The executive officer,
he takes care of,
like, all the training,
all the training,
getting people,
dealing with stuff.
And we basically--
we're the bridge
to get the information
to the captain,
to help him make an informed
decision on anything
that he wants to make,
so I'm just the in between.
I like to call myself
everybody's dad.
-Somewhere in there.
-DESTIN: Yeah.
But, I mean, that position
is really important,
because he understands
things at a very deep level.
Right?
Yeah, he's the most important
guy on the boat.
Yeah.
I've heard multiple people
say that,
that your senior
enlisted person--
These guys-- these guys--
and I always hang in here--
He does.
--a lot.
DESTIN: Is he allowed to?
He is.
He knows the handshake.
I am in here more than
I'm in the wardroom,
just because this is
where everything happens.
This is where all the
information comes.
These guys really run
the boat, completely.
So I typically hang out in here
a lot more than in most spaces,
just because--
DESTIN: Is that
normal for a captain?
So, it's not.
Like, it's a good thing to have.
It really is.
It's a good thing to have.
Like, the relationship
that we have right now
with him coming in, and
he learns a lot more,
and we can talk
to him a lot more.
So he gets to see a
lot more stuff there
that-- because there are some
commands that they do not
function like we function.
I think here we
probably have it,
one of the best overall
command-wise team
I've seen in a long time
and our interaction.
So it isn't normal, but it
is a good thing we have here.
DESTIN: Got it.
Because normally this-- you
know, we call it the club.
We're joking a little bit.
But normally the captain
has to be invited in here.
Is that correct?
Uh, I wouldn't say that--
I think most people
would probably
be uneasy to come in here.
Yeah.
But I'm not. It's like,
I get along with everyone.
-Yep.
-We're all pretty close.
DESTIN: Got it.
Who's best at Xbox?
[LAUGHING]
Yeah.
So what do you guys play?
Madden. I play Madden
and I play Madden.
DESTIN: Yeah.
[LAUGHING]
So it's time to meet the third
person in the command structure
triad, as the COB called it.
This is the executive
officer, or the XO.
So this is executive
officer Andrews.
You're basically the
teeth on the ship.
-That's a pretty
good way to put it.
I try to think of myself
a little nicer than that.
-But you're the
order on the ship.
Is that right?
-I think my personality
kind of has a place
to be in that sort of situation.
Somebody has to do
that drive in order
to make sure the day-to-day
stuff is happening.
And I'm the one who goes around,
making sure that that happens.
COB is dedicated to making
sure the enlisted guys are
taken care of.
I'm dedicated to making sure
the captain doesn't have
to worry about the
day-to-day, so that he
can focus on the big problems.
And so I'm the
one who hunts down
the guy who hasn't turned
in his stuff on time.
I'm the one who hunts
down the guy who
hasn't completed his program the
way it needs to be completed.
And that's just kind of the job.
DESTIN: Where are you from?
I'm from northern
Nevada, Gardnerville.
It's near Lake Tahoe.
DESTIN: Really.
Did you-- did
you want to do this?
Like, did you just
fall into this, or--
A little bit of
kind of fell into it.
But I loved when I visited
submarines as a midshipman,
because these are the most
amazing people to work with.
Everybody I work with is
incredibly smart, driven.
I can give a task to
just about anybody,
and they'll excel in what
it is that they're doing.
So I work with the best
group of guys in the world.
And I think that's what keeps
me coming back and wanting
to do more.
DESTIN: So the XO and the
COB make things happen.
Under the COB you have the
crew chief, and under the XO
you have the department heads
and the junior officers.
Here's one such junior
officer, explaining what
he likes to do on the boat.
I really like
driving the ship,
standing officer of the deck.
It's a huge responsibility,
and the captain just
put a lot of faith in
his junior officers
to carry out his intent.
And so, to feel trusted like
that always feels really nice.
DESTIN: I spent a lot of
time talking to people
and trying to build rapport.
And every once in a while
I flubbed it a little bit.
Good job.
I messed that up. I'm sorry.
[LAUGHING]
SENIOR CHIEF CARLTON: He was
going for the awkward turkey.
DESTIN: I was going--
what is the awkward turkey?
The awkward
turkey's when you--
DESTIN: Yeah. [LAUGHING]
So Senior Chief
Carlton right here,
the guy that taught me
about the awkward turkey,
he has a pretty interesting job.
This is Matt.
He's been helping me around
the ship, along with Chop.
But, uh, what do
you actually do?
So I'm in charge of the
division that operates
the nuclear reactor onboard.
-DESTIN: The nuclear reactor.
-Correct.
DESTIN:
You operate the reactor?
I used to, but now I
train people how to do it.
DESTIN: So how exactly
does that work?
I could tell you, but I'd--
I'd have to stow you away.
[LAUGHING]
DESTIN: OK.
So we're not allowed
to talk about that.
But that's a pretty big deal.
That's cool.
If you go to the Navy, you
learn how to operate a reactor.
Pretty special.
One thing that was
really surprising to me,
as a civilian, when
I get on the sub
is that I saw people learning
and teaching everywhere I went.
It was a very
cerebral environment.
Doesn't matter your rank,
does matter your position.
They're always
learning and teaching.
And for every submariner,
this path of learning
starts with what's called
getting your dolphins.
Dolphins is a big
qualification on board.
Enlisted officer-- everyone
has to earn their dolphins
when they're first here;
that's the first priority.
And like I said,
when you have it,
that signifies that you know how
to save the ship in a casualty.
So they have to
know every system.
So if you ask any guy onboard
that has dolphins, like, hey,
what's that?
Hey, what's that?
They should know.
-DESTIN: Really.
-Which is very unique to this.
Does everybody
have a dolphin here?
Oh yeah.
CAPTAIN CASTELLANO: These guys--
these guys are the senior guys.
They run the ship.
Yeah, I mean, clearly
everybody in the club
has dolphins.
But like, is it like your first
tour or whatever you call it--
what do you call it?
The first time you go
out, what do you call it?
-Tour-- your first tour.
-First sea tour.
CAPTAIN CASTELLANO: They're
typically all second or third.
OK. So on your first sea tour,
how long
does it take people, normally
to get their dolphin?
-You're required to
get it in 12 months.
Most people are six to eight
months, officers a year.
DESTIN: Is it more
difficult for officers?
CAPTAIN CASTELLANO:
It's different.
It's different.
So for an officer,
it's a year onboard.
But by that time they've already
done 12 months of nuclear power
school, three months
of submarine school,
and they show up--
they've got to qualify
for different things
than the enlisted side.
So it takes a little bit longer.
So they got to
qualify all the way up
to officer of the deck to
drive the ship before they
can get their dolphin.
-So everyone I saw up
in the control room,
are they all officers?
-Nope.
DESTIN: So what's the
ratio on the boat?
CAPTAIN CASTELLANO: 140 total,
and there's about 13 officers.
DESTIN: 13 officers?
Thirteen officers, 140,
and how many chiefs?
-Thirteen chiefs right now.
Normally we have 15 chiefs,
and the rest are unlisted.
-OK.
Going around the room here,
I'm seeing a lot of fish
on name tag.
PJ, I notice that you
don't have a fish.
-What's up?
-I don't.
So I got onboard last June.
Typically for officers it takes
about a year to get our fish.
So right now I'm back
aft, engineering--
qualified all engineering.
And I'm working on
my core systems now.
So typically, eight hours back
aft, come up, eat real quick,
and then get right
back on the books.
-DESTIN: Really?
-Mm-hm.
DESTIN: So you're studying
to do all this stuff?
Yes. Definitely.
Yeah, so, working with,
like, uh, Ben over here,
to kind of learn how all
the different systems work.
DESTIN: So there's a pass-down
of knowledge that happens?
-Oh, absolutely, yeah.
-Absolutely.
And I only just finished
qualifying about a month ago.
So I'm still pretty fresh.
I know exactly kind of what
he's going through right now.
-Yeah. And we got all
of these guys too.
So, like, the other
day I was with Diaz,
going over torpedo tubes.
-If I'm understanding
correctly,
you as an officer, to some
level, you kind of, like,
submit yourself to
the enlisted guys.
And you kind of take
that responsibility on
to teach them.
-Yes. Yes, sir.
And so it's both in our
best interest, right,
and also it goes
along with making sure
that they know what
they're talking about.
Just like-- even if
it's not an officer,
if it's an enlisted
guy, eventually
that one person is going to
be relieving us of our duties,
right.
People rotate on
and off the ship.
So we have to teach
the junior guys to be
able to operate at our levels.
So it's always our job to
train the guys below us.
And same thing
with the officers.
DESTIN: Do you think it's more
difficult to be a submariner?
-Yes.
-Absolutely.
DESTIN: Yeah?
There's no person
to relieve us.
It's just us.
-DESTIN: Really?
-True.
And I've been
on a surface ship.
So this is completely different,
and it's a little harder.
Different-- everything
is different.
So we're under the water.
We're on a ship that
sinks on purpose.
DESTIN: Yeah.
So it's definitely different.
DESTIN: So if it's harder,
then why are you doing it?
Somebody has to do it.
-DESTIN: Yeah.
-Yeah.
I mean, it takes--
I would say it takes a
special breed of people
to do what we do.
I did recruiting
for three years,
and the first thing people say
when they walked in the office,
they said, "I don't want
to go on a submarine."
That was one of the first words
that come out of their mouths
when I was recruiting.
So it's very hard to find
people who's willing to do this.
But there is some of us.
Obviously everybody onboard
here and every submarine
in the fleet are
willing to do it.
I don't know why.
We just wanted to, I guess.
DESTIN: Yeah?
Wanted to give it a shot and
then end enjoying it, I guess.
DESTIN: Is it more
of a challenge?
-Definitely.
-At the beginning.
Over time you start to see--
you start to see
the effects of it,
and the actual benefits of it.
It's worth it.
DESTIN: The thing that
was most impressive to me
about every submariner I saw
was that they valued knowledge
and they value
understanding, and they
worked very hard to obtain it.
And I think the reason they
do that is they all seem
to genuinely love their jobs.
And when you love your job,
you do it with excellence.
I'm having a blast.
This is, uh-- to me this
is the pinnacle of my life.
This is where I always
wanted to get to,
command of a fast attack
submarine, operational.
Just having fun, living life,
doing cool things like ICEX.
I just-- I love it.
DESTIN: I had a question
while I was onboard,
and it was kind of like
the elephant in the room,
but I didn't know how to ask it.
So in order to
answer this question,
I think Lieutenant Howard
is probably best suited
to educate me on this topic.
-You're a submariner.
-Right.
-Do you have your dolphins?
-I do.
I earned my Submarine
Warfare Qualification
in December of 2017.
One question about that.
When I got on the USS Toledo--
I don't know how to ask
this in a correct way,
so I'm just going to go
straight through the front door.
It was all men on the boat.
And you're a female.
So, and you're a submariner.
What's going on?
Why were there all
men on the USS Toledo?
And, I just don't understand.
So in the Submarine
Force, women
have only been integrated
for the last ten years or so.
And we have a lot of
submarines in our fleet.
So when the Navy
decided to begin
the process of
integrating women,
they chose to do it on
the largest platform
that we have first, the
Ohio class, because it's
just easier to set up
areas for men and women
to go-- things like sleep
and go to the bathroom.
It was just easier to
integrate those first.
And then slowly over time,
we've been bringing women
onto other classes
of submarines, too,
specifically the Virginia class.
And now we have women
on multiple crews,
multiple platforms, both
officer and enlisted.
So my understanding is,
they're having to modify
the existing
designs for submarines
for these different
facilities for men and women.
Is that what you're doing?
Right. And really
it's a very small change.
Really, recruitment over time
has just been building up.
You don't suddenly
recruit, you know,
several hundred
submariners overnight.
It's like a long,
gradual process.
Notably, the newest class
of submarine that we have,
the block-four version of
the Virginia class, those
are going to be gender neutral.
Thank you for setting
me straight on all that.
Now that we have a better
understanding of the command
structure on a
nuclear submarine,
I hope you're looking forward
to the upcoming topics.
This is the first video
in the Smarter Every Day
Deep Dive into Nuclear
Submarines and How They Work.
So I hope you would
consider subscribing,
because we're going
to go through a ton
of different stuff that
happens on the boat.
Like, how do you make
oxygen, torpedoes?
How do you cook?
What's up with sonar?
Like, there's so many
things we're going to learn,
it's amazing.
So please consider subscribing.
Maybe even ring the
bell so that you
can be notified when I upload.
It's awesome.
I would now like to tell you
about a very specific audiobook
I think you'll love,
that also turns out
to be extremely important to
the culture of submariners.
This episode of Smarter Every
Day is sponsored by Audible.
I brought you down to
show you this field,
because I bush-hogged it
while I was in a submarine.
At least that's
what it felt like.
Because I was listening to
Thunder Below! by Admiral
Eugene B. Fluckey.
This guy changed submarine
warfare to the point
that when they have a promotion
ceremony on most submarines,
they read passages
from this book.
It's like a holy text.
And every submariner
has heard of Fluckey.
So if you want to
listen to this,
go to Audible.com/smarter,
or text the word "smarter"
to 500-500 and a little link
will pop up on your phone.
During World War II,
there was this guy
named Admiral Eugene B. Fluckey.
He later got the
Congressional Medal of Honor
for what he did
on the USS Barb.
The Barb sunk the most tonnage
of any submarine
on the U.S. side
in the entire war.
And the techniques and
tactics that he used
were, like, crazy at the time.
He did insane stuff.
He put rockets on top
of his submarine, which
had never been done before.
It was incredible.
Like, this-- this
submarine sunk a train.
Think about that.
If you don't know what
splicing the main brace is,
you will after listening
to this audiobook.
It's incredible.
When you sign up as
an Audible member,
you also gain access to
all the different Audible
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unique pieces of content
made specifically
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Tons of stuff to
choose from here,
and you can have your
pick of all of it.
Go check it out,
audible.com/smarter.
Text the word "smarter"
to 500-500 to get a link.
It's a great deal.
You will get smarter.
You will reclaim your time.
Audible.com/smarter.
Real quick on the way
out the door here,
I want to show
you these flowers.
These are orange flowers
out in this field.
And my dad and I do not
bush-hog these flowers
because butterflies love them.
And we want butterflies
to be happy.
So I don't know
what kind they are,
but they're really,
really pretty.
It's a very vibrant orange.
Anyway, I'm so glad
you're here,
and I hope you subscribe
and stick around
for the rest of the Deep Dive
on Nuclear Subs,
here on Smarter Every Day.
I'm pumped.
Anyway, thank you.
I'm Destin.
You're getting
smarter every day.
Have a good one. Bye.
