Frank Browne
Final Approach
Wednesday afternoon we all received emails from our HR manager that the USS Jacksonville was pulling into Mayport on Friday for a weekend port call and that tours would be available all day on Saturday. So I replied that I would love the chance to tour the boat. My name along with my son's was added to the list of names to be forwarded to the base. The USS Jacksonville is 688 (Los Angeles) class nuclear powered fast attack submarine. Since I had never been aboard a submarine, I thought it would be fantastic to see the inside of one! I was quite excited about it! But, Wednesday night my boss called to tell me he needed me to work Saturday. 
Bummer. But as it turned out, I was able to get out early enough so that there would no problem picking up my son and getting to the base in time to catch a tour.
So we get to the base and check in at the pass and ID building just outside of the main gate. Pretty easy. They checked our names against their list and we were given a pass and unclear directions to the pier where she was tied up. I can tell you that it's not easy spotting a submarine tied up amongst destroyers and frigates. We ended up driving past the J'ville and all the way around the basin to where the JFK was being stripped. At the end of the road, a very nice (but very intense) Marine guard turned us around after letting us pull up to the JFK for a closer look before she is sent of to be scraped. A sad sight I must say. She had been striped of all her deck gear and was looking quite abandoned. The antenna array atop the island was still in place though.
Anyhow, we made our way back around the basin to where the J'ville was berthed and finally managed to spot her sitting low in the water between two destroyers. We found a place to park and walked to the gate leading out to the pier. We were greeted by a sentry who called a van over to give us lift down the pier to the J'ville. Very thankfully it was an air conditioned van because it was pretty darn hot yesterday!
I was quite surprised because there was only another couple (Navy) with their two small children waiting for a tour and chatting with the two heavily armed sentries. We waited as another fairly small group (coworkers of mine) was finishing up their tour and about to get off. We were greeted by a very nice young enlisted man who going to our guide for the tour. We boarded the boat and the tour began topside just forward of the sail. Our guide was very thorough in explaining what everything was and what it did. He told us about the "shark fin" active sonar array that protruded from the deck just aft of the bow. He also explained that the sonar dome on the bow was filled with fresh water rather than sea water. (I didn't know that.)
After the topside portion of the tour, it was time to go below. Oh boy, here it comes. It was immediately clear that submarines weren't designed for ummm...middle aged guys like me! No problem though, just a fairly tight fit going down a vertical ladder into the very narrow main passage way just forward of the control room. We were then led into the control room where there was some work being done at the helmsman's station. My first impression was that much of the gear in the control room appeared relatively antiquated. It was nothing like what I'd seen in Crimson Tide or The Hunt for Red October where everything seemed all shiny and polished. I was also surprised to learn that there were two periscopes. One for navigation and other general uses, and the other for targeting weapons. We were allowed to look through both, and it was just as you've seen in the movies. The left twist grip adjusts the periscope up and down and the right twist grip changes the magnification. And just as as you've seen in the movies, there are the crosshairs with the little tic marks on them. Just forward of the periscopes were the helmsman's stations. Two of them. One guy operate the dive planes, and the other the rudders. These guys are definitely flying IFR too! Next to them was the...for lack of a better term...the "flight engineer's" station. He basically oversees all the ships systems. At the aft end of the control room was a quite large Sperry GPS unit the handles the navigation duties while the boat is running on the surface. While submerged it's inertial navigation.
After the control room it was forward into the sonar room. Here, it was more as you've seen it in the movies. Very modern looking, and colorful displays. And though none of these stations were manned, all the displays were up and running. Our guide pointed out the fish in the basin that were showing up on the "waterfall" displays. Awesome!
Then it was aft back through the control room and down another nearly vertical ladder into some living and engineering spaces. It quickly became evident that submarine crews have to get along well with their shipmates! Extremely cramped living and working areas! Tucked in the middle of this area was the crew mess. There were six of eight guys having dinner. The food looked and smelled quite good. A small salad bar with a variety desserts on top. Here I learned of the custom of removing your hat as you pass through the mess area. Aboard a combat vessel, the mess area is turned into an aid station/operating room when needed, and as a show of respect hats are removed when entering or passing through the mess area. Also interesting, was how they deal with trash. A hydraulic compacter compresses it with 4,500 pounds of pressure into a can about the size of a large coffee can that weighs 70 pounds! That is put in a "launch tube" and shot out through the bottom of the hull and sinks right to the bottom of the ocean!
Down yet another ladder to the third deck. We were now well below the waterline. More living and engineering spaces. We learned that there are actually three different propulsion systems. Should the reactor go down for any reason, there is a very large diesel engine that can drive the boat. And just below the third deck (which was as far as we were taken) is an array of 132 batteries that can drive the boat for about 8 hours at about 3 knots. At just about the lowest, aft portion of the boat we were taken to, our guide opened a hatch in the floor to reveal the very bowels of the ship. Lot's of gearing, machinery, and what appeared to be the shaft that connected the electric/diesel engines to the main drive shaft. The bottom of this rather dark and foreboding space was awash with oil, water and just about every kind of nastiness that manages to seep down there!
Back up to the the middle deck, and forward to the torpedo room. This was the most spacious area in the whole boat...sort of. The area appeared spacious only. It was a large area obviously. Those torps are big! But the actual movement area was just as cramped as everywhere else. In the middle of the torpedo room was what appeared to be the stored torpedos in extremely heavy duty steel crates with a tarp the draped from the sides. In actuality, this steel framework was for moving the torpedos into their stowage areas along the outside of the space. But inside of this very heavy steel framework was....berthing! Our guide told us that the most junior crew members get to sleep here. I believed that! There were 6-8 torps stowed along each side of the space. The upper inside one on each side was a dummy torpedo used for practice. All the others were live torpedos! Here our guide demonstrated donning the firefighting equipment. All crewmen aboard a submarine are firefighters! Everywhere you turned was firefighting equipment and flashlights. Flashlights everywhere! Large ones, small ones, you name it, they were everywhere.
Back up to the first deck, and up the vertical ladder and out into the heat and sunshine. Boy, that nuclear powered air conditioning was nice on a hot summer afternoon!
A word now about our tour guide. A young enlisted man in his early twenties. Friendly, witty, and extremely dedicated to his job! I was very impressed with this young man. Clearly a valuable asset to his shipmates and to our country! We are lucky to have young men like him willing to do what they do under difficult conditions in defense of our country!
Sorry for the long post. It's just that we had a fantastic tour through one of the most fantastic warships I've been aboard. I've toured aircraft carriers and frigates before, but they were nothing like a nuclear powered fast attack submarine. The other ships I've been aboard were cramped, even the carriers, but this one? Good grief, it gave tight a whole new meaning!
Bummer. But as it turned out, I was able to get out early enough so that there would no problem picking up my son and getting to the base in time to catch a tour.So we get to the base and check in at the pass and ID building just outside of the main gate. Pretty easy. They checked our names against their list and we were given a pass and unclear directions to the pier where she was tied up. I can tell you that it's not easy spotting a submarine tied up amongst destroyers and frigates. We ended up driving past the J'ville and all the way around the basin to where the JFK was being stripped. At the end of the road, a very nice (but very intense) Marine guard turned us around after letting us pull up to the JFK for a closer look before she is sent of to be scraped. A sad sight I must say. She had been striped of all her deck gear and was looking quite abandoned. The antenna array atop the island was still in place though.
Anyhow, we made our way back around the basin to where the J'ville was berthed and finally managed to spot her sitting low in the water between two destroyers. We found a place to park and walked to the gate leading out to the pier. We were greeted by a sentry who called a van over to give us lift down the pier to the J'ville. Very thankfully it was an air conditioned van because it was pretty darn hot yesterday!
I was quite surprised because there was only another couple (Navy) with their two small children waiting for a tour and chatting with the two heavily armed sentries. We waited as another fairly small group (coworkers of mine) was finishing up their tour and about to get off. We were greeted by a very nice young enlisted man who going to our guide for the tour. We boarded the boat and the tour began topside just forward of the sail. Our guide was very thorough in explaining what everything was and what it did. He told us about the "shark fin" active sonar array that protruded from the deck just aft of the bow. He also explained that the sonar dome on the bow was filled with fresh water rather than sea water. (I didn't know that.)
After the topside portion of the tour, it was time to go below. Oh boy, here it comes. It was immediately clear that submarines weren't designed for ummm...middle aged guys like me! No problem though, just a fairly tight fit going down a vertical ladder into the very narrow main passage way just forward of the control room. We were then led into the control room where there was some work being done at the helmsman's station. My first impression was that much of the gear in the control room appeared relatively antiquated. It was nothing like what I'd seen in Crimson Tide or The Hunt for Red October where everything seemed all shiny and polished. I was also surprised to learn that there were two periscopes. One for navigation and other general uses, and the other for targeting weapons. We were allowed to look through both, and it was just as you've seen in the movies. The left twist grip adjusts the periscope up and down and the right twist grip changes the magnification. And just as as you've seen in the movies, there are the crosshairs with the little tic marks on them. Just forward of the periscopes were the helmsman's stations. Two of them. One guy operate the dive planes, and the other the rudders. These guys are definitely flying IFR too! Next to them was the...for lack of a better term...the "flight engineer's" station. He basically oversees all the ships systems. At the aft end of the control room was a quite large Sperry GPS unit the handles the navigation duties while the boat is running on the surface. While submerged it's inertial navigation.
After the control room it was forward into the sonar room. Here, it was more as you've seen it in the movies. Very modern looking, and colorful displays. And though none of these stations were manned, all the displays were up and running. Our guide pointed out the fish in the basin that were showing up on the "waterfall" displays. Awesome!
Then it was aft back through the control room and down another nearly vertical ladder into some living and engineering spaces. It quickly became evident that submarine crews have to get along well with their shipmates! Extremely cramped living and working areas! Tucked in the middle of this area was the crew mess. There were six of eight guys having dinner. The food looked and smelled quite good. A small salad bar with a variety desserts on top. Here I learned of the custom of removing your hat as you pass through the mess area. Aboard a combat vessel, the mess area is turned into an aid station/operating room when needed, and as a show of respect hats are removed when entering or passing through the mess area. Also interesting, was how they deal with trash. A hydraulic compacter compresses it with 4,500 pounds of pressure into a can about the size of a large coffee can that weighs 70 pounds! That is put in a "launch tube" and shot out through the bottom of the hull and sinks right to the bottom of the ocean!
Down yet another ladder to the third deck. We were now well below the waterline. More living and engineering spaces. We learned that there are actually three different propulsion systems. Should the reactor go down for any reason, there is a very large diesel engine that can drive the boat. And just below the third deck (which was as far as we were taken) is an array of 132 batteries that can drive the boat for about 8 hours at about 3 knots. At just about the lowest, aft portion of the boat we were taken to, our guide opened a hatch in the floor to reveal the very bowels of the ship. Lot's of gearing, machinery, and what appeared to be the shaft that connected the electric/diesel engines to the main drive shaft. The bottom of this rather dark and foreboding space was awash with oil, water and just about every kind of nastiness that manages to seep down there!
Back up to the the middle deck, and forward to the torpedo room. This was the most spacious area in the whole boat...sort of. The area appeared spacious only. It was a large area obviously. Those torps are big! But the actual movement area was just as cramped as everywhere else. In the middle of the torpedo room was what appeared to be the stored torpedos in extremely heavy duty steel crates with a tarp the draped from the sides. In actuality, this steel framework was for moving the torpedos into their stowage areas along the outside of the space. But inside of this very heavy steel framework was....berthing! Our guide told us that the most junior crew members get to sleep here. I believed that! There were 6-8 torps stowed along each side of the space. The upper inside one on each side was a dummy torpedo used for practice. All the others were live torpedos! Here our guide demonstrated donning the firefighting equipment. All crewmen aboard a submarine are firefighters! Everywhere you turned was firefighting equipment and flashlights. Flashlights everywhere! Large ones, small ones, you name it, they were everywhere.
Back up to the first deck, and up the vertical ladder and out into the heat and sunshine. Boy, that nuclear powered air conditioning was nice on a hot summer afternoon!
A word now about our tour guide. A young enlisted man in his early twenties. Friendly, witty, and extremely dedicated to his job! I was very impressed with this young man. Clearly a valuable asset to his shipmates and to our country! We are lucky to have young men like him willing to do what they do under difficult conditions in defense of our country!
Sorry for the long post. It's just that we had a fantastic tour through one of the most fantastic warships I've been aboard. I've toured aircraft carriers and frigates before, but they were nothing like a nuclear powered fast attack submarine. The other ships I've been aboard were cramped, even the carriers, but this one? Good grief, it gave tight a whole new meaning!
