The Control Room on a submarine. Is there an abbreviation that's used in its place? I've seen CAC for command and control, but I don't know if it's pronounced KAK, SAK, etc. Any pointers would be great.
It's actually called "The Control Room" and is usually simply called "The Conn". Bonus trivia: The main control room for the engineering section is called "manuevering".
Nope, doesn't. To have "the conn" means you have the post of directing ships movement while underway, or to actually do so.
On the bridge of a navy ship (or in the control room on a sub), when an officer assumes the conn, he/she says: "This is Lieutenant so and so, I have the conn." This person becomes the ONLY one the helmsman and lee helmsman will accept maneuvering orders from. Even if the captain wants to take the conn in an emergency, it still has to be announced. The captain will say: "Captain has the conn" before issuing any maneuvering orders, and the conning officer is, at that point, relieved of responsibility for 'driving' the ship until the captain verbally gives the conn back. It's important, especially in an emergency or in combat, that one person and one person only be giving maneuvering orders. The captain or OOD can give maneuvering orders without taking the conn, but the orders are given to the conning officer who then repeats them to the helmsman or lee helmsman. Even if they are all standing right next to each other, the order will be repeated by the conning officer and not acted upon until the conning officer gives it. Meaning the helmsman won't be turning the wheel when the OOD gives the order- he has to wait until the conning officer repeats it. Usually the JOOD will have the conn. Sounds goofy, but there is good reason for it. The helmsman can't be expected to know what to do if three different people are hollaring maneuvering orders at him in an emergency. By law and regulation, he only accepts orders from the conning officer and therefore there is no ambiguity, legal or otherwise, when the shit hits the fan and the investigation happens after a ship collides with another or runs aground, or whatever.
Of course, if whoever is at the conn runs the ship aground or into a pier, other ship, or whatever, the CO is still responsible and will likely lose his command. During my time on USS Nassau, the closest we came to running aground was an incident where the fireman of the watch misaligned several discharge control valves and nearly sank us at the pier in Norfolk.
I was the DC investigator that night. That pump room was flooded to the ceiling. Fortunately, we caught it before we bottomed.
Tough for a topsider, perhaps. To a nuke, it's just another qual card to get filled out, and just another oral board to pass. Very routine indeed.
That's the Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist pin. It's something akin to the Combat Infantry Badge in that it shows that you've been through all the qualification stations necessary to get the pin... which basically means you can cover most of the critical stations aboard ship in a fight. The vast majority of enlisteds who retire from the surface fleet have one.
It used to be optional but recommended. Nowadays it's required for all E-5's to qualify ESWS within 18 months of reporting to a ship. It's also an un-waivable requirement for E-6 in most ratings.
ehhh somebody said something about commander and at the time I thought that was what that was for He saw combat in two wars and retired as a commander. Or at least combat from a ship.
I'll be honest, I never got mine at all. While I was in, the nuke world greatly discouraged getting the ESWS pin. As our Reactor Officer put it, we nukes "had better things to do than piss around with idiotic topsider quals". This is in stark contrast to submariners, who were quite proud of their (mandatory) "dolphin" pin. By the time I was short (< six months left) it was starting to become emphasized, and then mandatory. But since I was so short, and I KNEW I was not going to re-up, I didn't bother getting it. Several of my shipmates who were gonna be around for awhile got it, and they all pretty much finished their ESWS quals in 3 to 4 weeks.
Yeah, if you were working on your "Cutlasses" you were tagged as a "lifer, digit" One of the many ways I've found to "troll" bubbleheads in real life is to point out that cutlasses are much harder to get than dolphins, especially when you factor in all the prerequisite quals. I love trolling the bubbleheads...they get fed that "silent service" best of the best crap so long they start to believe it. Also, if a skimmer ever talks to one...they will almost without fail make a "submarines and targets" joke, like they made it up. Can you tell I don't like them? Another I like to remind them of... "Hey, you know all that really cool cold war and spying shit you guys are so proud of... YOU DIDN'T DO ANY OF IT!"
