Basic Submarine School, New London Sub Base, Groton, Connecticut
While at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Nuclear Power School I had occasion to visit some of the boats tied up there and walk through them, but this was the first opportunity I had to see boats active in the fleet. While I was still considered a boot to those in the fleet, I began to feel part of the fleet with my arrival at the sub base. I did learn one little quirk, though the base is located on the eastern shore of the Thames River in Groton, it is called Naval Submarine Base New London. Go figure...
Part of the training in Basic Sub School is being introduced to this monster. It is the sub escape training tower; a column of water over 200 feet tall with pressure chambers at different depths to vary the depth at which you enter it. The purpose is to train you in the proper procedure to use if your sub is crippled on the bottom, so you can "...blow and go..." to the surface. What they don't tell you (but some of us already were aware of) is that the only place where this technique would be usable would either be in port or some other shallow depth area. Where the boats normally operate the depth are such that if you do wind up on the bottom, it is too deep for such 'escapes' and the hull would have collapsed anyway. Meh.