Crews Aboard US Subs in WW2

The typical complement of boats like the Pampanito during the war was 80 men. This includes all of the submarines we built from 1940 and forward. During the last year or so of the war, that number gradually increased to 85.

The fleet boats from the 1930s had slightly fewer than 80 crewmen on board. The earlier S-boats had far fewer men on board. However, the S-boats were generally no longer in active combat by the middle of the war.

Actually, they probably had been. These submarines were originally expected have 70 men on board to operate the equipment available when they were designed. However, new equipment – often electronics - was added even before the war. Then we realized that we would require more than 70 men in a crew. Soon after the war started, a crew of 80 men became the standard.

Although the number of men in the crew had increased, the basic design of the boats didn’t change. At that point, there was simply no place to put additional bunks. It was the equipment added later, and the men needed to operate it, that caused the shortage of bunks.

The best estimates are that it was due to the addition of the second 40 mm Bofors gun or possibly because of added electronics or other equipment. However, confirmation of these reasons is hard to find.

We expected to have to invade Japan in order to force a surrender. After what we saw in the Pacific island-hopping campaign, we couldn’t expect Japan to surrender without a desperate, even suicidal, fight. We knew that an invasion would be a very costly undertaking in both men and ships. We expected that the fleet would be harassed constantly by Kamikaze aircraft and suicide boats. Our submarines were likely to be assigned as pickets to warn and help defend the fleet. Therefore, a second 40 mm Bofors was added to many boats. The increased staffing may have been for that gun since five men were likely needed to load and operate it. Fortunately, Japan surrendered after the second atomic bomb was dropped and we no longer needed to invade.

Throughout the war, new equipment was added to the boats to make them more effective. That new gear often needed more operators and maintenance. That was particularly true of the new radars and sonars as well as navigation equipment such as the new LORAN.

The first thing to remember is that three full shifts were needed to operate the boat all day and night at sea.

On the surface at sea, there were a number of jobs to do and there would be one person awake in each compartment to monitor the space for problems or danger. For example, on the surface there would have been:

1. The officer of the deck with three or four lookouts on the bridge.
2. A helmsman and quartermaster (navigation) along with the sonar and radar operators in the conning tower.
3. The Chief of the Watch plus an IC electrician and a messenger in the control room.
4. A radar operator for the air search and IFF equipment.
5. A radioman on watch in the radio room.
6. Two electrician mates in maneuvering.
7. A motor machinist mate (engineman) and an oiler in each engine room.
8. Normally there would have been a cook in the crew’s mess. There would often have been a mess cook there too.
9. A steward mate in the forward battery.
10. A torpedoman on watch in each torpedo room.
11. There are other duties, such as an electrician monitoring the battery, particularly during a charge.
12. A gunner’s mate to maintain the guns

This was a total of about 24 per shift, and there were three shifts.

When submerged, the duties for some of these men would change. For example, the officer of the deck (OOD) would become the diving officer and there would be a new OOD in the conning tower. The oilers in the engine rooms would man the trim manifold and air manifold in the control room. The lookouts would man the bow and stern planes. In total they needed about the same number of men when submerged as on the surface.

They also needed to have additional personnel on board to allow for trainees, injuries and illness. Gun crews also needed to be staffed during battle stations. In addition to these functions, there were the captain, the executive officer, the yeoman and pharmacist mate who may not have been on the watch list. The yeoman and the pharmacist mate might have stood some watches as their primary duties permitted.

There was a height limit on these boats. During WW2, it was six feet, four inches or 1.93 meters. That meant two things. First, if you were six feet or taller, you probably weren’t able to stretch out on your bunk. You would sleep on your side curled up a bit. Second, it meant there were multiple obstructions available for you to locate with your head. In that case, some important medical advice applied: if it hurts when you do that, don’t do that. A tall crew member who has been on a submarine even for a short while may have appeared to pay no attention to those painful obstacles, but he had already located them all - and not all the hard way. Submariners tend to be reasonably bright.

Location memory helped. For example, in the dark in your home, you know where the furniture is and you avoid it. Unless, of course, someone has just added something or rearranged everything. At least the obstructions on a submarine didn’t get rearranged.

Weight was a different issue. There were weight limits, adjusted for height, to be met when joining the Navy. During WW2, there were no official weight limits for serving sailors after that. However, there might be informal pressure if you carried too many pounds. You might not want to struggle through the watertight doors if you were seriously overweight. There have also been reports that the stench on the boats tended to suppress appetites.

At some point after the war, the rules changed. You then had to under the weight limits each time you reenlisted.

Those were the maximums. The minimum height and weight limits for submarines were the same as those for everyone in the Navy when enlisting. There were no separate requirements for submarine service.

Not really. It might have been helpful to have some smaller sailors who could get into tight spaces to do some of the maintenance work. However, you needed some bigger men to push (technically to pull with pulleys and ropes) the 3,200-pound torpedoes into the tubes. You may also have needed someone to lift the heavy cylinder liners for the engines. The shells for the 5-inch gun weighed over 70 pounds. In short, you wanted a number of good-sized sailors in the crew to do some of the heavy lifting and pulling.

The result was that they would have had men of various sizes in the crew. It probably reflected the variety of the population in general, although with fewer basketball players.

Certainly, life on a diesel submarine can be primitive. The boats did stink, they were cramped, they didn’t ride well in heavy seas and you may not have been able to get a full shower during the entire patrol. You may not have seen the sky for weeks at a time. Even if you were a lookout, you still may not have seen the sun for weeks since the boats were often submerged during daylight while in the patrol area. Diesel boats can be pretty unpleasant.

Still, sub sailors did think it was good duty. There were many advantages in being aboard a submarine. Those advantages are different in peacetime than they were in WW2, but there were and still are many reasons to volunteer.

During WW2, the main advantages appear to have been:

1. Because of the Great Depression, a significant attraction was probably the extra submarine pay. That appears to be about 50% added to the base pay for sub sailors, at least for the junior ranks. This was very important to sailors when their families were still struggling financially. This extra pay would often be sent home and could be very helpful to their families.
2. Submarines were the only ships that could take the fight back to the Japanese early in the war. Even as the war progressed, it would take a while for the rest of the Navy to take the fight to Japanese waters. There was a real desire to avenge the attack on Pearl Harbor, and service on submarines was the quickest way to start getting even. Although there were the occasional attacks on the Japanese islands, such as the Doolittle/Halsey air raid on Tokyo, submarines were providing a more sustained fight.
3. This may seem a bit morbid, but some men thought that the worst thing that could happen to them would be to come home maimed. Submariners were less likely to be maimed, to lose an arm or a leg. The odds were greater that they wouldn’t come home at all, but they weren’t likely to come home maimed. For some sailors, that was preferable.

Some advantages still applied after the war:

1. The crews were better. There were normally more volunteers for submarines than there were billets (positions) available. Naturally, the submarine service took the best available. Currently, reports are that you have to be in the top 15 to 20% of the Navy to be considered for submarines. That is true even for non-nuclear positions such as storekeepers, yeomen (admin) and cooks.
2. Submariners were – and are – an elite group. It was a chance to be part of something special.
3. The work was more interesting. They often operated independently and without much direction from above or afar. Sailors on submarines couldn’t talk about much about where they or what they did. Even the old boats could be doing interesting work such as training with divers or just practicing intelligence gathering and photo reconnaissance.
4. You could learn something new nearly every day. Sailing a submarine in three dimensions was, and is, more complex, challenging and interesting.
5. Submarines were generally less formal than surface ships.
6. Submarine duty could be a faster route for promotions. For officers, it could be a faster route to commanding your own ship. (This was no true longer after the war particularly with the advent of nuclear power in. the 1950s.)

This varied for each individual. Having a greater impact than many others in the Navy, the continued learning, the responsibility, having higher quality shipmates, an atmosphere of less formality, doing much more interesting work, or professional satisfaction – what’s your personal preference? Better pay and better food helped morale but weren’t usually the primary motivators after we came out of the depression.

The main factor was that there wasn’t enough room for formality. On long patrols in the tropics, “uniforms” became much less uniform. In WW2 submarines, shaving generally wasn’t required. There were more informal conversations and banter. In quiet times, there would be verbal rehearsals for equipment failures or casualties. All of this was usually acceptable as long as everyone was also paying attention to their tasks and doing them well.

Another example was that “officers’ country” couldn’t be avoided as it could on a surface ship. There was only the one level that could be used to get through the boat. The crew had work to do or meals to eat that required passing through the officers’ and chiefs’ berthing in the forward battery.

However, being less formal did not mean that the officers or crew were disrespectful or less precise when doing their jobs.

During WW2, the worst thing was, obviously, being attacked by depth charges or bombs. It is impossible to truly explain what it was like to someone who didn’t experience it first-hand. Depth charging has been described as like being in a drum that is being hit by a large hammer. The difference was that your life was in immediate danger, and your job was to be still and be quiet. The crew could hear the attacking ship – even without the aid of sonar – and could often hear the depth charges as they hit the water. If the depth charges were close enough, they would hear the click of the detonators right before they exploded.

After that, the worst part could be the smell, the inability to shower often enough, close quarters, lack of exercise or lack of sunshine. It depended on what was most important to each individual.

There was a fair amount of variation here, but it appears that a man would typically be assigned to the same boat for about 15 to 18 months of combat. The Pampanito’s war patrols covered a period of 13 months and just 30 of her original crew made all six patrols. That would be consistent with about 15% of the crew rotating off after each patrol.

In peacetime, men and women are typically assigned to the same ship for two to three years. Again, there can be a fair amount of variation.

Not very often. The needs of the war came first. Sailors might have had a chance for leave and travel home when reassigned to another boat, particularly if it was to new construction. They would also get some leave during shipyard overhauls. During an overhaul, captains would try to give half the crew off at a time, usually starting with the married men whose wives were not nearby. Then the rest of the crew would get their chance to go home for a little while.

All of this was true of the rest of the Navy as well.

Normally, the first requirement was that you had to volunteer. You had to be different enough to want to be on a submarine. (We like to say that submariners’ brains are wired differently.) When someone offered you an opportunity to be stuffed into a 16-foot diameter pipe with 79 of your closest friends and then go down 400 feet or more below the surface of the ocean, that had to sound like a good idea. In fact, you usually had to ask to be a submariner.

A sailor applied for submarine duty by sending a request up through the chain of command. His superiors would add their comments and recommendations.

The next step was to be selected as a possible candidate. For most of the war, there were actually more volunteers than there were billets (positions or spaces) in submarines. As a result, the Submarine Force had their pick of candidates. This was one of the reasons that submarine crews tended to be better than the average in the rest of the Navy. Selection depended on your demonstrated skills and, perhaps, on your rating (specialty).

Finally, the selected candidates were screened for even temperaments. There would be psychological testing if the Navy hadn’t already had a lengthy opportunity to observe you. The Submarine Force was looking for men (and now women) who were even tempered, who would “take an even strain.” Which candidates would get along well with others and pitch in when there was extra work to do? You needed to be able to enjoy the banter and mild pranks of your shipmates while working hard as a team when needed. Who would be a strong part of the team when an emergency or crisis arose.

Someone who was in your face (either angry or happy) or too retiring would not qualify.

Officers who came through the Naval Academy or Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) programs were already well known to the Navy and are not normally screened again for sub duty. The same was likely true of enlisted sailors who had already served a few years in the Navy. Prior to WW2, an officer had to serve for two years on a surface ship before he could volunteer at all. That requirement ended with the war.

NOTE: Screening for nuclear power billets in submarines or carriers continues and is even more rigorous.

Traditionally, everyone aboard a U. S. submarine was a volunteer. That has almost always been the case. The exception was early in WW2 when the submarine force needed to expand quickly. Some sub sailors at that time didn’t remember when they volunteered. (We like to say that they didn’t back up quickly enough when volunteers were requested or that they were “voluntold.”)

However, if you didn’t want to be on a submarine, you didn’t have to. Sub crews didn’t really want someone aboard if he wasn’t comfortable there. Sailors can always request to “non-vol”, even if he volunteered in the first place. Being at sea in such close quarters and submerged for so much time can be very different from just a training dive or two. It might be much more uncomfortable than the sailor imagined. The Navy can always find another place for a quality, competent sailor to serve.

Prior to the war, the usual program for diesel submariners was three months of sub school in New London for enlisted crew and six months for officers. This was in addition to any training for the enlisted crew in their ratings (specialties.) Once he got to his submarine, the training began in earnest.

During WW2, the training in sub school was condensed and sometimes skipped completely. If a sailor went to sub school at all, it would be about half the normal time or about six weeks for enlisted men and three months for officers. For experienced sailors, sub school may be skipped altogether.

NOTE: The process for submarine school has changed, particularly for those who have been nuclear trained. They will likely be sent directly to their boats after nuclear power school but without sub school. That way the nuclear power training doesn’t erode before they can use it.

When the sailor got to his submarine, it was assumed that he actually knew very little. In fact, that was correct in that he had little or no practical experience. His first job would be to become a qualified watchstander so he could start to carry his share of the workload. The next thing would be to earn his dolphins, to qualify for duty in submarines.

Qualifying usually required at least six months for enlisted men and at least a year for officers. He had to demonstrate knowledge of all the basic systems on the boat. For an enlisted sailor, this would mean passing an oral exam while going through the boat with the Chief of the Boat (COB) and then with the commanding officer or executive officer. An officer would qualify on another, similar submarine. That process would include a similar exam plus rigging the boat for dive, diving the boat and conducting a practice attack.

The key thing about submarines was that everyone needed to be able to respond quickly to any emergency. There were no damage control parties on a boat. It was up to whoever was in the space to respond and resolve an emergency. In order to do that, everyone needed to know the systems in any space.

During the war, there are a few instances of sailors stressing out when under attack. However, they were surprisingly few considering the stress of being depth charged.

In a few cases, the sailor might start yelling or trying to open a hatch to get out. In these cases, he would be forcibly subdued and then sedated. He might have to be knocked unconscious to render him quiet. He would usually remain sedated until returning to port. In a few other cases, the sailors froze and became very withdrawn, almost catatonic. In those cases, they might simply be relieved of their duties and replaced.

Sub sailors almost never stressed out just by being submerged. There are very few, if any, cases like this in the literature. After all, he had volunteered to be under water. If someone thought there was a chance he might be claustrophobic, he wasn’t likely to volunteer for submarines in the first place.

That said, the policy was that a sailor could always “non-vol” and leave submarines. It would be reasonable to expect interviews to be sure that was really what he wanted to do. After all, the Navy has invested time and money in his submarine training.

Fear was a constant companion for submariners, especially during World War II. Crews lived and fought in a fragile steel tube, often hundreds of feet underwater, facing depth charges, flooding, mechanical failures, and long periods of uncertainty. The question was never whether fear existed, but how it was managed. Fear was managed through training, professionalism, discipline, and trust in shipmates and leaders. Humor and camaraderie also helped.

Training and professionalism were the first lines of defense. Submariners were rigorously trained to respond automatically to emergencies—fires, flooding, loss of power, or battle damage. They practiced drills every day. When something actually went wrong, there was no time to panic. Men fell back on practice from these drills, checklists, and muscle memory. Knowing exactly what to do reduced fear and replaced it with action.The story of the USS Puffer (SS-268) offered an example. When she was held down by enemy ships for nearly 38 hours, those who had something to do fared better. It was the sailors who wanted something to do who brought the boat home. (Refer to the category “Attacks and Battles, Small. And Large” for more about the Puffer.)

Routine and discipline also mattered. Life aboard a submarine followed a strict rhythm of watches, maintenance, meals, and sleep. Even during combat patrols, maintaining routine provided psychological stability and a sense of normalcy in an otherwise extreme environment.

Trust in shipmates was perhaps the most important factor. Submarines operated with small, tightly knit crews where every man depended on everyone else. Submariners learned quickly that their survival rested on the competence and reliability of their shipmates. This mutual trust helped keep fear in check—each person focused on doing his job well so others could do theirs. In any combat, and not just on submarines, you were fighting for your fellow sailors, marines or soldiers, not just yourself.

Leadership played a crucial role. Calm, confident officers and chiefs set the tone for the entire crew. A skipper who remained steady during depth charging reassured the men throughout the boat. In most cases, the crew was confident that the captain would get them out of the situation and home safely. Panic at the top would spread instantly; calm professionalism did the opposite.

Humor and camaraderie were common coping mechanisms. Gallows humor, pranks, nicknames, and storytelling helped release tension. Laughing together, even in dangerous circumstances, reminded the crew of their shared humanity and strengthened bonds.

Acceptance of risk was part of submarine culture. Many submariners understood that fear could not be eliminated, only controlled. As one veteran put it, fear was “always there—but you didn’t let it drive.” You acknowledged it, compartmentalized it, and kept going.

It might be that in WW2, the bravest step sailors on submarines and ammunition ships took was just showing up when their ship was leaving port.

In short, submariners dealt with fear through training, routine, trust, leadership, humor, and an unwavering focus on the job at hand. Fear was real—but professionalism was stronger.

No, there were no doctors assigned to our submarines in WW2. The “docs”, as they were always called, were medics. These medics, designated as pharmacist mates at the time, were specially trained and qualified for independent duty. They were very good. They understood the art of medicine as well as the science. They were very good at diagnosis and treatment.

Pampanito did have a doctor on board briefly. On her third war patrol, when she was enroute to Saipan with the rescued British and Australian soldiers, she was met by a destroyer. A doctor and another pharmacist mate were transferred to the boat from the destroyer to help with the sickest soldiers. Unfortunately, the doctor appears to have spent most of his time doing paperwork and complaining that Pampanito, then well into the patrol, didn’t have enough fresh citrus fruit on board to prevent scurvy. As if it were possible to still have fresh fruit.

There are still no doctors on our attack submarines. The large missile boats are the only U. S. subs with doctors on board at this time.

The main things that WW2 medics would treat would be minor injuries, a few broken bones, skin rashes, etc. A few needed to treat bullet wounds from surface attacks with guns; the enemy did tend to shoot back. There would probably be a few cases of STDs or STIs (called venereal disease back then) as well.

Colds and flu were relatively uncommon on submarines during WW2. Most sailors hadn’t had a chance to go home and be exposed to children who tend to spread such illnesses. If there was a cold or flu on board, it would probably spread rapidly because of the close living conditions and then die out.

Pharmacist mates did not expect to treat anything more unusual. As a result, they did not have the supplies to treat men with tropical diseases like those of the rescued POWs. Nor did they expect to do surgeries. However, in addition to the cuts, broken bones and routine illnesses, the medics did their best to handle whatever emergency issues came up.

For example, there were three known appendectomies done on boats so they could stay on patrol. The first one was done on the USS Seadragon (SS-194) in 1942. The patient was in great pain and the medic thought he could do the surgery. The patient gave his informed consent. The operation took two and a half hours and was done “by the book”; the medic was following the descriptions and diagrams in his medical books. The patient recovered fully. A few notes:

1. The surgery was done submerged, at 120 feet, to provide a steady platform.
2. It was done on the wardroom table with the Executive Officer as the chief assistant.
3. Ether was used as the anesthetic which can be dangerous in the closed spaces of a submerged submarine with no access to fresh air.
4. Some instruments had to be devised from wardroom silverware. For example, a tea strainer was used as a mask to administer the ether and bent spoons were retractors.

In late 1942, successful appendectomies were also performed on the USS Grayback (SS-208) and on the USS Silversides (SS-236). After that, the Navy issued orders that pharmacist mates were not to perform any further appendectomies. It might seem unlikely that there were no more cases of appendicitis on board submarines, but there do not appear to be any records of other surgeries.

There no women serving as crew on a submarine in WW2. There simply wasn’t any privacy. However, there were a few women as passengers when submarines extracted coast watchers and other key personnel from islands in the war zone. The same was likely true for other ships, not just submarines. However, hospital ships did have nurses aboard.

Although women have served in the Navy since 1917, when Loretta Walsh became the first women to enlist, they couldn’t serve on ships or in combat in WW2. Fully integrating women into the Navy took time with women unable to join the Naval Academy until 1976 and couldn’t serve in combat until 1994.This was true of all our military services.

There was no such place on an operating submarine. There was rarely a need for one and, if there were, it wouldn’t usually be for the crew. Offenses that were serious enough to warrant physical confinement rarely, if ever, happened on a submarine during WW2. Besides, how could you physically punish someone worse than putting him on a submarine in combat – where he already was?

However, there was an occasional need to confine someone. That would usually be Japanese POWs, although that didn’t happen very often. Japanese soldiers and sailors would usually swim away from a rescue. It was dishonorable to be captured. The few that were taken aboard, for intelligence purposes, would just be handcuffed to a bunk. Sometimes, the captured POW would want to contribute to the boat by helping with the cleaning. If the captain and crew believed that the POW was reliable enough, they could remove the handcuffs and let him help.

The assumption would be that if a crewmember needed to be confined, it would be easy enough to cuff him to a bunk for the rest of the patrol.

Officers were the managers on the submarine. They managed the departments for operations, maintenance and training. They also led the watch sections, directing the operation of the ship under the guidance of the commanding officer.

Yes and no. An ensign was an ensign, and a lieutenant was a lieutenant. However, some were regular officers and some were reserves.

Regular officers enter the Navy through the Naval Academy or through the scholarship program of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. (In spite of the name, the NROTC program graduated both regular and reserve officers.) Regular officers have a minimum service obligation but no definite end date. They serve at the pleasure of the president and request to resign.

Reserve officers enter the Navy through the non-scholarship part of the NROTC program or through various other reserve programs. They may also have come through the Officer Candidate School (OCS). Reserve officers have a contract of a determined length but can be released early. They may also apply to become regular officers.

A significant change during the war was the increase in the number of reserve officers. There were few of them in the Navy when hostilities broke out. At first, reserve officers were looked upon with some skepticism. However, they proved themselves to be capable officers and the submarine war would have been much less effective without them. 

It appears that nearly all submarine commanders were regular officers with most being Naval Academy graduates. It was late 1944 before the first reserve officer would command a submarine in WW2.

Usually not, other than specializing in submarines. They were generalists who rotated through various assignments on the boats. If they remained in submarines for a career, they would probably hold most of the officers’ shipboard positions at some point. However, there were some exceptions. There were Engineering Duty Only (EDO) officers who were sometimes assigned to ships and the boats. There were also, at times, warrant officers (WO) or limited duty officers (LDO) who were specialists, usually formerly enlisted, who were commissioned and part of the wardroom.

It should be noted that officers who are submarine qualified do have a special designation in their personnel records. This does not, however, limit their opportunities for assignments or command on other ships.

There would normally be eight to ten officers on a boat like the Pampanito.

The captain and the executive officer were designated and assigned by the Navy.

1. The captain or commanding officer (CO) was the most senior officer assigned to the boat. He was responsible for the entire ship and all of its actions.
2. The executive officer (XO) was second in line to command. He supported the captain during critical actions. He was usually responsible, subject to the captain’s approval, for personnel assignments and most other administrative matters. He would normally have been qualified for command and able to assume command in case the captain was disabled or died.

Most of the rest of the assignments would change at the discretion of the captain and XO. The most common roles, in general order of seniority, would have been:

1. The operations officer was responsible for navigation and preparing patrol and other operational plans. He may have also managed some of the other officers such as communications and electronics.
2. The engineer was responsible for propulsion, the battery and other mechanical equipment such as pumps and compressors. The engineer was often the battle stations diving officer.
3. The weapons officer was responsible for torpedoes, guns and related equipment.
4. The electronics officer would be responsible for radar, sonar and electronic counter measures (ECM) equipment.
5. The communications officer was responsible for the radio room, keeping the secret library current, drawing communications codes from base, issuing daily crypto codes and destroying them when no longer needed.
6. The supply officer was responsible for ordering needed equipment, supplies and spare parts. He also worked with the lead cook to develop menus and order the needed food.
7. The assistant engineer would support the engineer, usually by being responsible for the non-propulsion equipment such as the pumps and compressors.

These officers, with the likely exception of the CO and XO, would also be standing watches as the officer of the deck (OOD) or diving officer.

It could be both. The commanding officer of any ship, such as a submarine, was referred to as the captain regardless of his rank. Captain is also a naval rank just below admiral. Commanding officers of large ships may have been captain of that ship and also hold the rank of captain. In WW2, captains (commanding officers) of submarines almost never held the rank of captain. They were usually commanders or lieutenant commanders. However, they were always addressed as captain since they were the commanding officers.

Chiefs, as they are known and addressed, were the senior enlisted on the boat. They were specialists in their ratings and were experienced leaders. They were, and are, often referred to as the backbone of the Navy and were generally acknowledged to be the people who enable its functioning. There would be five or six chiefs assigned to the boat.

The chiefs’ quarters were in the forward battery compartment, across from the ship’s office. This space was referred to as the goat locker. (This naming was true of the entire Navy, not just submarines.) The space was so named because the chiefs were the “old goats” of the Navy. In WW2, they were as old as 28 or 30 years old.

In modern parlance, GOAT means the greatest of all time. Most chiefs recognize that would be a bit of an exaggeration when referring to the goat locker.

This was a senior enlisted man who had a special assignment on the boat. The COB was often, but not always, the most senior chief on board. The Chief of the Boat, or COB, was the go-between for the captain and XO and the enlisted crew. Although the COB was not an officer, he was treated as the third most senior person on board. The COB monitored morale and was a key part of training the crew in submarine qualifications. The COB defused situations before they required formal punishment and could impose modest, informal punishment to keep issues off the record. This position had a long history on submarines and, in the early 1970’s, was implemented throughout the military as command master chiefs or command master sergeants.

In WW2, the COB was appointed by the CO and XO. They would select the chief who had the best leadership qualities. Currently, assignment as a COB is a career track. The Navy offers specific training and qualifications. The COB is now appointed by the Navy, similar to the way the CO and XO are assigned. The COB is part of the command team and reaps the rewards for the success of the whole boat, as well as the discipline for significant failures.

These were the specialists who were assigned to submarines and were proficient in a certain area of expertise. Petty officers in increasing seniority were third class, second class and first class. As they rose in rank, they would have qualified as having increasing technical knowledge and leadership ability. That also meant they had positions of greater responsibility, such as eventually being responsible for a torpedo room or an engine room.

These are the typical ratings for these submarines in WW2. Since then, the names of some ratings have changed. For example, motor machinist mates became enginemen. Pharmacist mates became hospital corpsmen. Another rating, gunner’s mate, became no longer applicable to submarines when the guns were removed in the early ‘50s. However, missile techs have been added to submarines with Tomahawk or Polaris/Poseidon/Trident missiles.

1. Cook – prepared and cooked the meals. The overnight cook was the baker who made bread, rolls, cakes and pies. The senior cook works with the supply officer to plan meals and order the necessary foods.
2. Electrician mate – responsible for maintaining electrical circuits and motors and operating the cubicle in the maneuvering room. Also responsible for maintaining the battery cells, checking the specific gravity (estimating the power remaining) and adding pure water when needed.
3. Fireman – not yet a specialist, but a young sailor who was assigned to engineering and would eventually pursue a specific rating in that area.
4. Gunner’s mate – responsible for maintaining and operating the guns. Some of this work regarding the guns would also be done by the torpedomen.
5. IC electrician – responsible for interior communications equipment including signaling systems.
6. Machinist mate - responsible for mechanical systems other than the engines, such as the air conditioning, pumps, motors and mechanical systems other than the main engines.
7. Motor mac – a motor machinist mate, responsible for the operation, maintenance and repair of the four main engines and the smaller “donkey” diesel which was in the lower level of the after engine room.
8. Pharmacists mate – the “medic” who cared for his shipmates’ illnesses and injuries. These men were specially selected and trained for independent duty since there was no physician aboard the boats.
9. Quartermaster – responsible for navigation and signaling between ships. Since submarines were often operating independently, signaling wasn’t often required. Assisted the navigator and tracked the ship’s position between fixes.
10. Radioman – responsible for sending and receiving messages as well as maintaining and repairing the radio equipment. Routed messages to the captain and other officers as appropriate. Alerted the communications officer when highly classified messages needed additional decoding. Responsible for keeping the crypto codes secure while in use.
11. Seaman – similar to a fireman, not yet a specialist, but a young sailor who was assigned to an operations department and would eventually pursue a specific rating in that area.
12. Sonarman – responsible for operating, maintaining and repairing the sonar equipment. Listened for the sounds of other ships in the area and alerted the officer of the deck (OOD) to any unusual or unexpected sounds.
13. Stewards mate – supported the officers; staffed the serving galley; provided the captain with coffee; etc.
14. Storekeeper – worked with the supply officer to submit the forms to obtain the food, spare parts and other supplies needed by the boat.
15. Torpedoman – responsible for maintaining and repairing the torpedoes on the boat. May have been part of the gun crews. Maintained the charge in the electric torpedoes. Maintained the torpedo tubes and associated equipment.
16. Yeoman – administrative assistant. Maintained the records for assigned personnel and other records for the boat. An example would be the patrol reports as directed by the captain.
17. Mess cooks – these would normally be the newest and most junior members of the crew assigned to assist the cooks. They were most often seamen or firemen who have not yet been assigned to departments. (Mess cook was not a specialty or rating.) Mess cooks helped with meal preparation and with cleanup. It was equivalent to KP duty in the Army. However, on submarines this was not usually a punitive assignment.

Yes, they did. Sailors who were qualified in submarines had an “SS” added to their ratings. For example, a third class radioman who had qualified in submarines would have his rating upgraded from RM3 to RM3(SS). This was a formal designation noted in the man’s service record. Similar to the officer’s designation, this did not limit their future assignments.

No. Everyone was also responsible for their submarine qualifications, including the basics about the entire boat. This was particularly true of younger sailors reporting aboard their first boat. It was also true when reporting to a new assignment. Boats could be slightly different and the new command had to ensure that sailors transferred to the command knew what they said they knew. Obviously, requalifying on a different but similar boat would be fairly quick and easy.

There may be training across similar ratings such as electronics or mechanicals. In addition, it was the responsibility of everyone on board to help train and to mentor the newest submariners.

“Bubblehead” was probably intended to be a derogatory nickname for submariners. The name comes from the “bubble” in the inclinometer used to maintain depth. Even though it may have been intended to be somewhat derogatory, most sub sailors wore the label with pride. It was far better than being a “zoomie” (Naval Aviation) or a “skimmer”, a surface sailor.

Liberty was, and still is, time off for sailors when not on duty overnight or when visiting a port. Usually, one third of the crew remained on board at any time so that the ship could get underway if needed during an emergency. The other two thirds may have had liberty. Liberty was usually just overnight or over a weekend assuming the sailor wasn’t part of a duty section. It was not time off counted against leave.

Leave was extended time off, similar to vacations or personal time off (PTO) in the civilian world. It was earned at a consistent rate and an individual’s leave balance was tracked. During peacetime, there was a limit as to how much leave could be accrued without losing the days over the limit. Leave not taken would be paid out when the sailor leaves the Navy.