Sorry to burst your bubble, but you have to be pretty damn good to get a assignment on a sub.
All personel are cross trained and everyone swabs decks at one time or another.
My point being that the nuke kid done good in my book, by getting that assignment.
You cannot and should not try to take that away from him and now I question your motives regarding this story.
But he was never on a submarine ........
Were you ever on a submarine? Well I served on one. We had a dunce so bad that he was restricted to not go into any areas other than the mess and bunking areas.
Sorry to burst your bubble but I earned my dolphins aboard a nuclear fast attack sub after attending nuclear power school. I have a MS in Nuclear Engineering and was the Lead Test Engineer at nuclear power plant startups in the US and overseas.