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To: beebuster2000
USN first all-female nuclear sub [not a joke, true]

Not true, apparently. The Weekly Standard, which also posted a story about the USS Illinois, has updated it's story "to reflect the fact that there are no plans to make the USS Illinois an all female submarine."
68 posted on 05/28/2012 5:22:02 PM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: AnotherUnixGeek
Not true, apparently.

Yep. It wasn't likely - you wouldn't need only a training pipeline full of women but ones who were already qualified and experienced - E3 through E8 and department-head level officers. They're just not there. And you can't run a submarine without them.

Even now, after five decades of coeducational experience in the surface Navy, it'd be tough to run an all-woman ship, at least for very long. The simple act of manning (sorry) a ship from the pool of existing sailors precludes that sort of selectivity - people qualify, are promoted, transfer in and out, leave the Navy for civilian life; it isn't a static problem. Maintaining readiness under that sort of flux is the Navy's primary personnel challenge.

I do see that Nuclear Power School graduated some women last year. That's a start, but it's a very small one. My congratulations to the graduates - that's a really tough course.

87 posted on 05/28/2012 5:42:52 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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