There are numerous social, political and economic events and accomplishments that will make 2010 go down in history as a very remarkable year.
When it comes to equal rights in the military, of course the repeal of “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” will rank as one of the most significant achievements in that area in decades.
But we shouldn’t forget that 2010 also marked the year when the Navy decided to remove yet another gender barrier by allowing women to serve aboard submarines—Congress, by not passing legislation to bar the move, made it “official.”
The first Navy women to serve aboard submarines have already graduated from the Naval Academy and college ROTC programs. They are presently undergoing an additional 18 months of training and will be reporting for duty aboard our Ohio-class subs in 2012.
There is, however, another relatively major—at least for the sailors— and related Navy policy change that went into effect in the New Year: As of January 1, there is no smoking aboard our submarines.
As we reported back in April, Vice Adm. John J. Donnelly, commander of Submarine Forces in Norfolk, Va., announced the decision to ban smoking below decks aboard all Navy submarines.
In a Navy press release, he said:
Recent testing has proven that, despite our atmosphere purification technology, there are unacceptable levels of secondhand smoke in the atmosphere of a submerged submarine…The only way to eliminate risk to our non-smoking Sailors is to stop smoking aboard our submarines.
During a visit to the Kitsap nuclear submarine facilities, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, perhaps unintentionally, linked the two issues (women and smoking on submarines) when—while reiterating his support for integrating women onto submarine crews—he said: “Women have a place on submarines, cigarettes do not.”
Well, the time for enforcing the latter is here and one of the most popular spots aboard submarines, the “smoke pit,” will soon be—or is already—history.
The media is full of serious and not-so-serious pieces on this development. Here is one of the better ones.
For many sailors aboard our submarines the New Year may start out with some serious nicotine fits. But just as our fighting men have handled so many much more difficult “situations,” I know they will handle this one—and the repeal of DADT, and serving alongside women aboard their submarines—just as ably and honorably.
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.