Women Entering the US Submarine Force and Sanitation Napkins
Currently the attached to every US submarine is one independent duty corpsman. This corpsman is a senior E-6 (First Class) or E-7 (Chief Petty Officer). This corpsman is not a doctor, nor is he a GYN. The facility he uses for medical examinations is in the Countermeasure space (about a 3"x6" space) that is shared with the torpedo men. The corpsman does have a fabric curtain and a folding metal table for examinations.
Granted I do not expect a 1st class corpsman to have to perform GYN examinations during normal routine under ways. That would be scheduled while the submarine is in port. However, what would happen when the submarine is deployed on mission and cannot come of station for 3 months. This corpsman may have to perform some type of female medical checkup with minimal training, facilities and zero privacy.
There are areas outside of the standard 3" launcher space that the corpsman uses that could be used for private examinations. For instance the Wardroom could be locked up and the corpsman could use that. However, still the entire crew would quickly pickup up on what was going on. I have had an in grown toe nail before and the entire crew found out!
Submariners also routinely bring up the problem of sanitation and female napkins. Here is the issue and I'm not sure how this is going to be addressed. Currently all submarines have a sanitation pump. The only way to get rid of "poop" is to use the sanitation pump or to directly blow the sanitation tanks into the water. Like any type of pumps, there are strainers and filters. Routinely these things get caught in these strainers and they have to be cleaned (hair combs, iPods, headphones, etc). Because of this, everything that enters the sanitation system must dissolve in water. Therefore, female sanitation napkins cannot be introduced into this system.
The other solution is to throw them away in the trash. But since the US naval submarine force is globally deployed and underwater for long periods of time, they cannot hold onto their trash. Other countries submarine forces do hold onto their trash since they don't go underway for long periods. The US Submarine force has to compact their trash into steel bins and sink it under the sub. Compacting trash is a nasty job (much like cleaning the sanitation strainer) and requires people to go through the trash. Therefore female napkins cannot be just put into the trash.
These two issues I have not heard much discussion on. I do not know they will be solved. It is going to be very interesting to see how they play out.
Published by Dave Plouffe
A 20 year naval submarine veteran. David is a curriculum development professional with the US government, US Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security. He has worked extensivily with the Department... View profile
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5 Comments
Post a CommentMeant to say, Just trying to help women out. : )
Women could use the SoftCup. Reusable menstrual cup, that can be cleaned. She would dispose of the menstrual in the toilet. In case of leakage, washable liners for their panty. It could work. Just trying women out.
Dave- why not cozy up to a female friend and ask her if there are other devices besides tampons, I understand you may not be fully qualified to speak on this issue but actually there are not only devices but devices many woman prefer to handle this.
And even if this were so, Dave... we both should know containers could be used in the heads for even tampons that could be flushed via the TDU. (oh... I see that was covered by bubbles... so I guess I wasn't the only one that can see the obvious).
When I hear bubbleheads whine about this issue and see them struggle to find a situation where somehow or other a woman isn't able to deal with it, the Yiddish word "kvetching" comes to mind.
I commend you for writing. Unfortunately, you don't have a good argument. Lets take disposal issues first. Simple solution use the trash. yes, that is right, just use the trash and dispose of just like any other TDU operation, no big deal. OK not good enough. Setup "biohazard" bins in the heads for disposal, just like any other closed waste management system does on the surface. Then collet them for TDU ops. Go to any campground where they use a septic system and they have boxes for non-water soluable items.
Now lets talk about medical issues. Firstly, you know before every deployment the entire crew has their annual medical, vision and dental exams. Unless there is an unexpected problem why would there be a need for any other type of exam? If there is a problem, the corpsman should have sufficient training to deal with it, and just like with men, if not the skipper makes a command decision.
I know that the integration of females in the submarine force will be a tough process to begin with, but just like any ship in the Navy sailors will adapt and overcome. I am an A-ganger, which means that I am apart of the division responsible for the sanitation systems onboard submarines. I have thought of the issues discussed in this article many times, and though I do not know what measures will be put into place to avoid the aforementioned potential problems, I am confident that it will eventually all work itself out. Females on submarines is something that IS going to happen in the near future, we can complain about it all we want or we can just accept it and carry on. Submariners are capable of anything, and will find a way to overcome.