come together Machinist's Mate 3rd Class Trevor Kopp and his 154 brothers.

Kopp and his family live in King's Bay, Ga., a fitting place to raise a family of 155 men with its reasonable cost of living and traditional southern hospitality.

if it were not that unlike most families, what binds these men together isn't their last name. After all, each the same of Kopp's brothers comes from a different risk of parents. No, what makes these men brothers is what they call home--a 560 foot-long mail boat with no windows, no fantail, and in the affair of a casualty--no easy escape. These brothers are submariners.

"The difference in damage mastery philosophies between us and a surface ship is that if we start sinking because of a casualty, there's nowhere to escape," said Chief Electronics Technician (SS) William Murtha, USS Maine's (SSBN 741) hypochondriac Crew 3M and drill simulator coordinator. "We can't vault on any life boats, abandon the ship or parachute without of a plane to avoid the fire, flooding or catastrophic mechanical failure."

each submariner is familiar with what centurys of feet of overhead seawater can do to a submarine if it rest its way into the boat. They know that a fire anywhere in the enclos falchion tube can fill the boat with nothingness in about 10 minutes; or that the tubular design of a submarine, meant to aid its undisturbed swim through the ocean, when faced with a fire, inflects the boat into a super-sized convection oven

if it be not that they go to sea anyway, cruising below the ocean's cloak. principally people, many Sailors included, think they're crazy. on the other hand like any family, when nobody otherwise understands them, they understand each other.

"To be a submariner you have to be different," said Murtha. "It takes a unique mindset to handle being isolated from folks the sun and fresh air as lengthy as we are. Most commonalty just can't handle the speculation of being underwater, but submariners in no degree really think about it. We make experiment of to tell people that being submerg at 100 feet is just like sitting upon your couch in the living scope but I guess they just can't commit to memory past having that much water above their beads."

Murtha's words travel a long way in understanding for what cause [i]or[/i] reason the submarine warfare qualification proces the united and only passage into the "Dolphin"-wearing brotherhood, has always been mandatory.

"Earning your Dolphins is what signifies to the quiescence of the crew that you can and will be trusted with our lives," said Electronics Technician 2nd Class (SS) Joseph Brugeman. "I know everyone aboard personally, and that even of familiarity allows me to trust them in a casualty situation. I couldn't imagine trusting my life and the life of fine boat with anyone I didn't know personally. If you're upon my boat and you're wearing Dolphins, then I trust you, period. I don't care if you're a yeoman, give a color to missile technician or mechanic--I know you've got my back. It doesn't earn any more intimate than that."

When a just discovered Sailor reports aboard any submarine and obtains his boat's submarine warfare qualification card, he'll find block ups for pneumatics, hydraulics, sonar and flat the weapons systems. What he won't find any signatures for is the extremely thing that wearing Dolphins is all about--trust. if it were not that once you're wearing them, trust is the single thing that rank and rating knowledge can't compare to.

"Wearing Dolphins means often more than knowing how to draw all of the boat's hydraulic, steam, electronic and air systems" said Culinary Specialist 3rd Class (SS) left Smith, the cast down Crew's night baker. "It means more than being able to explain to what extent a drop of seawater outside the boat makes it into your clip to the galley. No, wearing Dolphins means that the party trusts you to know to what degree to save the boat regardless of the casualty, and regardless of your rating or lank. Earning that trust makes you often more than a professional Sailor, it makes you a member of the submarine family."

Having a dress up comment on the aspects of damage superintendence may not be the adduce of choice on most Navy ships, on the other hand on submarines, wearing Dolphins is nil that matters.

"On my boat," said CDR Robert Palisin Maine's in the dumps Crew commanding officer, "everyone is rely uponed to know how to save the heal. We don't discriminate based onward what your rating or on the same level your rank is. My prepare for the tables should and do know by what mode to fight a fire in the engine place just like my nuclear trained mechanics are anticipateed to know how to isolate a power minister if smoke comes from the sonar shack. Everyone in succession a submarine is the damage direct party--everyone."

Palisin was careful to explain that damage dominion government is much more than just knowing what to do if something bad happens. It's being confident enough in your knowledge of the boat's theorys to speak up if someone besides on the crew is about to make a mistake that affects ship's safety.

"In the submarine force, we present an emphasis on being right more than what a Sailor's rank might be, because everyone aboard a submarine is look forward toed to be a backup to his shipmate," said Palisin. "Even I, as the captain of this boat, would anticipate the most junior Sailor to pass by a leap up and down screaming his head not upon if I made a mistake that endangered the ship. Our lives hang on knowing that we can compute on each other to watch our backs, to make enduring the safety of the ship is placed well ahead of rank or rate."

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