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Comment by Robert Hartman on August 26, 2014 at 3:59pm

SNIPE'S LAMENT

Now each of us from time to time has gazed upon the sea
and watched the mighty warships pulling out to keep this country free.
And most of us have read a book or heard a lusty tale,
about these men who sail these ships through lightning, wind and hail.
But there's a place within each ship that legend's fail to teach.
It's down below the water-line and it takes a living toll
- - a hot metal living hell, that sailors call the "Hole."
It houses engines run with steam that makes the shafts go round.
A place of fire, noise, and heat that beats your spirits down.
Where boilers like a hellish heart, with blood of angry steam,
are molded gods without remorse, are nightmares in a dream.

Whose threat from the fires roar, is like a living doubt,
that at any moment with such scorn, might escape and crush you out.
Where turbines scream like tortured souls, alone and lost in Hell,
are ordered from above somewhere, they answer every bell.
The men who keep the fires lit and make the engines run,
are strangers to the light and rarely see the sun.
They have no time for man or God, no tolerance for fear,
their aspect pays no living thing a tribute of a tear.
For there's not much that men can do that these men haven't done,
beneath the decks, deep in the hole, to make the engines run.
And every hour of every day they keep the watch in Hell,
for if the fires ever fail their ship's a useless shell.

When ships converge to have a war upon an angry sea,
the men below just grimly smile at what their fate will be.
They're locked below like men fore-doomed, who hear no battle cry,
it's well assumed that if they're hit men below will die. 
For every day's a war down there when gauges all read red, 
twelve-hundred pounds of heated steam can kill you mighty dead.

So if you ever write their songs or try to tell their tale,
the very words would make you hear a fired furnace's wail. 
And people as a general rule don't hear of these men of steel,
so little heard about this place that sailors call the "Hole." 
But I can sing about this place and try to make you see, 
the hardened life of the men down there, 'cause one of them is me. 
I've seen these sweat-soaked heroes fight in superheated air, 
to keep their ship alive and right, though no one knows they're there.

And thus they'll fight for ages on till warships sail no more,
amid the boiler's mighty heat and the turbine's hellish roar. 
So when you see a ship pull out to meet a war-like foe, 
remember faintly if you can, "The Men Who Sail Below."

-Anonymous

Comment by Robert Hartman on October 8, 2013 at 8:23pm

Welcome Barry Anderson, my son is an MM2 aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. He likes his rate so well he just signed on for 5 more years.

Comment by Bob morrell on March 21, 2013 at 9:35pm

My Matt got his MM rating and promoted to Petty Officer in January. He just began Nuke Power School at Goose Creek this week.  Really wants a Sub, is looking at applying to the Academy or going in the STA 21 Program after Proto Type to make officer. As all Officers on a Sub have to be Reactor Qualified.

 

 

Comment by Bob morrell on October 19, 2012 at 5:14pm

Got call from Matt, he is in MM School at Goosw Creek, Aced his first Math and Machinery Exam. He was sweating it..........so far so good!

Comment by Thom Barker on September 12, 2012 at 3:38pm

My sailor will be an MM on a fast attack. Anyone have any idea what they do? He is currently in Groton, CT for BESS and weapons maint school. 

Comment by Michael Le'au on September 6, 2012 at 2:50pm

@jim, thanks for the info. I didn't know if the rank was supposed to be included.

Comment by Michael Le'au on September 6, 2012 at 3:54am

Once out of boot camp, how do address the letter to your sailor, since he is no longer a SR? are they a Seaman since they have an E3 rank? Or is it MM Jones, Tom?

Comment by Bob morrell on September 5, 2012 at 1:51pm

Good Afternoon all! Great news from my son Matt, he is in the Nuke Program and got the rating he wanted MM. His PIR is 09/14. From there off to Charleston, SC for MM A school and then 12 months of Nuke and Prototype. He is hoping upon finishing Nuclear school to attend the Nuclear Welding School in Groton,CT.

 

Matt was Award the "Military Excellence Award" and will be leading the 12 Divisions into PIR, SO PROUD OF HIM!!!

Comment by Robert Hartman on August 13, 2012 at 8:27pm

Mitch?

Comment by Thomas Mackie on October 12, 2011 at 11:15pm

My son is a MM on the USS Kentucky.  A SSBN submarine. Will his rate change also or is that a different animal all together?

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