hello,im newbie of this forum.
Welcome, I hope you enjoy your time here. I hope you can also contribute knowledge to the rest of us.
I find the ship 'fact' a little implausable; pumps and engines arent run by hand anymore, and there is still bound to be rope and tackle on board.
The greatest problem crew faced was the generators were off-line and the fire fighting foam generator depended upon electricity. When a 'tin can' (destroyers or frigate) runs into a sea mine, just hooking up hoses to pumps get the water out of the hull, over simplifies a difficult the job. The ship had a bad list and sinking deeper and deeper. The fire fighting went on for about fifteen hours before the captain ordered the fire fighting to stop. The water from the fire hoses was causing the ship to sink deeper. Getting the hull fixed was just a plain muscle task.
After the hole in the hull was fixed, as much as possible? The pumps ran for several hours while before starting the use of water hoses to fight the fire then, started using water to pump out the water. I don't exactly when the foam generator came back on-line.
Fixing the compartments which had one of its water tight doors was leaking or, not solidly closed to be secure. Large pieces of wood were used. The crew welded hooks on both sides of the splits above the waterline. Then they used a thick wire and wined (like a shoe lace) to force some of the cracks closed andr closer. Then used metal patches to secure the hull for then.
After 30+ hours, the captain said the crisis is over, the USS Roberts could now be towed to safe waters.
As is well known, the Soviets used women as tank crews, front line pilots and snipers. I must admit some of the photo's I've seen of them, they were scary.
Soviets and the North Vietnamese also had women that were pulled out of front-line units as soon as the war was over. The Soviets saw women in front-line units suffered higher casualties.
Right after the "Tet Offensive" the North Vietnames took over the Viet Cong who lost the battle of Tet very badly. The North Vietnamese pulled women back as one of their first actions.
A military history professor at Sandhurst recently stated (when referring to Battler of Britain pilots), "The ideal age for a fighter pilot was 19, at that age they feels invincible."
The Israeli AF feels the same way. At age eighteen eligible young people are inducted. By age twenty-one they could be flying a first line aircraft. By age twenty-eight they are flying a desk. Grounded because the invincibility feeling they had at nineteen no longer exist, replaced by more common sense and, life experiences... people die flying jets! That feeling of being invincible was a significant factor for the IAF to take-on the Syrian forces. Most people would be a little reluctant to attack a ZSU-23-4 working with a SAM-6 in close proximity. The IAF did it for three days and destroyed more than half the ground based anti-aircraft defenses. A quick attack on the oil facility near Damascus by the IAFs F-4s and the Syrian government pulled back the remaining air defense to protect the capital. That left the Syrian armor naked which quickly gave up the Goland Heights.
Still Norway managed to come up with the worlds first female sub-skipper.
Yes, from the start accommodations were designed into the so (if in the future for policy changes) female crew members would fit and be comfortable in their subs. The same situations exist on surface ships and, especially the US aircraft carriers. Women have more room in their berthing and bathing areas.
Senior ranking and experienced female supply officers from the surface warfare specialty will attend Submarine Officers Basic Course (SOBC). To proceed to fleet Ballistic Missile (SSBN) and Guided Missile (SSGN) submarines along with the new female submarine line officers beginning in late 2011/early 2012. No mention of SSNs which are far smaller in interior spacing.
The argument the USN uses sea patrols from 77 to 120 days, while the typical patrol is 90 days, is to long for a sexually integrated crew in such a confined space. The USN's SSNs normally have to cross some ocean to start their real patrol work. Most SSK & SSK/AIP's have their patrols close to territorial 45 day as standard time. A long patrol would be 60 days for an SSK. They also patrol close to their territorial waters.