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Several years ago when my son was a Lieutenant in the navy I was invited to go on a Tiger Cruise. That is a cruise where parents or others close to the sailor can come and stay on board for several days while the ship or sub moves between ports. However subs seldom offer these as they usually have nuclear weapons on board.
In this case my son's submarine, the SSBN Nevada had been completely overhauled and updated. It was in drydock for over a year and then after initial sea trials was sent from it's home base in Bremerton, Washington to San Diego where it successfully conducted a missile test, firing an unarmed Trident to a target near Hawaii.
I met up with other men (only men at this point were allowed on subs) and we boarded the sub in San Diego and didn't resurface for 5 days when we popped up at the mouth of Puget Sound at the US?Canada border.
Since this was the largest class of subs it wasn't as uncomfortable as smaller attack subs. Luckily I got a lower bunk, don't think I could have hopped up into the upper bunks. They had learning events for us and we got to see our kids manning their posts. I especially liked hanging out in the sonar room where they listened to the area around the sub, reminded me of The Hunt For Red October. The other cool thing was that since there were no nuclear weapons on board we were pretty much allowed to go anywhere other than the radio room or the room where they controls the nuclear propulsion system. I liked to hang out on the upper deck near the missile silos, it was quiet and a good place to nap or read a book.
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