The Dark Truth About Life on a US Aircraft Carrier (Sailors Never Sleep)

[YoshidaYui]

[Shellback Squid]

1. I spent 4.5 years on a Carrier, two West Pacs and one drydock overhaul in Bremerton Washington

Life on a carrier is rough at times, I wrote a letter while we were out at sea, to my mother explaining my mental health but I never sent it as it's too depressing, I still have it, wrote it in 1982 I believe.
Submarine duty must be rougher as space is very much more limited and they don't have access to fresh air and sunlight.

We had this joke about carrier duty:

"Just like jail but with a chance of drowning"

[Jerry2144]

3. Sub duty was rough

I served on two of them. Deployments felt like I were Sisyphus pushing that boulder up the mountain. Never ending days at sea.

[Crowman2009]

2. They forgot to add a section titled "Marines hogging all the damn gym equipment".

[Wonder Why]

5. We had it rougher in the Air Force. Living in mansions with our families. Pouring water on Army tents. Poking holes

in Navy ships. Watching Marines in training. All while sipping Mimosas on the golf course, drinking free cocktails at the Club each night, and playing Pong with the colonel (well, it was the early '70s).

The hardest part was having to wake up at 10AM for reveille so we could get to work at noon then having taps at 3PM at the end of the workday.

We knew it was a pleasure only because the Army, Navy and Marines told us that's what the Air Force was like. They didn't know the truth but we agreed not to disappoint them by telling them the truth.