Interesting story and being an ex-bubblehead myself I can appreciate a good sub story. There are some problems with it though that I will point out to help.

Navy personnel do not salute indoors except for unusual circumstances.

The Navy at that time only used nautical miles and feet for measurements.

Typically, the boat's captain has an intercom in his stateroom and a direct line to sonar so he would much more likely be called on the telephone (or "growler" as it's called) or the 7MC intercom if sonar has an emergency. The captain maintains quick communications with sonar at all times.

If the captain is not on the bridge, the boat is under command of the "officer of the watch" typically and he would be the one to talk with the captain in this situation.

Submarines do not use active sonar unless absolutely necessary so all a sub would hear is sounds in the water so if a large object that didn't make noise (a whale shark for instance) the sub would never know it was there. On the other hand, a totally unidentifiable sound was heard that roused concern with the sonar operators they can request a "ping". Sonar might report something like, "Captain, Sonar has an unidentified contact bearing 180, request a ping to identify target designated uniform 1." The captain might reply," Sonar, this is the captain, you are granted permission to make one and only one ping." The ship's crew would hear the ping through the hull as it was made then sonar would report back the range speed and size of the contact.

"front end of the sip" should be "bow".

An emergency blow to the surface takes time as does loading a torpedo. Pulling the "chicken switches" can take a few minutes to rocket to the surface. reloading tube one with another "fish" could take 5 minutes. Typically, whhen the ship readies for action, the captain tells the weapons officer to load tubes one and two and make ready to fire. He then waits for a report the tubes are ready then gives the command to fire.

That's all for now. Congradulations on a job well done.

Thanks so much! Before I wrote, this I looked for reading material on the internet about US Submarines, but could not find anything short of books I would need to buy. I pride myself on doing what I can to make my stories accurate to reality, but I cannot afford to purchase these books for a small side project.

So my only reference was the U-Boat simulator 'Silent Hunter 3'. It is a pretty accurate sim, for German subs during World War Two. I originally wanted to find something about a U-Boat disappearance during WW2 because of this, but I could not find any that could leave room for speculation.

Thanks again for pointing these out, I greatly appreciate this.

And an ex-bubblehead? Awesome! I want to join the Navy someday, and Submarines have been getting very interesting to me lately.

What type of person are you? What interests you? If you have awesome math skills and you take physics and calculus in school then you might consider being a nuke (nuclear trained). If you are looking to be challenged and have strong electronic skills as well as math and science then a reactor operator is a very good choice. Unfortunately the Navy needs a lot more nuclear trained Machinist Mates than Reactor Operators so they tell you that you sign up to be a nuke and your job will be decided later and that it doesn't matter because you receive the same training. That is true to a point but while a reactor operator sits in the control room monitoring gauges the Machinist Mate nuke is watching a gauge in the lower level machinery space and wiping out bilges. If you sign up for the nuclear program and you get assigned as a Machinist Mate and then you fail Nuclear Power School then you become "nuke waste" and they use you to fill one of the most undesirable slots on nuclear submarines which is an Auxiliary man Machinist Mate. An auxiliaryman fixes just about everything on a submarine except wiring and nuclear spaces, so if a toilet clogs, you fix it. The sewage tank needs cleaning, you get in and clean it. There is a hydraulic leak, you are the one getting oil in your face fixing it. While everyone else on the boat is on liberty at an exotic port of call, you are stuck onboard fixing the crap that broke that you couldn't when you were at sea. I didn't mind it so much since I was very good at fixing stuff.

On the other hand if you want to do the Navy thing and not spend your entire time with a wrench in your hand or a soldering iron then jobs like Quartermaster and signalman are pretty good jobs on a sub, your job pretty much ends when you hit the pier so liberty is usually easier to get. Radiomen and Sonarmen are good jobs too but advancement is slow since there are a lot of folks wanting those jobs. The best job on a sub by far is Storekeeper in my opinion, no one wants it so you can advance very quickly. If you sign up for 6 years you will likely be an E3 or E4 when you hit your boat and within a year you can be an E5. Many sub storekeepers end their first tour as E6 where most sonarmen are lucky to hit E4.

My advice though would be to get through college with a degree and go officer.

I expected Physics and Calculus would be needed for anything related to nuclear... but I am not so great with math and I have not taken physics. (I could not fit it into my 12th grade schedule) I am best with, and I enjoy, Language and History.

Well, if you aren't an engineering type then you are going to be limited to things like radioman, sonar tech, quartermaster and the like. If you are for sure about going in the navy and subs then I suggest going ROTC and getting a degree in business administration then becoming a supply officer. You will not only have a much better experience(officers do not scrub bilges) but you will have a marketable skill and valuable experience if you decide not to re-enlist.

Here is a link to the boat I was on, USS Sunfish from 1986 to 1990. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sunfish_(SSN-649)

Also, I know it is an odd thing in this day and age but there is still the public library.

Cool, I read that article at some point in time when I dug through the history of various US Navy ships.

The Library... I can't believe I forgot about that!

But, I decided to fork it out and I went to Borders and bought two books, one that goes into all aspects of the military called 'Hog Pilots, BLue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and On the Ground' and one about subs called 'Sub - An Oral History of U.S. Navy Submarines.' I think I am set on reading material for now. =)

Another nice piece of work. These side projects of yours are pretty good.