A U.S. Navy submarine crew is like a family where each member is required to know everything about the vessel in case catastrophe strikes and lives are in jeopardy.

For years the close families in even closer quarters consisted entirely of men. But the submarine culture is changing, and women are now welcome to join the club.

Southeast Georgia’s Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base is set to become the testing ground this year for the Navy’s latest move toward gender equality.

The women preparing to live and work underwater alongside their male counterparts won’t have to deal with media scrutiny or a spotlight following them through their assignments because the Navy is shielding them from news interviews and unnecessary fanfare so they can mesh with their shipmates as easily as possible.

"I wouldn’t say the Navy is forcing them or the Navy is requiring them to stay anonymous," said Cmdr. Tommy Crosby, the public affairs officer for Submarine Forces Atlantic. "That is not the case. It is strictly based on feedback received from the initial set of women who integrated into the submarine force."

Female officers started serving on submarines in 2011, and last year the first enlisted women joined the crew of the USS Michigan in Bangor, Wash.

"It is a consistent drum beat from them that they want to just do their job to the best of their ability and integrate with their new crews, and be a member of the team. We honor that commitment and desire," Crosby said.

The adjustment hasn’t been as smooth as the Navy would like and the service suffered national embarrassment when sailors videotaped female submarine officers undressing and the tapes were bartered for energy drinks and other items.

Multiple sailors at Kings Bay were convicted in 2015 for their roles in the videotaping.

This year the movement to integrate the submarine force is coming back to the East Coast after a group of 38 enlisted women were selected in May for submarine school. The sailors who make it all the way through will either be assigned to the Blue or Gold crew on the USS Florida at Kings Bay — which means they will alternate between shore duty and serving aboard the submarine.

According to the Navy, each crew on the 560-foot Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine consists of 15 officers and 150 enlisted sailors.

"The idea is to have every crew ultimately be 20 percent female," said Lt. Lily Hinz, the public affairs officer for Submarine Group 10 at Kings Bay.

Hinz said the Navy will not update the number of women going through the pipeline until the process is complete.

Crosby said training is gender neutral because crew members have to be able to rely on each submariner equally.

At any moment while the vessel is deep under the water’s surface, an alarm could mean flooding, fire, a poison gas leak or any other unexpected calamity requiring the attention of everyone on board.

The alarm might mean waking up from a slumber, leaping from a cramped bunk in the berthing area, and getting dressed as sailors run through tight passageways to address the problem.

Layout changes underway

Privacy has never been a major concern for male submarine crews, so layout changes needed to be made to make both the men and women feel comfortable, Hinz said.

The Florida is currently in dry dock for maintenance and is expected to be back underway about the time the enlisted women arrive in Georgia this summer, she said.

Hinz said part of the work being done on the Ohio-class guided-missile submarine is routine maintenance, but a large portion of the makeover is to ensure sufficient privacy standards are met for mixed-gender crews.

When the Michigan went through habitability modifications, the cost was projected at $8 million, Hinz said. She said that number does not reflect the final cost and the projected figure for future modifications would most likely vary.

Those modifications include a dedicated living space with a nine-person berthing area and a bathroom facility for E-6 women and below. The gender-specific modifications also include a toilet and shower facilities in the chief petty officer quarters.

"They’re making modifications to ensure we give our sailors the privacy they deserve," Crosby said.

History in the making

The latest window for female applicants hoping to serve on submarines closed Saturday, with the selection process set to start in May, according to the Navy.

Hinz said a panel of experienced submariners will look over each candidate’s résume with a careful eye to determine which ones are cut out for serving in the confined quarters of a submerged vessel.

Life underwater can be more of a mental strain than physical, she said, so every trait a sailor has is considered. The Navy will continue to cycle women through the system until the submarine integration is complete, Hinz said.

Rear Adm. Mary Jackson served at Jacksonville Naval Air Station as the commander of Navy Region Southeast for the last 2½ years before relinquishing command to another woman, Rear Adm. Babette "Bette" Bolivar, in February.

Jackson received a major promotion Friday when she jumped from a one-star rear admiral to a three-star vice admiral, replacing Vice Adm. Dixon Smith as commander of Navy Installations Command in Washington, D.C.

In January, she talked about the fact enlisted women would soon be arriving at Kings Bay to serve in integrated crews.

"I couldn’t be more pleased that we’ve taken this step," Jackson said. "We’ve had female officers serving on the subs for some time, and now we are opening it up to enlisted women. Having enlisted women there is really important, just like it was having women officers, because it deepens the talent pool, and that’s critical. And they are succeeding."

Jackson climbed the ranks to get where she is today by serving on surface ships. She said she realizes that wouldn’t have been possible without pioneers who came before her.

"During my entire career I have been at critical places and times where laws and policies have been changed with regards to women, and that is what allowed me to serve as commanding officer of a destroyer," she said.

Issues along the way

Gender integration in the submarine force and in the military in general has been problematic at times.

Multiple sailors from Kings Bay were convicted in 2015 for secretly recording female officers assigned to the USS Wyoming, resulting in prison time and discharges from the Navy. Prosecutors said four female officers were videotaped undressing, and sailors traded the videos for energy drinks and other items.

The female submariners said at the time their careers were either ruined or severely tarnished by the videos.

The most recent issue surfaced this year when former and current female Marines reported photographs of them and women in other branches of the military had been posted on social media pages without their consent. Investigators are also looking into comments Marines wrote on websites containing the images.

All branches of the armed forces are discussing alterations in social media policies as the investigation continues.

Change is inevitable

American Legion Post 316 in Atlantic Beach holds a meeting for area submarine veterans on the third Saturday of every month. Opinions on women serving on submarines vary depending on who you ask.

David Rifkin served as the commanding officer on the USS Billfish from 1993 to 1995 and now attends the veteran meetings when he can.

He said his only issue with women serving on submarines is the cost to modify the boats to accommodate the mixed crew. Rifkin floated the idea of an all-women crew serving together, because that wouldn’t require such a lofty price tag.

"It’s not as physically demanding as other jobs in the Navy," Rifkin said of serving on submarines. "There’s really nothing geared toward men that women can’t do."

W.G. "Doc" Sweeney served on the USS Ethan Allen from 1968 to 1972 and he’s another member of the group who doesn’t have a problem with women serving in the submarine force. He said enlisted women have been serving underwater in the Australian navy for years without many issues.

"The biggest problem with women in the Navy going to sea is they get pregnant," Sweeney said. He suggested the Navy should require all women on submarines to be on birth control to alleviate that problem.

Sweeney pointed out a pregnant woman on a submarine is different than a pregnant woman serving on a surface ship. A replacement can arrive without any problems on a ship in a matter of days to fill the spot of a pregnant woman who has to leave for shore, he said.

Removing a woman from a submarine is like removing a member of a family. Sweeney said it can take up to a year before someone is comfortable on a submarine crew, and an unexpected pregnancy would rock the boat significantly.

Dave Schlessinger served on submarines for most of his Navy career from 1976 to 1996. He said the government implemented the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy at the tail end of his career, adding an extra element to life on a submarine.

He said he doesn’t know if he served with any homosexual sailors while he was underway. But he said it wasn’t a matter of sexual preference, but a matter of knowing what was right from wrong.

"If someone did something inappropriate, he was gone," Schlessinger said.

He said the same thing will happen if something happens when enlisted women start joining crews. "The Navy doesn’t tolerate that kind of stuff," he said.

Rifkin acknowledged the submarine force will be entirely integrated sooner rather than later, but the issues will be there. He served on aircraft carriers in the 1990s when women were first allowed to serve on board. He said they were fully capable, but that wasn’t the only variable.

"What I saw was something that added a distraction to the job at hand," Rifkin said.

Katherine Diaz works at the VA Outpatient Clinic in Jacksonville, but she spent time serving with men on surface ships during her eight-year Navy career starting in 2000. She was on the USS Gunston Hall for three years and said the sexual harassment she experienced was no different than what she experienced on shore.

"You don’t necessarily have more sexual harassment on a ship as you do on shore, but you experience it in both places," she said.

She said she enjoyed her time serving on a ship, but the environment was like high school, where cliques stuck together no matter the situation.

"I did encounter sexual harassment when I first got there, and when I reported it, people laughed at me," Diaz said.

She said a male sailor locked himself in an office with her despite the fact she was married. She told a supervisor and he told her the sailor was probably just playing around.

"I didn’t feel like I had a support system," Diaz said. "I felt isolated because he (the superior) was pretty much friends with him."

Kristen Fulford didn’t experience anything along those lines when she went on the first gender-integrated cruise on the aircraft carrier USS Constellation in the 1990s. She said she was so busy learning the ins and outs of the ship that the fact she was serving alongside men became secondary.

She said the only issue she noticed was a young sailor who insisted on calling all the women "babe" or "hon" until he was called to captain’s mass for sexual harassment after he was told repeatedly those comments were unappreciated.

"Every workplace now has required sexual harassment training, and that time was kind of the forefront of that," Fulford said.

It’s been more than 20 years since Fulford sailed around the tip of South America on the Constellation.

Crosby said the Navy has changed a lot in that time. "For the current generation of sailors and the officers, women have been a part of our Navy for years, so there’s not much of a culture shock," he said.

He said the Navy doesn’t have a single instance where a male submariner refused to serve on a mixed-gender crew.

The Navy is ready for enlisted women to get underway with men on submarines, he said.

Joe Daraskevich: (904) 359-4308