Big Red: Three Months on Board a Trident Nuclear Submarine

Rating:
Summary: Plank Owner
Review: As a member of the USS Nebraska commissioning crew I was excited to find a book about the boat I once called home. I served on the Nebraska as a sonar technician from April of 1993 through the end of my enlistment in 1996. I was there when she first put to sea and submerged for the first time.

You might think- "Why would someone who served on the boat want to read about it?" I served in the USN at an odd time in history: The USSR had collapsed but the US continues to build and deploy missile-boats. The military was being down sized and long time service members were being moved to retirement. When we went on patrol #1 in 1994 there was little if any contact with foreign navies and none with any hostel ones. I was interested in what life on these seemingly obsolete yet devastatingly powerful boats was like in the late '90s. Mr. Waller did a superb job in conveying life on an SSBN. Though I suspect the Navy arranged more perks than is normal (mid-shipmen runs and steel beaches are considered easy duty and were rare events). But despite that I found the book excellent. Other books about submarines like Rising Tide and Blind Man's Bluff offer more "excitement" in terms of daring missions and Cold War drama and while not to lessen those books, Big Red is real life on a submarine and written by a man who met active duty submariners and lived there life with them. The other books seem to be written by wannabes who though fascinated by submarines never bother to convey the human element of the routine and isolation nor understand why the stories they are reciting are inaccurate because they have never served on a submarine. e.g. Rising Tide has an story of Soviet submariners dying for failure to decompress. Submarines are obviously air tight and since they are sealed at sea level the pressure inside is always close (in does change a bit) to sea level so there is never any need to decompress. If the sailors in the story actually had to pressurize to the stated depth- 5000 ft- in order to escape their downed boat they would likely have died anyway as at that pressure the human body would be badly damages- sorry all you Abyss fans.

One criticism however, submarines are referred to as "boats" not "subs". The author constantly uses the later and it drove me nuts. Other books do the same.

I would also recommend Dark Waters about the NR-1. Offers both the exploits of an incredible boat but also is written by a member of her original crew thereby combining both elements.

Rating:
Summary: Big Red deseerves an award
Review: Big Red
Three Months On Board
A Trident Nuclear
Submarine
By Douglas C. Waller
Harper Collins
Doug Waller is probably the best military writer alive today in the non-fiction category.
His earlier book, "Air Warriors: The Inside Story of the Making of a Navy Pilot," was must reading for anyone who has the slightest interest in military aviation.
Now he's come out with a fascinating 330-page insider's report on another aspect of the military spectrum. It's called "Big Red" because "Red" is the USS Nebraska, SSBN-739, a top secret "boomer," a nuclear-powered, long-range, ICBM-carrying undersea warship which patrols silently and secretly for up to three months at a time.
Somehow, Waller persuaded the Navy brass to let him ride along on a three month patrol and write down what he saw and heard. In this book, you'll find out that the nuclear threat portrayed in the popular film "Crimson Tide" couldn't happen, and why. You'll also learn that boomer sailors may be among the hardest working crews ever to take to sea; in the modern Navy, anyway.
For 90 days, they exist on 18 hours days, of which 12 of those are either standing watch, working their specialty, studying, practicing, eating or reading manuals. In between, there are drills, drills and more drills. From battle stations to man overboard to launching missiles to fire in the torpedo section, sub sailors are constantly called upon to perfect their craft.
All this without even a window to look out of.
What possesses a man to seal himself inside of a metal tube for 90 days, twice a year, out of touch and out of reach of family, friends and loved ones, only to face endless seven-day weeks of training, studying, drilling and worse - with no privacy? Isn't it like being in prison with the possibility of drowning?
After you spent time with Big Red, you'll better understand these modern heroes and feel a lot more secure about whose fingers are on the nuclear buttons.
Waller's writing is fast-paced, conversational and fun to read. An amazing book.

Rating:
Summary: Good Technical Treatment/Superb Sociological Study
Review: Douglas Waller has a real talent for immersing you in the world of the present-day American submariner. He deals not just with the technical nuts and bolts of the nuclear powered Trident submarine Nebraska, but he gives you a real feel for the crew, both individually and collectively. I suspect that this is a somewhat sanitized view of life under water; after all he did live with these men for an extended period of time, undoubtedly shared confidences with them, and almost certainly grew to like and admire them. He probably wouldn't produce a "reveal all" expose as a result. Yet having stated that caveat, to the uninitiated at least the book nonetheless rings true. This a valuable contribution to our understanding of why the American military is usually so successful, and offers an insight into how it maintains the United States as the last remaining superpower. In many respects, Waller's writing does for the undersea navy what the likes of Anna Simons ("The Company They Keep: Life Inside the U.S. Army Special Forces") have done for other branches of the military. Not only is this a good, entertaining read, but it is an excellent study into the sociology of a very unique, small, but surely very important social group!

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fascinating
Review: I have found 'Big Red' to be an absolutely fascinating book. I am not a submariner, and I doubt that if I were that I would be so captivated as it is mostly a sociological study of the crewmen and their interactions on a Trident submarine on a three month underwater voyage. I am in a technology intensive profession, and am interested in the technical details of the sub, which is why I initially bought the book, but came to enjoy the complex interactions of the men on the sub more than the actual submarine specific information.

The professionalism of this group of people is one of the great untold (or nearly so) stories of the cold war and modern times. I was impressed with the incredible amount of training and simulations while on a typical cruise. As an airline (and former Air Force) pilot, I am more than aquatinted with training and simulation, but these men really take the concept to a whole new plane (no pun intended).

If you have any interest in submarines, and more specifically, life aboard a modern nuclear missile sub like the 'Nebraska,' you will love this book.

Rating:
Summary: go big,go big red.
Review: i read this book in approximately 2 days thats with sleep,meals and work inbetween.I loved the personal backgrounds of each of the crew,their jobs likes and dislikes.And how its not so much about the nukes they carry but about the families they protect.Mr waller put me so much inside that sub i felt like a rider and not a reader,not overly technical,or breif,just the right amount of data and story and characters to make it all right.thats how all books about the military should be written,its his first book that ive read and ive already sent away for his other titles so yes this one really hooked me.guaranteed stocking stuffer,or birthday gift highly recommended read for boys and girls.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book, Audiotape version highly recommended
Review: I really enjoyed this book. Being in the Air Force, it was a look at a different world. I have to give the author a lot of credit because much of the mission he was not able to see, I'm sure, but had to get that information academically, not first hand. It started out a little slow, but picked up once at sea. I enjoyed the fact that some of the flubs were left in, and it wasn't sanitized too much. The book was interesting, and gave me an appreciation of the men who serve aboard these awesome machines. This book is a perfect airplane or trip book for those who like military non-fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Three Months is a Very Long Time
Review: I should have expected the type of book this turned out to be. After all it is probably difficult to inject a lot of excitement in a book that details a boat who's main purpose is to avoid other ships and basically hide. All this during peace time. The book detailed this authors three-month trip on a nuclear missile submarine as it tooled around Atlantic. There were no exciting cold war cat and mouse games; no cool espionage inspired missions, or any massive equipment failures to review so the author stuck to the different workings of the boat. I found the real value in the time he spent talking about how certain tasks are done on the submarine and how they go about a typical tour. Yet this interesting detail can only go so far.

What I did not like is the amount of time the author devoted to the background of the crew. I may be a bit hard, but who cares about the personal life of every other sailor. I wanted to know how the boat operated what they did and maybe some good old sea stories. The book delivered on two of the three. I think the author could have made the book far more exciting if he would have forgotten the home life of the sailors and gave the reader some interesting stories from when the cool war was hot for these subs, surly there was one or two stories that could be told. Overall the book was average, if you are interested in how these massive subs work then you will find it interesting if not a bit slow. If you are looking for a true life Hunt for Red October then keep looking.

Rating:
Summary: Not among the best submarine books out there
Review: I was disappointed in Big Red, which I thought held much promise. The book spent more pages devoted toward freshman-level psychological analysis of various crew members than discussing the details of the mission. I was surprised that such a boring book could result from such fascinating materia.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing...
Review: There is just not much to say about this book other than it stinks. The book claims to be about 3 months aboard a nuclear submarine but the author really was only on there for 1 week. Many pages were filled with giving us the backgrounds of the sailors and every african american on board. The author certainly made sure his political viewpoints were revealed. Very superficial, very very superficial. I wish I could get my money back. I guess I should of known what it would be like as the writer is a writer from Time Magazine.