ImagelessKJC

Not OP, but just recently left the Navy as a submariner. Most people tend to cope by growing thick skin and growing sadistic senses of humor (much like how the rest of the military does). Most people are depressed but handle it in different ways and often discuss it through humor.

We had a super tight schedule the last couple of years I was onboard and averaged about 18 months out of 24 at sea. We had just gotten back from a deployment, just to get surged on another deployment when everyone got back from post deployment leave. Now, the thing about surges are that you might get some really interesting tasking or you might end up doing circles waiting for something to happen. We had the latter. After 3 more months, we had a cook snap and repeatedly stab his good friend up and down the neck and face with a kitchen knife. To this day, nobody knows the real reason why, only that he had mentioned he wanted to get off the boat before the surge deployment. We pulled into port just to touch the pier and drop off the victim and the cook, then right back out to see for another 60 days. The victim survived with scars, but the cook is still awaiting trial.

I suppose I was lucky, I only developed a caffeine addiction and a hatred for the color Seafoam Green.

Most of the 2 years was actually spent getting ready for deployment. You have a series of at sea inspections you have to do in order to be certified to operate on deployment. These are usually stressful events that require little sleep and intense focus.

In all actuality, the deployments are the best part of being on a submarine. You get to do cool missions and pull into new places.

Not OP: Fraternization isn't really punished. Most of the tactical enlisted rates (MOS) that operate the submarine know more about sonar/navigation/tracking submarines than the officers, and are unofficially required to mentor their junior watch section members. Some of the best relationships I had as a junior sailor was with the JO's that I trained. I think it was pretty standard to try and humble the officers we trained. I even had one of them sleeping on my couch last month while he was a geobachelor. We would often get drinks with the JO's in our watch section and operated on a first name basis outside of work.

Edit: We have reverse osmosis units that desalinate water... but it does come from the sea. I'd also like to state, the surface fleet is known for having large divides between enlisted and officer. Submarines operate with a unique level of trust between the crew and its wardroom.