Navy brain power on display
Yeah, I thought this was The Duffel Blog when someone sent me the link, but, no, it’s CNN. Somehow, not having urinals on carriers makes the ship gender-neutral;
Omitting urinals lets the Navy easily switch the designation of any restroom – or head, in naval parlance – from male to female, or vice versa, helping the ship adapt to changing crew compositions over time, Meyer said.
The Navy could designate a urinal-fitted area to women, of course, but the urinals would be a waste of space. Making the areas more gender-neutral is a relatively new consideration for the service, with most of its current carriers commissioned before it began deploying women on combat ships in 1994.
Ya, know we had female barracks in the Army that still had urinals in them and somehow the women survived by not using them and generally ignoring the urinals. Except when they had to dust them off before an inspection. I’m glad the Navy is worried about this subject, it shows they’re over-thinking every-f’ing-thing. So while you Navy guys are complaining about scrubbing the “near-misses” off of the toilet seats, sounding much like my wife, thank Big Navy.
Category: Navy
And the hilarity of the seat up or down controversy will continue in perpetuity.
ugh, this reminds me of when the Army tried to transition over to water-less urinals. As it turned out, those urinals ending up smelling like skunk piss. Just another example of the MAN trying to fix something that ain’t broken.
There will be a memorandum for record and a command policy letter dictating that the lids must be in the down position when not in use. Give it 5 years and it will be a punitive memo.
The Navy’s next step will be to make the sailors “gender neutral”.
OK .. bring on all the friggin NAVY jokes …
Since ships are traditionally “she,” — inform the Femi-Nazis that the gender war is over .
Well, we can just piss over the side…but not into the wind
There were urinals in my boot camp barracks (Orlando, 1991) and urinals in every female restroom I visited while stationed on Army bases (Monterey, Ft. Gordon). I survived. In boot camp we used them when our 8 commodes (for 70 recruits) were busy. We learned pretty quick that you can’t flush toilet paper down a urinal.
They stink if not regularly flushed, though.
It sorta makes sense. I mean really. It would save on piping, it would save on space, it could possibly keep costs down.
But I strongly suspect you’ll just see a huge uptick in the number of guys pissing in the sink instead.
seems to me I recall they also made gender-neutral urinals at one point – they had kind of a snout that the galks could straddle. Don’t think they were too popular, though. One of
my duty stations in Germany had mixed-use latrines and showers, though -every stall and shower had a tall wall around it and you never knew who was in the next one over. I recall one sergeant who was caught peeking over the partition at one of the females once…. he fell dwn the stairs afterwards. A few times.
Thank God that when the “women on submarines” experiment comes to a quiet and failing end, we won’t ever have to worry about that shit on boats EVER.
Sparky, it will never come to an end. The door is open and from now on there will always be at least female officers on the boats.
From a Navy blog:
“As a retired CPO it makes sense. As early as 1975 with the all volunteer force the U.S. Nayv knew that female manning of ships and stations would in some cases equal 50% of a units personnel. There has always been a shortage of Commodes verse Urinals… Urnials are a pain to clean and maintain etc. Converting all heads to Commodes only increases the utility of the head, and yes allows for a designation of male/female. Both are now required on ships with increasing female personnel. Its just not PC but prectical.
Also having done my time as compartmrnt cleaner (Head cleaner) I can appreciate not having to deal with urinals. Most of which smell even with cleaning. So lighten up and face the rality of current manning aboard Navy ships and stations. “
Still scratching my head (the one attached to my shoulders) over this one. Am just hoping that it is as sensible as the CPO in #13 above suggests. Otherwise, will have to admit that my first thought was that perhaps seeking relief over the side would increase?
Bobo…not from what I’m hearing. They’ll do it for a few years, and realize that when all these female JO’s either fail to screen for DH, get out, or put in for SWO, they’re wasting their time and money.
But then again, when has wasting money ever meant shit to DoD? Oh, right–when the female CHOP’s get busted for falsifying travel claims.
Scott/OWB–it does kinda make sense. Urinals on boats SUCK. One of the few things that even bug juice mix couldn’t clean or get the smell out of.
They sucked big time, especially when leadership decided to kowtow to the greenies and use a “lo-flow” system.
My suggestion, for what’s worth, is to remove all of the urinals, and convert all of the commodes to those stainless steel types that prisons use, that have a built-in seat. Easier to clean and maintain, and if you go back to high-flow salt water flushing, the smell will go away as well.
Better yet, do what they did on boats up to the 688/Tridents–pressurize with 700# air and blow sanitaries overboard.
You find out who can read and who can’t real quick based on smell alone.
And the urinal cleanliness/flow issue is why they took out the watchstander head on 688’s.
visited the USS Alabama recently. If they want to go totally “gender neutral” install those types of shitters. Long metal trough with continuous sea water flow and a line of seats. No stalls. and if all the seats are occupied, just piss in the space between. I forsee a lot of black shoe polish and saran wrap pranks in the Navy’s future. At least until the first Captain’s Mast.
Well, you could do what the Romans did, which is what Stacy suggests: a line of seats over a trough of flowing water. Or you could give every one a Mason jar with a lid and tell them to deal with it if they have to urinate.
Apparently neither one of you have stood SRO on the midwatch, or maybe you have…
It’s a hell of a dilema–don’t drink coffee and risk NRRO waking ya up, or having the SRW make a pot so strong you’ll be doing the Riverdance inside Maneuvering until someone is nice enough to bring ya the piss jug.
Just remember to take it with when you’re relieved.
To this day I can still drink a full pot of coffee and not have to break seal for at least 2-3 hours afterwards.
How did Captain Kirk and crew of Enterprise do # 1 and 2 ? Do that.
@19- There’s a different reason the surface navy got rid of the trough design. Worked swell for a ship as big as the Showboat. Not so much for the little guys who take 40 degree rolls.
I wouldn’t shed too many tears over the loss of urinals anyway. The urinal cakes that my ship had didn’t seem to react very well with the shipboard salt water flushing system, routinely turning into a concrete type blockage within the s-trap. It’s wasn’t a fun job clearing that, or being around someone clearing that.
NHSparky, tell me this is BS! This I would expect from the Air Farce NOT the Navy! JeezeLouise, what the hell is happening to the ships I served on the in the ’70s?!? No women and lots of urinals!?! This has to be a sign of the Apocalypse!
Okay Chief, I think I know why the navy chose that strange camo pattern. To confuse the Chiefs which sex they are hitting on.On the mixed gender boats a lot of chiefs have been shorn the door. Joe (I did not use the phey joke. Joe
@24
Relax, wait until Navy directs ships to have child day care centers on board as quality of life initiative for sailor moms.
The Duffel Blog. CNN. There’s a difference??
Duffel Blog probably gets more traffic than CNN these days.