Not so Abnormal by Tony Green

The military has many jobs that require traveling. A person may be required to spend some time away from home. The circumstances vary from peace time where a mission may take only a few days to complete to a war time situation the mission continued until victory is achieved. In most cases, opportunities existed to breathe fresh air and bask in sunlight during moments of non-activity. Not in the case of the submariner.
As a submariner there are times where you are required to go a month or more without breathing fresh air and seeing sunlight. The air is generated from oxygen generators on board which produce oxygen by the distillation of the seawater the submarine travels through.

The air was regulated, however, if mission requirements called for not going to the surface to get fresh air the results were over time the oxygen levels would decrease slightly below to begin to make everyone a little drowsy.

In addition, as the cycle of the rise and setting of the sun sets your sleep patterns the effect of not seeing sunlight is mitigated by the fact the submarine operates on 18 hour days. Once you body gets used to the schedule the sun is barely missed at all. This may be a bit abnormal to most people but simply another day in the life of a submariner.

Once the submarine pulls back in port the first breath of air coupled with the experience of the first warm rays of sunlight are like a rebirth. The return to port signifies a return to normalcy on only to savor the outdoors but also a time for reuniting with loved ones who you have had no contact with. Sometimes though of your loved ones are what keeps you going during the long times while you are away.

In a sense, I guess I was not so abnormal after all.

Troubleshooting by Tony Green

The scenario is along these lines. A complex mechanical electro system is not functioning. As this system is producing revenue creating its designed product there is a lot of money at stake if the system is not brought back to normal operation quickly. Your job is to repair the equipment and return it to operation.
Where do you start? There could be an infinite amount of things that may have caused the problem. You realize that the pressure cooker is about to begin unless progress is made.
Suddenly you remember the seven step troubleshooting procedure you learned while you were in the Navy as a nuke.
You identify and elaborate on the symptoms, identify the list possible faulty components, and narrow down that list to the one that you suspect is causing your problem and finally create a possible retest procedure after performing a root cause analysis.
Yet, the system is still not working. You relax and try a few more things. As this process occurs you ensure that you are thinking positive thoughts as you have initially been stumped yet were eventually successful. After a few additional adjustments to your list of what may be causing the problem you find your culprit and the system is brought back into operation.
After breathing a sigh of relief that the crisis has been averted and receiving kudos from management you reflect on how you got the job done once more.
In the end you used two things: a process of determining the problem and a true belief that you would figure out the solution. Yes, with that you can fix anything…