I did get the opportunity to tour one of the nuclear Submarine that my brother was stationed on. He has been stationed on the one that was used to make the movie "Hunt for Red October". Anyway this sub that he showed me was in dock for a refit, so at the time it was gutted. Even so, it was still one of the most amazing tours I've been on. He showed me things from the mess hall to the captains quarters, from the bathroom to the torpedo room. :-)

He said that in the shifts they worked that as one guy got out of a bed another guy would get in. And they were often referred to as "hot beds" for that reason. Unfortunately most of the computers in the sonar room had already been removed. This room is near the periscope and where Jim had received most of his training as he was a sonar technician, next an instructor, and now he is a chief and oversees other instructors.

While I was visiting them this summer, he took me to his base and gave me a tour of the huge building that he works in. This huge building has the equivalent of the complete innards of a sub. With different sections of the sub in different training rooms. He took me to this room that was a replica of the sonar/periscope section of the sub, and when you walked into it, it did look just like the inside of that particular part of a sub. Full functioning periscope and loads of computers etc. Anyway, there was another room next door that had all these instructors in it. There would be a team of trainees who would be put through a potential disaster, they even had to deal with the room tilting, no sooner did they solve one problem when the instructors would fire another one at them.
 

Then there was this room which was like a round 20ft glass circle, also looked like the innards of a sub in the middle of this enclosed glass circle. Now these poor trainees were really in for some excitement. Into this glass enclosure they go. A few problems are sent their way, then one of the pipes springs a leak...and I do mean a major leak, big time gush. The room fills up mighty quickly, in no time the guys are swimming in this freezing water, and having to dive down under the water to stop the leak, then as if that isn't enough, they turn the lights out...These panicking guys have to find a flash-light (while still in the dark) and still try to stop the leak, by diving underneath the water and finding the burst pipe or whatever was gushing. Sometimes the team doesn't succeed but boy what a program it is. By the way, that water is very, very cold.