Marty's Welding Page 

I learned to weld in 1976 while in the U.S. Navy.  My rating was Hull Maintenance Technician (HT).  The HT's job required skills in firefighting, damage control, sheetmetal fabrication, plumbing, welding, brazing and carpentry.  All these were learned at the HT "A" School in Philadelphia , PA.  By extending my enlistment two more years, I was also able to attend the C-1 Welding School in San Diego, CA.  Welding school lasted 32 weeks and covered GMAW, SMAW and GTAW welding processes on carbon steel, HY-80, stainless steel, carbon-moly, chrome-moly, aluminum, copper-nickel and Monel.  Upon completing the requirements for NEC 4956, I was assigned to the weld shop on the submarine tender USS Proteus (AS-19) stationed in Agana, Guam for 15 months.

My job was mainly piping and hull repairs on George Washington Class ballistic missile nuclear submarines (SSBN's aka "Boomers").  The typical daily job was replacing carbon steel high pressure drain valves, steam traps or trap manifolds.  Sometimes we replaced valves, pressure transmitters or welded canopy seals on valve bonnets in the nuclear systems.  These jobs were managed by NSRO with pre-job briefings, step-by-step procedures, and constant monitoring.  Typically freeze seals would be used when the valves could not be isolated from leakage.  We also had a floating drydock to take the subs out of the water for painting and repairs below the waterline.  We normally worked in teams of two with one person welding and the other running foot pedal on the Hobart Cyber-TIG welding machine.  Since most of the jobs were in tough-to-reach places, the welder could not operate the foot pedal and most times mirror welding was required.

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