A Texan Submariner Loves His Job On The USS Texas

“I’m a grown man, but whenever you see your children and your wife for the first time after that long of a period, you kind of lose it, and it takes you aback.”

By Joy DiazMarch 30, 2020 10:10 am,

Thomas Bolin come from the small town of Stanford, Texas, population 3,600. As a mechanic on a submarine, he’s traded one small place for another. He works on the U.S.S. Texas, And that’s exactly where he wanted to be.

“I stepped through a few different boats to get myself out to Pearl Harbor on the U.S.S. Texas,” Bolin says. “I’m absolutely enjoying it out here.”

Though food options on a submarine on deployment can be limited, Bolin says the Texas spices things up a bit with taco Tuesday and Texas Tuesday.

Small spaces mean doing things in shifts for the 150 sailors on the submarine. And that includes laundry.

“We actually have to schedule things out,” he says. “On the submarine, we’re limited to a single washer and dryer.”

Submarine deployments can mean separation from family for seven months at a time.

“I’m a grown man, but whenever you see your children and your wife for the first time after that long of a period, you kind of lose it, and it takes you aback,” Bolin says. “It’s kind of giving me the feels right now, coming back home.”

 

Written by Shelly Brisbin.