The following was prompted by a blog posting by Sci_Wren
I and 5,000 other sailors on my ship were volunteers in the US Navy many years ago on the USS Enterprise. We were watching the internal TV broadcast and a taped News article about prisoners complaining about their living conditions. They were complaining about their sport facilities, having better air conditioning, the quality of the food and how often they were fed, educational programs, medical care, ...
I and my fellow 300 sailors in my Nuclear Reactor department shared a living space where our beds were 6 feet by 24 inches and there was only 18 inches between the mattress and the bed above us. When deployed the temperature where we slept was 105 degrees and humid. We shared a common bathroom and showers. We worked 6 hours a day (without any break for the bathroom or otherwise) operating equipment (a nuclear reactor in my case). Then we did 6 hours of maintenance. Then we had 6 hours to eat and sleep. We had an 18 hour day. Then it all started all over again until the ship pulled in somewhere. The longest time we were continuously out to sea was 7 months, without seeing land. There are only two windows on the USS Enterprise, the control tower for watching flight operations (no unauthorized personnel), and the admirals quarters (almost always empty). So to see the Sun or Moon you had to go out onto the catwalks (narrow walkway on the side of the ship) or the fantail (back end of the ship). There were months that I didn't see daylight.
The sport facilities for 5,000 people was in a 15' x 20' room that was so overcrowded that most people found other things to do.
So to say the least, when we saw the prisoners complaining while we were on our 6 hour off time, we had very little compassion for their requests.
And regarding food, there was very little variety. As a vegetarian I had to bring my own food with me. Because our locker space was so small, that comprised protein powder and vitamins. I was completely sick of eating canned sweet peas, stewed tomatoes, and rice because that was the only vegetables that they served without meat.
To stand in line to get fed took between 30 minutes to an hour for each meal. Since you could only eat on your off time, that meant time you could sleep was spent standing in line. So consequently you only ate once a day. Many of us skipped sleeping every other rotation so we had some personal time to write letters, read, and exercise. So for us we slept about 5 hours for every 31 hours we were awake.
Did the environment contribute to psychological dysfunction? YES!
One of my mates mind tripped off line while standing watch on a nuclear reactor. They had to take him off the ship on a stretcher. They revived him after about 2 weeks in the Navy Hospital in Oakland California.
Another mate had enough and he stole a life raft out of an aircraft and in the middle of the night went overboard. We were 500 miles from the nearest island, if you knew which direction to go. His buddies thought he was hidding somewhere on the ship, so no one knew he was gone for 3 days. Aircraft were sent aloft to look for him and it took 2 weeks. He had died from exposure. When they checked, he hadn't even tried to open any of the canned water or food rations. Instructions are on the side of everything. He just gave up living.
Another mate while going to school began shaking next to me. I went and asked for medical help. They hauled him away on a stretcher. I saw him again 2 months later when he came back to classes. The Navy put him back in school contrary to doctors orders.
Another mate of mine was amazing, he had a photographic memory. He would scan each page of our many text books in physics, nuclear physics, electronics, reactor operations, ... and then never look at the book again. Aceing all of his exams. He came up missing two thirds of the way through Nuclear Power School and they found him in Texas; he had hung himself.
Out of the 100 people that started the nuclear power program with me, only 5 of us managed to get through the program and only 4 of us completed our tour of duty. The Navy can be a brutal mental challenge.
I'm done with my rant about prisoner vs sailor quality of life issues.
