Safe on board?
A submariner from HMS Vigilant, a UK nuclear armed submarine, was found to be drunk when reporting for duty according to various media reports.
The submarine was docked at the Kings Bay Naval base in Georgia, USA, where the UK’s allegedly ‘independent’ nuclear weapons are stored.
This story is alarming for any number of reasons, but the truth of the matter is that the present state of the UK’s nuclear submarine service is so bad that incidents such as this can hardly be surprising.
Naval submariners are tasked with running what they are told is the ‘ultimate deterrence’ and are drilled to understand and accept not only the procedures for deploying these weapons, but the consequences of doing so.
Voyages of these underwater death machines last for months, where crew members endure cramped quarters and, it seems reasonable to assume, acute boredom. No wonder some of them ‘lest loose’ once they reach dry land.
The fact of the matter is that this situation only adds to the risks and dangers of nuclear weaponry. One false move and life on this planet will end.