Who's Driving that Sub?

Jason Pront
February 20, 2001

In what may be this year's Academy Award winner in the category of "obvious," George W. Bush enacted a temporary ban on civilian participation in military exercises involving submarines. Honestly, I'm not sure what disturbs me more, the fact that civilians were, at one time, allowed to participate in submarine exercises, that this ban is temporary, or that civilians can still participate in other military exercises and missions.

According to military spokespeople, allowing civilians behind the wheel of a submarine is a major public relations device that the armed forces have relied upon for years. Without launching into a discussion of why the world's largest and most powerful military should not need to engage in schlocky publicity stunts, I think allowing non-military personnel to participate in any military situations whatsoever is an extremely dangerous and bad idea.

First, need I remind the public about the unusually large number of military accidents that have occurred within the past 18 months? While most of these tragedies have occurred in the Air Force, it is not to say that similar disasters could occur in any branch of the military. Surely, the scandal that would be caused if a local dignitary were hurt or killed during a military training exercise would cause irreparable damage.

Perhaps even more important is the potential damage that a civilian could cause while involved in a military situation. The recent Hawaiian tragedy was no doubt a terrible loss, but all things considered the damage could have been much, much worse. Imagine if the submarine had accidentally plowed into a larger boat, or even run aground? The disaster could have been comparable to the Kursk incident of last year. There is a lesson to be drawn from this tragedy, and the lesson is that civilians have no place on board military vehicles, especially during combat exercises. While I am not so paranoid as to think that a local bigwig might accidentally lean on the button that launches a nuclear strike, or some other similarly cataclysmic event, I truly believe that this is a situation which can cause much more harm than good. Keep non-military personnel out of military situations. Everyone will be a lot safer.