What They Don't Tell You About Life on a Nuclear Submarine

He served on Cold War fast-attack submarines, surfaced through Arctic ice, and spent up to 85 days underwater breathing recycled air — all without his family knowing if he was alive. Retired Navy Commander Henry Rausch joins the show to talk about his time as a submarine officer, the true story behind his bestselling memoir Submerged, and why the submarine force may be America's most important — and most overlooked — line of defense.

Henry was the son of a Navy Master Chief, turned down a path to medical school at Stanford, and instead went straight into the Navy's nuclear submarine program during the Reagan-era buildup.

Two tours on 637-class fast-attack submarines later, he'd surfaced through polar ice, tracked Soviet boats in the North Atlantic, missed the birth of his son, and lived through a near-collision in the Strait of Gibraltar that still shows up in his dreams.

📖 Get Henry's book, Submerged: https://henryrausch.com/my-books/submerged-life-on-a-fast-attack-submarine-in-the-last-days-of-the-cold-war/

Henry Rausch served on classified submarine missions during the Cold War. Before publishing his memoir, Submerged, he submitted the book to the Department of Defense for a pre-publication security review, where it was vetted and approved with certain information redacted. The information Henry shares in this episode has been cleared for publication.

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Chapters:

00:00 – Meet Henry Rausch

05:00 – Why He Joined the Navy

10:00 – Becoming a Nuclear Submarine Officer

15:00 – Training to Serve on a Submarine

20:00 – Inside a Nuclear Submarine

25:00 – How Submarines Stay Hidden

30:00 – The Secrets of Submarine Warfare

35:00 – Life Before Going to Sea

40:00 – Learning to Hunt Soviet Submarines

45:00 – Reporting for Duty

50:00 – The Mission to the North Pole

55:00 – Life on a Cold War Submarine

1:00:00 – The Pressure to Qualify

1:05:00 – What Can Go Wrong Underwater

1:10:00 – Becoming a Submariner

1:15:00 – A Day in the Life Underwater

1:20:00 – Food, Movies & Life at Sea

1:25:00 – 85 Days Underwater

1:30:00 – Communicating With Home

1:35:00 – Being Hunted by the Enemy

1:40:00 – Weapons of the Cold War

1:45:00 – Under the Arctic Ice

1:50:00 – “It’s Kind of Game Over”

1:55:00 – Surfacing at the North Pole

2:00:00 – The Cost of Being Away From Home

2:05:00 – Why Submariners Don't Talk

2:10:00 – Lessons From a Life Underwater

2:11:44 – Final Thoughts

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