Submarine Quotation & Related Questions of the Week - 17 MAR 17

Background

Should "snowflakes" or prima donnas ( = very temperamental people with inflated views of their own talent or importance) be recruited for submarine duty?  That decision is up to each navy. Vladimir Putin's navy does not think so. The U.S. Navy once agreed and even administered psychological tests to eliminate the patently unsuitable among its less suitable submarine volunteers.

The Center for Naval Analysis had found that the "unplanned loss" rate (23 to 25 percent) for female sailors was more than two-and-a-half times the rate for men (8 to 10 percent). Proportionate loss rates on submarines, combined with surfacings and evacuations made necessary by disciplinary problems, can obviously compromise stealth missions typical of submarines. 

Since the Fall of 1999, however, new submarine designs have been required to include berthing and privacy arrangements appropriate to mixed gender crews. The gender example does NOT serve to dismiss all women as unsuitable sub sailors, but illustrates convincingly that our U.S. Navy now finds itself compelled to marginalize some of its once prized recruiting standards despte the Russian Federation Navy's trend toward the opposite.  Either way, the inevitably in such stark choices seems bound to result in grit for future notes.  Loosely related QOTW follow.

Q.O.T.W.

1- Was current President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin's father a submariner?

2-  Did the U.S. navy require Cold War submarine volunteers to have their sound wisdom teeth extracted in order to prevent the possibility of mission interference / interruption?

3-  Is it true that submariners are superstitious and as so unable to cope with deviations from daily routine for their fear of tempting fate?  

4- How recently was the snow-flakey assertion in question 3 published? 

Submariner's Quote of the Week

... [F]ood rationing at that time was a challenge because it got to the stage where breakfast was just one sausage with a teaspoon of beans and dinner was pasta and tomato sauce, but we had to get on with it as there was an important job to carry out.
  
5- The man quoted above received his fleet's commendation for (inter alia) "excellent work in difficult circumstances". 
-a) Is he a culinary specialist?
-b) i - In what navy does he serve?
-b) ii - What is the official ship prefix used by Russia's Navy?
-c) Name the type of commendation.
-d) For service aboard which sub (ship's prefix and name) was his coveted commendation awarded?
-e) During what period of time (approximate) did the underlying submarine mission take place?

Submarines are always silent and strange.