A Submariner’s Tale

John D’Aloia Jr.

John D’Aloia Jr. is a retired navy captain and a submarine commander. He is a columnist for several newspapers in Kansas.

A reader took exception to [one of my columns]. He wanted to know “Why a smoker’s so-called right to smoke takes precedence over my right not to smoke?” He said

I support a smoker 100 percent in the right to smoke, as long as the smoke can be contained to that individual and not affect others.

Methinks the reader was out looking for a debating point that was not in play. I re-read my words several times and for the life of me, cannot find where I held that the smoker’s rights trumped the rights of non-smokers. The point being made was that target-specific taxes do not generate the revenues forecast because people find ways to avoid them.

Myself, I cannot stand tobacco smoke, but I agree with the reader that both the smoker and the non-smoker have rights. Where we might disagree is how the opposing rights can be balanced. One means of balancing the rights is to lean on the private property rights concept. If I want to smoke in my house or my business, then that should be my right, recognizing that I may be depriving myself of visitors or customers. For this reason, laws that decree a complete and blanket ban on smoking in privately owned businesses, such as restaurants, are an anathema. The owner should have the right to decide if smoking is allowed in his business; potential customers have the right to decide if they want to enter. It gets a bit more dicey in certain situations such as airplanes and buses, which although privately owned, people are captives in a closed container. Perhaps for these situations, and others in what might be viewed as the public domain into which people are forced, a combination of the Golden Rule and the common law nuisance concept is the proper approach to balancing rights. In such situations, the non-smoker cannot escape the smoker’s exhaust, and the smoker would be exhibiting a sense of responsibility and reciprocity by foregoing the pleasure for the duration, recognizing that he would probably be less than happy if the non-smoker forced upon him a swine-lot odor.

The addicted cravings of smokers was fixed indelibly in my mind one summer. On patrol, we were running deep to avoid a foreign destroyer whose sonar was doing its best to deafen every denizen of the deep. We had left him far astern and fading when a fire was announced in the engineering spaces followed almost immediately by a good news, bad news story. The fire was out but the reactor had scrammed. Up to periscope depth we went and started snorkeling while the engineers worked to replace the electrical component that had decided it was time to fry.

In any emergency situation, the smoking lamp is automatically extinguished, and stays out until the all clear is sounded. The repair effort was not a pull and plug repair, it in fact took hours, while we slowly headed on a course, determined by the tactical situation, that sucked the lovely odor of diesel exhaust back into the boat. When the diesel is the only source of power, only critical equipment is kept on line, the equipment necessary to ensure that ultimately the surfacings will equal the submergings. There is not enough power to run all the equipment normally in operation, such as ventilation electronic precipitators that remove dust and particulate matter from the air.

The Chief Corpsman was monitoring the condition of the boat’s atmosphere and keeping me informed. Carbon monoxide and dioxide levels were slowly increasing, not to a dangerous level, but enough to have to be factored into considerations of the situation. I could not believe it when, after several hours, the Executive Officer approached and said that crew members were asking if the smoking lamp could be lit, just for a little while.

XO, you have got to be kidding. Air quality is a growing concern, and the crew wants to add to the problem? Request denied.

There was no mutiny, but then and there I realized how great a hold nicotine had over some people.

With God’s providence and excellent work on the part of the technicians, the component was repaired, the reactor restarted and brought into the power range, and we secured snorkeling. In a short time, with all the atmospheric control equipment back on line, air quality was such that the smoking lamp could be relighted. Ah, happiness and contentment.

If you want to smoke, that is your problem, your decision. Please consider my right to be free of your smoke and then we both can work together to prevent The Guardians from imposing their politically correct view of Utopia on both of us. Ω