Ami Burns – Tempted onto submarines from the day I joined the Royal Navy

Simon: So, at what point did you start getting tempted by the Submarine Service then?

I was tempted from the day that I joined.

Yes, nuclear reactors are you know, so fascinating but when I was in the Careers Office, you know you read the pamphlet and the pamphlet says come and work for nuclear reactors. Nuclear reactors are cool. Yes they are, but unfortunately they’re not available to women at this time.

So, in 2012 I was selected for promotion from the Ranks to become a Commissioned Officer and concurrently they were changing the rules to allow females in submarines, so I was mentored by a Submariner who knew I was changing over who was very keen, because I was working at HMS Sultan at the time as an Instructor and he said, “Oh, I’ve heard you’re going to Dartmouth, you’re going to become an Officer. Have you thought about submarines? We’re changing the rules” and I was like, “Absolutely, where do I sign?”

And what I found was a huge complement was when integrating women in submarines, they were quietly cautious.

It’s a big change to life onboard as it was in the early ‘90s when women were introduced into ships, and so the message I got was they needed somebody with credibility to come across as one of the first in the Marine Engineering Department.