Photo By Lt.j.g. Mackenzie Jefferies | 250806-N-ZO368-1001 AT SEA (Aug. 8, 2025) – Machinist's Mate Auxiliary 1st Class...... read more read more
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Deep below the surface, in the steel belly of an Ohio-class submarine, there is a place where wrenches never stop turning, pipes never fully sleep, and the heartbeat of the ship is kept alive by a small band of mechanics who call themselves “A-Gangers.”
To the untrained eye, the work might look like grease, noise, and endless troubleshooting. To those who wear the “A-Gang” shirt on their backs, it’s something much more: family, tradition, and one of the most respected jobs on the entire boat.
“Auxiliary division handles basically anything on the boat that isn’t electrical or nuclear,” Machinist's Mate Auxiliary Seaman Elvin Pruitt III explains. “Plumbing, high-pressure hydraulics, diesel, and mechanical systems, if it moves, pumps, drains, cools, floods, shifts, or breaks, we own it.”
Their systems include air, water, hydraulics, compressors, valves, and pumps. It’s a job with no shortcuts. A job that doesn’t stop underway or in port. A job that rarely gets the spotlight. And yet, every person interviewed said the same thing in different ways: It’s one of the most respected rates onboard.
Because no matter what happens, someone eventually turns to Auxiliary division and says: “We need you.”
Pruitt described the division in one word: family.
“We’re in engineering but not nuclear, and we’re also forward but not really forward,” he said with a laugh. “We’re kind of on the outside of every group, which means we just bond closer with each other.”
Another Sailor, Machinist's Mate Auxiliary 1st Class Alexis Cornelison, the Auxiliary division leading petty officer, who originally came from the surface Navy, put it differently:
“My whole little family is right there” said Cornelison. “The camaraderie is what keeps me here.” Even in a male-dominated environment, the women aboard formed the strongest sisterhood she’s ever experienced.
“I don’t think I’ll ever have friends like this again. We’ve been through everything together, good, bad, all of it.” she went on to say.
The division looks out for each other in ways that go beyond the job. When Cornelison’s grandfather died, she said, the crew didn’t hesitate. “Don’t even worry about it, go home. We’ll take care of everything. No questions, no hoops, no stress. That’s family,” she said. “And it’s why I’m glad I got to be part of this.”
Their paths to A-Gang are as different as their personalities.
Machinist's Mate Auxiliary 2nd Class Joseph Hillard’s father had been a part of Auxiliary division on an older 688-class sub. Cornelious started as a cook in the surface fleet, then fought for years to switch into engineering before volunteering for submarines entirely once it became open to females.
Even she laughed at how unexpected her journey was. “I told my family I liked mechanics, and they said, ‘Who are you?’ Everyone thought I’d be an English major or something. But here I am, loving my life on a submarine.”
Regardless of how they got here, they agreed on something important: You don’t really choose Auxiliary division... you jump in, and the job chooses you.
“It’s not something you can sit and debate in the recruiter’s office,” she said. “You have to get thrown into it. Either you love it or you don’t.”
A-Gang’s tempo swings hard depending on whether the boat is submerged or tied to the pier. Underway life is steady, predictable, and intense. But in port is a whole other beast. “Honestly, it’s busier,” Hillard said immediately. Contractors moving in and out.
Shipyard workers everywhere. Deadlines, repairs, and upgrades. “It’s more stressful in port,” he said. “Underway, we stand our watch and we work. In port, it feels like everything is happening at once.”
When asked about the best part of the job, every single one of them said it differently but it always came back to this: Solving a problem no one else could solve and finally getting a stubborn system to run right.
“That feeling of troubleshooting something over and over, and then you finally get it right, it’s amazing,” Cornelious said. “Nobody knew what was wrong, and then you just… figure it out.
Hillard said his favorite system was High-Pressure Air Compressors.
“They were my worst system at first,” he laughed. “Then I got qualified and made it my best. Now if something breaks, that’s the one I want to fix.”
For some, the rate is a launch pad into civilian trades, hydraulics, mechanical systems, diesel, heavy equipment, and more.
“For getting out of the Navy? It’s one of the best rates you can have,” said Pruitt and Hillard. “You can go anywhere. Any blue-collar job you want.”
For others, it’s a calling. A source of pride. A tradition passed from father to son or discovered in the most unexpected way. And for all of them, it’s something they’ll never forget. Hard. Dirty. Respected. Full of challenges, full of laughter, and full of family.
A job that runs a submarine in the shadows; unseen, but never unvalued. On the USS Wyoming (Blue) an Ohio-class submarine, A-gang isn’t just a division. It’s the backbone of the boat. The keepers of the systems. The unspoken pulse that makes the strategic deterrence mission possible. And in the cramped passageways and diesel-scented spaces where they work side-by-side, they’ve built something rare: A place where tradition still matters, where leaders raise up the next generation, and where the hardest jobs bring the closest bonds.
| Date Taken: | 11.25.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 11.25.2025 08:46 |
| Story ID: | 552312 |
| Location: | KINGS BAY, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 60 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, The Heart Of The Boat: Inside Auxiliary Division on USS Wyoming (Blue), by LTJG Mackenzie Jefferies, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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