Line handlers from the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Memphis prepare to moor at Naval Submarine Base New London after a deployment to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility in 2010.

U.S. Navy

The U.S. Navy called the cheating ring discovered aboard the submarine USS Memphis — resulting in the ouster of 10 percent of its crew and the firing of its commanding officer — a rare lapse in integrity.

But former officers said the episode aboard the Groton, Conn.-based Memphis was an extreme example of shortcuts that occur aboard many of the roughly 70 American submarines in service.

Former submariners told The Associated Press it is not uncommon for sailors to receive answer keys or other hints before training exams. They say sailors know how to handle the nuclear technology, but commanders competing with one another to show proficiency have made exams so difficult — and so detached from the skills sailors actually need — that crew members sometimes bend the rules.

From The Associated Press: Cheating scandal hits U.S. submarine

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