My experience was the total opposite of yours, as a former fast attack submariner. Don't know if things have gotten more strict or more lax, but my experience is now about 5 years outdated.

Things that didn't happen in "my reality" include the Ferguson race riots, San Bernadino shooting, the shooting at the heavy metal concert in France (?), the Mediterranean immigration crisis, and Trump becoming the Republican front runner. We were on pre-deployment work ups and then deployment. We were lucky to get a batch of sports scores.

I guess it depends on the mission and the command's digression.