im joining the navy

[Tex]

benefits are great, pay ISN'T. IMO

[cr4sh_27]

^^ yeah but how much pay do you really need when you are gettin on the job training and they are pretty much handling all ur major lifes finances.

ur right, pay does suc....but it all goes in ur pocket, and on top of that...once you leace the military and get into ur job field as a civilian, you'll be bankin...especially with a college degree!

[dentguy92]

I was in the Navy for 5 years. I was a damage control DC2 (a fireman)
my special was rescue swimmer. I got to go with the SEALS and jump out of helicopters. It was cool. don't believe anything they tell you now. You cant even think about special ops until you get out of basic and then your
A-school. make sure you pick a rate that you will like and do well in A-school.
If you don't make it into ops school you still need a job that you like. My ops school had a 70% drop rate. that is after a year of tests and P.T. If you have a hard time not getting pist off at people ops is not for you. what ops are they telling you you will get? I don't know of any you can get right out of basic. Most ops guys are boson mates, you don't want to do that.

[cr4sh_27]

^^ dude, i could be explaining some of this stuff wrong. you sounded right when you talked about what i had to do well in to get into special ops. there is just alot of bs bein thrown at me at one time. its quite a bit to take in. so, my appologies if some of the stuff doesnt seem correct.
but, yes....based on my a.s.v.a.b scores, i can pretty much get any job i want. so im really checkin into the jobs that i think i may like.

[stratcat]

cr4sh! good choice man... the Navy was good to me for the 10 yrs that I was in.. the only things I will say are:

- get a rate/rating guaranteeed, you don't wanna be a boatswain hangin over the side of a carrier painting it! (yeah, they don't take them to Earl Schieb for paint jobs)

- boot camp is a mind game, take it as such, you'll use this crap later in life.. it'll make you a man, end of discussion!

- if you get the opportunity, volunteer for submarine duty, when I got out my sub duty pay was damned near my base pay... goood duty, good grub, insane shipmates, all fun! and remember, the only good marine is a submarine! Seriously, top 10% of the Navy, you get the top of the line everythign (food, liberty, etc) and besides that you get to wear Dolphins.. ask about it... besides that, surface sailors (skimmer pukes, target sailors) don't have nearly as good of stories as the submariners have! How many carriers do you know that have run 2 months under the North Pole and had it cut short because they ran into an ice keel?

- do as your told man, someone will think for you for the most part, just do it.. if you have an open mind, it will all make sense later.. there's a reason for the bullshit!

- take any courses they will give you.. I went to so many freakin' schools when I was in, and most were not related to my Yeoman rating, but I took them, it's education man!

- JUST SAY NO TO GROTON, CT! the place sucks!

anyhow man, you'll have fun.. I saw most of the world by the time I was 18, in fact I spent my 18th birthday on the North Pole.. very cool stuff...

(oh yeah, avoid the airdale community, all those guys were egotistical dicks! so freakin' what, you fly an airplane, blah... anyone can do that... Top Gun inflated these guys' heads entirely too much!)

edited to add: when that "dude" gets in your face, and he's talking about how good your mother was last night, don't let it bother you man... it's part of the game, if it helps, think how funny it would be to tell him how his wife loved you last night! that's what I did when that sob got in my face and screamed! oh yeah, don't smile while doing it, I did that one once, and it costed me 20 pushups for smiling during the ass chewing and another 20 for not having the balls to tell him what I was thinking. (I did tell him after boot).. in boot camp if you are there, do what you are supposed to do, nothing more, nothing less, you'll be alright. Remember, there's a reason for this.. unity.. you are no longer an individual, you are part of a unit totally different to the civilian world here.. they are going to break you down nothing and build you back up to be part of the TEAM (and not this army of one bullshit, it's a freakin' team) you go out and pick up the same women, fight together, drink together, sleep together, slay commie bastards together and possibly die together! kinda get it?

oh yeah, worried about dodging bullets? hmmm, I'm not sure of the stats on the surface navy, but a lot of people die compared to the submarine force.. let's see, one guy in 1989 in a shipboard fire, and then the prior two casualties before that was in the 60's with the Thresher and Scorpion - which these two casualties, although all hands were lost at sea, this was good for the submarine guys, it caused them to invent the "subsafe systems", basically, whatever is on that boat, there will be an operating backup at all times to save your ass! (i.e. main ballast tanks - if it won't open hydraulically when you grab the chicken switch, you run down below, grab the knocker valve, knock your ass off and it'll open letting water leave the tank, air come in and you popping up to the surface) GOOD DEAL!

[cr4sh_27]

thanks for the heads up....and i really like how you dealt with the screaming. you can count on me using that idea. lol

ive already been lookin into nuclear propulsion and im pretty sure that ill be on a sub. thanks again

[stratcat]

thanks for the heads up....and i really like how you dealt with the screaming. you can count on me using that idea. lol

ive already been lookin into nuclear propulsion and im pretty sure that ill be on a sub. thanks again

Nuke school is a mother man! if you can make it congrats! but keep in mind, when you are through with nuke school, the fun just begins.. you go to a boat, start qualifications (yeah, you are a NUB, non-useful body) it'll take you at least a year to learn all the systems on the sub and qualify in submarines.. plus, during that time, you've got your nuke stuff going on (they train like a mother ********)... probably 4 hrs a day...

but in any case... have fun man! you'll get out of it exactly what you put into it! you'll see a lot and learn a lot, especially about yourself..

here's a couple of pics of my second summer vacation.....

[dentguy92]

STAY OFF A SUB...... I did some training on a sub and it sucked. sub guys say its the best and you go all over the world, but its under water. the food is good but the air is bad and you cant go outside and see if its night or day. I was TAD on one for 2 months and it seemed like a year. If I had the choice of a sub under the polar ice cap for 6 months, or a distorter in the MED. I chose the distorter. just my opinion..... I know STRATCAT will say sub duty is the best, but he is was a Yeoman all they can do is type. JFWY

[stratcat]

STAY OFF A SUB...... I did some training on a sub and it sucked. sub guys say its the best and you go all over the world, but its under water. the food is good but the air is bad and you cant go outside and see if its night or day. I was TAD on one for 2 months and it seemed like a year. If I had the choice of a sub under the polar ice cap for 6 months, or a distorter in the MED. I chose the distorter. just my opinion..... I know STRATCAT will say sub duty is the best, but he is was a Yeoman all they can do is type. JFWY

yeah, Yeoman...

remember, it's submarine duty, don't matter who you are you will know every system in the place... I qualified every forward watch station (non-nuclear) possible from Cheif of the Watch, Diving officer of the Watch, Aux of the Watch to sonar supervisor as a yeoman.. at the three year point I was an E-5 (did I forget to mention that submarine advancement is a bit quicker?)

to me subs was fun, yeah, I was a freakin' yeoman, but driving the boat, standing sonar, working on the gen pak's, O2 generator, in the torpedo room, etc was a blast! and the beauty is, it was required to be learned..

were you on a boomer? (SSBN) if yes, yeah, THAT DUTY SUCKS! ooohhhhhh man, how freakin' boring!

oh yeah, have the dentguy tell you about drinking beer on the north pole, huh dentguy?

I did the med for 6 months, lots of liberty ports, blah blah.. if I had a choice I'd rather had done northern runs under the arctic and raped commies.... just my opinion...

UGGHHHHH! it just hit me what you said that the air smells... that's the amine... oh yeah, but you really don't notice it until you get back hom and smell your nasty uniforms...

[cr4sh_27]

yeah guys fyi...

ive already decided that im gonna do somethin with subs. to me, its a childhood dream. some peeps wanted to be an astronaut....i wanted to be in a sub. so, im pretty much gonna get into one anyway possible. i dont care if the only job i can get on it is scrubbin the toilets lol.

but yeah, im gonna try for nuclear propulsion.

i do see what you mean when you say it sucks. im sure it may feel like ur in jail or somethin like that, but its an experience that i feel i have to have.

[stratcat]

yeah guys fyi...

ive already decided that im gonna do somethin with subs. to me, its a childhood dream. some peeps wanted to be an astronaut....i wanted to be in a sub. so, im pretty much gonna get into one anyway possible. i dont care if the only job i can get on it is scrubbin the toilets lol.

but yeah, im gonna try for nuclear propulsion.

i do see what you mean when you say it sucks. im sure it may feel like ur in jail or somethin like that, but its an experience that i feel i have to have.

go for it man!

me personally, I never thought about submarines and the navy having them.. I was in school, they told me to go to "sub indoc", I showed up, watched this movie, heard a lecture, then the YN1 pointed at me and said "do you want to volunteer?"

my exact response was....

"f**** you dude, that shit is designed to sink from teh first freakin' bolt that holds her together!" and with that I walked out...

then about 2 days later I went to see him again, and volunteered I dont really know why, it just seemed cool.. me and that guy did cross paths again, about 8 yrs later and had a good laugh about my response...

[cr4sh_27]

just wanted to drop a quick update...

i think ive pretty much gone through all the red tape. Monday, im going in to do all the final paperwork and signing. So once that happens, im pretty sure they are gonna give me a date to leave for basic training.

I do have one problem that i didnt realize until today though. i lost my friggin birth certificate. so i dont know what im gonna do. i have to go downtown chicago to try to get another one, i guess, and i think thats gonna screw me over, so im a lil stressed....:ugh:

but thats where im at, as of now.

[TowShen]

benefits are great, pay ISN'T. IMO

and thats going to be changing...by 2010 the U.S wants to be paying the military = salaries as the civilian jobs. and if you don't be leave that fiscal year 2008 we are getting a 17+% increase.

and i think your making a good choice joining the service. regular navy really dose not see much combat, but there spec ops and Seebee's do. alute:

and also don't stress basic, the worst thing you could do is watch a hole bunch of them movies and think thats how its going to be. where in reality, yes they what to mentally break you down but thats to asses what levels of stress you can handle, 2ed they want to get you in shape so they WILL PT the hell outa you, and the rest is just killing time so they can run background on you and set up your job and chit like that.

[mikeh]

TowShen!!! How the hell are ya?! Been awhile.

[TowShen]

meh doing good for being in korea. figured i would drop in, then i saw this tread so i figured id put in my 2 cents.

[mikeh]

Cool, man! Send us some pics of Korea.