Posted on 07/30/2008 8:06:29 AM PDT by DungeonMaster
My 18 year old home schooled son has just joined the Navy! He is torn between being a Corpsman or a Nuke tech.
My wife and I have so many emotions going through our heads but the biggest one is pride. Of our eight children this particular one is the most shy and quiet and we have wondered for a long time what will be his calling. The Navy suddenly seems to be a perfect fit. He doesn't mind being alone and reading all day and isn't currently occupied with chasing girls.
I'm a former Nuke student, attended in '86. The Nuclear Power program is the most difficult program in the Navy, moreso than the SEALS.
If my memory serves correctly, I believe only about 3-5% of enlistees make it to the fleet as a Nuke. Between washouts in bootcamp (not many), Nuc Field A school (quite a few), Nuclear Pwr School (a whole boat load), and Prototype (quite a few), it is extremely difficult to complete the program.
I scored 99 on the ASVAB (highest possible score), and a 68 on the pre-enlistment Nuke test (which also is exceedingly high). Nuclear Pwr School is 24 weeks longs. I failed out in week 22. And it wasn't for lack of trying! Without a doubt, NPS was the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life. Eight hours in the classroom, typically compiling 100+ pages of notes per day (which needed to be learned by the next day), followed by 6+ hours of homework per night. All work, because of its confidential nature, had to be performed in the classroom. That's 14+ hours a day in a classroom, studying. And if one starts to fall behind in ingesting the material, you can anticipate the hours per day total to only climb. By the time I failed out, I was racking up about 2-3 hours of sleep per night.
It can be done, there are many who can attest to it. However, one needs to be more than just exceedingly bright to complete NPS. One also needs to have the ability to completely absorb huge amounts of information in a very limited time.
2 years!!! yipes. It's a good think I have a lot of other kids to help keep my mind occupied.
Jonah might have a word or two to say on the subject.
My sincere thanks.
I posted several months ago that my 17 year old son Andrew has joined the Navy with a deferred deployment. The deferred date is now approaching, August 7, 2008. He too is going to the Nuke Tech school after boot camp. Maybe they will get to meet each other
Wouldn't that be something. There is a guy sitting 2 cubicles away that met his wife on FR. I guess two freeper's son's meeting is quite possible. This post is sure reminding me how much I love the Freepers.
I too am so proud of my son.
AMEN.
If you son has been a good student with an aptitude for math and science then I would recommend he follow the nuclear training option over the corpsman option. He will find himself working with people of similar interests and education, will most likely find the training more interesting and challenging since it’s some of the toughest the Navy offers, and will probably find his term of service more rewarding as a result.
Every word from the Freepers is much appreciated today! Thank you for the reminder of preperation.
Anchors Aweigh!!!
And thank you and your son both.
Thank you so much!
Electronic Nuke Tech is the way to go. About two months after they get out to the fleet they make E-5! Plus as others point out down the road it can be a great career move. My son made it through the first two parts (academic) then he played too much during the OJT. He is kicking himself now but still has a good ET job on the U.S.S. Eisenhower. Nuke is definitely the way to go.
Ravenstar
Thanks! I really need to get my son to see your post because I believe the recruiter is keeping this part quite. I think the recruiter is generating a lot of excitment about the the Navy and this program in a bit of a salesman way, but I keep telling my son “Don’t sign up for the hardest thing, you’ll miss out on a lot of fun that you could otherwise have.”. My Army school was 40 weeks and it carried a constant threat of infantry if we failed out. Not only that, but my son is more of a natural at biology and not physics or electronics.
I don’t know about your friendly opinion about the Navy. I had One son in the Navy and One in the Air Force and if you aren’t the type that fights the system in the Air Force you don’t get the benefits that are available to you. The Navy doesn’t throw those barriers in front of the benefits such as a promotion post basic for having been in JROTC! Both my sons had JROTC for 3 years. The Navy gave the promotion the Air Force said he had to go to some office that was only open during duty hours (8-4) of which he was busy with basic training in order to get it and you had to do that before you finished basic. The Air Force never gave the promotion.
Ravenstar
ex navy here, congrats to your son and good luck to him. it will be an adventure that he will be happy he took as he gets older.
Axeslinger is correct in that it is an intense program. The people that make it through are regarded as elite members of the Navy every bit as much as the SEALs. The career opportunities after would be well worth the challenge IMHO.
Ravenstar
When I attended, once you completed Nuc Fld A school you were given a rate: Electrician's Mate, Machinist's Mate, Electronics Technician (oh and by the way, he won't get to choose which. He'll fill out a form as to which one he wants, but it doesn't mean he'll get it. I was an EM, which was my 3rd choice). Then in NPS you have classes in: Reactor Theory, Physics, Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow, Mechanical Theory, Electrical Theory, Electronics Theory, Chemistry and Materials and some others that I'm just not remembering right now. I've always remembered what my Chief said at the beginning of A school, "The vast majority of you will not make it through this program. Just make sure that at the end of it all, you can look yourself in the mirror and say, 'I gave it my best.'"
It's a damn difficult program.
On the upside, the pay is (relatively) good, reenlistment bonuses are good, and you'll have a lot to offer to power companies when you get out. Especially if this country ever weans itself from foreign oily teats and goes nuke!
*Qualified on S5W, S6G, and A4W reactor plants. And now I work for the Army. Go figure.*
Tell him something for me, even if you don't know what it means. There's no such thing as Mail Buoy Watch. ;-)
The Navy nuke field is good for getting into medicine too. Several of my ex-navy-nuke buddies are nuclear medical technicians. They do MRI’s, X-rays, and isotopic medicine, among other things. I considered it, but ended up becoming an engineer working in the utility field, supporting both Nuke and non-nuclear customers.
Hush! Next thing, you’ll say there’s no main shaft relative bearings! ;-)
Why did you have to say ORSE?
Sorry. Blame it on post-traumatic stress disorder. :-)
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