SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG Forum
General Boards => Website Updates and Off-Topic Discussion => Topic started by: BrokenArrowtiger on October 17, 2010, 04:19:02 PM
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Hey.. im thinking about joinoing the navy doing a job like wut bill wasil did anyway i have some questions for u fellers that was in the navy
1.When did u join the navy and was it before u were done with high school
2.What was the funnest part and some of the experiances u had in the navy
Yes im 17 and its legal for me to join im just doing my reasrch
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BA,
I joined the Navy at 17 years, 3 months. I chose the Navy primarily due to my older brother being in the Navy when he was 18. But the reason I chose to to join was due to personal issues at home, not because I wanted to be in the Navy sooner than later. I wasn't doing well in high school and didn't get much support at home to improve myself. It all came to a head and I "ran away" and joined after my father signed the approval form. It wasn't planned, but it was probably the best thing I could have done at the time without knowing it. I received my GED while in submarine school only because a buddy of mine was doing it. I was too ignorant of how important this would be at the time. I'm so fortunate that I did it.
I joined the Navy without any real direction or purpose. I had no clue on what I wanted to do or be in the Navy. I was thinking of being on an aircraft carrier because I thought it would be exciting, but one day in boot camp in San Diego I saw a submarine leaving port. That was it; I knew where I wanted to be. What rate I was going to be was determined when I saw some old WWII submarine films where the skipper kept going to the sonarman for the latest information about the bad guys. I took the acoustics test and found that I had done well on both the sonar and radioman's exams. I chose sonar and was never sorry I did. It was a great rate to be in; very rewarding.
I have never been sorry about joining at such an early age due to the circumstances I had. But I have to caution you about your leanings of joining early. If you can finish high school, please do it. You'll never be sorry. It will help you in the Navy and later in life. Don't be swayed by the "excitement" of joining. After the second week in boot camp you'll wonder what the heck you did. Just think it over before you make the commitment, BA. Don't go for the glamor because the reality isn't the same. Make the best educated decision you can.
Good luck with what ever you decide.
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I have recived alot of advice from my parents..and they really want me to do it the main reason i want to go espeically in the sub serive is iv been interested in submarines all my life and im not that strong but i wanna be the best i can mentally and physcially i understand boot camp will be hard...thats why im takeing chemistry next year and weightlifting i have had 6 familly members in the military dateing back to ww1 and iv never shot any gun outside a bebe gun in my life for me its gonna be something new me to me and its a challenge Hard work something i do want to do this summer is volunteer at the USiS BATFISH becuse i think it would be a good start learning the basics of sub and helping the people their my mom first mentioned the navel about 2 years ago and iv been thinking about it ever since.
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Assuming it's no problem to join the Navy, how difficult is it to end up in the submarine service?
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From what iv read and heard u have to take a test and if ur accepted into the submarine service then i would either head to Groten Conn or to San Diego thats why i really wanna work on the batfish is to learn a little abit about submarines as far as interior goes and such.
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thats why i really wanna work on the batfish is to learn a little abit about submarines as far as interior goes and such.
Work Day this Saturday...we'll show you how the deck works ;)
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Well so iv also found out is u have to take a test and it will decide which branch your gonna be in..*prays please be navy or airforce* anyway ima volunteer in the summer when i dont have projects everyda...
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calm down there BA, first you need to take the ASVAB test your recruiter will set you up for that. It is used to see what best suits you i.e. electrical, mechanical, food service, combat arms and so on and so forth. you can look this test up and see if there is a study guide for it because you need to score pretty good on it to go into Submarines. And no matter what branch of the military you go to do NOT let them push you into anything that you don't want, or in my case in the Navy taking the "Seamen Subfarers Program" which back in it's day was a straight route to Deck Div and no "A" or "C" School which hurt me when I left the Navy because while I was a Submarine qualified TM3 I had no formal schooling which means I didn't get paid as much as other veterans whom had gone to their service schools.
Once you pass your ASVAB the recruiter should start showing you jobs that you can do in the Navy, please ask to see each and everyone because you may never know what you will catch your interest other then submarines :2funny: IF you are a math wizard nuke power school from what I understand takes your brain out tosses it into a blender and then pours the remains back into your skull... Basically they teach you math backwards and in different ways.. or so I have been told.
When you finally set down and sign the paperwork to enlist in the Navy you will go to Great Lakes, Ill for boot (outside of Chicago) sadly GLakes is the ONLY open boot camp for the Navy now, when I went through there San Diego and Orlando were open and both of those were considered the club med by all. After GLakes then you can take leave before going to New London, Ct (if you choose submarines) where you will go through BESS (Basic Enlisted Submarine School) and while you are there you will receive orders to your first boat and where that boat is stationed is???? Could be Pearl Harbor, San Diego, Groton, Kings Bay, Ga or GUAM.
Personally I enjoyed Pearl but due to having family in the Groton area I was not happy when I didn't get orders keeping me in Groton, in hind site I wouldn't have done it any other way.
Of my 20 years of service in 2 branches of the military not counting the reserves I had by far the best time in the submarine service and at times they were also the most boring of anything that I have ever done.. Being a TM was truly fun however setting at a launch console for 6 hours at a time was boring especially when there were crewmembers sleeping in the TR cause the lights were off except for the one over the console, that and being on a 6 on 12 off made it tough at the 00-06 watch.
Now Qualifying I am sure has changed over the years as to how hard the crew rides you, my crew was tough on Non-Qual's. What that means is you do your 6 hours on watch and then continue for 6 more doing ships quals and if your equipment is broke you get to help fix that also and do quals after the equipment is fixed. One time that truly sticks out in my head was right after I qualified and we were preparing for a TRE (Tactical Readiness Exercise) and my LPO (Leading Petty Officer) had me scheduled for the 00-06 and at 0700 we started tearing out all of the hydraulic valves in the room one at a time and rebuilding them so they worked flawlessly and didn't leak.. almost 12 hours later we were done and it was time for me to go back on watch.. Sadly we hydro locked the torpedo room hydraulics and had to "mechanically agitate" all of the valves to get them all to function again at the cost of a LOT of noise and then some leaking valves. We passed our TRE with flying colors but we were darn tired at the end of that one.
One more thing to remember about submarines, their crews are the best fed and best paid in the military short of the special forces and they don't have as good food as submariners have.. at one time I was collecting Base Pay, Sea Pay, Sub Pay, Career Sea Pay and Career Sub Pay and Basic Allowance for Housing. Now I only collect Base Pay.
Tom Clancy wrote a non fiction book almost 20 years ago titled if I remember correctly "SUBMARINES" it read to me at the time like a Technical Manual, granted the book is now outdated but it gives you a good in site into the first flight 688's
Good luck to you in your choice in selecting what branch of the military and what job you will be doing. My recommendation is Submarine ET or Submarine MM, both have had multiple jobs integrated into them.. ET has the RM and QM rolled in and the MM has TM rolled into it. So you are really getting the best of those worlds.
Darrin
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Thanks soo much darren i will deffintly use this knowlege and i plan on taking swimming courses during the summer..no matter what and sobbosbly they have those books at Barns and Noble? its gonna be alot differnt no matter wut becuse beside iv never been out of oklahoma except texas and missouri so ya traveling to illonois will be an experaince and yes iv met some submarine recruiters at my skewl..their cocky xD
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I remember taking the ASVAB back in high school. It is (or was then) required for all of us to take I believe in the 11th grade. I wonder what it said I was best suited for? I bet something in electronics.
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u cant be in the navy till ur senior year of high skewl and even then they wait till ur done...i wonder if theyll look at some of my test scores...(praysthey dont) doesnt the ASVAB test determine which military branch ud be good at?
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http://www.military.com/ASVAB
There's a link that tells you all about the ASVAB, including lots of practice tests.
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Sweet :)
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nope the ASVAB does not determine the branch you go into, it will however show your recruiter what jobs you are or are not suited for. You can retake the ASVAB if you didn't like your score, please study up on it if you feel that you did not do very good. It can only benifit you :coolsmiley:
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I will do that thanks lance and darrin :) hey darrin i got a question for u....Do u have to be a good swimmer to be in the navy?
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nope, they will be more then happy to teach you in boot camp how to swim if you don't know or at least they used to do that.. Hmmmm I do remember a couple of folks whom couldn't swim and they were in the Navy, it was interesting for them to go to sea and not being able to do swim call :2funny:
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:) i know another thing they didnt have back in ur day i mean 80s Votech i think.. anyway ima take like a comp science help my experaince with computers
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i went through a votech program during high school.... now who r u callin old again :2funny:
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:knuppel2: oops...
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I got some good news i went to a Book Fair in Broken Arrow and found the military test book the AVSAB or something test book for 50cents xD beat that!