My Recollections of Navy Prototype

I remember being told the purpose of the six month prototype tour after graduating nuclear power school was to prepare you for qualifying on your boat upon your arrival. Not to discredit what anyone told me while I was a Nuke as the absolute truth but here is what I got out of my six months in Charleston.

1) What is like to stuck on a boat
I remember being on the boat for hours at a time. Yes, you lived in South Carolina and weren’t missing out on the best party scene but I am sure there were other activities that would have used my time more effectively. Looking back at the ORSE workups I went through once I got to my boat I should have a complained less. At least I didn’t need to clean after finishing drill sets with multiple fires drills with EAB’s in ERLL.

2) Midnight watches - sleep all day and still get no real rest
My time at NPTU marked the first time I had to work on the mid-watch. I would try all kinds of tricks in order to get a good night’s sleep, some included eating a solid meal prior to going to sleep, drinking heavy quantities alcohol, and partying all night in the days prior to my rotations. All told I never got any decent rest and was still brain dead during my shifts. Which didn’t make me popular with my C-DAD, Shane Rye what ever happened to you?

3) Practice at the game of qualifying
NPTU was where I received indoctrination to Qualification cards and playing to enough signatures to get to a board and enough knowledge to entertain some shot at passing. The reality is you would never know as much as the sea returnees therefore the trick was to optimize the mix of signature and knowledge all while avoiding extra military instruction (EMI). I get the fact the point was to become familiar with the reactor systems enough to go to our boats and qualify. I still would stand no patrol on a decommissioned 578 class boat operating a water brake into the Charleston River.

4) The true meaning of run time - on a watch I would do not duty on
Yes, my favorite run-time. This amounted to free abuse from the sea returnees, all in preparation of going to our sea commands as nubs. My recollections are summarized as such, Petty officer Green, tell me about this casualty on my propulsion plant. My thought to myself, ”No, you tell me”. Aren’t I the student after all? In the end I felt stupid with a bunch of look ups to hunt down about an engine room I would not stand a day of duty on in service of my country.

5) Get in trouble for a scram of a simulator
The time for drills has come again. This time we enter the simulator which is not unlike the maneuvering area on a submarine. At least their gauges are monitoring a propulsion plant. I sit as the RO with my C-Dad wondering what the hell is wrong with me as my gauges go up and down and why I have no real clue as to what these indications all mean. Damn, did I exceed my power limit during that pump shift? I guess my rod bottom lights and decreasing power level into the intermediate range aren’t a faulty indication. What remedial punishment will they come up with for this screw-up? Can I still get my card signed? Can they simulate the board which I will need to pass to get to my sea command??

Please bear in mind these are my experiences and everyone many be different. However if you are looking for more information on Prototype? Here is a Squidoo lens which covers the topic of Prototype very nicely.

http://www.squidoo.com/prototypeschool

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