Hey Shipwreck, on some days it WILL suck to be you

Submarine moored 

In any job there are good days and awful days. From my experience as a nuke on many occasions the bad days were highlighted with moments which sucked at the time but were quite humorous upon recollection later.  Throughout my sea-tour miserable days came in various flavors. When you were non-qualified the problems resulted from being unable to stand watch. Later once your qualification had been completed the long days were caused from engineering department issues. Then on other occasions your forward brethren wound up being the cause of your headaches. 

One of the favorite horror stories as a nuke occurred on a day after duty which included the Mid-watch SRO. After I had been cut loose by my chief I made by made my way up the hatch. At the time, the submarine happened to be moored outboard of another boat so you had to go across the other brow before going ashore. I had bought a bike to get to and from the boat from my barracks room. In accordance to base regulations in order to ride on base all personnel needed to wear helmet.  So I decided to get a head start by putting on my bike helmet before I traversed the brow. The only problem included the fact I still needed to salute the ensign as I went over. As I threw up my hand salute up the COB of the other boat runs across the brow and begins screaming about me for saluting with a bike helmet on. (For the record I had my command cap under the helmet)  He “recommended” I go back across “his brow” and return and salute like a “friggin’ squared away sailor”. The topside sentry who witnessed this scene play out had the sorriest look in his eye as I strolled made my way a second time.  All of the guys on his boat knew what a prick this guy was and felt sorry someone from another boat had to experience his wrath. Once I saluted the flag I went ashore, put on my bike helmet and rode back to the barracks.

Once I returned to my barracks room I went to the calendar the I kept on my desk which I used to mark off the last few days in the Navy after which no more idiots could scream at me for anything.  Thus another fine Navy day became history and, more importantly, I was now one day closer to EAOS.

What will you life as a nuke be like?

To become a nuke or not , that is the question at hand...

The basis for this posting was a summary of a question posted on forum which was stated as follows: “If you've gone through the nuclear pipeline, please tell me what being a nuke was like for you and what I should expect. What's the work like? How readily do the job skills taught relate to private sector work, both in and out of the nuclear industry? Essentially, I'm looking for the things I can't learn from the recruiters or the Internet?”

My take is after reading what is available on the Internet is most of the information is 90% correct while, in the recruiters, case 90% of what they say is crap.

Here my tidbits on what you can look forward to 1) Count on long hours during your journey through the pipeline but the effort will be worth the trouble down the road. Think long-term. 2) There will be lousy and stressful times after which you may want to go to your command doc and get a psych discharge out. The feeling will pass 3) If a military career is not your choice then get out with your first rate training and use your GI bill to prepare for your future as a civilian.  4) if you wash out before you get to a boat as a nuke your life is not over, many “nuke wastes” forged successful futures, but remember you have joined the navy so if the nuke program does not work you will still need to finish the time you signed up for 5) after your service you will become part of very select club, and after you last duty day this is not a bad thing. 6) The life as nuke and navy life are not one that the same. 7) The nuclear industry was making a comeback before Japanese tsunami, and might prosper down the road; a prepared person may be one who is nuclear trained.

In conclusion, before making your decision about becoming a nuke make certain you understand fully what you are signing up since once you sign there is no going back.