Greetings everyone.

I have just recently been accepted in the Navy and have locked in SECF as my rate. I understand that nothing is guaranteed in this rate as I may be put into ET, FC or STS. I would love to attend STS school and I will be working hard to finish top of my class to see if that holds any bearing on a choice of further schooling.

My big question:

Knowing that the average boot-station time for this rate is a little over a year regardless if I go ET FC or STS, are there any breaks that anyone was granted due to long durations of schooling?
My wife and I are trying to plan the 'big' wedding that the family is invited too, with the dress and all the pomp and circumstance, and we were hoping that a brief break in the middle might be enough time to coordinate this event.

Thank you for your input and I'm honored and proud to be serving with you shortly.

It depends if you are going to a 'C' school. Back a million years when I went thru I had a little over a month between ET 'A' school and my 'C' school pipline. It can vary depending on when your school classes up, if you get set back or graduate on time.

Now with that being said you also have to request leave and submit a chit to request permission to get married. Unless that has changed. There is no guarantee that you will get anytime off between schools. This is just the way it is in the Navy. It falls under Needs of the Navy.

On a last note: Good luck with school.

Now get hot NUB you are dink.

Thank you sir for the information.

The thing is we are already married and the Navy knows about it, its her parents that don't as well as some of my family. This wedding we are planning is the family, big celebrations wedding.

we got married before I swore in as to get her some benefits to help with bills and what not while I'm away.

quote:

originally posted by mpwimmer:
There is no guarantee that you will get anytime off between schools. This is just the way it is in the Navy. It falls under Needs of the Navy.

This is oh so true. When I graduated from sub school, I was given a bus ticket from New London to A school at Bainbridge for that day to report not later 0900 the next day. I reported in about 0200 the next day and started classes the following Monday.

On the other hand, I spent two weeks after A school just hanging out waiting to get a port call for my first boat.

Well I am currently here in Groton, Connecticut where you will be at soon. I'm in ET Radio school, there is ET Comm and ET Nav, if you can, try for ET Comm because we have the best job on the boat . As far as breaks go, it depends on when you are planning the wedding. You'll get here and go directly to Basic Enlisted Submarine School and I can almost gaurantee no breaks there, then you will go to Apprenticship Technical Training, and that is about a month long, no breaks, then from there you will go to Tactical Computer Network Operations class, TCNO, and that is about a month long as well, then from THERE you may be put on what is called "hold" waiting to class up into A school. You can take leave while you are on hold, it just all depends on when you class up and how much time you have between TCNO and when you class. I know of people taking 10-15 days of leave while they were on hold. Any idea when you are coming in?

I am leaving for Great Lakes may 6th this year.
Oh btw, 28 y/o SOB, I've lost over 40lb so far and have 20 to go for target weight (195)also the pappy during PT I would imagine.

She is discouraged on the 'hurry-up-and-wait-' aspect of the military as she can't really plan anything or setup locations for prices and what not in advance.

I feel for her but the Navy is not going to change around us in this manner. If there is a break in the middle like you were saying, I hope I'm prvy to it far enough ahead that I can let her know that we have a 10-15 day window to take advantage of. also I've read from some admins, and moderators here that they were able to live with their spouse while he or she was finishing up A school or C school, any truth in this for SECF?

Again thanks for all the info and yes I am using the find tool religiously.

DEP Smith

quote:

Originally posted by Jester2738:
I have just recently been accepted in the Navy and have locked in SECF as my rate. .

No actually you locked yourself into the Submarine Electronics/Computer Field (SECF), which is not a rate or rating at all.
As you well know, (Or I should hope you do?), it contains the following ratings,, (Electronics Technician – ET, Fire Control Technician – FT, Sonar Technician Submarines – STS).

“Rating” and rate are not the same things.

Commonly misused and construed… Rate is the equivalent to rank in the USMC, Army or Air Force.

After you complete your schooling and get to doing your onboard watch station and boat quals, knowing and using the proper nomenclature is pretty important. No it's Damn Important!!!...

It may make the difference between getting a signature or not on one of your qual cards. A good time to start differentiating between rate and rating is right now. Some of the other members here may take exception to my pickiness. But just ask yourself this, do you want to be just a POUG Sub-Mariner..????.. = sub-standard Submarineer or a Real Submarineer. Think about it….

IC2-you sound like a bosun with all that Rate/rating talk !!!!!!!!!

Thank you for the correction sir. -salute- I'll have to kick my recruiter and tell him to get it right too.

I am hoping for STS but it seems from others experiences that I'll have opportunities to cross rate into other SECF fields while deployed depending of course on the needs of the submarine I'm sure.

DEP Smith

quote:

Originally posted by Jester2738:
Thank you for the correction sir.
DEP Smith

No problem Smith, welcome aboard. You are starting down the long road to becoming a member of one the finest and most prestigious band of brothers that any branch of the military has. PERIOD… Always remember that!!! Stay focused, set goals, put in the extra time to study, qualify and etc, etc… And errr DEP Smith… You will “cross train” or “qualify” on other watch stations and positions, not cross rate. Good luck!!

You’ll catch a lot of S@#t from the NUCs, but that’s ok… Once you get boat qualified, don’t shun the engineering spaces. Spend some time back aft just to stay up on the systems back there. The NUCs and A-gang MMs will hold you at a higher level of respect for doing it.. BTW, if you have not already done so, go down to OMSI sometime and tour the Blueback (SS-581), that will give you a good idea on what your living conditions aboard a boat will be like and what some of the systems you’ll be dealing with are like, albeit they are older systems, but the “ambiance” is the same.

Again Good luck Youngster!!... Keep us informed from time to time.

Aye sir.

quote:

Originally posted by IC2SS19Z50C5:



As you well know, (Or I should hope you do?), it contains the following ratings,, (Electronics Technician – ET, Fire Control Technician – FT, Sonar Technician Submarines – STS).

Just a little addition to IC2's post:

There are 2 different ET's under SECF:

ET comm - commonly known as the radioman.

ET nav - combination of QM, IC, and NAV ETs.

As for the needs of the Navy, you can look it up in the current SRB for all 4 rates under SECF and that can gives you an idea what are the chances to get what you want. (Hint: They just dropped STS's SRB to half of what it used to be.)

On the tridents, some rates do "required" qualify other rates' watches, but most likely you will not stand that watch even if you are qualified. Like FTs qualify PBB (sonar watch), or NavETs qualify periscope operator and contact coordinator for conventional navigation purposes.

And as far as leaves goes, when I went through the pipeline, I had 3 different leave period. First one was when I worked for the subbase security (in ACU status) after I completed ATT and TCNO. The 2nd one was during the Christmas stand down. And the 3rd one was during transition to D5BF school after A school.

Hope that helps.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: j4ck,

This is off topic but where was that pic taken . I grew up in Oregon and the background looks familiar but don't know why . Agree with the Blueback , and ask when the Subvets do their maintenance . They can start familiarizing you with the spirit of the Brotherhood . Good luck on the Wedding planning , keep reminding her that she will look back and laugh with ya'lls grown kids about all the stress and such , then duck .
Keep us posted Jester we kinda like to keep up on our own .

I know the picture was a little fuzzy, but i didn't have any image editing software. Anything else I had showed me as my old self, 250lb and almost looking like a hippie (I wanted to try out long hair and see what the fuss was).

The background in Multinoma Falls. My wife took me there. Now that I have GIMP software I'll edit a better one down.

From an earlier post.. I doubt I'll shun engineers, my degree field before I ran out of money was Mechanical Engineering, which I hope to finish along with several other degrees while I'm in.

Again thanks for the information. I've told my wife of the feeling of extended family we will receive after I'm in for a while, and this is proving true even now with your kindness and willing to help a DEP'per in his quest for answers. May cannot come soon enough.

DEP Smith

Where do the ET/ESM techs get listed as? Even 20 years ago we tended to get ignored alot. Which was a good thing. It made it easier to hide during field day.

If I had it to do over again I might have picked ST. I crossqualified both FTOW and Sonar Operator underway on my first boat. Which was a Permit class boat. I did enjoy being in a sonar shack that was not in the control room like on a LA class boat. But no matter what I would never give up my boat time. There will be times you hate it, be bored out of your mind. Then there will be some fun and exciting stuff. It will be what you make of it.

Absolutely man. There are quite a few people here living with their wives and children out in base housing that are finishing up A school or whatever part of training they are in. It's so easy!

I would have hated to have sonar in the control room. We had too much fun in the shack just chilling and listening to the fish. Just had to make sure we put a new tape on any time we did pick up a contact of interest (before we ran away from it, that being on a boomer of course). Even on the Shark it was nice to be away from prying eyes and I wasn't even ship's company.

MP - I never forgot the ET/ESM techs. Those were the guys I chilled with when hiding from the COB. That's also where I learned how to fix electronic equipment when ya ain't got no parts. We used a shoe box and loose transistors and resistors to fashion a power supply for one of the pieces of equipment. The tech reps took a look at it when we got back in port and said it should never have worked but it lasted longer than the three spares that we had previously installed.

Both of my chiefs were NavETs before the rating conversion. From what I understand on the trident ET/ESM converts to NavET now, with the exception of ESM.

Weren't ET/ESM part of the NavET back in the days too? I remember one of my chiefs told me there used to be only 3 in rate quals they had to do, NavCTR SUP, Nav watch, Nav tech, and Nav tech operates the ESM. But that was on the trident, I don't know anything about fast boats.

hmmm hiding during field days, can't say I never done that.

It may sound silly and sad but keeping my motivation up has been doing wonders for me. I'm still losing the weight I need to lose. Since DEP'ing in a few days ago, I've lost another 5lb, only 10 more to go and another 5 if I'm extra motivated.

I've been running to Navy cadences and just finished watching a Discovery Channel special on subs in which they followed at length the crew of the USS Virginia.

I look forward to the challenge that awaits me in school and the challenge in completing my Quals and becoming part of something larger than myself and something uniquely Navy, and of course that is becoming and holding the title of a Submariner.

I thank you again for all the information that you have graciously given me and the patience to answer the questions of a slightly old, but none-the-less green soon to be Seaman Recruit.

Semper fortis et fidelis

Hey, anytime man! I wish I would have found this website before I joined to get some of my questions answered! It's nice to be able to help out soon-to-be fellow shipmates. Hey, who knows I may see you on the boat some day!