I'm currently attending Radio A School here in Groton. Worked fairly hard to get to the top of the class rankings, got 4th pick out of 21. San Diego was my first choice, and we had 4 SD billets, and all three were taken at the start and I managed to get the last one. I'm pretty good friends with everyone in my class going there and so it seemed like the perfect situation. So I was pretty stoked to say the least. Then I receive my orders and apparently I will be reporting to the USS Helena in....New Hampshire. Where it will be dry docked for an extended amount of time

Edited GerryRM3

Anyways, my thoughts were pretty much, well, that's the navy for you. To be honest, I'm not really disappointed or anything, just surprised. My main concern is getting qualified. All I want to do is get to the fleet and contribute. Thing is, my boat is set to be dry docked. From what I've heard, you can only do so much when it comes to getting qual'd in dry dock. I had a buddy who was an ST who received orders to the same boat and he just recently graduated. I guess they sent him to San Diego to a different boat to get qualified as opposed to going to NH.(and I've heard when that happens, you usually stay with that boat and don't go back to the one you originally received orders too) Anyways, my question is, is that normally what happens, and how likely is it that I will do the same thing? Also, is it possible to get your dolphins without going underway? I'm supposed to graduate in about a month, and I'm not sure what's going to happen since I just received my orders, but just thought I would post this here to see if any of you could help me out. Anyways, thanks, and feedback is appreciated.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GerryRM3,

When i got done with my schools i got sent to a ship in drydock which was going through an extensive overhaul.

You can (i did) get your dolphins while in drydock - never going out to sea. But it is harder since major systems may be missing. During taht time we had "school of the boat" to help with quals. Also alot of my regualr wastchstation quals were "provisional". I qualified watchstations without actually performing some of the tasks.

You may be sent to another ship temporarily to work on RM quals and ships quals.

I hope this helps.

I managed to earn mine (as did a lot of guys) during new construction. The major hiccup was the minimum time on an operatioanl submarine hurdle. At that time, it was 90 days....

So, at 91 days from the Insurv date, we had a dolphin ceremony that lasted about 45 minutes....lots of fish were awarded that day.

Just a few related questions from an old RMCM who retired in 1977. Is there still an RM rating? I heard it was encompassed with others. Also, is the RM A School in Groton? Used to be SDiego and Bainbridge, six months for A School and nine months for B school. I didn't hear anything about Sub School. How did this fit into your training. I went to A school, sub school, then on to the fleet. Kind of like to know where the communications specialists are as opposed to the dark ages.

Master Chief, All RM's are now known at Information Systems Techs (IT) The A School is in Pensacola FL. I was an RM for 10 years back in the 70's. Fond memories of RM A School in Bainbridge.

Interesting, I taught 72-73 at RM A for a while until I took the Special Projects group. We wrote exams and validated the results. Basically manipulated the exams to get results that met the Standard Deviation Curve. Also, responsible for many of the policies you saw. Was RMCM Bill Seavers in charge when you were there?

quote:

Originally posted by YN1Mike:
Master Chief, All RM's are now known at Information Systems Techs (IT) The A School is in Pensacola FL. I was an RM for 10 years back in the 70's. Fond memories of RM A School in Bainbridge.

Are we talking about submarine RM or surface RM, YN1? I'm assuming you're talking about surface fleet because we don't have ITs on the submarine "yet".

Submarine RMs are now one of the ET ratings on the submarine, along with ET(Nav) and ET(Nuc), but we still call them radioman.

Master Chief, I don't know if things have changed since I went through SECF pipeline 3 years ago, but it was like this:

BESS > ATT > TCNO > A school = all in Groton.

And if you are on the trident then you have to go to an addition school at TTF, Bangor or Kings kay.

Hope this helps.

quote:

Originally posted by j4ck:

quote:

Originally posted by YN1Mike:
Master Chief, All RM's are now known at Information Systems Techs (IT) The A School is in Pensacola FL. I was an RM for 10 years back in the 70's. Fond memories of RM A School in Bainbridge.

Are we talking about submarine RM or surface RM, YN1? I'm assuming you're talking about surface fleet because we don't have ITs on the submarine "yet".

Submarine RMs are now one of the ET ratings on the submarine, along with ET(Nav) and ET(Nuc), but we still call them radioman.

Master Chief, I don't know if things have changed since I went through SECF pipeline 3 years ago, but it was like this:

BESS > ATT > TCNO > A school = all in Groton.

And if you are on the trident then you have to go to an addition school at TTF, Bangor or Kings kay.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the update!

quote:

Originally posted by RogerCollins:
Interesting, I taught 72-73 at RM A for a while until I took the Special Projects group. We wrote exams and validated the results. Basically manipulated the exams to get results that met the Standard Deviation Curve. Also, responsible for many of the policies you saw. Was RMCM Bill Seavers in charge when you were there?

I was there the summer of 70. The RMCM was a Class Act, don't remember his name.

quote:

Originally posted by Boosteeohs:
I will be reporting to the USS Helena in....New Hampshire.

Well, living in NH (actually, PNSY is in Maine) isn't so bad, but you're on the Helena? Oh dear. Back when they were in Pearl they weren't exactly regarded as a "good luck" boat. Just ask anyone who was on there (like a ELT buddy of mine from prototype) who got to find out first-hand that yes, Nucleonics is indeed shrapnel-proof.

SEA STORY ALERT: I was a young non-qual doing a run to the Cal shop at Pearl the day Helena got back from three-plus weeks on the outboard/being towed back to port. As I was walking by S-12 (near the radcon barge), Helena's COB was on the pier, jumping up and down, madder than a hatter, pointing at the pier sentry box that had been left there. Seems some enterprising young gent had left a sign tacked to the box which said, "For Sale--Slightly Damaged--25% Off."

It was everything I could do not to laugh, because if I had, I might have dropped one of my more valuable than gold Flukes, and my ET3 life would have been much endangered by the wrath of said angry COB, even if he wasn't MY COB.

Well, I don't know too much about the USS Helena. I served on the USS Providence out of Groton, but I did do my last 11 months of sea time in Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. All in all, it wasn't bad. It's a small base in comparison, and generally speaking, there isn't much on it. The yard birds were all pretty friendly. The one thing I'll mention is this. This thread was started in Sept. Which means you'll be stationed in Nh for the winter. Do yourself a favor. Buy some WARM clothes. The word cold just doesn't seem to quite sum it up. (though I was in Nh in '03, which was an "extra" cold winter, i.e. it was 30 below for 4 months, before you calculate wind chill. Good times)

No worries though. I now live in Maine. (gets just as cold)