My name is Davis and I'm a prospective Navy Nuke who is currently working with my recruiter and going through the process. I took the ASVAP last week, scored a 93, and my recruiter is working on getting me in as a Nuke (what I wanted in the first place). I'm 23 years old, and have a associates degree in Liberal Arts (read: nothing). I'm reading through the forums and gathering as much information as I can and writing questions that I don't see answered (however, if you type "nuke" into the navy search, you get 40+pages of results... so forgive me if the answer to a few of these is buried in there somewhere). I'm also completely new to the entire Navy experience. I'm the first in my family to go, and I have no friends who are going/gone into the Navy, so forgive me if my knowledge of the acronyms and basic Navy lingo isn't quite up to standard. The powers that be on this website... you all do a huge service not only for the people who post their questions on the site, but for a whole separate group of people who just read and look for the answers to their questions.

First of all, do I need to say anything to anyone at this point in the process to make sure I get everything (bonuses, rate, other Nuke benefits) that I'm entitled to? I know people can get screwed around by recruiters at my stage of the process, and I want to make sure I'm not missing out on anything.

Does a BSAT help in anyway once you're done and looking for a nuclear related job in the civilian world (my end goal)? I know that most of the credits you earn in Nuke school don't apply to anything beyond undergrad and a BSAT degree so I assume that this is too good to be true. Would the GI Bill cover everything necessary to get through a nuclear engineering, should I choose to go back to school in six years?

Is there any chance of taking college classes while deployed? Or is that a lost cause given the amount of time you spend working? What about online classes?

I know that it isn't up to me whether I'm ET/MM/EM, but is the training for one more geared towards running/working in a nuclear plant in the civilian world, on the off chance I have some say in the decision?

How much is sub pay and is it worth it?

Do you typically graduate from basic and go straight to school as a Nuke? I know there is downtime between the two for some rates but how is it typically for a Nuke? Along the same lines, is your first opportunity for leave after A school?

Again, I apologize if you've read these same questions hundreds of times over. Thank you so much for your time.


Davis

Yes many of these have been answered and here's the reason why I have an issue answering them:

As a nuke, your entire life will be spent qualifying. Qualifying consists of looking things up and learning them on your own, going to someone to check your knowledge and having them send you away to find more info you missed. This info comes from huge technical and operational maunals. Start reading, narrow your searches by using more than one word in the find feature (a luxury you will not have in the fleet) to get specific answers to many of your questions

Those questions that have not been answered yet are

quote:

How much is sub pay and is it worth it?

which I'm not sur what you mean by that.

quote:

Would the GI Bill cover everything necessary to get through a nuclear engineering, should I choose to go back to school in six years?

www.gibill.va.gov

Cat-

Be nice. Someone had to take you under their wing at one point and show you how things got done. That's part of our job here.

OP-
Sub pay varies based on your time on subs and your rank. I thought it was worth it, but that's just my opinion. I never rode a carrier, so I am not sure what living on one of them is like. But I enjoyed my time on subs.

The navy LOVES it when you further your education. Take althe CLEPs you can. Classes while deployed are limited, but available. I would not recommend taking junior or senior level engineering courses or calc while at sea unless you have a very smart guy to get help from.

As an operator at a civilian plant (retired from the navy lo these 7 years now) your rate while in the Navy means very little to them. Your supervisory qualifications (EWS, or EOOW from a prototype) will mean more. My plant has some operators that weren't even navy nukes....

Your path through school will be different than mine. There are threads about that here, or you could visit the Navy's website.

Enjoy.

quote:

Originally posted by PO1_Kline:
Be nice. Someone had to take you under their wing at one point and show you how things got done. That's part of our job here.

That was the advice I was given. "Figure out how to find it, need any clarification, come to me." Worked well for me, same for Adam.

I always found if I showed initiative and looked and did for myself, people would help me. If I did less, people saw me as a lazy puke who couldn't do anything (or, in the case of prototype, get accused of only getting checkouts because I was a female)

Sub pay ranges from $75 to $425 on the enlisted side. It's up to you to decide if $100 or more a month is worth the hard work and danger to earn the distinction of being called a submariner.

There's also a huge bump in sub pay when you reach the 4-year mark. An E-4 over 3 receives $100 but that jumps to $245 at the 4-year mark.

When I was on the boats, enlisted sub pay was only $55 to $150. Realistically that was more, on a percentage basis, that is is today. I certainly was happy to get the extra money although I would have served on subs without it.

Well, we'll just have to disagree. While I have no tolerance for lazy (shoot me an email and I'll describe Trethaway's MLPO end-of-card), the guy asked some questions that I thought were well thought out. Basically, he showed some initiative...well, I thiught he did.

As to you, Mike....riding subs for nothing?!?!
Shame on you! Now the powers that be will cut sub pay, since they realize we would do it for nothing...

That statement came from having spent four years on shore duty at a surface command. I would not ever want to have to go through that again. It really drove home the difference between surface and sub communites to me.

I certainly did not offer to give back my sub pay once I left shore duty. We certainly did deserve it for being crazy enough to sink a ship on purpose with us inside it.

A toast to the insane bubbleheads everywhere!

To a point it's up to you what you are gonna get as a rating. All my shipmates got their first choice when they were asked what rating they wanted. I graduated boot camp on 9/11/09. When we interviewed with the nuke coordinator (Master Chief) at boot camp he told us it is 50% MM 30% EM, and 20%. I was the only nuke in my division to get ET. It was my first choice. My other shipmates choose MM and they got it. He said you're chosen by considering needs and your scores. Those two things are weighed close to equal when your rating is being determined. If you had good line scores for your rating, you can pretty much bet on getting your first choice. As well as a solid ASVAB score.

As Master Chief put it...doesn't matter what job you get you're in the nuke field...you'll learn each others job in the fleet.

When you get here to NNPTC you're gonna love it. It's an awesome atmosphere to be learning this hard material.

ET are labeled reactor operators.

If you are a sub volunteer. You will start getting paid as soon as you start A school. You won't see any of the money until you graduate prototype. You'll get a lump sum check. E-3 sub pay is 80.00 a month so that the rate they use when you'll get your check, but remember if you finish A school you get third class. (Well as long as you do well in class, pass PFA, and stay out of trouble.) Then rate goes up to third class sub pay.

When you graduate basic you'll get here to NNPTC and you'll be in an Indoc. Division for 2 weeks. Then you'll class up.

First time to leave A school is after you graduate. I actually get to leave for Christmas since NNPTC will stand down for Christmas. I'm not sure when you'll be here so I don't know how holidays will fall for you.

quote:

Originally posted by mturnb:
That statement came from having spent four years on shore duty at a surface command. I would not ever want to have to go through that again. It really drove home the difference between surface and sub communites to me.

I certainly did not offer to give back my sub pay once I left shore duty. We certainly did deserve it for being crazy enough to sink a ship on purpose with us inside it.

I second that. I spent time on two different Tenders, and that was as close to the target community that I ever want to get.

The question "was it worth it" is HIGHLY subjective. What's your alternative? Being a target rider? Yea, it was worth it to me.