I am a girl and I qualify to enlist as a nuke (ET). Is this rate harsh on women? I'm worried I won't have a life for six years. Am I going to be able to find a good job when i get out? I wanted to be a corpsman, but because of the economy most rates are hard to get into. My recruiter didn't know much about this rate so I'm trying to get more information. I would really appreciate any advice. Thank you

REad my remarks on nuke on here. I'm a female, prior nuke.

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Originally posted by catherine0830:
REad my remarks on nuke on here. I'm a female, prior nuke.

"Here"? Where? Anyway, you can't be guaranteed a rating when you go nuke. You are designated as NF (nuclear field) and you are broken down into one of the three ratings (MM, EM, and ET) at school in South Carolina. From what I've heard this rating is harsh on all involved, but if you qualified for it you'll be fine. If it helps, I'm in the same boat except I'm a male. I enlisted as a nuke and I ship out June 1st, 2010. Also if it helps, the sign on bonus is $21,000...just a thought.

quote:

Originally posted by r4hundle:

quote:

Originally posted by catherine0830:
REad my remarks on nuke on here. I'm a female, prior nuke.

"Here"? Where?

On these forums. If you head up and hit the "find" button on the top of the page and type "Nuke" in and then hit search, you will have many days worth of reading on there.

Not just myself, but a bunch of other nukes as well. She wanted a female perspective though.

Nuke bonuses vary by many factors. what you got has no bearing on what someone else will get

quote:

you can't be guaranteed a rating when you go nuke

Actually you can be guaranteed MM (but only MM).

You should listen to Cat young jedi. The force is strong with her.

Dang NUBS never use the find button first do they?

Unfortunatly r4hundle thinks because he's further along in the enlistment process he knows everything.

r4 When you've gotten through bootcamp and school then you can answer questions like a veteran. Until that time ask and read, nothing more.

For all the NUBS out there, and those of you who are priors out there will agree with me, I'm an ex NUKE MM Bubblehead, Enlisted in 93, served on fastboats out of Pearl. I signed up to be a Nuke, and wanted to be an EM because I had just previously switched majors in college from mechanical to electrical engineering before I enlisted. When I got into Bootcamp, the navy told me I was going to MM A-School.

As to the question of how hard Nuke School is, it's tough for everybody. It is probably the second hardest program next to MIT, they cram 2 years of math, chemistry, physics, thermodynamics, nuclear physics, electrical engineering, heat transfer, and rate specific info down your throat in 26 weeks, and all of your studying is done in class, everything is classified confidential, and it is argueably the hardest school in the Navy.

I went to Bootcamp with 11 guys in my company, about 40 of us in 4 companies, who were designated Nuke, of the 11 of us, I think two in my company actually finished.

I also wanted to become an officer, my recruiter told me 25 percent of nukes get picked up for O-Gang. I think that might actually be 25% of the 25% who make it through, and that is actually sometime in their career, not necessarily early on. We had one guy in powerschool get selected for the USNA, and my last skipper had enlisted as a nuke ET, got picked up from Nuke school too to the Acadamy, what a great boat driver.

My A-school class had 60 firemen in it when we started in two classes. By week 8 they combined us into one class after we lost 50%. By graduation week, we lost another 10 guys. Then came Power School. We had 7 classes I think, and by the time we graduated, we lost another 50%, and another 25% in Prototype.

One more thing to note, if you do become Nuke Waste, the furthur along you make it through the program, the Navy will still require you serve some if not all of your 24 month extension, If I remember correctly, for MMs, if we made it half way through Power School, we owed the Navy the full two years, ETs might be different since their A-school is twice as long as MMs.

Also, you can volunteer for Sub Duty, I was going surface, wanted to be on the Nuke cruisers (ok I'm dating myself) but they were on their way out, and my A-School instructors made fast attacks sound great, so I volunteered for sub duty.

With that said, sometimes, if the Navy is manning a Pre-Con carrier, they will take entire classes from Prototype, happened to the class before my, they took the entire class, MMs, EMs, and ETs for the Stennis.

The key to surviving the pipeline is STUDY STUDY STUDY, and dont give up! Work hard and you will do fine.

Also, you must maintain a 2.8 min GPA, or you will become Nuke Waste.

Good Luck,

And maybe the Navy will finally conviene the Reserve DCO EDO board, so I can put on the uniform again.

As for jobs on the outside, right before i got out, I took one class from the University of Phoenix, and got my Associates in Nuclear Technology, I did have two years of college before I enlisted, but there are some great schools out there, and as a Nuke, you are highly desireable, because of your training, you are a member of an elite organization.

I got a job as a class A maintenance mechanic in a union shop. Some guys I served with became Nuke power plant operators, and did quite well, and some of us, including myself worked our way through school to finishe engineering degrees.

Take advantage of every C-school you can get your hands on.

Again, best of luck to both you guys.