To go Nuke or not to go Nuke....do you have an option?

I'm not sure about when you would go to SWO school cuz I chose subs. What happens is this:

-1st DIVO tour: conventional smallboy (DDG, FFG, CG). Qualify for pin.
-Nuke School (1 year)
-2nd DIVO tour: engine room of CV
-Shore duty

Stick SWO school somewhere in there. Probably before the first DIVO tour.

If you stay on, you do a DH tour on a smallboy, then a DH tour in the engine room of a CV, etc, etc. So yes, SWO/N do conventional surface stuff. The annoying thing is that it's split, so by the time you make it to your DH tour on a smallboy, you haven't done a damn thing regarding SWO duties in a few years.

SWOs don't generally go to SWOS (or whatever its called) before reporting. I think they normally go to the current shortened version partway through their 1st DIVO tour after they've already had some on the job training.

I do have a friend who went to Legal Officer school before reporting for her 1st tour though.

The latest story I got from a recently commissioned SWO is that, immediately following OCS, all SWO and SWO(N)s go to SWOS for some sort of crash course for 3 weeks before going to their first assignment. When they are almost ready for their pin, they go back to SWOS again for a few weeks.

I have no idea what SWOS is like, but its only a few weeks as opposed to 6 MONTHS of classroom work at nuke school, plus another six months training on a land based reactor (prototype). I assume they will be quite different.

Looks like Phrog and Spekkio got your other questions.

Alright, I've been selected for a free vacation in Hawaii from March 26-30; During that time they're going to try to make me switch over to the dark side (subs). Any recommendations for having some fun on the island?

That's exactly what happened to me, only I stayed enlisted for almost a year before getting my scholarship. If I had to do it again, I would just go straight to NROTC, even if I had to do college program. They tried to get me to go nuke, but I stayed HM.

Mask, fins, snorkel...and oh yeah...one more thing...

I'm not sure of specifically what you are referring, since there is no quote, but as far as aviation goes, I'm sure some communities have issues different than the ones with which I'm familiar, but much of carrier aviation has severe undermanning and retention issues. Even more specifically, F/A pilots are pulling chocks at a high rate. If you want a job where you will definitely have assets and probably less people than you're even supposed to have to share flight time with, get into the front seat of a hornet. They need guys. They need guys to stay in, too. Guess those suggestions we made for retention would have had a better chance if they implemented any of them...

...who went through Nuke School immediately after screening for Deep Draft Command.


BTW, free spring break trips to San Dog, sitdowns with the Nuke LT in the NROTC unit, and a push to go Nuke all happened in my day, too.

Sine waves, people, sine waves...

We just didn't have AW to enable a bunch of aviator wannabes to all go supercritical feeding off of eachother's anxiety. If you're spinning up into a giant stress ball over this, it's a sure indicator to your Cadre that you're more suited for Nuke than Aviation. They're probably lurking here right now taking down names...

You said supercritical.. :icon_smil

Not an accident.

Nuke=

Well I got the Hawaii offer, and although very tempting, I was able to convince them not to send me. The way I see out of this mess is to act as uninterested as possible. Clearly they interpret everything as a chance I'll switch. Put subs down as 2nd choice so they froze my service selection. Made me fill out a nuke app. so they want to send me to hawaii. If I had gone to Hawaii they prob would have made me go to an interview. If I blow off the interview there's no tellin what the next step is...probably hiring thugs to come poke my eyes so I get med disqualified for flight and have to transfer over haha.

Pretty pessimistic for someone whose handle starts with "Sub"...

Its Latin, but it is kinda ironic. haha

So, has there been an update to the Nuke debacle lately? I mean the SWO ranking list was "supposed" to come out today (didn't what a surprise) and the finale of SNA and SNFO selections will correlate (so I've been told).

I'm one of the many who are sitting around in limbo...... I've seen many of the posts about the "special trips" to Pearl, etc. I've even heard my CO talk about it. So, what came of it? Any takers? Anybody know when the 2008 service selections will finally be over?

If I have to hear my wife ask me if I've gotten any word on SNA yet..... You get the point..... What is the hold up, really? Anybody know. Hell I'll take scuttlebutt at this point!

There was a shortage of sub guys so they withheld everyones final selection while they tried to recruit some more officers. I spent a week in Hawaii on one of the trips and they made a great pitch (it gave me second thoughts). The last "recruiting trip" ends Sunday so after that I would anticipate hearing more. Out of 12 guys on my trip, 4 volunteered for subs and two more were trying to decide. The trip definitely gave me a new respect for the submariners and I'm glad they're out there taking care of business!

Nukes not ALL that bad.

I didn't have a bad time on subs. You were a SMAG, that probably had a lot to do with your misery. Bottom line is, there are good times to be had on a sub. It all depends on your personality. If you have thick skin and enjoy the movie Animal House, you will do just fine in the sub community. If you are more into things like the sun, the beach and keeping your depth perception, perhaps you should go some place else.

Nukes don't really follow 'the rules'. There are a lot of things that are unspokenly not open to us as far as shore duty goes. Pretty much once a nuke always a nuke. And while subs are volunteer, given the choice between being a div-o with a division of 5, or being a div-o with a division of 300, a lot of people pick subs just for that reason. We are a strange group of people, and since nobody in their right minds thinks that standing the most ridiculous watches ever is fun, people have to do it. The money is there for a reason. The Navy does not give out $25000/yr bonuses for happy fun jobs, only ones that are physically demanding or so atrociously boring it makes you have to pluck out your nose hairs with pliers to stay awake for the next 6 hours. It is not a good job, but it has its benefits, I would say to most people considering it, if you have no other passion in the navy, give it a shot. If you don't like it, get out and get a different job, having nuclear EOOW on a resume is a good thing anywhere. But I repeat it is not fun, exciting, or anything resembling engineering. Officers watch people watch gages for 6 hours and then go sign some papers after watch.

Funny because it is true. I have been in sta-21 for the last 7 months and still get scared everytime the phone rings it is going to be NPTU calling to say I got ordmodded back to Charleston. I hope Hurricane Hanna leaves the city of Charleston alone, but wipes NWS Charleston off the map and blows those stupid submarines out to sea where they are not to be found until 2341. Nukes are weird

If you put subs as your 2nd choice, why is this such a big issue to you? You would think that someone who was this opposed to submarine duty would have subs at the bottom of the list, or not on there at all.

Don't you think you're blowing things a little out of proportion here? We have several prior enlisted sub nukes in our NNPS class, which leads me to believe that sub duty isn't the worst job in the world like you make it out to be.

The Navy pays $25,000 a year in bonuses for signing a second 5-year contract because O-3 pay alone can't keep up with the earning power of an officer after he's completed his first 5 year nuke contract.

I don't ever remember anyone telling me that the Navy nuke program was supposed to resemble engineering. The goal of nuke officers is to learn how to manage a nuclear power reactor and learn to fight a submarine, and to do that you need to have a basic understanding of how the plant operates. It is not to learn how to design the thing.

I have not been on a sub yet, but I have a feeling that an officer's job extends just a bit past watching people watch gauges and then putzing around for 12 hours.

He is just a bitter nuke who got out of being a nuke by going STA-21, and now he has to talk like he is a bad ass. He is somewhat right though, but so are you. Officers don't spend the 12 hours after watch just "putzing around". They qualify (i.e. not sleep) because they are dirty NUBs (sorry that was the qualified bitter ex nuke in me). But they do get to learn how to fight a sub and do other "cool" things like sexual tracking party and reconstruct. If I wasn't selected for pilot and was still going officer I would not go back to a sub. Not because I hated it, because I loved it, it is because I wouldn't want to be EOOW. That is because I know what I did to them when I was standing RO. And as every good sub JO knows, even if he was prior enlisted, you are still not in charge as EOOW so you keep your mouth shut.

There are people who visit this site for general gouge on officer programs (which, incidentally, is how I found it). I spoke up because someone going off on a rant like he did can give a lot of people the wrong idea.

Not saying anyone can't criticize a community, but at least do so constructively and state your reasons like you did. Statements like "I hope NWS Charleston gets destroyed in a hurricane" and "all nukes are weird" are insulting and aren't helpful to anyone.

Someone please tell me about the good times underway on a sub! Where is the silver lining?!

Yes they do. See the aviation bonus, or devils money, as it's often called.

can you expand on this?

cuz i do love animal house