Just graduated! :)
 

Just graduated yesterday! :) In San Antonio awaiting my departure to Corpsman school. Any questions? I will do my best to help! :)

Congrats! How were the IT sessions? Any stupid mistakes to avoid doing at the beginning? I leave August so I have a while but thank you for offering a Q and A.

do you know any GSE's in your division?

how are the marchings? I heard it's like 10 miles

and how was the overall experience?

congratulations btw :)

Wow the Navy has marches? I never heard about that till today.

[QUOTE=krystaljoycee;26748]how are the marchings? I heard it's like 10 miles/QUOTE]

That's about 9.5 miles more than I ever marched at RTC. :p

Furthest you'll ever march is from your ship to the firefighting building... that's maybe a mile, on the other side of RTC.

well, my division we marched in circles around the base for couple of hours.

When did you graduate? RTC has softened quite a bit in the past 4 months... lots of RDCs aren't happy with how their hands are tied in regards to a lot of areas.

are the showers cold?

Hello! The IT sessions are hard but just DON'T give up... they just don't wanna see you give up, that's all they want. No matter how out of shape you are.

And just don't ask stupid questions, do what you're told.

Yeah we did that, and marched around the drill hall a lot too. Marching was always one of my favorite things though.

What is the difference between the 800 and 900 division

800 divisions are special program recruits with higher physical requirements, i.e. future SEALS, etc.

900 division is the performing division, i.e. the recruits that do stuff at graduation (music, drill, staff, etc).

oh ok thanks a lot

well thats good to know!

900 division! Hoping to be in one!! Extra work? I don't mind!

I just want to say congratulations!

yeah are the showers cold?

What is graduation like. What should I expect that Friday

To get all the information on your graduation..it is called the PIR Pass In Review..there is a forum area on here just for that to help you.

http://www.navydep.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=168

No, they're warm, no different from at home except bigger and a lot more people in them when you're using them with no privacy.

:party:

...expect a cold shower on Sundays if you shower after church. Just sayin'...

If they ask you during indoc (or the first night you get to boot camp) if you play any instruments, sing, do flags, was in ROTC, etc.. and you want to be in a 900 division, say YES. Keep in mind that 900 divisions will end up staying in boot camp a week or so longer than other divisions (at least when I went through)

3 years of JROTC. I don't mind having to stay a week longer, as long as its not the cause of being asmo'd..

You should be fine

So did you get to keep your phone during boot camp? I went through in march 2011 and we didn't but I'm hearing rumors you get to now

Do they start shoehorning recruits into a 900 division if they don't have enough volunteers to fill it? I'm not exactly itching for extra demands on my time, but I would be sharp enough for drill team.

No. At least, not for Triple Threat, which is the division that provides music and drill. They don't want someone who doesn't know what they're doing in Triple Threat because that division has a rather large responsibility for PIR and if they sound or look bad, the reviewing officer is NOT happy, not to mention it looks bad on the Navy in front of all the parents. We practiced once per week for about a month before our first PIR performance. Then we were in the drill hall four times each week, each time being inspected by the RO and other drill hall staff to make sure we didn't suck.

Band practices in boot camp. That was definitely a nice little break lol except their instruments you had to use sucked. I got my trombone shipped to me during A school at Great Lakes when I was in the base band there. Not sure if it's the same guy running the band now, but the band director officer dude hated drum corps, so I had to bring it up as much as possible. lol

I have a million and a half questions but I'll stick with a couple. FIRST: what was the swim requirements and process like? (I don't know how to swim yet.)
SECOND: did all the females cut their hair? (Not a deal breaker)

You will be taught to swim and you will need to pass the swimming test to graduate.

Everyone cuts their hair unless your hair is so short that you dont need to cut it, but chances are you will need to cut it at some point

Thank you! It is decided. Off with my hair :) its already dead anyway.
Swimming:I will be learning before I leave but I wasn't sure if there was a certain area I should focus on. (Strokes, time, etc.) At least I know how to float.

Don't need to float but you will need to know how to stay afloat. front stroke I believe is all you will need to know... maybe side? You will need to be able to swim the length of a pool and in a certain amount of time I think, but it's nothing that hard. You will also need to be able to jump off a tower into the water which is about 10 stories high.

LOL....it isnt 10 stories high...as that would be like 120 feet up! It is about a 30 foot platform jump..nothing bad. They use a standard 10 meter diving platform....maybe you meant 10 meters...it is meant to represent a jump from the ship into the ocean.

I was trying to strike fear into and nervousness into their minds.. thanks for ruining it :)

I honestly think the tower is too low to simulate a ship jump.. especially the bigger ships. :pirateship:

Swim qual you will jump off of the tower into the pool and then must swim to the other end (50 yards I believe) using any one or combinations of the following strokes WITH PROPER FORM: American Crawl, Breast Stroke, Side Stroke, Elementary Backstroke (You can switch between as often as you want and use any of them you want to. If you fail to use proper form, you will be warned and required to complete the swim using the elementary backstroke). After the swim you will get out of the pool and await the next event. You will then climb back in the pool and you will all be required to do a 5 minute prone float (dead mans float). You must keep your face in the water only lifting your head to breathe. If you are taking too long of breaths you will be warned to put your head down. If you do not put your head down you will be told to exit the pool. You also must keep your body in a horizontal position, if you are too vertical in the pool, you will be warned and the second time you will be told to exit the pool. After the prone float you will get out of the pool and put on a set of (soaking wet) coveralls. You will then get back in the pool and you will do a manual coverall inflation by prone floating and slapping water into the open coveralls then clutching them closed to seal the air inside. If you fail any portion of the qual you will get one chance to retry that portion. If you still fail you will go to swimming lessons where you get to retake the test every day until week 6 of training. You must pass the test BEFORE this point.

I've asked this before but I'm kinda confused because of the different answers I'm hearing but how long are the showers? About how long for each individual under the shower head? About how long is the process for the entire division?

If you want to know what it CAN be like.. at 6am, just into a freezing cold shower. Shower as fast as you can. Get out. Dry. Then come back in after you are dressed and dry down the entire shower with a towel.

You get to shower. You will not be in there long and you will get to use your own shower head - probably. Boot camp isn't day spa. If you have some homophobia about showering with 30 some naked people of the same sex, then grow up.

Thank you! This helps so much!

You might also want to practice shipboard showers, where the primary difference is water conservation. Get in, wet down as fast as possible, turn the water OFF. Scrub and all that, then turn the water back on just long enough to completely rinse.

I was just asking to know how much to cut down on my current showers now as practice. I read somewhere that they got 10 minutes to shower each and that seemed excessive. No homophobia intended...

How is Corpsman school btw? The barracks and whatnot.

Like I said.. practice taking ice cold showers. You will be in and out as fast as you can. Trust me. You don't need to practice for it really, it will come naturally

Moving this thread to the proper forum....

It blows my mind how anyone would need to practice showering, or even getting used to a short/cold one for that matter. We are all adults and we do what needs to be done. RTC is designed to be a shock to the system and to break you down, it is unrealistic to think you can simulate life there at home.

You don't need to. They were asking about showers. Maybe some people are used to really nice luxury 30 minute hot showers or something. If you want to make the "transition" to boot camp showers easier, get used to freezing cold showers right when you wake up. They might or might not happen in boot camp, but it probably will at some point.

In the end, it's just a shower.. you don't need to over analyze things.

Which means that the fewer ways in which you can be shocked (having to take a blazing fast, freezing cold shower, for instance), the more energy you'll have to handle the shocks you can't so easily anticipate. It's just like getting used to waking up at a set time, shaving, doing tons of PT, listening carefully with your mouth shut, and (for those of us who've been out of school a while) remembering how to take legible notes in a classroom lecture.

And frankly, some of us are just BORED with 6 months to twiddle our thumbs, and need some variety in our DEP lives.

It's interesting! The barracks are so nice. It's a high end dorm room really. Walk in closet, desk, one bathroom per room, two sinks. My room gets inspected randomly though.

Haha no. That goes home in 'the box' which is what you put all your civilian clothes in when you get to RTC. You have 2 minutes to call your parents or loved ones and tell them that you made it safely. Then your next phone call is 5 minutes long and is in he third week of training. This is subject to change though, you can lose that privilege. It's not as bad as it sounds though!

Thank you :)

Honestly it varies division to division, and day to day. On days where there isn't much time you could have showers as short as 3 minutes. The showers never were any longer then 7 minutes, except on sundays when you can shower for as long as you want, within reason. It's a circle of shower heads and everyone gathers around them. It's an hour long on the schedule, but hygiene also includes laundry passing out and turning in. AND that also includes the time it takes to clean the head and get it on-spot.