Life on a ship

sweetmtn · 01-12-2014, 01:04 PM

As a mother of a sailor that went nuke...I truly wish he had not gone that direction. Yes now that he is done with his time in the navy and in the civilian world, it has done him VERY well, he makes the big bucks now. HOWEVER, it was VERY hard on him...5 sailors in his department of nuke tried to commit suicide and sad to say, so did my son. This happened while on deployment. My son's best friend went nuke as well, and his roommate at Power School did commit suicide while he was away for a weekend, came back to find the guy..very sad. The program is hard, and very stressful. Nukes are always the first on the ship, and last off. They work long hard hours, and on deployment it was not unusual to work 12 to 24 hours at a time. My son did his entire enlistment, and even re-enlisted, however he did not finish his second..but did get a full Honorable discharge and has all the benefits. My son originally wanted the medical field, and was talked into nuke..his original goal was to be a doctor and was even accepted at Iowa State in pre-med. Sadly he no longer wants that and is working as the plant mechanic for Owens/Corning in Texas, and is going to school to get his Engineering degree.
As a mom, you really dont have a lot to say about your son's choice..however, ask your son what his LONG term goals are, what does he see himself doing in 8 years. Does he want to be a nuclear mechanic or nuclear electrician? Does he want to be a plant mechanic in the civilian world later? I know my son originally wanted to make it a career and become an officer. His evals were so good he was recommended for STA-21 program, TWICE, and written that MUST promote, but after 6 years in..things changed. (the reason he got a straight up Honorable discharge as his discharge went all the way to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs who approved his Honorable)
If you have questions, I can ask my son for you..he refuses to come on here, as he is way to busy with work and school. Just dont let the recruiter talk your son into the nuke field by waving the big $$ enlistment bonus at him...

Atom_breaker · 01-12-2014, 02:40 PM

I was wondering if the Nukes have separate barracks because I thought I saw that somewhere could you ask about that?

kforbs126 · 01-12-2014, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atom_breaker

I was wondering if the Nukes have separate barracks because I thought I saw that somewhere could you ask about that?

You'll probably have a different berthing but that is typical of most ships. They put the same rates together or by division/department.

sweetmtn · 01-12-2014, 10:23 PM

My son said on his ship the nukes were all in the same birthing area close to the reactor department so they were close to their jobs. He was on a carrier..the Nimitz. He also said there was lots of noise from when they launched the jets...

LT Guppy · 01-13-2014, 05:43 AM

There are two main theories on how berthings are divided.
1) you live with people who have the same job
2) different jobs are spread evenly through the different berthings.

The thought behing 1 is that if you need the engineers for a middle of the night casualty, you only have to wake up one berthing. The idea behind 2 is that if the ship is attacked and a berthing is wiped out, you don't loose all the engineers, or all the combat systems operators at the same time.

Diesirae27 · 01-13-2014, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetmtn

As a mother of a sailor that went nuke...

Thanks for the perspective!

Benjamin · 01-17-2014, 07:13 PM

Coming from experience as being in the Nuclear Field. I would strongly recommend against the program. Don't get me wrong this program will set you up for success if you can handle it. I've been here a couple of months and i've seen 3 suicides. You lose a lot of happiness that you have coming here and personally I would strongly recommend telling your son to do what he is passionate about. Don't let the money and advancement persuade him. It's extremely easy to get E3 in bootcamp so it won't be any different and if he's got a good work ethic and being an intelligent guy he will do very well in any field.

sweetmtn · 01-18-2014, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benjamin

Coming from experience as being in the Nuclear Field. I would strongly recommend against the program. Don't get me wrong this program will set you up for success if you can handle it. I've been here a couple of months and i've seen 3 suicides. You lose a lot of happiness that you have coming here and personally I would strongly recommend telling your son to do what he is passionate about. Don't let the money and advancement persuade him. It's extremely easy to get E3 in bootcamp so it won't be any different and if he's got a good work ethic and being an intelligent guy he will do very well in any field.

Good advise!

Chance · 01-18-2014, 03:13 PM

I agree with Sweet. I'm Depping for Mineman right now, I turned down NUKE and HM (both sought after rates). I turned them down, not only because of stress, but because I dont see myself in those fields after 8 years. Think about having a job you hate (most jobs), now think about being legally tied to that job for almost a decade.

Money is great and all, but prosperity is much more valuble.

Nasant · 02-15-2014, 03:39 PM

My intention is to address the fact that everyone keeps bringing up suicide.

It's not that the program/pipeline causes people to become suicidal. It's that the program is only available to a certain type of people (Those who have high scores) and those are the kind of people that are generally more introverted, socially awkward, depressive, and prone to suicidal tendencies. You can disagree with me if you'd like, but I am in the pipeline. 99% of the people here are genuinely happy. True, the workload can be tough and the days can be long, but there is a sense of community here like nowhere else. When we pass a hard test we go out and celebrate. If a shipmate is struggling with some aspect of the schooling, we will all get together to help them. There are so many opportunities to relax and have fun here and in the fleet that those who don't take advantage are only harming themselves.

I hate the negative stigma that those few people who do decide to do something drastic like end their lives brings to the program. There are 3000+ students on base at any given time, and one or two people killing themselves is not indicative of the program (statistically), but more so of their individual personality types.

What you don't hear is that the people who go to these extremes tends to be those who have been masted or punished and are depressed about that, not "overwhelmed by the stress of the program". Just saying.

So my advice to any of those thinking about going in to the nuclear field is to not let the actions of a few troubled people dissuade you from a good opportunity. If it interests you, look more in to it. If it doesn't interest you, do something else. But don't let these 'horror stories' be the thing that turns you off of the program.

AramilX · 02-15-2014, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nasant

My intention is to address the fact that everyone keeps bringing up suicide.

It's not that the program/pipeline causes people to become suicidal. It's that the program is only available to a certain type of people (Those who have high scores) and those are the kind of people that are generally more introverted, socially awkward, depressive, and prone to suicidal tendencies. You can disagree with me if you'd like, but I am in the pipeline. 99% of the people here are genuinely happy. True, the workload can be tough and the days can be long, but there is a sense of community here like nowhere else. When we pass a hard test we go out and celebrate. If a shipmate is struggling with some aspect of the schooling, we will all get together to help them. There are so many opportunities to relax and have fun here and in the fleet that those who don't take advantage are only harming themselves.

I hate the negative stigma that those few people who do decide to do something drastic like end their lives brings to the program. There are 3000+ students on base at any given time, and one or two people killing themselves is not indicative of the program (statistically), but more so of their individual personality types.

What you don't hear is that the people who go to these extremes tends to be those who have been masted or punished and are depressed about that, not "overwhelmed by the stress of the program". Just saying.

So my advice to any of those thinking about going in to the nuclear field is to not let the actions of a few troubled people dissuade you from a good opportunity. If it interests you, look more in to it. If it doesn't interest you, do something else. But don't let these 'horror stories' be the thing that turns you off of the program.

Hear hear. It's nice to hear that perspective on it.

shamablama · 02-17-2014, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nasant

My intention is to address the fact that everyone keeps bringing up suicide.

It's not that the program/pipeline causes people to become suicidal. It's that the program is only available to a certain type of people (Those who have high scores) and those are the kind of people that are generally more introverted, socially awkward, depressive, and prone to suicidal tendencies. You can disagree with me if you'd like, but I am in the pipeline. 99% of the people here are genuinely happy. True, the workload can be tough and the days can be long, but there is a sense of community here like nowhere else. When we pass a hard test we go out and celebrate. If a shipmate is struggling with some aspect of the schooling, we will all get together to help them. There are so many opportunities to relax and have fun here and in the fleet that those who don't take advantage are only harming themselves.

I hate the negative stigma that those few people who do decide to do something drastic like end their lives brings to the program. There are 3000+ students on base at any given time, and one or two people killing themselves is not indicative of the program (statistically), but more so of their individual personality types.

What you don't hear is that the people who go to these extremes tends to be those who have been masted or punished and are depressed about that, not "overwhelmed by the stress of the program". Just saying.

So my advice to any of those thinking about going in to the nuclear field is to not let the actions of a few troubled people dissuade you from a good opportunity. If it interests you, look more in to it. If it doesn't interest you, do something else. But don't let these 'horror stories' be the thing that turns you off of the program.

Thank you for posting this. I'm going AC and have heard so many things about how stressful the job is, and how people commit suicide because they can't handle it. It honestly scared me at first to the point where I wanted to switch rates. But my recruiter got in touch with a couple AC's he knew and I got to sit down one on one with them, and that made me really excited to do this rate.

01-12-2014, 01:04 PM	#1
sweetmtn Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: N. CA Posts: 3,792 Rep Power: 0	As a mother of a sailor that went nuke...I truly wish he had not gone that direction. Yes now that he is done with his time in the navy and in the civilian world, it has done him VERY well, he makes the big bucks now. HOWEVER, it was VERY hard on him...5 sailors in his department of nuke tried to commit suicide and sad to say, so did my son. This happened while on deployment. My son's best friend went nuke as well, and his roommate at Power School did commit suicide while he was away for a weekend, came back to find the guy..very sad. The program is hard, and very stressful. Nukes are always the first on the ship, and last off. They work long hard hours, and on deployment it was not unusual to work 12 to 24 hours at a time. My son did his entire enlistment, and even re-enlisted, however he did not finish his second..but did get a full Honorable discharge and has all the benefits. My son originally wanted the medical field, and was talked into nuke..his original goal was to be a doctor and was even accepted at Iowa State in pre-med. Sadly he no longer wants that and is working as the plant mechanic for Owens/Corning in Texas, and is going to school to get his Engineering degree. As a mom, you really dont have a lot to say about your son's choice..however, ask your son what his LONG term goals are, what does he see himself doing in 8 years. Does he want to be a nuclear mechanic or nuclear electrician? Does he want to be a plant mechanic in the civilian world later? I know my son originally wanted to make it a career and become an officer. His evals were so good he was recommended for STA-21 program, TWICE, and written that MUST promote, but after 6 years in..things changed. (the reason he got a straight up Honorable discharge as his discharge went all the way to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs who approved his Honorable) If you have questions, I can ask my son for you..he refuses to come on here, as he is way to busy with work and school. Just dont let the recruiter talk your son into the nuke field by waving the big $$ enlistment bonus at him...

01-12-2014, 02:40 PM	#2
Atom_breaker Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2013 Posts: 411 Rep Power: 0	I was wondering if the Nukes have separate barracks because I thought I saw that somewhere could you ask about that?

01-12-2014, 10:23 PM	#4
sweetmtn Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: N. CA Posts: 3,792 Rep Power: 0	My son said on his ship the nukes were all in the same birthing area close to the reactor department so they were close to their jobs. He was on a carrier..the Nimitz. He also said there was lots of noise from when they launched the jets...

01-13-2014, 05:43 AM	#5
LT Guppy Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 2,858 Rep Power: 0	There are two main theories on how berthings are divided. 1) you live with people who have the same job 2) different jobs are spread evenly through the different berthings. The thought behing 1 is that if you need the engineers for a middle of the night casualty, you only have to wake up one berthing. The idea behind 2 is that if the ship is attacked and a berthing is wiped out, you don't loose all the engineers, or all the combat systems operators at the same time.

01-17-2014, 07:13 PM	#7
Benjamin Newbie Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Coming from experience as being in the Nuclear Field. I would strongly recommend against the program. Don't get me wrong this program will set you up for success if you can handle it. I've been here a couple of months and i've seen 3 suicides. You lose a lot of happiness that you have coming here and personally I would strongly recommend telling your son to do what he is passionate about. Don't let the money and advancement persuade him. It's extremely easy to get E3 in bootcamp so it won't be any different and if he's got a good work ethic and being an intelligent guy he will do very well in any field.

01-18-2014, 03:13 PM	#9
Chance Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Westminster, CO Posts: 73 Rep Power: 0	I agree with Sweet. I'm Depping for Mineman right now, I turned down NUKE and HM (both sought after rates). I turned them down, not only because of stress, but because I dont see myself in those fields after 8 years. Think about having a job you hate (most jobs), now think about being legally tied to that job for almost a decade. Money is great and all, but prosperity is much more valuble.

02-15-2014, 03:39 PM	#10
Nasant Newbie Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Goose Creek, South Carolina Posts: 12 Rep Power: 0	My intention is to address the fact that everyone keeps bringing up suicide. It's not that the program/pipeline causes people to become suicidal. It's that the program is only available to a certain type of people (Those who have high scores) and those are the kind of people that are generally more introverted, socially awkward, depressive, and prone to suicidal tendencies. You can disagree with me if you'd like, but I am in the pipeline. 99% of the people here are genuinely happy. True, the workload can be tough and the days can be long, but there is a sense of community here like nowhere else. When we pass a hard test we go out and celebrate. If a shipmate is struggling with some aspect of the schooling, we will all get together to help them. There are so many opportunities to relax and have fun here and in the fleet that those who don't take advantage are only harming themselves. I hate the negative stigma that those few people who do decide to do something drastic like end their lives brings to the program. There are 3000+ students on base at any given time, and one or two people killing themselves is not indicative of the program (statistically), but more so of their individual personality types. What you don't hear is that the people who go to these extremes tends to be those who have been masted or punished and are depressed about that, not "overwhelmed by the stress of the program". Just saying. So my advice to any of those thinking about going in to the nuclear field is to not let the actions of a few troubled people dissuade you from a good opportunity. If it interests you, look more in to it. If it doesn't interest you, do something else. But don't let these 'horror stories' be the thing that turns you off of the program.