One of my nephews has taken a great interest in joining the Navy when he turns 18. Can anybody tell what it’s like in today’s Navy? He’s heard stories about his grandfather who was on a USN minesweeper during WW II and great grandfather who served in the 1920’s. But I’m sure there have been many changes in the last 50 years. Any info will be greatly appreciated.
ben
Disclaimer: Speaking from peacetime experience only.
5% adventure, 95% job.
Having lived on both sides of the fence, I would strongly recommend that he finish college and go in as an officer. You have to remember they “own” you 24 hours a day; you have to live in a barracks and eat in a dining hall. You may get training in a job that is not transferrable to the outside. And, in the current world climate, there is a big risk of having to be involved in a war. Officers have much better food, quarters, and are safer in conflict. Plus, they get paid a lot more and get to be the boss. Finish college first.
I’m married to an enlisted man, and ITA with suziek.
I absolutely loved my time in the Navy - I would have been a career squid if I hadn’t developed a medical condition that disqualified me from service. I think, though that my rating (my job) had a lot to do with it. I was a “nuke” Electrician’s Mate - I helped handle the power distribution system of the nuclear reactor aboard a Nimitz-class carrier (my preference - I much preferred working on “targets” rather than on boats DESIGNED to sink :), but that’s GD or IMHO 
).
Being a nuke, I was not only promoted faster, I earned extra money over normal Navy pay for my rank. However, the money part was just icing on the cake - I loved the job. Every time I went to the Reactor Room, I never lost the awe that I was working with and controlling one of the primal forces of nature.
I won’t deny that it was hard work, but it was very rewarding. School was a bitch - we were force-fed the equivalent of an Associate’s Degree in Nuclear Engineering in the space of 26 weeks - often running 20-hour days in the process.
I do agree with LunaSea and suziek, but I also would like to add that if your son insists on joining as an Enlisted sailor, he should decide what job he wants BEFORE he signs up, find out what the requirements are (ASVAB - the military skills assessment test, if there are any specific high-school grade requirements, etc), and work to achieve those so he has a guaranteed school to go to when he completes Boot Camp. Some of the rates have guaranteed rank assigments upon completion of the school - at the time I was in, Nukes were guaranteed pay grade E-3 at the end of their A School (Electrician’s Mate school in my case), and E-4 at the end of Naval Nuclear Power School. Those enlisted that don’t have a school before they enlist, or don’t pick one during Boot Camp if they’re given the opportunity, tend to have it rougher - more menial work, lower pay, slower advancement, lower initial rank, etc.
critter42
Hey critter, my husband is a nuke EM!
I think the other people that posted here have already brought up the points that I wanted to bring up.
I served in the US Navy and asked for and received honorable discharge as a conscientious objector. Having come to oppose the institution, I may not be able give the advice you’re looking for, I guess a dissenting viewpoint or two is always nice.
I was most disappointed by the fact that a lot of ratings (occupational specialties) do pretty dishonorable things. I was training in the Cryptologic Technician - Interpretative rating, i.e. being a Navy linguist, before I requested discharge and was dismayed by the institutionalized and probably illegal violation of privacy that goes on within it. And the jobs that don’t seem like they do anything wrong are there to support the jobs a lot of people wouldn’t agree with.
I have nothing against the people who serve in the military. Most of my coworkers were well-meaning people and unlike the Army or the Marines, nobody joins the Navy to kill kill kill (except maybe a few SEALs, and they don’t talk much about it anyway). Still, I wouldn’t recommend it as a career choice. If your nephew can’t go to college right away after high school (which is why I joined), he could look at other opportunities. There are plenty of ways to work and travel without a college degree without resorting to military service. When I got out of the Navy I moved to Europe and volunteered full-time for a NGO for a year. It was just as (un)glamorous as the Navy, but it allowed me to travel in nearly every country in Europe on someone else’s budget and meet people from backgrounds more diverse than I ever would of in the Navy.
UnuMondo, biased, but figures his two cents is worth something
I’m probably recapping slightly, but the thing is that the military is… so very military. It’s an organization that runs on discpline and incredibly hard work and what at times seems like blind obidence to accomplish peculiar tasks and goals. It also is about preparing for war (destroying and killing); the intent is that the degree of preparedness will deter most or all “bad guys”. Knowing and thoroughly understanding that will put the young man into a mindset that should reduce the “culture shock”.
Also, what Critter says: Understand the “jobs” beforehand and prepare to get one accordingly. This applies to both officer and enlisted. To add to that, know that in the Navy there are jobs that require a high proportion of sea to shore time. For instance, a Radioman (which these days includes computer type people) might spend as much or more time assigned to land bases than ships, whereas someone who is (say) a “sea rate” like signalman or Bosun’s Mate might spend 5 years assigned to ships for every 3 to shore. Of course, understand that 5 years assigned to a ship doens’t mean 5 years constantly underway. And shore billets for a sea rate might well be assignments that do little or nothing to advance one’s skills or career. Joe Signalman might find himself doing 3 years as a gate guard at a Naval Station for his shore time. Joe Radioman might spend his shore time running the same Naval Station’s NT network, and do pretty much the same thing while assigned to a ship.
Let’s see… If I were going in now, I would decide if I wanted a strictly “warrior” type job (one that is “fun” in a macho way but doesn’t transfer to civilain employment directly) or a militarized version of a civilian job (blue collar or white collar). This has been referenced by Critter and others, but not put into the 3 categories.
The military is very hard on family life. The Navy, with long months at sea, is especially so. Nowadays, they try to accomadate some semblance of family life, but to some exent it’s still true that “if we wanted you to have a wife we’d have’d issued you one with your seabag” is still true.
Lastly, look to what UnoMondo said and read closely between the lines. What might be considered a really good, responsible, and prestigous job might also require an intense (intrusive) background check and constant questions about seemingly “off limits” areas of your personal life.
Being in the military means by definition that you sacrifice. A lot of your personal life is sacrificed, and sometimes your life itself. You have to be really, really prepared for that.
UnoMondo, I never met a SEAL that liked to kill. They are all --and I mean all-- the epitome of the word “dedication”. It always seemed to me that what they desired to do was to be so ready (well trained and equipped) to do whatever they were called on to do that their existence and reputation would deter the various potential opponents.
I think this thread will do better in IMHO.
So prepare to redeploy! Anchors aweigh! Full steam ahead!
I served 11 years total - 6 as enlisted and 5 as an officer. If I had to do it again, I’d not have gotten a commission. The officer ranks are far too political and there was way too much B.S. for my tastes. When I was enlisted, I fixed airplanes. I trained other technicians. I did something. When I was an officer, I did paperwork. I went to meetings. I was looked down upon because I married an enlisted man. That’s why I got out - I knew my career was over.
There are those who enjoy the officer ranks and they do well. My personal opinion is that every officer should spend at least 2 years in the enlisted ranks. They need to know what it’s like to be at the bottom of the food chain. They need to know that they’re not God’s gift to the service.
I wouldn’t trade my time in the Navy for anything, but I would do things differently. If my kid wanted to join, I’d be thrilled for her. And I’d encourage her to start at the bottom, if only for a little while. I got chances to go places and see things and meet people - opportunities that I’d have had to pay for as a civilian! I still work with the Navy as a civilian, and it’s a gratifying career.
Navy vet here (USS Carl Vinson - YN3- Reactor Dept.)
I did my time. I never went in thinking it would be a career. I guess that attitude seperated me somewhat from others who had every intention of making it a career. To each his own.
But, I think there’s something that many forget when they think of enlisted. They want to train in this field or that field and are looking for this kind of tuition reimbursement or that kind of perk. Don’t forget, you’re a military person. You’re there to serve and yes, give your life, for your country.
We tend to forget it since we’ve been in relative peace for 30 years.
That’s not was I was talking about at all. The background check was something you brought upon yourself by entering the rating and really wasn’t intrusive. I’m talking about the CT rating’s violation of privacy of others that monitoring communications entails. I was trying to say that I was shocked that the rating eavesdrops on conversations it shouldn’t for reasons of privacy and, in most cases, international law.
Of course, my rating may just be badly regulated, but military veterans tend to see their rating as the center around which the military turns (true only for MSs, I guess :)) and it always seemed to me that what was going on in my rating had the support and tacit approval of all the rest of the Navy.
A link that should be in any thread on “should I or my friend/relative join the service” is: Do You Know Enough to Enlist?
UnuMondo
Hey benlormat, in case you’re still checking posts to this, I’ll re-post what the hamsters ate yesterday:
If your nephew’s attraction is to the Navy because he wants to go to sea, he might want to also consider the Coast Guard as well.
My brother-in-law, warned off from the USN by me and the Army by my wife, had a pretty good time as a coastie. For one thing, the Navy goes on “deployments,” the Army sends its people on “tours” but the USCG goes on “patrols.” As these phrases imply, his time away from home was a lot less than ours were. And while we got to see two of the uglier stains on the dropcloth of humanity (Subic Bay for me, Camp Red Cloud in Korea for my wife), he enjoyed liberty ports like Alcapulco & Samoa, and had only a couple of dozen shipmates to compete against for the local accommodations, not thousands of other squids & grunts. The USCG is a more dispersed than the bigger services, so your nephew could be home-ported in some ordinary place like Chicago or Salt Lake City, or someplace with lots of pretty scenery, like my brother in law was in Hawaii or on the Oregon Coast. And, unless he wants to be a nuke, the coasties get a lot of the same job skill in mechanics, aviation, etc. as Navy guys, while racking up the same civil service points.
One thing he did say, though, is that Coast Guard boot camp was pretty damn nasty.
Hey benlormat, in case you’re still checking posts to this, I’ll re-post what the hamsters ate yesterday:
Yes, I’m still checking the posts. I myself, never served in the military (I was turned down by the Navy because of bad hearing) most people I know who enlisted, liked it for the most part. Even those who were involved during war liked the camaraderie even if they didn’t approve of being shot at.
Somehow I thought there would be more ringing endorsements than I’ve seen so far. My grandfather and my brother-in-law’s father were both Navy veterans and they both spoke very highly of the experience. (It was talking to these two that got me to try to get in the Navy twenty years ago) Neither claimed it was perfect, but both definitely felt it was one of the best experiences of their lives.
ben
I don’t know if I can give you a ringing endorsement, but I will say it’s a great thing to do.
I’ve had, for the most part, a great 8 years in so far. I’ve been places, done things, met people, and seen things that I never would have otherwise and am much the better for having done so.
I’ve received training for multiple things which I can take with me when I leave. The most important thing, arguably, being the leadership training. I have no fears about being able to obtain a job in 12 years. And the security for those next 12 years is priceless. The retirement is great.
When someone asks me what I do, I can answer with a good deal of pride, not only for whom I work, but for making it through the amazingly difficult process of getting to where I’m at now. Very challenging. You really get out of it what you put in. Some guys join and tread water for a few years until their obligation expires. Most people I’ve seen, though, really push themselves and give their best effort. And in return they expect no less from you.
Every job has its good and bad aspects. But when I look back on all the other jobs I’ve had before the Navy, I generally think “That was a decent job.” When I look back on the years I’ve spent here, I think “Wow.”
Hope this helps.