Told my boot camp experience in another thread here. Found it rather easy. I joined under the nuke program but never had an eye exam as someone above stated. While attending Electronic Technician A school at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, I was one of about 1000 that was excused from the nuke program due to the back log at the nuke training center. After A school I was sent to NAS Whidbey Island which was only 75 miles from my home. The division I was assigned to was 30 military and 30 civilians. It was more like a civilian job except for having duty every 6 days. From there I was sent to San Diego for my last 18 months in Navy. I was assigned to the USS Sperry, a submarine tender. The only time I went to sea was a 22 day cruise to Matzalan and Acapulco. The highlight was the day I was the officer of the day as an E-3 Seaman. Got to eat in the officer’s mess and sleep in the OOD quarters. Had a grizzled Chief Petty Officer as my junior OOD, I let him make the few important decisions. I consider my time in the Navy as a good learning experience that paid off with a 40 year career at Boeing. If I had to do it over again, there are 2 things that I would have changed. First, would never have gotten married. Second, I would have gone to college a lot more while serving. The Navy paid for everything and I may have had more opportunities after I got out. I didn’t discover this till I only had 6 months left in my enlistment.