# There must be basic training for sailors, right? What's in it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 24, 2012, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011 "2012-12-24T14:33:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/21 "2012-12-25T10:19:56Z")
One thing I remember about USCG boot camp is one day they had us launch a lifeboat from the divots. Took us quite a while. Another time they marched us to the Small Boat Station at Cape May, NJ and had us go out on the 30 footers (I think, although 41’ and 44’ were standard size). Some firefighting training, lecture on USCG history, lots on UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) where the BMC (i.e. very stupid person.Sorry military humour. Boatswain’s Mates are the backbone of the Coast Guard) informed us that Korea was a war, Vietnam was a conflict and the Bay of Pigs was Cubans against Cubans. Training on NBC warfare (nuclear, biological and chemical-I think the name as been changed since) where you see these old films showing crabs alive one week after the 1940s Bikini atoll nuclear tests proving radiation poses no long term threats. Yeah, right. Besides the week we spent working in the mess hall (long hours, although I got lucky and was assigned to the officers club. The recruits in charge figured it would be hell and stuck it with me but I got lucky), the most extended training was one week of drivers ed without the driving, watching films. Three days on rifle range with M16 and Browning 9mm pistol. I can hit the broadside of a barn but that’s about it. Most evening had military drill with a plugged M1. We weren’t as good as the guys in “Stripes”. Military customs and courtesies (why yes, the guy with one silver bar on his collar outranks the guy with one gold bar…forget that olympic medal shit about gold being better than silver. Marlinspike seamanship (i.e. tying knots). One of my “roommates” once asked a BM1 instructing us about the training. He felt it wasn’t long enough to really learn how to do it. The instructor said it was designed to give us an inkling of what to do. We would learn the job better once we got out in the field. Coming out of boot camp, most people went to a unit to await school. I think the quickest was SS (subsistence specialist, meaning cook). The longest was probably some obscure thing like MST…marine science tech. I remember an instructor telling one recruit who asked it saying he had been in the USCG for 16 years and had never met one. Another guy told me later that he waited for 15 months to get sent to school and decided to select another rate when he was told it would be at least one more year. I waited 7 months to get ET (electronics school) and once at Gilligan’s Island (Governor’s Island, NYC harbor where the dirt from building the subways ended up and doubled the island size) waited a month on MAA gang (cleaning shitters and hanging ceilings). Swim test, had to pass PT test with 20 pushups or 4 pullups and some other stuff. The policy when I was in “The Old Guard” when the men were made of steel and the ships were made of wood (never call it a boat, as one Lt jg once balled me out for referring to his 95 footer as a boat. I replied it was a WPB, not a WPS.) was you took 10 days leave from boot camp (you escape on a friday. mine ironically enough was Good Friday) before reporting to your next unit. Depending on “the needs of the service”, a couple guys I knew who got a Big White One (378 footer, named for Secretary of Treasury which was were the USCG, or its predecessors were assigned to before 1967. So i know what job guys like Boutwell, Gallatin, Dallas, Sherman,Chase etc had if I ever get asked on Jeopardy) that was about to get underway (is the only way) for a cruise. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/22 "2012-12-25T11:58:49Z")
> [@robby](#): > > In the submarine force, sailors also train on simulated escape trunks. Nowadays, you escape into a swimming pool, but years ago, the submarine school in Groton, Connecticut used a tower to simulate escaping at a much greater depth. Unfortunately, one or two sailors drowned in the simulator every year, so the Navy finally decided they were losing more sailors in the simulator than in actual situations, so they switched to a less-intense simulated escape trunk. I think that the electrical short to the water of the tower is actually what shut it down. mrAru was in the last class that actually used the tower, though the tower was still up when we moved here in 90, they started taking it down in 92 and it was totally gone by 94. Ho Ho Ho… [though I still have fond memories of being able to get totally nonPC tshirts in the exchange. I ran across his ‘24 empty missile tubes, a mushroom cloud, it’s miller time’ one recently.] ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/23 "2012-12-25T14:40:43Z")
> [@zqhltb](#): > > Add up everything new that I actually learned during those 2 months and you could fit it into a 3 hour class. > > –How do I not run my mouth when I shouldn’t? > > For me, I knew the answer to that last question already. For some, it took a full two months. Boot camp is designed for those guys. yep. Boot camp can definitely be described as: Taking about 1 day’s worth of training, and jam-packing it, tightly, into a 2 month timeslot, with not a minute to spare. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/24 "2012-12-25T15:32:51Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Why is coughing a no no? Just do as you’re told, goddamn it! Beats me. Because it was another way to make you miserable, is all I can figure. Re: physical training (PT) in Navy boot camp. We marched a lot, and did a lot of calisthenics that involved synchronized movements with an inoperable Springfield rifle. The only time it got strenuous was when we fucked up something like an inspection. That rifle becomes very heavy when it’s held at arm’s length for more than a few minutes. For the truly obstinate, there were what were euphemistically called “marching parties”, wherein a sadist would do his best to make you collapse from exhaustion. There was a lot of motivation to avoid having to be sent to one of those. Otherwise, there was no running or 20-mile hikes or the like. No push-ups, sit-ups or pull-ups. Perhaps it’s different now. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/25 "2012-12-25T15:59:38Z")
My best friend in high school had Navy basic training in California in the 1970s. From what he told me, it sounded pretty much like the standard boot-camp scenario we’ve all come to imagine. However, he was overweight and could not pass muster. Rather than kicking him out, they put him in a special program designed to whip him into shape. It lasted as long as boot camp but was separate from it, so in practice his boot camp lasted twice as long. But he passed and was one skinny motherfucker when he emerged. He never served on a ship though. They made him some sort of cryptographer, and he spent his time listening to the Soviet Union from an inland base in Scotland. While there, he found religion, and I’ve been told he is today the pastor of some weird End Times church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/26 "2012-12-25T16:30:27Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > My best friend in high school had Navy basic training in California in the 1970s. From what he told me, it sounded pretty much like the standard boot-camp scenario we’ve all come to imagine. However, he was overweight and could not pass muster. Rather than kicking him out, they put him in a special program designed to whip him into shape. It lasted as long as boot camp but was separate from it, so in practice his boot camp lasted twice as long. But he passed and was one skinny motherfucker when he emerged. > > He never served on a ship though. They made him some sort of cryptographer, and he spent his time listening to the Soviet Union from an inland base in Scotland. While there, he found religion, and I’ve been told he is today the pastor of some weird End Times church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That’s the CT (communications technician) rating. They do actually do go aboard ships or submarines occasionally, but often can’t talk about where they went or what they did. The Navy desperately wanted me to be a CT, as I blew the top off the MLAT, but I was already designated Group 8 when I joined. ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/27 "2012-12-25T20:39:41Z")
So people join the Navy that can’t swim? And how common is this? ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/28 "2012-12-25T20:53:01Z")
My late uncle (who was a sergeant in the German Army in WWII) always used to say that sailors who cannot swim were more eager to defend their ship to the last 😉 ---
**Author:** ![zqhltb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/f04885/32.png) [@zqhltb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zqhltb)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/29 "2012-12-25T21:12:53Z")
> [@Mdcastleman](#): > > So people join the Navy that can’t swim? And how common is this? In my division and sister division - about 100 recruits total - probably 20 couldn’t pass the very easy swim test on the first try. 6 or 8 people took a couple weeks to pass it. A few of those people could swim fine, they just couldn’t step off a ten foot platform into the water because they were afraid of heights. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/30 "2012-12-26T00:33:48Z")
What’s the way they teac you to grab air and keep it with your–pants, I think, when you find yourself adrift? I saw it in a documentary once, but I forgot the trick. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/31 "2012-12-26T01:25:22Z")
They train sailors to tie the legs shut and whip them like a bag overhead to fill them with air; repeated as needed. I remember a TV news story about a Marine who fell overboard and survived this way. Navy pants were traditionally bell bottoms so they could come off without removing your shoes while in the water. And you don’t want to lose your shoes in case you encounter coral. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/32 "2012-12-26T01:43:26Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > They train sailors to tie the legs shut and whip them like a bag overhead to fill them with air; repeated as needed. I remember a TV news story about a Marine who fell overboard and survived this way. > > Navy pants were traditionally bell bottoms so they could come off without removing your shoes while in the water. And you don’t want to lose your shoes in case you encounter coral. Thanks. I tried to find a vid on the net, but no luck. I found this, however, which has some good stuff but in fact expressly tells you to ditch the shoes. But this where the REAL good stuff is: [http://www.resist.com/USMC\_Water\_Survival\_Course.pdf](http://www.resist.com/USMC_Water_Survival_Course.pdf) Pages I-18–I-36 (of 145 total pages) are devoted to three different techniques for creating personal flotation devices. I just flipped through the beginning and the document is fascinating even for military history in several campaigns, up till the 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/33 "2012-12-26T03:48:21Z")
> [@Mdcastleman](#): > > So people join the Navy that can’t swim? And how common is this? ::raises hand slowly:: I couldn’t, nor could several others in my company. It didn’t stop them from forcing us to jump off the meter board at the deep end of the pool and then panic and nearly drown. Sadistic bastards. We had to go to remedial swimming lessons until we were able to do a lap around the deep end. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/34 "2012-12-26T04:08:32Z")
Heh. My parents found my boot camp “yearbook” when they were packing up their house to move, and I’ve got it right here. Lots of memories of Recruit Training Center Orlando. In addition to the relatively simple classroom training and PT, there is damage control and firefighting training, as well as NBC (nuclear, biological, and chemical) warfare training. This involves various simulations of the various types of fires and how to fight them. No actual fires were involved; this was strictly classroom training. One of the highlights of this week was the film of the _USS Forrestal_ fire, the one where John McCain was involved. However, the gas chamber wasn’t in the classroom. The gas chamber was pretty much what it sounds like, a large open room where we stood in formation with our gas masks on. A company commander released CS gas into the chamber, we took our gas masks off so we could experience the effects of CS gas firsthand, then we exited the chamber, mucus and tears oozing out of every orifice in our heads. Romantic, no? We also had “work week”, where we were assigned to various chores around the base. Some were assigned to escort new recruits. Some were assigned to other, more pleasant, duties that allowed them to get some sleep. Most of us, though, were assigned to galley duty, where we washed dishes, mopped floors, and worked as cook’s assistants from about 4 a.m. until about 9 p.m. The point of the endeavor was to teach us how to remain functional under physical and mental stress, which is a desirable trait during deployment. This, by the way, was the longest week of my life. I would not do this again. Fortunately, I don’t have to. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/35 "2012-12-26T04:18:07Z")
Whats training for officers like. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/36 "2012-12-26T04:51:22Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Whats training for officers like. They have caviar for breakfast, then crap in a gold toilet and wipe their asses with an enlisted man. I thought everybody knew that! ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/37 "2012-12-26T05:06:17Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Boatswain Mate (BM) is probably the least. Electrician Mate is probably average and was 9 months of training from Boot Camp to assignment to a ship. Nuke ET was the longest and figure maybe 2 years. Nuke MM with ELT school: went to boot camp at the beginning of July 1985, and reported aboard ship at the start of October 1987. There was a bit of slop in the schedule between schools for this reason and that, and I had lots of leave time before reporting aboard, but there it is: close to 2y and 3mo before seeing a ship. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/38 "2012-12-26T05:16:43Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > … > He never served on a ship though. They made him some sort of cryptographer, and he spent his time listening to the Soviet Union from an inland base in Scotland. While there, he found religion, and I’ve been told he is today the pastor of some weird End Times church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If his gig was like my sister’s is wasn’t about codes or cyphers, it was about language. My sister was in the Air Force, scored real high in languages and was sent to a language School in Monterey out of basic training. Then she served the bulk of her enlistment at Tempelhof, when it was still “West” Berlin. FYI, she was really pissed off about her training later, which the AF said was worth 24(?) credits or so at any college in America. They also told her it was the very top level training that could be had with only an HS degree. It might have been true as far as it went, but there was a distinct downside. They taught her a basic understanding of Russian spoken military air force terminology. They didn’t teach her anything about speaking it, about the common types of things that civilians might speak about, nor a single lesson about either reading it or writing it. So, if she wanted to study Russian in school later, and take advantage of all those credits, she would placed into an advanced class totally unprepared compared to the other students, who in civilian courses would have gotten more comprehensive training in all aspects of the language. Not that this didn’t make sense from the Air Force’s POV, but the lesson for the rest of us is that the military will train you as narrowly as possible for roles they need filled, and the training may or may not be of help later in the civilian world, despite the rosy picture they might paint of it. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/39 "2012-12-26T18:04:35Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > That’s obviously a lot of training and I understand that sub certs take longer but what’s the shortest bootcamp to job time out there? If you join the Navy without picking a rate (rate = job description), you go to your first operational command right out of boot camp. (Is it 8, or 11 weeks now? I don’t know.) From there, you can “strike” for a rate. You may then be sent off to schools after you successfully apply for them. You need to keep your nose clean during this process. > [@](#): > > Is there much on the job training on, say, a carrier? Depends on rate, mostly. Subs require additional training, but other ship types don’t. > [@](#): > > Are there general purpose janitorial staff (searching for something with little training here..) like you’d have in an office institution? Negative! Every enlisted rate gets it’s turn cleaning the heads, waxing the decks, sweeping the ladderwells. “Sweepers sweepers, man your brooms. Give the ship a clean sweep-down, fore and aft. Clean all lower-decks, ladderwells, and passageways. Now sweepers.” (Even as a 2nd class Petty Officer, I was out there waxing the freaking deck.) > [@](#): > > I mean, it’s hard to believe, I dunno, the barbers had more than a few weeks of school, right? 😕 No, the Navy needs you out there filling a billet, not drinking wine coolers on the beach. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2012, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011/40 "2012-12-27T01:04:13Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Why is coughing a no no? At a guess: When you cough, you reflexively inhale deeply afterwards, possibly worsening your smoke exposure. No idea if this is correct. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-must-be-basic-training-for-sailors-right-whats-in-it/645011.md?page=3)