Is The Navy Life for Me? Advice Appreciated!

[KaSherr]

Hi, my name is Katie, and I am thinking of joining the Navy. Right now, I'm 21 and enrolled at a community college with a very good GPA. I could transfer to a good school, and probably go without paying any tuition. Still, I feel uncertain about it all. I just don't think I could spend 2 or 3 more years of my life going to classes, and working as a waitress.

My reasons for joining:

I want to grow up, and become independent.

My parents are not doing well financially, because they are having to pay for three of my brothers (and all their mistakes, because they have not become independent). They have simply become burdens to my parents. I'd like to send money back home to them. 

Education.

Possibly seeing the world.

Having a secure living.

The benefits included afterwards, such as the GI Bill.

Meeting new people.

Excitement.

I will go to see a recruiter on Friday with my parents. I have heard they can be much like car salesmen. Basically, I'd like the honest truth about the Navy. What is a day in the Navy like? What will I be expected to do? What are the downsides to life in the Navy? I want to hear the bad side; the stuff the recruiter most likely won't tell me. Then, I can decide if Navy life is for me. I'd hate to choose it, then find it isn't!

Also, I would greatly appreciate any experiences from a mother who's daughter is in the Navy. Are they glad they joined?

Thanks for any replies,

Katie

[Cathryn (son is in Pensacola )]

Congrats and you now belong to a huge Navy family! My son is going to Pensacola on 3/27/10 for IT for college. Just remember you can do anything and you have alot of people proud of you! I know you will do fine and remember after boot camp it is a new world for you. I am proud you chose to join and you passed your physical .... Good Luck and please add me if you like, and have fun!

[KaSherr]

I love the idea of being part of the Navy family! I'm also glad that your sons is doing well. Thank you for the wonderful reply, Cathy. Oh, man! I am not looking forward to bootcamp at all!

[Solara]

Cool i got the same rate but i ship out a little earlier june 23 you never know we might run into each other in basic or A-School. did u get any incentives for signing up such as advanced rank or a signing bonus ( i got 10k bonus and go in as an E-3!!!)

[KaSherr]

Because of my college credits, I'll go in as an E-2 for sure, maybe E-3 (I have both semester and quarter hours, so I don't know how they figure them together). My recruiter hasn't got back to me on that. I asked about a bonus while I was at MEPS, but was told they weren't really offering them. I guess I didn't push enough? No fair! Congratz on the bonus, and advanced rank. Did they just plain offer them?

[KaSherr]

Was there some special reason you got a bonus? You got the rating IT (Intelligence Technician or Informations Systems Technician), right? Sorry, I just want to confirm all this in case I decide to bring it up to my recruiter. I feel like I got cheated. O_o

[Lois]

Hi Katie. My 32 year old son Brooks joined the Navy last year. He has a blog http://usnavymc.blogspot.com/ which includes his experiences so far. It's pretty informative and fun to read. Check it out. I'm sure he'll be glad to answer any questions you may have. Good luck to you.

[KaSherr]

Thank you for the link, Lois! I skimmed over your son's website, and it looks, just like you said, very informative. Really gives you a look into what it's like. I'll sit down later, and really go through it. This should help me a lot. Thanks, again!

[jking]

katie, i commend you for exploring your navy options. take advice with a grain of salt. what is right for someone else may not be the path you should choose. choose a path which is best and right for you. listen to your gut. you have to think about yourself first for a while. building a future for yourself is what you need to do. i realize you feel a family obligation, but honestly, their problem is not your problem. help if you can, but just doing for yourself is enough. my daughter sounds a like like you. she gave up a college scholarship to enlist. my first thought was... what are you thinking???? but looking back, it was the best decision she could have made. because of the economy, etc., athough all of her friends were successful and talented students the majority of them have had to drop out of college and now can't find jobs. sometimes college just is not enough. thank goodness she realized that. she, too was encouraged to explore the officer route, and she qualified for nuke school, but that was not her choice. it was not her style. jump to two years later.... she is attached to a fighter squadron and loves the works she does! so my best advice is... educate yourseld and make the best decision for YOU! the best of luck to you and please lest me know what you decide. i am here for you if you have any questions

[KaSherr]

Thank you for the motivating words, jking. I also agree that college is not enough, or not the right path for a lot of people. Your daughter sounds like she made all the right choices, and is doing very well. I hope I will, too!

[nltsybkdd]

hey katie, my name is kurt and im an IT in the navy. i somehow ended up on your page while googling but anyways if you have any questions i might be able to help. as far as bonuses, they were offering 15,000 for an extra year when i enlisted a year ago. its cyclical though and based on supply and demand so if you really want one you might have to hold off going in until a later date if thats what you wanna do. bootcamp sucks, but its not that hard. it goes by pretty fast and they keep you busy. aschool will be down in pensacola. youll be on corry station as an it and its a lot more lax then being on nas. its lame cause you still have a ton of restrictions but youll still have fun. they call it corry high for a reason. we went to the beach like every day and stuff once we got to phase 3 liberty but now with that bp spill i dont know what its gonna be like down there. youll be there for about 3-4 months because you get stuck in holding before and after your classes. after that, you can end up with orders to pretty much anywhere. we had alot of people end up in hawaii, japan, italy in my class as well as san diego and norfolk. myself i got stuck with norfolk, va shore duty for 3 years. anyways, like i said, if you have any questions just let me know. and good luck the navy is what you make of it.

[KaSherr]

Thank you so much, Kurt! I really, really appreciate your reply. Anything that helps me know what to expect is practically a blessing right now. Yeah, so I apparently missed the 10K bonus by three days. I was too early. I asked my recruiter about it, and I think he may just be putting me off. Anyway... no bonus at all... trying not to get too upset about it. I'm too afraid to try and delay my ship date. I've wondered if I should, though. I am at least an E-2 right now thanks to college credits. Thank you for letting me know about A School! No one's really told me how it will be for an IT. And, yeah. I am very worried about the oil spill. I hope it doesn't ruin the experience. However, from what you told me... I feel a lot better about choosing to be an IT overall. I think I'm going to like it a lot. Thank you for offering to answer any questions! Really! I guess I do have a few. What is a day like as an IT? What do you do exactly? And, is there any extra schooling you can try to get besides just A School? Thank you in advance, Kurt!

[nltsybkdd]

It really depends entirely on what you're doing and where you get stationed. Every command is different. Ship and shore life are completely different. There are 3 different things that ITs deal with...message traffic, adp (computer hardware/software), and satellite communications. I work at a shore command and i only deal with adp. My command is an 8-4, mon-fri...but other places work rotating 12 hour shifts...12 hours on duty/12 hours off duty for four days. then they get the next four days off. then back to 12 on 12 off. but the shifts themselves actually rotate. so theyll work like 4am-4pm for four days when theyre working, then 12pm-12am for the next 4 days days of work, then 6pm-6am for the next 4 days of work...then start back again at 4 am-4pm and so on. it sounds weird and its long hours but you only work 15 days out of a month. then theres life on a ship...which is 12 hours on duty, 12 hours off duty 7 days a week when your deployed. its a good time. as far as extra schooling goes...while your in A-school you can ask about additonal C-schools for ITs and they will tell you you options. Theres also a bunch of certifications such as A+, Security+, and Networking+ that you will get once youre in the fleet.