Son is considering the Navy

[CindyB]

Hello everyone! This is my first post here. My son is 17 and a senior in high school. He took the ASVAB last year in school and did well I think. I think his score was something like 85, I'm sorry I don't recall the exact. We can't find the results, not sure where he put it, because he decided he wasn't interested in joining the military. Hopefully, the school will be able to provide him with a copy. 

At any rate, a Navy recruiter called him a couple of nights ago and said that his score indicated he may be eligible for the Nuclear Program. Well that got his interest up, and he spoke with a recruiter here in town yesterday. Oddly, that recruiter had no access to his ASVAB score, so we are not entirely sure what kind of offer he would get until we get that. 

I am theoretically supportive of a military career. It's a great opportunity for college and I would be proud for him to serve our country. However, I do have some concerns. I am unclear as to whether they actually pay for school, or just apply their training to be "credits toward a degree". What if he doesn't make it into the nuclear program? 

I guess one of my biggest concerns is that I see a lot of posts on here from parents whose child is talking with recruiters and who has been active in ROTC and things like that. These kids have been considering this. My son has been planning for college his whole life. 

Please don't misunderstand, there are SO many great reasons for him to enlist! I am just concerned that he is acting on almost a whim! Has anyone gone through a similar situation?

Thanks for listening!

Cindy

 

[wndermom]

Hi Cindy -

My son is in bootcamp right now and also qualified for the nuke program. (My brother was a nuke back in the 80's) My son decided not to got hat route partly because chances were that he would end up on either a carrier, which is huge (about 6000 people) or a submarine.  He had no desire to be on either one.  

As far as acting on a whim, my son and I talked extensively about joining.  I was never in the  military, but my boyfriend retired from the navy after 26 years.  He was able to give my son lots of insight.  My son was also in the DEP program which showed him a lot of what it would be like.  He had meetings twice a month, did PT, learned how to salute, the different ranks, etc.  

Talk to his recruiter, ask questions...lots of them. It is their job to answer them

Hope I helped =)

Lori

[Navy Mama]

HI there- So I have a son who is currently in the Nuke school and is in between his A and B school now. Then comes a third round of school and so he has a long while to go before he hit the Naval Fleet. So I am sure you will get lots of answers here but I can tell you this about the Nuclear school- It is demanding and we knew that going in. They are taken care of and I have friends who have kids that have gone off to college and they are still very dependent on their parents financially and often need help in different ways. The Navy allows these kids to earn their own money and get trained (which can be transferred to college credit somehow) The pay them signing bonus, cover all expenses-housing-medical-food-travel, etc. and they also earn money to further their education after and during their time in the Navy. They get to travel and they learn to be independent. Someone told me that the cost of one student through the nuclear program was about $100,000 in an 18 month period (give or take)  

From my sons perspective- he was home for the holidays and his college friends were home as well. The big thing my son noticed was the concept that he had lots of spending money and his friends who were in college did not have spending money which was an eye opener for him. He had not thought about that aspects of being broke while in college and potentially having a huge burden of student loans to deal with after college.

If this is something your family considers your son will have tests and more tests and they do pay for their training program which wont give them a degree but there is a process to convert the schooling over to get college credit which I think is nearly a BS degree. (we have not got that far yet)

My worry was that my son had never really been challenged at school and I knew this program was tough- someone told me in the top 10 hardest program in the US- and I was worried the pressure would get to my son and he would not know how to deal with it. On this website- a former instructor told me that the Navy has perfected this program and they knew exactly what to do for my son. AND IT WAS TRUE!!!!!  As a mom I was worried about him being in the military and here is the way I see it now- the Navy is going to take care of him because he is very valuable to them- they want to keep him going so they can get their investment out of him. It is a good thing and I would say just keep asking questions and you and he will know what is right for you both- Good Luck!