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Comment by Mark on April 26, 2009 at 10:50pm

Hi Sue,
Here are some links you can check out to get a pretty good idea. The first two are from a non-Navy site, but the info is good. One does mis-state that BESS is three weeks long, but I think that may be just the classroom part.
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/navytrng/a/bess_2.htm
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/blbess.htm

This link is the official Sub School site, it's not set up the greatest, but you can explore it and get some more info - you will get a warning about the site's security certificate, but you can ignore it, the site is safe...
https://www.netc.navy.mil/centers/slc/nss/index.htm

Comment by Mark on April 25, 2009 at 1:38pm

Wow, what an adventure for your son! He'll be excited to see momma again for sure. Submarine qualification status shouldn't matter for the re-enlistment bonus, unless maybe it results in a different NEC, but I think for re-enlistment bonuses, they assume that they'll successfully qualify. If they somehow fail to meet the obligations of their re-enlistment, they can always take most of the bonus back. I suspect that your friends didn't actually go through BESS, but that they had portions of the BESS training in the facilities there, since they're assigned to boats at Groton. In San Diego, the nucs on the boats there had submarine damage control training in the DC trainer there at the Submarine Training Facility on the Sub Base. The trainer there wasn't nearly as fancy as the one in Groton, but it got the job done. We didn't have a sub firefighting trainer there, but they sent us over to the shipboard firefighting school at the 32nd Street (surface) Naval Station in SD soon after reporting to the boat also. My guess is that your friends probably got at least those two classes, and maybe the submarine escape training - though they apparently skip that training for many of the non-nucs also. There wasn't an escape trainer in SD, so I never had it, and the training isn't very practical anyway - I imagine your husband may have explained some of that to you...enjoy today Tanya - I know it'll be a great feeling for you, putting your little man to bed tonight...

Comment by Mark on April 25, 2009 at 12:34pm

That's interesting Tanya - you're right, that being 2nd class out of school (something only about 25% of nucs do), and the big reenlistment bonus mean that they must be fully qualified nucs. Prototype is very tough on loved ones - I imagine she probably mentioned the twelve hour shifts that changed every week, it is a brutal routine. I wasn't married at the time, but I went to Idaho for prototype (site is now decommissioned) and on top of the twelve hours at the site, we also had a one hour bus ride each way - at least the buses were very comfortable, and you could sleep, but it meant you were only home for ten hours a day. It must have been some unique thing your friends have done; I'm very curious about what the deal was. Thanks, Tanya.

Comment by Mark on April 25, 2009 at 12:48am

I'm probably going on too long on this one - but another thing to mention is that roughly a third of the enlisted crew on a submarine are the nucs. If they were going to sub school, you would see a whole lot of E-4 EMs, ETs, and MMs around the sub school, and some mention of them on the sub school website.

Comment by Mark on April 25, 2009 at 12:43am

No problem Suzanne - I meant what I said about them. I work with a guy who was a nuc drop and was an A-ganger, and now he works with the nucs as a civilian, and is one of the sharpest guys around.
It's not a big deal Tanya, but I think you'll find there's more to your friends' story. After passing nuclear power school, the next step is six months of training on a land-based reactor plant (prototype) before they are truly a "nuke". They definitely don't go to BESS in between - in fact, the submarine volunteers don't even know for sure that they will be on subs until the last month of prototype - a lot of sub volunteers still end up as nucs on carriers. I also see on the "nuke moms" group that a nuc who just finished prototype is heading straight for the Seawolf in Bremerton, so I'm 99% confident that they haven't changed that from when I was in. Best wishes to your friends, though - whatever the story is...

Comment by Mark on April 24, 2009 at 10:11pm

Hi Tanya,
Are you sure that they made it through Nuclear Power School? Roughly a third of Auxiliary MMs on subs are MMs that didn't make it through nuc school. They tend to do extremely well in BESS and the Aux MM "A" school because they were pushed to the limit in nuc school, so they definitely have nothing to feel bad about. I suppose they could have started sending nucs to BESS again, but there doesn't seem to be much need of it. They once did go through BESS over thirty years ago, but stopped. After making it through nuc school and prototype training, they found that skipping BESS wasn't an issue, and that they handled the submarine quals very easily without it. I'm pretty curious about this, because I also spend a lot of time in the "nuke moms" group, and nobody mentions going to Groton for BESS on there...

Comment by Mark on April 23, 2009 at 9:19pm

The "A" school location depends on the rate, Sue. Is your son going to be a missile tech - I think that "A" school is at Bangor (WA) and King's Bay (GA). Most of the other sub "A" schools are in Groton, except for Culinary Specialist (CS), Yeoman (YN), and Storekeeper (SK), and the Hospital Corpsman - those ones are on different bases, and then there are the nucs, who get all their training in SC, with some finishing in NY (enlisted nucs don't go to sub school).

Comment by jean on April 22, 2009 at 6:02pm

Moms
on the mail
I get a US Postal Service Delivery Confirmation Receipt everytime I send my son/Sailor a box or letter.

It is green and white piece of paper and it is free from the post office
you can go on line and type in the number and see when it left your city and when it will get to Groton.

I have not had any problems yet.

I have a friend who works for the US post office and I will ask him about other helps with the Military mail.

pnm of Austin.

Jean

Comment by Gloria P. on April 21, 2009 at 8:34am

I spoke to my son yesterday he started A school. He will have morning classes. He also was pick to be a leader. He's one of three. He oversees 11 students. They will compete against the other students to see will do better in class. Sounds like a nice competition among the sailors.

Comment by Mark on April 10, 2009 at 4:14pm

Hi JoAnne,
Zach is just about done with ATT for SECF (he'll be sonar), and it'll be a little less than a month. It's self-paced on the computer, and I think they are allowed a maximum of a month, and they're pushed to stay on that pace (or better). I can't remember if your son is SECF also - the ATT for other rates (like MM) is different, but probably close to the same.

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