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Comment by NancyJo (NNPTC) on May 8, 2013 at 10:06am

Ironing. Before the navy, my son was one of those guys who ran around with his jeans almost off his backside so his boxers could show. Drove me nuts. First Christmas home, I walk in to see him meticulously ironing his dress uniform. I offered to do it and he obviously doubted my ability. He said something like he wanted it done right so would do it himself. Like history where time is divided by BC and AD, my son is divided into BN and AN (before and after Navy).

Comment by bea darby on May 8, 2013 at 9:36am

My son joined the Navy two years ago he was going to sign up for submarines but they wanted him to go to officers training,he wanted to be a nuke with 5yrs of collage and a degree in biology he is now a E4ET3 Petty Officer I am so glad he did not sign for a sub he passed his prototype with a 3.8 which is great with all the stress that these guys are under I praise them all.When he gets out to sea he is adding another two years on to serve.But let me tell you a little my son in listed in 2010 he went to bootcamp in Jan 2013 he was 24yrs old then he had to take some hard test to be able to be in the nuke program because of his age he passed with flying colors then he turned 25yrs old after that ,my son will be 28yrs old this Sept and he is one of the older guy's and yes when he was in A school he was put on a special job he helped alot of young guy's pass that class he worked with them so they could.The Navy put their trust in him to help these younger guys.He may be older but he is very smart and cares about people.He makes us very proud in every thing he doe's so to me that's what makes the best of the best helping others.

Comment by William in Nashua on May 8, 2013 at 9:04am

z'smom those anonymous former submariners you seem eager to embarrass on this forum are not here to defend themselves.  Not sure what the motivation for doing that in the first place either, other than maybe you just plain don't like submarines and submariners.   Lol.    Besides I am talking about nukes submarine volunteers only, in the year 2013.

I do not believe that praising achievement and the high standards of performance is  the same as putting down anyone else, and if anyone here seems eager to put a group of sailors down on this forum, I am not that person.

What I said earlier is a true statement though, and would become no less true if I had not said it here.   When they select Nukes for submarine duty, the Submarine Force is in  a bit of a quandary.  They can only select "submarine volunteers" who decide of their own free will they want to serve on submarine.   Lucky for the Navy most nukes also happen to be "submarine volunteers".    All of the enlisted women are excluded by statute, and a portion of the enlisted men exclude themselves, by not volunteering.  I am not talking about any of those either.   I am talking about the males nukes who volunteered for subs. 

Now from this pool of newly minted Nukes who have volunteered for submarine duty, the Submarine Force gets first dibs of which volunteers they want to take, and the rest of them (by default) are going to be passed along the the surface Navy, namely aircraft carriers.  

So which part of that statement do you find questionable?  Do you doubt that the Submarine Force picks and chooses only the best available volunteers to actually serve on submarines?  Well of course they do.  They must. They would be fools not to.   Or can you honestly doubt the Submarine Force gets first dibs in selecting from among their own submarine volunteers?   You really think the Submarine Force higher ups and by that I mean the Captains of the individual submarines who need to fill may 2 nuke slots from this graduating class to man their boat, are not given the right of first refusal of selecting or rejecting from among own volunteers?

Comment by William in Nashua on May 8, 2013 at 7:47am

I said nothing about  the portion of nukes who decided not to volunteer for submarine duty though, did I?    "They only select the best volunteers for submarines".   I stand by that remark.  If your nuke did not "volunteer" for submarines, well then he could not be one of the "best volunteers" chosen to actually be in submarines, now could he?  Simple logic.

However those who do volunteer for submarine duty which is most of them (NF mom said 90% in her son's class), the Submarine Force are the ones who get to pick and choose who they take for submarine duty, and pick and choose they do.  The remainder, by default, are sent to aircraft carriers.

It is like if I made an equally true statement "They only select the best applicants to attend Harvard" ... and your son did not apply to Harvard.  Therefore, he was not and could not be part of the selection process to get into Harvard.

Comment by Trix2short on May 8, 2013 at 3:48am

My son is graduating A school this coming Friday and he can't leave base till 4:00 but he is heading home for his leave Friday afternoon. Not sure if this is the norm for all.

Comment by Regi on May 8, 2013 at 3:42am

My ET in GC right now texted that A school graduation for him looks like August 2nd, which is a few weeks earlier than I originally thought.  He was one of the Feb 8th PIRs from Great Lakes.  Wondering if they allow them to take their 10 days leave right away or if they stay at GC for a while.  He said he'd let me know when he finds out but I wouldn't mind hearing other's experiences.

Comment by NF Mom on May 7, 2013 at 10:31pm

Z'smon, I enjoy poking fun at William as much as the next mom. Mainly because he is such a gentleman about it.

My son PIRed at the same time as his son, they were not buddies, but he knew who he was, and they went through A-School and Power School at the same time, and from what I heard William is rather modest about his son's achievements.

My understanding is that William's comments were about Nukes selected for submarine duty, not that all submariners were the "best of the best".

The Nuke program was created by Admiral Rickover and he wanted Nukes to be commissioned officers, not enlisted.  Congress did not want to pay for that many specialized commissioned officers, so Rickover was allowed to design the training program and make them Petty Officers right out of A-School, but not commissioned officers.  The standards for Nukes were designed by Rickover and they are the same ethical standards as Officer Training School or the Academies.  At least that is my understanding.

I do know the quickest way for Sailors to get thrown out of the Nuke training program was ( is ? )  to lie, cover up, or fail to report wrong doing by another Nuke.   Errors in judgement like underage drinking were survivable if admitted to and severely punished, but dishonesty by action, inaction, or failure to report was unforgivable.  I heard the term "unfair" used more than once to describe the offender being allowed to stay in and the person who just failed to report the offense being gone. But the message was received - the rules are simple - tell the truth - all the time.

My point here is that when it comes to Nukes and ethics, the term best of the best, might be a little more applicable to them, than the average enlisted sailor on a submarine base.

Comment by NAVY-em's_Mom on May 7, 2013 at 9:20pm

LOL, williamnashua, I appreciate your enthusiasm and pride....but I worked on a subase...and I can tell you that not everyone on subs is the 'best of the best'.  That's true of anything in life, no matter how selective the process.  It's the same for doctors, sailors, lawyers and a lot of other 'highly selective' programs.  I can rattle of a few infamous sailors and some of them were submariners.

Comment by prayforthesailors on May 7, 2013 at 7:44pm

bea darby, welcome to the Roosevelt family!!!! My son is an EM and just went to the Roosevelt in March.  Congrats to your son, woohoo for graduating Nuke School, an awesome accomplishment! Enjoy your time with your son, soaking up every minute.  What an incredible Mother's Day gift.

 

Comment by NF Mom on May 7, 2013 at 6:17pm

J's mom:  "Another one of our sons is considering Navy vs. Marines. Though he was quick to say "no" when the recruiter asked if he would consider Nuke. ;-)"

It must be a guy thing, my husband, who spent some time at the Pentagon in a mufti-service environment, always suggested that the Air Force or Marines were the best way to go.  I never did get what the Marines had in common with the Air Force. But he said some of the smartest and dumbest people he ever met were enlisted Marines - like I said, I never got it.

My husband did admit to my son that the Nuke program was the best technical training program in the U.S. Military, and that only some of  the Electronics programs offered by the Air Force and Navy came close.  

Then my son ended up as an ET Nuke, have to love it when that rebellious spirit pays off and shuts up the "old man" :)

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