NUKE moms

This was at Prototype graduation - January 2015, Ballston Spa, NY.

B'sNukeMom - I love the pictures too!!

Crazy that it was 10 years ago!  How time flies ;-D

Great pictures!!!

val - Do you know if there is housing in NY?  A week doesn't seem long enough if they have to find housing!

MomofJoseph - they have to find their own housing in NY.  Same as prototype in GC....my son lived in the "Winners Circle" apartments.  Super nice - at least at the time.  It was B and 2 of his good buddies in a nice 3 bedroom place.  There were quite a few of his friends that all lived in the same complex.

B'sNukeMoM - When your son lived in those apartments what type of transportation did he use? My daughter doesn't drive or have a vehicle. My dummy self thought that she would be living on base during A school, power school, and prototype. I figured that would be her housing situation up until deployment! 

AZ_RACCOON - Your daughter will need to live off base for her Prototype training. And most of the Sailors have their own transportation to and from the Prototype location. I am surprised that her recruiter did not insist on the fact that she needed to have her driver's license. But not all recruiters are aware of the circumstances with Nuke school. 

My son's roommate did not have a car, and I think he was working on getting a driver's license. It was difficult for him to get rides and he and my son were not always on the same rotation cycle. They start learning how to stand watch times with when they go in for training at Prototype. Also, my son was still a fairly new driver himself. He had a bicycle for almost the first year he was at GC and so did not get a car (from his sister, till we drove it out to him), and so he had to refresh his memory even though he had a DL. But as a young, male driver, I would not let him take his roommate out to get any driving practice in for his driver's license.

Any of you who have had sailors at GC more recently with any updated information on transportation please reply. I recall there being a bus at NNPTC at times, but that still did not always work with my son's schedule. 

Dang, well that sucks, now I feel like a terrible mother. I wonder if she will have time to obtain one before then. Hopefully there will at least be some type of public transportation. She figured she wouldn't have to worry about having a car for years even. Geez, being a noob at this sucks.

We shipped our son his car at the end of power school because we knew he would be leaving for NY.  Like Chipmunk said, I'm surprised her recruiter didn't tell her she would need a car during prototype.  Everyone lives off base then (although there is some base housing in GC but it's normally reserved for families).  I don't think there was any type of public transport in NY - and their hours are all over the place. 

They work crazy shifts:

Swing - 11:30am-11:30pm

Mids 7pm-7am

Days 7am-7pm

And the shifts constantly rotate....I believe every so many days (weeks?) they would then have 4 days in a row off. It's not a fun schedule - but good thing they are young!

And if she ends up stationed in Norfolk she will definitely need a car.  Norfolk Naval Base is "the largest naval complex in the world".

Yeah, the recruiter didn't say anything, sigh. Now I am super stressed, poor kiddo.

For prototype,  I believe my son said that they try to assign roommates to the same watch shifts so they don't have 3 or 4 vehicles coming from the same place. BUT, that is not guaranteed. Best for each person to have their own transportation. 

Also, a vehicle is almost a must in the fleet too. Many base areas,, especially Norfolk & San Diego, don't have good public transportation systems. Also, ships/boats are in homeport more than they are deployed. It depends on timing, when they report vs. boat/ship's movement. When home, it is like a regular work week with evenings and weekends off, except for 24 hour duty days. So, there is time to get away for short times. Being stuck on the boat//ship will get old, fast.

AZ_RACCOON - First of all, you are NOT a terrible mother!  You are an amazing, concerned, caring mother!

Second, your daughter has time to get a DL and a car.  It will be AT LEAST a year after PIR before she goes to Prototype.  There's not much free time during A School and Power School, but there are breaks before and after each school, so she can get her license and get a car during those times.

Third, when my son was in Prototype (2023), they assigned roommates to the same shifts so that they could carpool. In practice, though, once both of his roommates had cars, my son often chose to drive separately so that he could stay later without inconveniencing his roommates.

Thanks for the help ladies!

How soon will my SR know if she will get ETN, EMN, or MMN? She has her PIR on May 8th.

Happy 1st Day of Spring!

AZ_RACCOON - I think my son found out about 6 weeks into BC what his Nuke rate was going to be. 

And You are NOT a terrible mother!! And you are not the first one to get on here and ask about cars and driving and such. I just wish the recruiters would have more of a clue about the Nuke Program and the logistics of the housing. But Canuka is correct, even sailors without a Nuke rate find out when they get to their duty station, such as Norfolk & SD that a personal vehicle is almost a must.

AZ_RACCOON - My son also found out about six weeks into BC.  They had to pick their choices in order of his Nuke Rate they wanted.  MMN, EMN, ETM.  He is now EMN and about to graduate A school.  The final decision is where they need the Sailors.  

When my son arrived to A school after BC he just took Uber with his friends when they needed to go somewhere!  We finally shipped his Jeep to GC from WA state.  

I am still new to all of this.  Everyone here has helped us!! 

AZ_RACCOON - One more thing none of his friends from BC had cars.  They were all planning to get cars when needed when they got to A school in GC and before Prototype.

Ditto!! My son was in prototype in 2022. His roommates all had cars he did not. Never had a transportation problem. They all worked the same shift. He did apply to be a prototype instructor following graduating the new program. That process started a few months before he was done and there was a deadline to get a car at that point. His application would not be accepted until he had his own transportation. He bought an old car while he was waiting to get a Ford maverick which was hard to find at the time (and $5000 over MSRP if you could find it). He never did get that Ford maverick. Right before he was scheduled to move to his first duty station last year, he did buy a nicer car and sold the beater. The Navy paid to ship his vehicle to his duty station in Hawaii.

I might add that he paid cash for his new car so it was easy to transport it to his new duty station. IF he had a loan or lease, there would’ve been an approval needed from the lien holder and lot more paperwork to move the car to Hawaii, I don’t know if it would’ve been approved or not.

B'sNukeMom - Thanks for posting the shift schedule! I couldn't recall the exact times or names. Those crazy shift schedules stay with them through the fleet and shore duty. I think my DIL has had a worse time of crazy shifts on shore duty than she did in the fleet. (She is not a Nuke). But while on the ship my Nuke son had a hard watch, because they don't have as large a pool of sailors to pull from like some of the other rates do. 

The shift changes are some of the hardest things they have both dealt with, being in the Navy. 

Reserves on the other hand, has been a good option for my son now that he is out. 

You ladies have all been so helpful, thank you so much!! I think the one that my daughter is hoping for the most in MMN, but she understands that you get what you get.

AZ_RACCOON - That’s the spirit!

FYI: The housing situation, looking way forward. The contract your sailor signed says that the Navy will provide her with a bed, one bed; where & type is up to the Navy.

At GC, this is a barracks room for A school and PS. Since there are no berthing facilities at prototype, the Navy provides housing allowance or extra pay to partially cover off-base housing. This is a big exception to normal allowances which don't kick in until the sailor reaches higher ranks or time in rank. At GC, my son rented a new 4 bedroom house in Moncks Corner with 3 others. The total rent was around $2200 a month and they each got $1700 a month so they banked some extra cash.

The fleet situation varies greatly by boat/ship and home port area. The contract bed is obviously on the boat/ship and even then, may be shared (hot racking, especially on subs). While in port, sailors will live full time on the boat/ship unless they qualify for an on-base barracks room (subject to availability) or housing allowance (which varies by rank and city). Otherwise, they have to pay the full cost of an apartment out of their own pocket (many home ports are very high cost of living). 

So the lower ranks, even E-4 nukes, are stuck on the ship/boat full-time. Depending on timing of the vessel's operational movements, this could be months to over a year. Availability of on base rooms depends on the base and the number of ships home at the same time. Here in SD, we have 3 homeported carriers and all three are often here at the same time. It is up to the ship to decide who gets the allocated rooms. I don't know how cramped the Pt. Loma sub base is. Other non-carriers or subs tie up at SD Naval Base which has several bachelor quarter buildings, but many schools and shore based commands in addition to the ships. All these bases are huge and not always convenient to local amenities or public transportation.

The above is only for single sailors. This is all different for sailors with dependents. There are many military housing sites in SD, but some are quite a commute from specific bases.

Bottom line, a personal vehicle is a very good idea. There are storage options while long-term deployed.

I know this is down the road for your sailor but we mom's like to know what is coming for our babies even if they are too busy or don't care right now.

Good luck to all.

Canuka - Thank you very much for all of the housing and other information.  It is very helpful and we appreciate it!!

Have a good weekend everyone!

AZ_RACCOON - The Navy utilizes more MMNs than they do EMNs or ETNs, so the likelihood of your daughter getting an MMN rate is higher, however, it also just depends on the needs of the Navy!!  All the best to your daughter!!

Canuka - Thanks for sharing!!

Canuka - Yes!  Thanks for posting that info - very helpful ;-D

Last comment about housing...special situation.

This is NASNI this a.m. Left is 72 Abe, right is 71 Teddy, in between is the open carrier dock (our 3rd is 70 Carl V-currently deployed).

 Teddy is in a construction status so no one can sleep on board, so the sailors who don't have any other housing go to the white box which is a berthing barge. The galley  & conference rooms were moved too. Sailors still do regular watches on board. This barge is fairly new but the berthing barges used to be old, old ships.

WRT housing, I don't think my submariner (STS2, currently assigned to an SSGN, not a nuke) has ever had to stay on the boat when not underway, even when he was junior E4. There just isn't room for everyone on attack subs, and tight quarters on the Ohio class. Too, the Ohio class SSBN/GN boats have two crews that alternate, so the "off" crew needs housing. He did have to stay on a barge on deployment in Guam.
Homeport bases usually have housing in the BEQ for sailors up to E4 with less than 4 years. They may or may not have availability for E4+4. When they hit E5, they are effectively required to have off-base housing. If they are not in government housing, they get (non-taxable) BAH to offset housing costs. For the frugal that can be more than rent or a mortgage payment -- money in the bank. I don't know what his apartment in Silverdale WA costs, but he gets like $2K/mo BAH. Military pay scales are publicly available.

Helping mama grocery shop!

Hi Val - it’s been 3 years, but here is my memory of it: they have a rotating schedule. Example, start with 7 Swings shifts, then 7 Nights, then days. Two days off in between but they are adjusting their sleep schedules. After days, they get 2 days off, then followed by three shorter day shifts, then 4 days off and restart the rotation with swings. 

I live in California and visited often (he had a house with plenty of room even with his roommates). I’d fly out and arrive when he had his shorter days, then spend his 4 days off together. Realistically, you could start the trip with the 2 days off following his day shift rotation and have dinner together after his shorter days (off work by 3ish). 

Hope that helps! BTW avoid Dallas for your layover if you can help it this time of year. I got stuck there for 30 hours due to storms!! 

I can post an actual old 2023 work schedule but not sure about OPSEC… 

anyone want to weigh in on that?