CTN Questions

[charlestontracy]

Hello Everyone! I have a few questions about A school for CTN in Pensacola. But I will give you a little background first. I posted this on another group site but want to make sure i reach out to everyone I can! Thanks! 

My husband will be leaving for school in Pensacola next month. He got picked up for CTN. We have been a part of the Navy life for a little over 2 years now. My husband joined later in life than most guys & gals do (We are both early 30's) and he also joined undesginated, which is not the wisest choice.

There are pros and cons to everything I guess but being undesignated is rough! For us what happened was as soon as boot camp ended we moved from South Carolina to San Diego, CA and he immediately left on an 8 month deployment. Whew! That was tough but we did it! :-D The good part of this deployment happening so quickly is that my husband was able to learn which jobs he liked and didn't like on the ship. What has been really hard is that he can not rate up until he gets picked up. That's hard on pride and wallet! But I have to give major props to my hubby! He did great while deployed earning his ESWS, a letter of recommendation, letter of appreciation and a NAM. His paperwork was completely messed up which is why he was not being offered any jobs with a school. Once everything was fixed he had many jobs he could choose from and he already has an associates degree in computer science so he chose CTN. We decided instead of moving our daughter again for a brief time to Pensacola we would stay in SD while he went to school.

I am wondering if anyone can give some insight to how the school is there? What is the average time it takes to finish, I have read numerous postings here and there sometimes there is a wait for classes to begin etc. We have six months but does it usually average out to something longer like 8 months? Also, he will be gone during the holidays, does he get time off? And this might be a tricky one, but family is actually in South Carolina, could he go there for the holidays or would they only allow San Diego? Also, how long before he will have liberty for an entire weekend? I know this is not boot camp but I know that liberty is still strict during school, especially since he will be living in the barracks. Of course my husband doesn't mind at all because he said the school is challenging so he is going to have to spend all his time studying i'm the one that's worried about him. And finally, where do people get stationed. I love SD, and would love to stay but not sure we could take up residence here if he is CTN? And how soon can he begin looking for stations. Some chief told him sometimes in school they will let you know towards the end and move the family there, etc. 

Thanks so much to all who reply! I really appreciate it! And Go Navy Hoo-Yah! :) 

[sammy1990]

congratulations! that's a lot of questions, and I'm on my phone so I'm going by memory. school will take about 8 months... from arrival to departure. he will get time off for c'mas and he'll be able to go to sc. there are many different bases, San Diego is traditionally hard to get into, but really, it depends on what's open when he's picking. it's a challenging school, but his age is a big plus... he'll do well. good luck.

[charlestontracy]

@sammy1990 thank you so much! yes I know my head is always spinning with questions! :-D thank you so much for responding and your answers are certainly helpful to us! I am happy to hear he gets a break for Christmas! Yea I think his age is a big bonus for him with this school. Thank you so much! 

[rolfejr]

Congratulations to you and your husband for him getting the chance to be a CTN! It's a great rating. I graduated CTN A school a little over a year ago. I can give you info on what it was like when I was there but it may have changed some since then.

First of all, 8 months is probably the average time. You're in holding at first, waiting to class up. The school itself is about 6 months though. And that's if he doesn't get rolled back for test failures. Let him know, it is a tough course (even for people who have computer degrees and such). He shouldn't get discouraged if he has a hard time and even fails a test or two. They will explain the test policy when he gets there. He just needs to keep his head up and push through. AND STUDY!!! Lol. Which being older and without his family there, shouldn't be that big a problem. Christmas is about the only extended time he'll have off. He should be ready to make last minute plans though, because that's how it works there. They let you know the dates and everything last minute. Plane tickets would be outrageous. He should be able to go anywhere in the states though for Christmas. Weekend liberty is every weekend (as long as he doesn't have duty), however, the first two weeks you are not allowed to go off base. You have to pass a mock PRT and some other stuff to phase up. Oh, and duty. I don't know if either of you are religious or not but I suggest him putting in for the Chapel duty section.You don't have to be religious or anything. It's a super easy duty. Usually only on Sunday is when he would have duty. All you have to do is help setup for the Protestant and Catholic services and then sit in the office on watch answering phones and stuff. The chaplain (LT Alander) is super cool (not sure if he's still there though). And for San Diego as a duty station, we couldn't go there for our first duty station. The ones we could pick were Norfolk VA, VA Beach (which is now in Suffolk VA), San Antonio TX, FT Meade MD, I think FT Gordon GA, and I think that's it. But you are not likely to get what you pick so it doesn't matter too much. San Diego is more for E5 and up. His options will increase a lot once he's shooting for his second duty station. You'll normally get verbal orders a few weeks before the end of school and then written orders sometime starting around the last week. He should not rely on the verbals much at all. People got different written orders than their verbals when I was there! If you have any more questions, I will do my best to help.

[charlestontracy]

@rolfejr Wow! Thank you so much for all this wonderful information, I made sure my husband read this and he really appreciates all the advice. He had heard a bit about the test scores only because there were quite a few people that returned from school to his ship because they failed out of school. Yikes!! He is stressed because he knows it has a high drop out rate, but I am sure once he is there and knows exactly what is expected he will be okay. (i hope so!)

Well I don't know what to say about the stations. San Diego has been really good to us and is probably the best station there is! Of course I've never been to another station..LOL! Of course moving comes with the territory so I have always been prepared to move so to speak. Plus it would be nice to be near my family on the East coast. Out of the stations you mention is there a favorite for you or maybe you've heard others speak fondly of a particular station? Sorry I promise these will be my last questions! Thanks again, we really appreciate it! :)