That's so great to hear! Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need to vent.

It seems like my original reply was removed or something? Anyway, you've inspired us to start one, so it's in the works!

Shipping out soon?

@2F2FPod next month. Trying to do research on it and finding this podcast has been nothing but a godsend.

I guess it's important to caveat this and say that it can be dependent on platform / class of ship. However, generally speaking, EMs own SO much of the ship or boat and, especially on older classes of submarine, their equipment is so prone to failure that they almost always have significantly more work to do than any other rate. The work that electricians do is dirty, like MMs, but also can be technical and detailed, like ETs. They are "the best of both worlds" if by "best" you really mean, "most frustrating parts". They also own several periodic maintenance items that are gigantic, ship-wide, high-profile events which are often stressful and can be dangerous. They have copious amounts of nuclear and non-nuclear maintenance (on submarines, specifically), because there aren't any non-nuke electricians on board. Electricians also always had the lowest re-enlistment bonuses and slowest advancement for the 10 years we were in, but that may very well have changed by now. There was this weird phenomenon where senior electricians (E-8s and above) weren't getting out of the Navy / rotating to shore tours normally. It had something to do with how EDMC tours were being assigned or some other bureaucratic nonsense like that. That has also hopefully worked itself out by now. I don't know very much about you or your goals/circumstances. If you are currently a construction electrician with plenty of experience, I don't think you're going to gain very much practical knowledge from the Navy. Your experience may make you a "hot-runner" early in your career but that will dwindle with time. If you're joining the Navy to find a new career or learn new skills, I would suggest choosing one of the other rates. The theory that you must know already to do electrical work will still help you at various points throughout the training pipeline and occasionally throughout your career. If you're joining the Navy because you love what you do now but the Navy is going to pay you more money / give you some kind of "adventure" you may be seeking - then you might enjoy life as an electrician, just recognize that it's more difficult to enjoy the adventure you're on when you're stuck on the boat cleaning a motor generator while even other nukes are already at home. There is also a chance that you end up on a newer class of submarine or go to the surface fleet instead. There's potential for life to be better in those circumstances - EMs own less of the electrical distribution equipment. I can't speak in very much detail about those cases, as I have very limited experience with either. Good luck and feel free to send us an email if you want to get more into personal specifics!

Bootcamp in San Diego makes us all jealous. Flight deck ops seem like so much fun - and they make it on all the cool, old-school Navy ads!

@@2F2FPod On the flight deck you had to keep your head and eyes moving all the time and one time on the USS Ranger CV-61 jul83 to feb 84 west pac I got blowen down by a F-14 pilot that thought they were God until they came back to the ship, and we had a little talk and they were lucky that two MAA were in the room, I had bruises all over and hurt like hell for a few weeks and saw the pilot at Subic naval air base and he bought me a few drinks and dinner and I heard "sorry" many time.

That is awesome! Thank you very much for watching. 35 years is an insanely long career. What was the pinnacle for you?

@@2F2FPod I figured out early on that I didn't want to be a Shift Manager, so I stayed in Operations only 6 years. In that time, I brought a new plant up from cold iron....we moved into the control room with nothing running but the air compressors......to commercial operation. It was just luck of the draw, but I got to pull the initial criticality on a brand new 1000 MWe reactor. I finished my degree and was able to ultimately land in what you might call the legal staff. We handled business with the federal inspectors, and wrote all the correspondence going to the NRC.

@@2F2FPod I could tell early on that I didn't want to be a Shift Manager, so I got out of Operations after 6 years. I helped bring the plant up from cold iron.....we moved into the control room with nothing running but the air compressors......to commercial operation. It was just luck of the draw, but I got to pull the initial criticality on a brand new 1000 MWe boiling water reactor. When I finished my degree, I was able to move out and eventually landed on what you might call the legal staff. We handled everything to do with the federal inspectors, and wrote all the correspondence going to NRC. I turned out to have a knack for technical writing, so it was a good fit. When I retired, I was the sole survivor of the first class of reactor operators.

That is so badass! Initial crit is a pretty epic career footnote. I've taken a plant solid, did a bubble draw, and my favorite, a crashback. But nothing quite on the level of being the first one to call a plant critical.

Of course! Feel free to ask them here in the comments or you can send us an email at [email protected]

Oh, man! Expecting Thanksgiving and getting cheeseburgers is a real kick in the shorts.

All of us sub guys were exclusively on fast attacks. So, if you want to learn more about what it's like on fast attacks just listen to the rest of our episodes, especially the one about what sea duty is really like!

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "high demand" sea duty. But nukes can and do serve back-to-back sea tours. It's rare and reserved for the real psychos hahaha

Thank you all for serving i think the folks that have served know what to look for in a person in that position hopefully not Hegseth

How you feel about him does not disqualify him for the job. What is it that you think might disqualify him? I would also be interested in hearing you thoughts on muck and Ramaswamy.

@@PEN0311 What qualifies musk and Ramaswamy they have never been in government are even familiar with the laws of this country

They can by pretty cathartic for us to make, too!

Israel is not an expiditiary force

@@TheXanderGrim no they are not, but women in combat seems to work just fine for them.

@davidlawrenz2061 ok compare a defense force vs an expiditiary force , logistics long term field operations beyond borders. Tell me you say it works well for a defense force....but what are we...

@@TheXanderGrim i am not getting your point, how would expeditionary or defense force change how capable women are in combat roles?

@@TheXanderGrim The only logistical difference between men and women is the addition of tampons and birth control. If the US military is logistically incapable of handling that I'm not sure they would be able to handle anything.

I'll take a seasoned door kicker over a feckless GEN turned bureaucrat. Hegseth is concerned for all Combat Arms and Special Ops careers. Basically, he broadly wants to return the US military to 1990's standards. As a Cold War veteran, I can not argue with this.

So he's more concerned with something that is not happening. Got it. PS He served where his orders sent him, just like everyone else that serves; actually doesn't make him any more qualified.

@@chriscalhoun516 guess you know no one at Benning or bragg

An alcoholic with zero management experience in charge of the 1.4 million-person military operating 24/7 in hot spots around the world. What could possibly go wrong? And I lied, he does have some management experience. He was on the board of two veteran's charities where he was pushed out due to financial irregularities and drunkness. Again: what could possibly go wrong?!

@praytopesci2794 first article published on your claims was by mother jones......not very reliable try ground news

He's a 20 year Major because we should all know that the promotion scale for NG/Reserves is not the same as AD. DEI is antithetical to meritocracy. Meritocracy is bedrock principle in military culture. Its what undergirds the military ranking system. DEI does not prioritize merit when considering decisions of advancement or promotion. As for Hegseths qualification, I have my doubts about that but he is a combat veteran with small unit leadership experience. He also has experience running 2 veteran advocacy NGO's. All of this is enhanced with an Ivy League education. He has a perspective that favors the junior ranks of enlisted and officers. My worry is he lacks the experience needed at the strategic level. My hope is this is tempered by a complementary deputy SECDEF. Hegserh was nominated because his agenda aligns with DJTs, he has not had been "corrupted" by the Washington careerists. He's an outsider and does not belong to the bureaucracy. As an author of two books on the military, he has an insight into the personnel issues involved the Forces.

@PEN0311 He's completely unqualified for this position, but he's being forced in there by Trump, he is a DEI hire, just in a different color. The qualifications he has is that Trump saw him on TV. Stop trying to justify such an obviously bad decision. It's embarrassing.

@@OhboyHereWeGo818 He's also CEO for two veterans advocacy groups, and he has his time on Fox News so rubbing shoulders with politicians. I would say he's uniquely qualified in that his latest military experience has him close to the boots on the ground, and his experience since then allows him to talk with political appointees (let's face it Flag Officers are political appointees, it's all ass-kissing after a certain point.) He might be the ONLY pick tbh, if you want closer to the men on the field you want to go to active duty, if you want more experience higher up choose a politician.

@msihcs8171 No. I'd much rather a General in charge of the Pentagon.

@msihcs8171 You mean the advocacy groups where he was mismanaged and was demoted from on; and the other one where he was forced to resign due to misconduct? He wasn't up to the task of managing two small charitable organizations; and now you think he's qualified to be in charge of the single most powerful organization in the world?

Time will tell. It does seem like the new administration is interested in cutting lots of funding to lots of places (D.O.G.E., etc.).

We are really glad to be able to help! Please reach out if you need anything and good luck!

Recruiters can get awards (which help towards advancement) for recruiting nukes. There are also quotas for recruiting various rates, nukes are notoriously difficult to recruit. Smart, eligible people tend to go to college instead of enlisting. Let us know if you need anything while you're dealing with the recruiting process!

Glad to hear it! Good luck and feel free to reach out if you need anything

@2F2FPod thank you, I will.

I had a feeling the answer to your question was going to be ITS, but I asked a couple of former SECF guys (who have been on the podcast), and here is exactly what they said... "ITS. No question. They can actually get civilian IT certs and can use that experience as years for network admin and security. SECF I would say is "cooler" because youre dealing with Navigation, Sonar, Weapons, or Comms on the subs, so no matter what you are directly involved in the mission. It's stressful but rewarding. But as far as transferred experience goes, civilians typically don't need Sonar techs, Quartermasters, or Torpedo/Missile systems experience." And... "Definitely ITS. Secf is only good if you want to keep working on navy equipment after you get out haha"

@2F2FPod gotcha, yeah I'm probably settled on that then. I've been trying to get as much info as I can since I'll be locked in for at least 4 years. Will be going to talk to a recruiter this week and get the ball rolling, thanks again for all the info you put out going to be listening to the rest of your videos at work.

It definitely sounds like he was a go-getter during quals. It's pretty typical to operate on 4-5 hours of sleep during quals. Not getting off the ship for at least 4 hours after pull-in is actually on the short end! There are so many things that have to happen before the shutdown can even start. 🙄

Save!

Being an older nuke definitely has its benefits and it's drawbacks. You will have perspective that almost everyone else lacks, and be able to be the adult in the room. But it can also be alienating if the division is all young guys (like mine often was) and your interests don't align. Good luck and reach out if you need anything!

Well put!

Exactly! Definitely someone to be said about REALLY learning the stuff but it has to be so easy the 2nd time around.

Congratulations! Please reach out if you need anything along the way.

Something about it... Nukes might be overwhelmingly closeted Broadway wannabes 😅

Thank you very much! We are planning on doing an episode about officer programs in the near future. Best of luck to your son/daughter and please feel free to reach out if you need anything.

That's a great tip!!

No you don't. NAPT is for Bravo quals.

Haha we appreciate that! There are lots of Seals making the rounds out there.

@@2F2FPod Never met one when I was in.

Oh that's awful! I guess it definitely makes it easier logistically on the staff... but the room upgrade was such a cool perk after graduation.

@@2F2FPod Also did not receive this upgrade in 2017-2018. I do remember a couple people moving around though, so it maybe something I just was unlucky about.

Damn so you guys had to stay in the tiny rooms with the bunk beds for a year plus!?

@@joercoll30 I'm pretty certain Duty Driver was only a Grad Hold job in our time.

I was in T track for 3 months as duty driver. Definitely best watch, you listen to your own music as you drive and can relax on site/beq while you’re not busy