What The Navy's Really Like - The Truth About Nuke School

[@adamhaney9447]

Submarine EM(N) aboard SSBN-734G (2009-2015). As a smart, but undisciplined kid prior to the Navy, the nuclear program was one of the best decisions I ever made. Get some.

[@2F2FPod]

Smart, undisciplined kids are absolutely the ideal nukes; where the situation is mutually beneficial to the highest degree.

[@DragonTail624]

Really glad I watched this video, I'm signed up for the Nuke program and leave for boot camp in December and still only had a vague idea of what schooling would look like after basic. Sounds tough but honestly I feel like listening to these anecdotes made it feel more realistic/manageable. Here's hoping I make it out in one peace lol

[@2F2FPod]

Glad to hear it! It is definitely tough, but it's doable. They've also made some changes to the program to allow people who struggle to have a better chance to make it through. Thanks for watching, and please reach out if you need anything.

[@vaughn9547]

No way bro Im also going to boot camp in December lol.

[@DragonTail624]

@vaughn9547 lol, I gotta do a 3 week fat camp before starting actual boot camp so we might not end up in the same group

[@TheGnarlyPigeon]

Hey, I shipped out in December of 2022. Good times. I'll be heading to my first boat when you go to boot camp. I can honestly say it wasn't that bad. Prototype was the hardest part for me, but everyone is different.

[@TheRealFerret428]

​@@DragonTail624Yooo, I'm most likely shipping out around February, I'll see you there

[@nanux99]

During Power School, the A/C in our wing stopped working and weren't fixed, all while in summer. Had good memories, though.

[@2F2FPod]

@nanux99 That sounds brutal! Im not sure how long ago you were in, but Naval Instructor School harps pretty heavily on the fact that environment (a/c, distractions, etc.) can be a huge barrier to learning. Leave it to NNPTC to take a full summer to fix one of those issues 🫠

[@alttab3694]

Remember the bomb threat? Lol

[@dannywilliamson3340]

Thanks for your service, Nukes!! I went through Class 77-04 at NTC Orlando, and then S1C in CT. It sounds like Uncle Sam clamps down pretty hard these days. He's just protecting his investment. Most 18 YOs don't know their collective asses from a hole in the ground, so they NEED to have their opportunities for potentially self-destructive behavior curtailed. I didn't go to boot camp until 3 weeks after turning 21, and I'm sure I would have messed it up if I had joined up right out of high school. But it was a helluva education, and I made a career out of it. I got in on the ground floor of a brand new BWR, and ended up staying 35 years.

[@2F2FPod]

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

[@dannywilliamson3340]

@@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.

[@dannywilliamson3340]

@@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.

[@2F2FPod]

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.

[@philchurch1115]

Bootcamp at RTC/NTC San Diego Oct 1982 company 200 1982 to 1988 AZ2 VS-41 and VS-33 two west pacs..I loved working the flight deck and what a rush it was.

[@2F2FPod]

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!

[@philchurch1115]

@@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.

[@pyayaXC]

Former officer student here, so don’t have Rickover stories as wild as that of an enlisted nuke, but here a few fun exam markups from my Power School class: RHWB = right horse, wrong barn FOK = fusion of knowledge RC = reality check ECF = error carried forward and everyone’s favorite… BOD = benefit of the doubt

[@2F2FPod]

@@pyayaXC I can't believe I forgot about FOK!! Thank you for those!

[@elapidpython4378]

WTF = Wrong Trig Function

[@2F2FPod]

@@elapidpython4378 That's a great one!

[@themonkeebrothers6753]

i got a "wut" "wow..." and "sheep?" one of my answers was grazing...

[@dailydrivr]

NANABM = Navy Always Needs a Boatswains Mate

[@FloofyMinari]

There was no Suite upgrade once in Power School when i was there. All the new kids from boot camp got the bigger rooms while us 3rd classes stayed in our A school barrack.

[@2F2FPod]

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.

[@joercoll30]

@@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.

[@2F2FPod]

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

[@joercoll30]

You're all wrong. The job to go for on T-track is duty driver. Also 2:09 made me lol.

[@2F2FPod]

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

[@AsianVidWatcher]

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

[@Flutistno3]

If anyone that's been to this command RECENTLY, as in, more recent than 2000, reads this, please tell me if the situation has improved any for women??? If you don't know what i mean, don't worry about it, but when i was there it was really difficult to survive here as a female and I'd really like to know if it's any better.

[@JaimeMitchell-s5l]

I’m a female that went there recently. It wasn’t too bad. I’ve got some stories, but things get handled and I was not scared for my safety.

[@pjv767b5]

I was staff at basic power school after 4 patrols and a shipyard on an SSBNas a First class then CPO RO 1972 through 1976, we were called section advisors, and I will say this: the students who were on 35 to 40 hrs on average made the best operators when they went to the boats. The barracks sucked for sure and I’m glad to see NPS is still very demanding. With 2 years of college I operated, maintained, helped build every one of the various types of civilian power plants ending up as CEO of the power system in the Fl Keys. I attribute this to what I learned at Nuc School. It’s a tough demanding time but I wouldn’t trade it for anything

[@2F2FPod]

That's so awesome! They were called Section Leading Petty Officers or, "SLPOs", when we were students there. Are you saying that the students who were on the longest required study hours turned into the best operators?? That's really interesting considering, in theory, the material didn't come quite as easily to those sailors. Why do you think that was/is the case?

[@ckytaz7]

I was on 25-4 all of A-School and 35-5 for 5.5 out of the 6 months of P-School. Worst experience of my life still.

[@2F2FPod]

It really can be brutal. Sounds like you made it through, though! There is something to be said about the way Nuke School can change the way we think and learn... sometimes for the better, sometimes not.

[@ckytaz7]

@@2F2FPod I did make it through. Then came back to prototype as an instructor

[@NoFace237]

I am debating trying to do the Nuke program, ive heard that its super stressful even after schooling, but im not sure, would you say its worth it?

[@2F2FPod]

@@NoFace237 that depends completely on your personal motivations. Are you motivated by money and future career prospects? It could be worth it for you. Are you motivated by free time or feeling like you're truly making a difference in the world? You might find this work unfulfilling and awful...

[@ckytaz7]

@@NoFace237 TBH if I were to go back and do it all over again, I would have went with my original contract which was CTN. Nukes have a poor quality of life in the fleet and you are really limited on shore duty options. It's not all bad and definitely opened many doors for me but other rates in the Navy (such as CTN) would open many doors too. The people are awesome and I really miss that but that also has to do with the trauma bonding of us all going through the suck together. I can talk about this for hours but that's the shortest to the point answer I have.