Bob's Page

Bob,
My son is in GC and Processed up on Feb.20,09 He loves being there and the Navy, he's now a EM3. If you can find out what class # your son is I can have joe look him up!

Thanks for all the information. It goes a big way in easing some of the concerns I have. I have two daughters who will be attending the PIR so we will be driving from Texas. Either way seeing my first born standing tall is worth it no matter how much time we get. Congratulations to you and your son. I know you are extremely proud.

Time is long the schools are hard but if they make it through it is a great accomplishment. My Son reported to GC in nov 2005 and left in June 2007 and reported to Bangor almost five weeks later he could not have asked for a better schedule. On the third set of classes which is prototype they stay off base my son found two other room mates and rented a three bedroom apt. Between BAS and BAH and the apt slit three ways they actually made some extra money. The real nice thing about being on a Boomer is the two crew schedule one crew takes it out for three months then comes in to port for about a month then the other crew takes it out for three months. It is about a five month cycle that you are in port and three months you are out to sea.

Hi Bob
My name is Mark Schirtz my Son Matthew is an ET nuke and has been in since August 31 2005 is stationed in Bangor WA on SSBN 737 USS Kentucky. In January he will be able to take the exam for Petty Office 1st class (E-6). The advancement for ET Nukes is very fast as they are hard to keep. My Son plans on doing 20 years and he did the first star reinlistment which commited him for a total of eight years and his bonus was in the 70,000 dollar range. Would enjoy to hear back from you. He went to all three schools in GC the was ordered to Bangor WA and will be there until 2012 some time.

Mark Schirtz
Matthews NC

Hi Bob, My son Matt is in div.111 ship 12,pir 27/02/09. His mother and I are flying in from California on the 26th.He will be a reservist ,for at least 2 years"couldn't pass up the bonus"After a school he will be stationed at San Diego. I too am very proud of my son.Maybe we can meet up at PIR to cheer for our Navy men.

My son was particularly interested in the requirement to learn all the systems on a sub as opposed to just being a nuke on a carrier. Yes, knowing everybody on the boat is better than moving into a big city full of strangers. Good luck to Aaron.

One of my son's recruiters said he had been a radar operator (don't remember the rate) on a carrier. He said he only saw the sky about once a week because it was too far to go on his free time. He also indicated he sometimes waited up to 1 hour in line for chow. Somehow I don't think that is possible on a sub.
Submariners do eat better and their deployments are usually shorter, but they do every few years go on a long deployment.
Telephone calls are frequently allowed on carriers, but not subs.

Unless they are married and live on base in married housing (several miles from prototype), they have to live off base for prototype, whether at Ballston Spa or Goose Creek. At GC there are numerous apartments available within easy driving distance, a car or motorcycle is a necessity (in NY probably a car because of the winter weather - even if you expect to be done during warmer weather sometimes things get delayed, like now). Car pooling isn't very practical because they can't predict their schedules. My son's roommate is on the other boat (class), so even before they go in hull their schedules are 30 minutes apart. After they go in hull each class has 5 different sections for rotating shifts.
The BAH (housing allowance) is enough for two to rent a 2 bedroom apartment and have rent and utilities covered. I guess you can find very expensive homes to rent, but prototype schedules are pretty intense. During the week, wake up, eat, go to class,come home, eat, fix food to take for tomorrow and sleep, so putting too much money into accommodations doesn't make sense. Leases are for a year or with 30 days notice if they have orders to go elsewhere. My son and a friend rented a 3 bedroom apartment over by the mall. They rented the 3 BR because it was the only one they could move into before graduation from power school.

They have to move out of NNPTC by the end of the day of graduation if they are going on to prototype. About 1/2 of my son's graduating class are stuck in T-Track because NY is shut down. They each pay about $525/mo plus gas and electric. BAH for E-4 at GC is $967/mo, BAS (food, etc.) is $323.

I don't know whether you have discovered other forums like www.nukeworker.com (Navy:staying in), www.navy-parents.com, or www.navyfor moms.com, but there is a lot of other information there. The mother don't mind non-mother, family members being there as long as you don't take over their discussions or criticize their being emotional. One of the moderators has 3 sons in the pipeline. Youngest in "A" school, oldest in a sub. If you go to www.navyformoms.com and select blogs search for "Nuke School" or "Jake Gallagher" to find a well written synopsis on the nuke pipeline, actually starting with BC.

Boy I sure got carried away.

My son's medical hold was after BC. He had had a biopsy a few months before entering the Navy because of a bad infection. He had gotten a general waiver by the Navy to go in, but apparently the nuke program has to have a D.C. medical panel pass on anything that sounds like a procedure that might be related to cancer. He was in GL temporary holding unit (limited liberty - never unaccompanied, no cells, make-work, etc) for 2 months. It did give him a good holiday leave since we only live 2 hours from GL and are 900 miles from GC. He started "A" school (MM) January last year. But then he had a 2 month hold because of a problem with his security clearance (which should have already been completed). It worked out well again because he got a longer leave for the last holidays because he graduated mid-December. Since he was staying in GC for prototype and he had to move off base, he got additional leave for PCS, but didn't need the extra time to move. If he had gone straight through without delays he might have been sent to NY for prototype and be stuck up there in that mess.
Hope you son gets what he wants, and stay well.