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Oh yeah, I have orders to that boat in like 2 months, lol. 
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Mar 11, 2021 05:47
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Mar 11, 2021 05:50
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Elviscat posted:Oh yeah, I have orders to that boat in like 2 months, lol. I’d say holler at me when you are in town for a bbq but yuck you’ll have cooties.
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Mar 11, 2021 06:24
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My last boat just had a scabies outbreak. But I was a senior 1st so I didn't have to hot-rack with the plebes that got it. (E divver got it from a stripper in P‐Can, constant shuffling of hot racks for SCC spread it to like 40 E-6 and below, the COB had to call a bunch of wives and girlfriends to explain that their SO got it from a dirty rack, LOL)
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Mar 11, 2021 06:29
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I almost want to catch it again to experience the gel cream. It was like the most satisfying scratch of an itch I’ve ever experienced in my life.
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Mar 11, 2021 06:47
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Love to learn nothing about hygiene from a pandemic lmao
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Mar 11, 2021 14:09
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One boat I was on had a fire ant nest inside the leg of the table in the ratings’s tv room. The regular captain was too afraid of the ratings to have the loving table removed, once his relief came onboard it took like an hour to solve the problem. In conclusion, gently caress anyone who spends 35+ years on the same boat.
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Mar 13, 2021 12:43
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FrozenVent posted:One boat I was on had a fire ant nest inside the leg of the table in the ratings’s tv room. G-granpa? You left meemaw for the sea and never came back...
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Mar 13, 2021 16:23
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This isn’t for me: I have a relative in the US that my family is very close with. His dad supports his family as a truck driver and his brothers are basically deadbeats. He’s always wanted to be a pilot but his family’s means can’t provide for the amount of upfront payment required to make it happen. His grades are impeccable and he’s so good at math that he used to grade math assignments on behalf of his teachers when he was in primary school. He’s seriously considering applying to Annapolis Navy Academy so he can try to become a carrier pilot. Should I try to dissuade him? It seems like a pretty good deal if he doesn’t wash out. At the very least he’ll get out of it with an engineering degree which could help him become a pilot later on when he’s done his obligations as a navy SWO or whatever other thing the needs of the navy for you into if you don’t make pilot.
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Mar 13, 2021 18:34
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Kraftwerk posted:This isn’t for me: Academy is a ridiculously infantilizing living environment with laughable academics but it opens doors so  ROTC is probably a better option if he's set on Naval aviation.
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Mar 13, 2021 18:50
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Kraftwerk posted:This isn’t for me: He should go to NROTC or USNA if he wants to be a naval officer, but not a specific designator. People that want to be pilots but are willing to be a SWO or a Submariner get a lot of clarity in their third year of college. It's not so much washing out as a combination of ranking and luck that determines whether you can qualify any particular role, and it won't be fully in his control. How does he know if he wants to be an officer? He can't know yet. Almost anyone he has access to has no idea what the job will be like in 5-8 years when he gets started. You describe him as a smart kid, but that usually means he hasn't held down a job, and is incapable of conceiving of a 40 hour workweek with rights, much less a 70+ hour workweek with none. The way I've explained it to close family members is the following 3-part heuristic: -Ideals: Are you willing to commit a portion of your life to serving an ideal? The constitution and her republic specifically. Do you know what it looks like if you don't make this commitment vs if you do? Do you understand the distinction between the constitution and the officials that serve it? -Commitment: Once you're in, you're not stuck per say, but leaving can get costly in time, money, prestige, and well-being, so unless you're forced out you probably won't quit. Research now whether you're willing to commit to where you'll be in 8 years. -Strategy: joining the military, enlisted or officer, is to give away control of much of your life. For some, because of social or economic reasons, they maybe didn't have a lot of control already so it's low cost for high benefit. Some are stripping themselves of it now to get more later. Some make value by stripping themselves of control in the short term because they don't know how to use that control smartly. Would he be able to serve 8-12 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit for a payout on the other side? Can he leave it better than he found it? Can he leave it better than he entered it? That will be the test. Financially, service academies and ROTCs are some of the best deals you can get if you don't have a Pell grant combined with an active commitment to hustling for scholarships. NROTC doesn't pay rent. If he's considering one, he should probably be considering the other. Educationally, USNA represents a good STEM focused liberal education but graduates obviously miss a diversity of experience (they'll make some of this up quickly by being far more traveled, but they'll miss some othee stuff). Its very engineering focused. If he wants to be a pilot or an engineer, that's great. If he wants to do science, it will not afford ready access and underutilized opportunities state funded research institutions or even most state colleges will provide for students with the give-a-gently caress to earnestly pursue it. Despite the STEM focus, most USNA grads with STEM majors don't have intuitive understanding of science fundamentals, like how it's made, what's sufficient to affirm causality, or the ability to read or engage in academic literature. They learn a lot /about/ the field though--its a technicians education, and is quite valuable in both the career and after but it is different and meets different expectations. The USNA will keep him on task. It won't be as easy for him to change his major and whatever he picks at 18 will be probably whatever degree he gets, but this may not be bad since a: he will have a well paying job and b: after that job can complete a goal-oriented degree plan based on his new ideals closer to actually using that degree. Your major is a minor, your actual major is US Navy. This can be great or awful if he's likely to want to change his major and find himself in college as he won't have the freedom but won't pay the costs. Whether that's a boon depends. If he only wants to be a pilot and nothing else, and can afford it, it may be better to go to college without a service commitment, apply to OCS which let's you apply for specific contracts (no guarantee it still will in 5 years) and only take an aviation contract. Edit: tried to explain my views on USNA academics without throwing too much shade. piL fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Mar 13, 2021 |
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Mar 13, 2021 19:25
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Is he dead set on being a carrier pilot? Is he dead set on being a fixed wing pilot? If the answer to those questions are no then he should consider the Army, which has the most pilots, albeit many of them are helicopter pilots. The Army also has the "High School to Flight School" program to enter flight school directly after high school, linked below for convenience. The big drawback there is that it is a 10 year service commitment. But 4 years of NROTC followed by 5 or 6 of Navy time would put the end of the timeline at the same point. https://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/current-and-prior-service/advance-your-career/warrant-officer/flight-warrant-officers.html
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Mar 13, 2021 19:38
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Yeah, if you really want to be a pilot, carrier in particular (the Navy flies non-carrier planes like the P-8 too, you could end up in those), that's a lot of dice rolls that have to come up in your favor. You go through four years at the Academy and hope that you get aviator out of all the other possible designators they could assign you. Then you go to flight school and, assuming you pass all the medical and physiological requirements, do another year or so and hope that you get selected for the tailhook pipeline, and even then you might end up flying something dumb like the E-2 or C-2. Like, it's not impossible, people obviously do it, but piL is spot on that he should want to be an officer first and foremost. That's true for any of the commissioning sources but especially so for the Academy where you're not even finding out what your designator will be until you're three years in. People who go in dead-set on pilot (or anything else, really, but it's always pilots) more often than not have a miserable time.
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Mar 13, 2021 19:58
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Kraftwerk posted:This isn’t for me: I went to Embry-Riddle on a full ride NROTC scholarship and was selected for aviation prior to commissioning. I went through flight school, selected helos, then became a primary instructor before applying for and being selected for a jet transition. In my opinion, applying for USNA isn’t bad because it guarantees a full ride if accepted. However, the NROTC scholarship allows you to attend a school and play military while still having some semblance of a normal college experience. There’s no guarantee you’ll be selected for aviation outside of applying for OCS and turning it down if you aren’t offered pilot. Even once you get to flight school, your pipeline selection is both merit and needs of the navy based.
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Mar 13, 2021 20:00
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Wingnut Ninja posted:. People who go in dead-set on pilot (or anything else, really, but it's always pilots) more often than not have a miserable time. Corallary: Pilots. It's always pilots, except when it's SEALs.
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Mar 13, 2021 20:12
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There’s also some schools that have ROTC and let you get aviation degrees i.e. Navy would pay for all their commercial tickets plus a bachelors degree. I think Jacksonville University and maybe Auburn had programs for that, though maybe I’m misremembering. However, NROTC (15 years ago anyways) seemed weighted towards feeding people into Engineering and hard sciences primarily. Reading between the lines they really want people they can force to go nuke. Competition for scholarships for degrees they aren’t interested in is intense since it was heavily weighted toward STEM. Some schools will also give ROTC kids free room and board, but it’s pretty rare. Academy is really the only “free ride” out there.
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Mar 13, 2021 20:26
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Kraftwerk posted:This isn’t for me: I'm a dumb civilian but given his financial situation he could do far worse than a full ride from Annapolis. It's worth applying at the very least. Vincent Van Goatse fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Mar 13, 2021 |
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Mar 13, 2021 20:46
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During my undergrad, the uncommon paths were the way to go since they had less applicants. My friends went in through the merchant marine reserve or USMC since the marines were guaranteeing flight slots. The USMMA has options into the Navy I think and a lesser commitment if things don't work out, I believe just 2 weeks a year of chilling on a ready reserve vessel. All the merchant marine academies have some sort of MMR option but the NROTC guy in my class had to go to Berkeley and then went subs anyways. Edit: USCG also started recruiting for officers and I think offered 2 slots to my class. I dont remember if they were flight slots or we will let you pick whatever you want slots. lightpole fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Mar 13, 2021 |
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Mar 13, 2021 21:08
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Thanks guys for the amazing information. I think he has a bright future ahead of him but he won’t get very far if he’s stuck with his family or bogged down in student loans. He wants to fly more than anything and rightly or wrongly he bought into a lot of the propaganda about what the US is supposed to be and the promises that the constitution represents so he has no problems forfeiting some of his freedoms to get there. His family’s financial situation limits a lot of his freedoms to begin with so more of that for the next decade or so isn’t gonna hurt him if there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. More than anything he wants to fly. It doesn’t matter what aircraft, he just wants to fly it. His long term goal is to be an airline pilot or a cargo pilot. But in the near term, as long as he gets to fly something he’ll sign up. That’s the kind of person he is. I think if he went to Annapolis and they decided to shove him in a submarine it would probably crush him. This is why I came here to ask you guys about this. Originally he wanted to go Air Force in the hopes that he could fly C-17s but he feels intimidated by rumours about how it’s turned into a mega church at the academy and they attempt to indoctrinate you into evangelical Christianity. He doesn’t like that. It basically boils down to a few things: He doesn’t want to get shafted with student loans He wants a STEM education and his best grades are here He’s willing to work for Uncle Sam because it means he will get away from his family situation and serve a higher purpose. He really really wants to fly and it doesn’t matter what he has to fly as long as it means he can get into a major airline or cargo flying company later on.
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Mar 13, 2021 21:40
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Kraftwerk posted:It basically boils down to a few things: Yeah, that sounds like a good fit for USNA.
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Mar 13, 2021 21:52
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US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point. Worst case he gets out and goes to sea making 6 figures with very little commitment.
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Mar 13, 2021 22:07
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The AF evangelism stuff is overblown. There are a handful of wackos who draw a LOT of attention with their bullshit. Has he looked into the requirements to apply to a service academy? It's not "fill out this form and pay $75" like most schools. Or the service commitment incurred by signing as a pilot?
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Mar 13, 2021 22:31
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EDIT: Yes he’s aware of the process. Any tips to get your congress person to nominate you? Like beyond the boiler plate stuff they wrote on their websites. Is it a straightforward process or do you need to be politically connected somehow? Kraftwerk fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Mar 13, 2021 |
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Mar 13, 2021 22:34
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The below is my own opinions. A lot of widsom from Wonder Free here.Wonder Free posted:There’s also some schools that have ROTC and let you get aviation degrees i.e. Navy would pay for all their commercial tickets plus a bachelors degree. I think Jacksonville University and maybe Auburn had programs for that, though maybe I’m misremembering. This is a good idea. I would cross reference this (or some other) list of schools with aviation programs, this list of schools with NROTC programs, and (if possible), this list of NROTC programs with additional benefits. If he picks a program that gets him a pilot's license as part of the program, the Navy doesn't care. It doesn't help you fly for the Navy, but the Navy will pay full tuition (I thought there was a cap, but I can't see it anywhere so maybe it's gone? Don't quote me on that), though maybe not all additional fees. This is a risk decision with regards to finances. Edit: Do more research than just looking at the lists though. At USNA, if you pass and commission, there will be zero debt. You're more likely to incur some debt with the NROTC. However there is an X% chance you wont get to be a pilot after USNA, which means incurring additional costs or additional service time in order to complete your pilot license after service, and you're probably not completing pilot school part time while at the USNA or during back to back sea tours as a SWO or in reactor school as a submariner. GI Bill counter doesn't start for USNA or ROTC graduates until year 5, so a wannabe-pilot that wants to pay for their pilot's license with the GI Bill after their service is 4 years of school plus 8 years of service away from that goal. Even if you were a SWO or Submariner then, having a private pilot's license would be pretty sweet given all the travel you'll have to do. While normally I recommend against blowing your career starter loan in one go, a pilots license, a $20,000 career starter loan plane, and (if these estimate are reasonable) Ensign BAH in San Diego will cover operating costs (get a roommate). I don't know anything about planes, so maybe you wait until LT pay for that dream of checking the infamous "POV Air" box on your travel claim. An O-3 aviator at my unit flew his own plane home most weekends to visit his wife at his home while living as a geographical bachelor (paying for a home and family elsewhere, renting a cheap bed near your duty station) and kept his flight hours up moving during his shore tour. I don't really recommend buying frivolously expensive conceits like planes to anybody, but a dream is a dream. Maybe save up for a year or two first, get that O-2 pay. I would recommend applying to either and seeing what he's accepted to in order to make that decision. The other side: I know he wants nothing more than to be a pilot right now, but college (especially regular colleges) change a lot of people's minds. I don't have stats on it, but lets say that boys/girls, music, pot, and diverse campus experiences cause people to rethink their personal identities once they have these new components. The decision making process above assumes he will 100% stay committed. But <100% of the people presumed 100% committed stay committed, so maybe none of that matters. quote:However, NROTC (15 years ago anyways) seemed weighted towards feeding people into Engineering and hard sciences primarily. Reading between the lines they really want people they can force to go nuke. Competition for scholarships for degrees they aren’t interested in is intense since it was heavily weighted toward STEM. Though not relevant here, I thought I'd address this. This part doesn't really apply to people who are the top 10-20% of applicants, and too many people worry about this when applying imo. The navy mandate is to take in 80% of students as Tier 1 or 2, which are the STEM majors. Obviously they look a little more favorably on these and they increase the odds for people in certain range. They're probably going to pick the best applicants until that cutoff, then pick the best that meet the Tier 1 or 2 requirement. What happens if they slip below those numbers? Some admirals get yelled at, nothing to the students. If you led in sports, you've got a 3.8 and you're rocking a 95th percentile SAT or ACT score (1450+ / 30+) I'd guess you're probably fine with whatever major. I don't know what overall numbers look like, so I might be overly conservative there. The interview matters. Anecdotally, the people who read and desire to keep doing so tend to interview better. I see people struggle with the program because they thought they wanted to be a mechanical engineer because they thought the Navy wanted them to be a mechanical engineer, but it turns out the Navy would have been just as happy if you got a degree in biology and wouldn't be kicking you out right now if you majored in your true passion and actually passed your classes. Also, nobody cares what major you are for ROTC USMC applicants. My school has an outdoor recreation leadership major, and why more scholarship option Marines don't get a degree in rafting, SCUBA diving, rock climbing and camping is absolutely beyond me. piL fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Mar 13, 2021 |
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Mar 13, 2021 23:02
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Kraftwerk posted:EDIT: Yes he’s aware of the process. Being the son of a wealthy donor should help.
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Mar 13, 2021 23:18
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piL posted:Being the son of a wealthy donor should help. For sure. Grades really aren't enough. That's expected. Volunteer work, community involvement, demonstrations of leadership in some way, etc. Extracurriculars, basically.
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Mar 13, 2021 23:55
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Godholio posted:For sure. If the person lives in a small enough town and has enough time they should find out which philanthropic organizations the local mayor belongs to and join those. Something like Rotary, Lions Club, Kiwanis, whatever, and establish a relationship with people on the city council/mayor that are in those groups, do a lot of the volunteer projects, be a good Rotarian/Lion/whatever, and use that connection. Like my small town I know a lot of the local politicians through Lions and they know I am a veteran and I bring my son with me to all our events and some of the people have volunteered to help arrange letters of rec in case my son wants to go to a military academy. So, given that they volunteered that apropos of nothing, it seems like a good angle.
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Mar 14, 2021 00:00
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Going NUPOC is a much better full ride than going to the Academy. Both are selling your soul, but the academy is selling your soul to a mad cult of fools. NUPOC is selling your soul for money. And that Money will pay for flight school easily. M_Gargantua fucked around with this message at 03:31 on Mar 14, 2021 |
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Mar 14, 2021 03:15
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M_Gargantua posted:Going NUPOC is a much better full ride than going to the Academy. Forgot about NUPOC. No nuclear pilots, but yeah buy a plane gently caress it. Edit: Still probably not the right call in this case. piL fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Mar 14, 2021 |
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Mar 14, 2021 03:29
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Also if you go NUPOC its a real good full ride and you are guaranteed to at least be on carrier, so you can be in the vicinity of air wings while you take private pilot lessons.
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Mar 14, 2021 03:31
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M_Gargantua posted:Also if you go NUPOC its a real good full ride and you are guaranteed to at least be on carrier, so you can be in the vicinity of air wings while you contemplate suicide
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Mar 14, 2021 04:05
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Isn't nuke the field that usually makes everyone stand in unison and shout "NO!" or is that just for the enlisted side?
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Mar 14, 2021 04:21
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Godholio posted:Isn't nuke the field that usually makes everyone stand in unison and shout "NO!" or is that just for the enlisted side? nah its the same for both. BUT, if you want to make money, NUPOC is straight loving cash, homie. If you have to be a nuke, be an officer because you make more money. NUPOC is getting paid for a full degree without any ROTC poo poo and your only punishment is a shitload of bonuses and incentive pay to run the suicide gauntlet for 6-12 years.
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Mar 14, 2021 04:24
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Oh yeah as all the (5?) nukes in the forum will confirm to you its miserable, but you are promoted on time every time so the paychecks and bonus's keep rolling. I tell everybody who's ever asked not to do it except one of the kids who worked for me who's family needed the stable cash and level headed enough to make it through NUPOC and the subsequent four years of pain. You just gotta know what your goals are and what you're getting into.
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Mar 14, 2021 04:59
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Kraftwerk posted:EDIT: Yes he’s aware of the process. This will 100% depend on the part of the country he's in. If he's in a high Navy concentration area then it's going to hard to break out from the applicant pool even with good grades and extracurriculars. If he's in a mostly Army/Air Force area he might have a much easier time getting the nomination. I obviously can't speak for all of the country, but I think the amount of political connectedness required to get into a service academy is way overblown. That's not to say that (qualified) child of a senator's friend isn't going to get a nom if they want it, it's more that almost every congress person has a pretty formal application process that they outsource the decision making to. The amount of personal involvement by them is pretty limited. The truth of it is that it is straight up easier to get into the Naval Academy from a small flyover state than from a populous costal one. This is a function of the amount of applicants to USNA relative to the amount of senators in the state. I'm originally from Northeastern Florida and I can safely that if I applied to USNA today with my high school record (which was very good) I would probably not get in. All of that said, if he is interested in USNA he needs to Google his local "Blue and Gold Officer" and reach out now. They'll be able to provide the most up to date information on the process and talk realistically about his record and the nuances of his local representative and senators' application process.
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Mar 14, 2021 05:13
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He could also end up CEC, the Navy's repository for washouts from other fields enlisted and commissioned!
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Mar 14, 2021 05:29
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maffew buildings posted:He could also end up CEC, the Navy's repository for washouts from other fields enlisted and commissioned! I may be misremembering the specifics as he was an acquaintance and not a friend and lol that was 15+ years ago now. During the early-00s in the NROTC battalion I was previously a part of someone specifically put for their three unrestricted line choices for commissioning SEAL, EOD, and Pilot knowing the fact they wouldn't get picked for those so that they could get selected restricted line to go into the CEC. The only Seabees I dealt with on active always wanted to play Spades even though it was an excessively long game than the superior Euchre.
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Mar 14, 2021 05:36
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On the bright side even if you are nuke waste you'll still have a substantially higher paycheck than your peers. On a sub we had three guys go through flight school for fun as enlisted E-5's (which for those spectators is weird in nuke world unlike the rest of the military in that making E-5 in year 2-3 is by qualification of breathing). As an officer the financial burden is substantially lower. Just don't buy a turbo 911 that you'll have to sell to me cheap 3 years later when you get orders to South Carolina and your wife doesn't want your womanizing racecar to travel with you.
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Mar 14, 2021 05:38
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Thanks everyone for helping me help my relative. I really want him to get a step up in life so I appreciate it. I had a talk with him and broke things down like this: I told him if he’s dead set on flying anything he can get his hands on, chances are his best shot at doing so is to put college on hold and go the Army warrant officer route and use his GI bill to touch up any civilian credentials he needs to fly planes on his way out. I said he should talk to a recruiter about this path if it seems unlikely he’ll get accepted into any of the college path options. I also warned him that if he fails they’ll make him a cook or a infantryman. I also explained to him that the USAF probably isn’t as bad as he thinks and he should still apply to them as there’s way more airframes he can get access to than he would elsewhere. Also I talked about the USNA, NROTC and how difficult it is to get in in the first place but also that on graduation he’s not 100% guaranteed to get a pilot slot. I specifically emphasized that the Navy wants to stick as many bodies as it can into a submarine reactor and hope for the best. I told him that it’s very likely he will sleep on a book shelf with curtains, that it will constantly smell like sweat and that it’s possible he will eat lovely food and never get a good nights sleep for months at a time until the Navy decides to release him of his obligations. So if he walks down this path he needs to be absolutely prepared for never seeing the light of day for long periods of time while being paid large sums of money to look after a nuclear reactor all without sleep or good food. He lives in Virginia so I have no idea how many applicants are competing for nominations. I told him to try for ROTC as a backup and not overthink his major too much. If he’s willing to compromise on piloting he could still get a decent life. What is the NUPOC program anyway? How does it differ from ROTC? All the money talk kinda piqued his interest.
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Mar 14, 2021 06:20
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Kraftwerk posted:He lives in Virginia so I have no idea how many applicants are competing for nominations. Hah. Virginia has literally the largest naval base in the world. It's also got half the Navy's fighter squadrons just down the road from that. It's the gold standard for people who want to stay in one spot, retire, and raise a bunch of kids to follow in dadmiral's footsteps and go to the academy. So, uh, yeah, probably somewhat higher than average competition compared to, like, Idaho.
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Mar 14, 2021 06:41
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