I'm in...but bootcamp is so far away!

[firefly]

I qualify and have signed my enlistment paperwork. I raised my right hand, and had that same hand shook while men in full uniform congratulated me. My mom, jokingly, salutes me when I see her. I ship in December for one hell of a cold boot camp. I will be a female in the nuclear power field.

My main question is to those who have gone through school, are there a decent amount of females in the field? Not that it truly matters, intelligence has no sex, I'm just curious as to if there aren't many females-why!? Manual labor? Intensity of course content?

My second question is, I ship in December. We called the Nuke man in my area and told him I want to ship as soon as there is an opening, is it normal to leave for boot camp early? what are my odds!?

Thank you!

[rlbinc]

Compared to my day ('77-'85) , there are many females in the Nuclear Power Field.
That might add up to 5 to 10%. In my day it was way below 1%.
In The Dark Ages, women were by law, not eligible to be assigned to Combatant Vessels. Carriers and Submarines (Cruisers, too) are classified as such.

However, times have changed and its good to see that a woman's touch will be seen in the power plant. It was, after all, a dank, gray, and stunningly boring place.

So call it tradition. That's a nine letter word which means " to prohibit progress or advances".
You'll get used to it.

[JustinHEMI05]

Compared to males, there aren't many females. Then of those, 8 out of 10 (conservatively estimated) of them get pregnant (or other female "issues") and discharged within the first 4 years. Rise up and beat the statistics! Good luck!

Justin

[goobs22xx]

Yep, theres not very many females. Im not sure why thats the case, but thats just how it is. One of my A-School instructors once made the comment that this is still one of the only fields in the Navy that is almost very White-Male saturated. From what I can tell, they are trying to change that. As far as Im concerned, it doesnt matter. It was once said to me that theres only two  colors of people in the Navy, Blues and Khakis. I personally think that its the type of material that doesnt attract more females, as Math and Sciences seem to attract more males (and on top of that, we are talking about the military which attracts more males than females, so its a compounding effect.).

Also, there is a possibility that you will be able to leave early. Make sure that you tell both your recruiter and your nuke recruiter. I was originally supposed to ship at the end of April of last year, but they moved it up to February....just to push it back to March. As far as "calling your odds", Id say theyre pretty good. There were a ton of people who ended up dropping out or disqualifying themselves while I was in DEP. Either way, just wait it out. So far, its been worth it for me.

Best of luck to you.

[LaFeet]

I will be a female in the nuclear power field.

There is no guarantee... yet.  You still have a bit of road to travel before Nuke School or Prototype.  Study hard, ask questions and be honest.

Best of luck to you.... and thank you for your service

[Fermi2]

Study hard, keep your nose clean, always try to learn more than your "job", and from a purist standpoint I think you'll do ok. When I was in the navy there were no female nukes. When I was at Fermi the influx had just started and quite frankly there's only one female nuke I had issues with, had she been a male I would have had the same issues.

Do the above and you'll be ok. One thing I ALWAYS tell people when they ask the question of "What % or these or how many of those?"  is does it matter so long as you are one of them? If I was on a plane that crashed and 200 people died I wouldn't care so long as I was the one that survived. (WELL I'd care as I hate seeing anyone die or get hurt but I think you catch my drift).

Never have a problem with being a minority statistic!!

Good luck!

Mike

[firefly]

Thank you guys for all your wonderful advice, and personal stories. I know I'm up for the challenge!

[LaFeet]

Thank you guys for all your wonderful advice, and personal stories. I know I'm up for the challenge!

Great attitude... BTW  is your handle any reference to the SciFi channel series???

[navytwinmom]

Welcome Firefly!! and thank you for choosing to serve. My sons are in power school right now. As far as females go if I remember correctly, I am getting old so please forgive me, navy is like 4 to 1 male v female and nuke is like 8 to 1. The boys had 3 females in there a school class of 25.

I am not sure why but I would assume it is mainly due to the heavy math and sience requirements and unfortunally many public schools do not encourage female to go that route.

Good Luck and best wishes...

PS i would not be in a huge hurry to ship early...enjoy the last of your time with freinds and family....you will might wish you did if you ship early. (unless of course you do not like any of them.... )If you want and can ship early I would suggest September time frames...miss most of the heat and all of the snow!!

D

[Fermi2]

Thank you guys for all your wonderful advice, and personal stories. I know I'm up for the challenge!

If you keep asking for and accepting advice you'll do fine. This board has a very broad and in depth level of experience and background so I hope you elect to utilize it. Just keep in mind at times we lose site of the perspective of someone just starting out, I honestly wish I was in your shoes because it was so exciting. Also remember much of what you get here is the perspective of a bunch of 40 something year old men, except from me. I'm a real young guy!

Keep your mind and your eyes open.

Mike

[firefly]

haha nothing wrong with advice from the old timers, technology may change, and the young cats may be able to operate devices better, but wisdom from those old timers is absolutely priceless, I could listen to my grandparents ramble for days.

Thanks for welcoming me aboard!!!

and no sci-fi reference with my name sorry!

[JustinHEMI05]

Actually, in the nuclear navy, technology doesn't change. The gear these "old timers" ran when they were in is the same shit you will be running. I wonder how much more blood they can squeeze out of that 70 year old engine room?

Justin

[LaFeet]

Actually, in the nuclear navy, technology doesn't change. The gear these "old timers" ran when they were in is the same shit you will be running. I wonder how much more blood they can squeeze out of that 70 year old engine room?

Justin

I gotta disagree with you.... I had seen a major shift in technologies (modernization) during my time in... from MagAmps to Microcircuits.  Anyone recall doing an alignment on MagAmp controls knows how nice it is to "tweek" the digital equipment.   As for mechanicle systems... they have always managed to improve.  You just dont get a huge jump technolocally with pumps and turbines.

[Len61]

I have to ask!
What has happened to the Navy Nuke Program?
Any Navy Nuke from my era (mid 80's) could easily pass a GFES course.
We are having a hard time advancing AUO's  (non licensed operators) due to a high failure rate in GFES.
I guess the canoe club is having the same problem as the commercial world, not enough qualified people.

[Fermi2]

Somewhere along the late 90s they lowered the standards and curriculum. I think a good nuke is a good nuke regardless, however any the problem is what the Navy considers average, or even above average isn't what we in our industry would accept.

As for younger nukes Operating Equipment better. LOL Bring it on.

Mikey

[hamsamich]

When I was at Brunswick in 1997 I went thru a GFES course.  A couple of the ex-navy nukes had problems with GFES.  They were all pre-1990 power school people.  They were better on average then non-navy nukes, but some of them still had problems.

[JustinHEMI05]

I gotta disagree with you.... I had seen a major shift in technologies (modernization) during my time in... from MagAmps to Microcircuits.  Anyone recall doing an alignment on MagAmp controls knows how nice it is to "tweek" the digital equipment.   As for mechanicle systems... they have always managed to improve.  You just dont get a huge jump technolocally with pumps and turbines.

Well good for you. I haven't seen any technology upgrades in 9 years. MARF hasn't seen any in a LONG time.

Justin

[Charles U Farley]

As for younger nukes Operating Equipment better. LOL Bring it on.

I'll be your Huckleberry. 

[JustinHEMI05]

Hey now!!! we swapped MARF over to S**/*3 ~ 1989-1990,...surely that counts as an improvement?!?!?!?!?!?

And 1989-1990 was not that long ago,....

LOL sure we can count it.

Justin

[Fermi2]

Deference and decorum preclude a public airing of the sea change in the Navy Nuke pipeline, my perception is the change is more attitudinal (sic) than substantive,...

aw man!,...off topic again,..., who's the moderator around here anyhow?!?!?!?!,....

Not in Operations Man. Now you gotta be VERY selective.

Mike

[LaFeet]

I dunno   I might just have to try out for the operations team........ looks like I might have what the team needs  and then again.....

I still think the onus is on the individual wanting the job.  If you really want it, then make sure you can pass the minimum requirements.   I for one, don't think I want to be an operator again..... but that could change (soon).

[rlbinc]

I have to ask!
What has happened to the Navy Nuke Program?
Any Navy Nuke from my era (mid 80's) could easily pass a GFES course.
We are having a hard time advancing AUO's  (non licensed operators) due to a high failure rate in GFES.
I guess the canoe club is having the same problem as the commercial world, not enough qualified people.

The Navy Nuclear Nub Supply System was originally equipped with a 50% filtration system.
About half the candidates were filtered prior to arrival to a Ship or Sub.
To reduce system losses and increase flow, in the 80's they changed over to a 20% filtration system. In the 90's, the filtration system was totally replaced with a high capacity pump fitted with a polisher.

Or so I heard.

[Fermi2]

It'd have been nice had they put some backwash capability on that polisher.

Mike

[rlbinc]

Yep. Unfortunately, this effluent is supplied to the Commercial Nuclear Nub Supply System.
Many plants have become somewhat intolerant of influent impurities. We periodically observe indications of pipeline fouling or clogging, and are required to perform a periodic flush or sometimes a complete blowdown to prevent exceeding specifications which reduce system reliability.

[Sirveri]

I am very 'intolerant' of nuke females. Try not to go 'boy crazy' and try to not play the female card to pull better positions. Oh and try to avoid catty infighting. If you can do those things then you will turn into one of the few females whom I actually have some respect for.