I've been out for almost 5 yrs now and looking back at all the integrity and training requirements, I honestly remember it being a dog and pony, smoke and mirrors art bazaar.
You want to know why Sailors get busted cheating on exams or falsifying exams? Because there are so goddamn many of them to take, that the test program itself becomes an exercise in paperwork, rather than a learning process. God forbid you study, take the test, and do your best, but poorly. Here comes the remediation, the re-test, the this, the that. God forbid everyone does well and you get slammed for it being too easy. Its just easier to make the results fit the expectations.
Its all well and good that the program managers at NAVSEA 08 can sit at their pretty desks and make up the rules, but in reality, when there is cleaning to do, quals, drills, training, oh yeah, and an actual vessle to operate, you create an environment where reasonable people make emotionally based decisions.
Let's see, do I risk failing this test and lose a 6 hr off to studying when I haven't slept in two days, or do I take a short cut?
Let's see, do I risk re-writing this test, or failing PO3 Nub, and losing a 6hr off to writing a remediation or re-writing a new exam, or administering a new exam, or do I take a short cut?
I remember in a given week taking and ELT test, an M-Div test, an ENG-Dep test, and in some weeks, throw in a PRE-ORSE exam, questions of the day, etc etc. It was nuts. Throw in some observed evolutions, some LOK interviews, and quals, too. Oh yeah, and standing watch, sometimes port and stbd. And sleep, maybe.
Let's also not forget the Audit and Surveillance Program, Check Chem, Observations, Seminars, bleee bleeeee blah blah blah....
Its pretty much a fantasy and I challenge anyone to tell me otherwise, because if every word written in those Short Range, Long Range, Audit and Surveillance, Observations binders was 100% Integrity like the Navy sells to Congress and each other, then that Eng Dept never slept.
100% I say, because anything less than 100% true and accurate is not the Nuclear Navy that get's sold right? 100% means every PM gets done in full accordance with the MRC, nothing is ever blazed, or assumed, every single test is administered 4.0, there is no compromising when it comes to Navy Nuclear integrity right? No subjectivity, no grey areas? Or is it just what the Chief says? What the Goat Locker protects the blue's from, what the DIV-O signs off on, what "gets handled" at the deck plate, what the Eng keeps from the XO/CO...its all a game.
Oh yeah, I also forgot the nukes had to play in all the coner drills too, so in addition to all the ORSE preps, let us not forget all the time nukes spend with ship drills, security drills, battle stations this and that.....
But no, that schedule doesn't at all lead reasonable men to make bad decisions that land them on the cover of the Navy Times questioning the integrity of the program. Must be the Sailor's fault.