Life as a nuke on a carrier

[hendrixfan23]

Hey everyone this is my first post.
My name is sean and i went through MEPS in january, they gave me a leave date of july 10th but i told my recruiter to ship me out on the first available nuke seat.
Anyways, my question is about the quality of life for a nuke on a carrier.
(ie what are the work day hours, do they get as much shore leave as everyone else, is there some free time to do what ever on the ship?)
thanks
-sean

[Gamecock]

Hey everyone this is my first post.
My name is sean and i went through MEPS in january, they gave me a leave date of july 10th but i told my recruiter to ship me out on the first available nuke seat.
Anyways, my question is about the quality of life for a nuke on a carrier.
(ie what are the work day hours, do they get as much shore leave as everyone else, is there some free time to do what ever on the ship?)
thanks
-sean

Everything depends on your frame of reference.

For a nuke, QOL on a CVN is substantially better then on a sub.  However, if you compare your QOL to that of the non-nukes on the CVN, its worse. 

Case in point...when I was on my CVN, nukes were in 5 section duty, while the rest of the ship was in 8 section duty.  When you have duty, you are on the ship for 24 hours.

Cheers,
GC

[Preciousblue1965]

Everything depends on your frame of reference.

For a nuke, QOL on a CVN is substantially better then on a sub.  However, if you compare your QOL to that of the non-nukes on the CVN, its worse. 

Case in point...when I was on my CVN, nukes were in 5 section duty, while the rest of the ship was in 8 section duty.  When you have duty, you are on the ship for 24 hours.

Cheers,
GC

Since 5 > 3, therefore duty section rotation is better on a carrier than on subs.  We even managed to get up to 10 section duty for a little while with some creative watchbill writing.

The onlything that would be better on a sub than on a carrier is off-crew for a boomer.  Than again maybe not.

[NukeNub]

Umm, as I was leaving active duty in 05, Off-Crew was "Pre-Deployment Training Period". Wal-Mart drive by musters were long gone.

Case In Point: Running ORSE style drills in the Chemistry Mock-Up training area, Mock-Up RC entries............

[Preciousblue1965]

Umm, as I was leaving active duty in 05, Off-Crew was "Pre-Deployment Training Period". Wal-Mart drive by musters were long gone.

Case In Point: Running ORSE style drills in the Chemistry Mock-Up training area, Mock-Up RC entries............

Well there you have it.  Then again, liberty amounts depend on command climates.  When I was on the CVN-74, we had 8-10 section duty plus "Stennis Hours" which was from 0730 to 1300 M-F.  Of course when the end of the shipyard period hit, we were 2 section duty, 2 section steaming watches for a month and a half.

[hendrixfan23]

Ok so I'm really new to the military and haven't figured out all of the terms yet.
I didn't understand much of what you guys said.

[Nuclear NASCAR]

Since I wasn't smart enough to serve my country I find myself referring to this thread A LOT.  http://www.nukeworker.com/forum/index.php/topic,12646.0.html 

Thanks in advance for your service and for coming here to learn the ropes.  The gang here is a crusty bunch but there is nothing that they will not do for someone willing to listen, learn, and show initiative. 

Peace, ($1 to Marssim)

Tom

[Creeker]

Hendrix, let me see if I can't simplify things a little...

When you first get to a carrier, you'll live in a berthing with relatively a lot of room.  You'll probably have what's called a coffin locker, which is a space about 8 inches tall, 2 ft deep, and a hair over 6 feet long, which you access by lifting up your mattress and the metal sheet it sits upon.  You'll be in a room with a lot of other guys.. Generally you sleep stacked in 3's, so you'll have either a lower, middle, or top rack.  The berthing compartment will have at least 80 to 120 people in it, but it's still roomy compared to subs.  I toured the tridant Henry Jackson when she was at Port Canaveral in 86, and the lack of room made my mind up quickly to go surface.  There's a chance if reactor berthing is full that you'll go to the 03 level, which is berthing right below the flight deck.  Catapults and aircraft slamming down to the background of afterburners and arresting cables feeding out make for some rough sleeping conditions.  You'll want to get down to reactor berthing as quickly as possible, cause it's down around the waterline, or under it, and is much quieter.  Sometimes these berthings are in the very back of the carrier, and then on heavy bells (going fast) things vibrate a bit.
Sea sickness was never a problem, even in the roughest seas, and I'm prone to it.  The rocking is barely perceptible.
You'll start in a division called BNEQ, or Basic Nuclear Engineering Qualifications, which is a general introduction to all the nuclear systems onboard.  Typical time in BNEQ is 8 weeks or so, and then you go to your real division, RC (Reactor Controls) for ETs, RE (Reactor Electrical) or EE(Engineering Electrical) for EMs, and RM or M-div, (Reactor Mechanical or Mechanical Div) for MM's.  While in BNEQ, your job will be to go to classes, and get checkouts on systems at a basic level.  You'll be in 4 to 6 section duty.  Duty days...  Everyone, except Master Chiefs, stand duty onboard carriers.  While on duty, you are restricted to the ship for 24 hours.  You stand watch, or clean, or sleep/eat, or participate in fire drills... But you have to stay onboard.  No going home for supper.  However, you can have your wife/girlfriend come visit you for dinner on the mess decks, if you arrange it with your duty section leader.  They cannot go to your berthing area, however.  So, you can see where your duty rotation (which is how often you stand duty) makes a big difference.  3 section means every 3 days.  6 section is every 6 days.  Weekends and holidays are included.  If you happen to have duty on Christmas day, then around 0600 on Christmas morning, you'll be turning over with the off going suty section, so they can go home.  Carriers have more people, so generally stand duty less frequently.
Working hours on non-duty days are like 6-2, or 7-3...  Depends upon the ship.  If you're doing a great job, ahead of the curve on quals (which is the rate they want you to finish up) then your leading petty officer (LPO) can say at noon, hey..Take off, see you tomorrow!  If you're a dirtball... Then expect to stay the full day, or later, every day.  Liberty (quittin time) is one of the few rewards that can be given, and when you're out to sea, liberty doesn't mean much, except going back to reactor berthing.  So, you want to make the most of your time while in port.
I hope that helps a little as to your day to day schedule on carriers....

Bill

[hendrixfan23]

yeah that does help alot.
thanks

[driver8]

Well there you have it.  Then again, liberty amounts depend on command climates.  When I was on the CVN-74, we had 8-10 section duty plus "Stennis Hours" which was from 0730 to 1300 M-F.  Of course when the end of the shipyard period hit, we were 2 section duty, 2 section steaming watches for a month and a half.

Wow -- 8 to 10 section duty in Reactor Department on a carrier?  That is amazing!  If we had 4 section duty we thought we were living large...(I was on Ike in the late 80's, early 90's).  Not only that, but when we were in port, they always kept us around "just in case..."

I have been out for over 17 years so I cannot comment on what life on a carrier is like, now.  When I was on Ike, the days at sea were long ones -- you don't just have your work day but you also have watches, training, quals, maintenance, field day, and any other Navy stuff that happens to pop up.  The only day we had a break was on Sunday, but you still stood watches.  Of course, there was also the never ending work-ups for ORSE, too!

[Preciousblue1965]

Well after my first deployment(which I only did the last half of), the month after we got back was a standdown period.  Usually half the department went on leave for 2 weeks then the other half.  We were "persuaded" that if no one from the department took leave that we could do 8 section duty that entire month. That month was also considered "duty section only".  When everything boils down, basically you showed up for work once every 7 days, had a duty day, and then went home.  I don't think it was quite "up to snuff" with regulations but I was a NUB who wasn't going to ask questions. 

I spent the next 6 years of my career paying for that month of bliss.

[Wydryd99]

I can attest to blue's honesty on this, I was there too.

[NickyBravo]

Well, I was only on one carrier, CVN-65... 4 plants, 8 reactors, 32 steam generators, 30+ year old pipes... it was a lot of work for everyone. Reactor/Engineering Dept was always on port/starboard duty rotations, 5 and dimes watch rotation. Sometimes, I really hated it, but... I saved a lot of money LOL! I hear that life is much better on other carriers. Do well in Power School/Prototype so you can get better pickings.

[gsmagnum]

I was on the Enterprise also, but the only time we were port and starboard duty was when we were starting up to go to sea. A few times lower watches were working 8 hour shifts and I believe they were allowed to go home in between.
We were otherwise on anything from 3 section to 6 section duty. It took creativity for the 6 section deal. There is nothing much worse than a 24 hour watch.
At sea we ranged from 5 an10 to 5 and 20.