Daily Life in Nuke School

[shifty.07]

Hey guys. 

I have a simple question for you:  Can you describe the daily life in nuke school? (Specifically from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed)

Follow-up:  What is the weekend like?  Do most people go out or stay on the base? What are some of the restrictions?

Thanks. 

[Nuclear NASCAR]

This is probably the best place to start for not only the question you've asked but some future ones also http://www.nukeworker.com/forum/index.php/topic,17568.0.html#msg98984

[withroaj]

In early spring of 2003 at NFAS/NPS I'd wake up and wash my hands.  Then I'd go pee and wash my hands.  Then I'd brush my teeth and wash my hands.  After that I'd straighten up my bed and barracks room, and maybe I'd take out the trash (must remain <1/4 full).  Then I'd wash my hands before heading off to the galley for breakfast.  After breakfast I'd wash my hands and head on over to the school house. 

Once I got inside I'd wash my hands.  I'd go to my locker and get my study materials, and then I'd go wash my hands.  On test days (usually one or two a week) I'd cram a bit before class, but I'd leave enough time to wash my hands before the test/class started.  The tests weren't too bad if I studied enough and made sure I kept my hands clean.  Binge and purge, they say.  The tests would last a couple of hours, so I would always bring hand sanitizer on test days since there were no breaks in which to wash my hands.  Normal class days had enough breaks for me to get up and wash my hands at least once an hour.  During long breaks I'd wash my hands twice.  Lunch came around noon with around an hour to eat and relax.  I usually washed my hands and rushed to the galley for a tasty lunch.  After I ate I'd wash my hands and head over to the smoke pad.  I'd smoke a cigarette during my lunch break and head back inside the school to wash my hands.  I 'd work on homework during lunch, and then I'd wash my hands.  After lunch was another three or four hours of lecture with plenty of breaks to wash my hands.

Once school got out I'd rush back to my barracks room to wash my hands.  Then I'd throw on some shorts and a T-shirt and run on the trail that goes around the campus.  One run back and forth was a mile and a half, and by the end of A-School I could run three miles a day without flinching (can't say without breaking a sweat because Goose Creek was plenty warm in the summer time).  After running I'd head back to my room and wash my hands. 

Then I'd take a shower, wash my hands and throw a uniform back on.  Then I'd wash my hands and head back into the school house to bang out the rest of my homework and do the required reading for tomorrow.  When I finished the required reading I'd wash my hands and go over my notes from previous subjects.  When I felt I'd studied enough I'd wash my hands and go over to "group study" to shoot the poo with my pals from class.  Then I'd head back to my barracks room and wash my hands. 

I didn't have cable TV, internet or video games in my room, so I'd usually read for a while, wash my hands, and head out to the smoke pad to see if anything was going on.  Nukes tend to be a bunch of weirdos, and usually there was something to see.  People liked to have milk or ketchup chugging contests out in the courtyards; and there were some boxing matches out there, too.  There was also a guy known as "the Commodore" who was apparently a Commodore in Starfleet.  He had the uniform and everything.  Hell, he made Rear Admiral shortly before graduating power school.  Pretty cool, huh?  After that I'd head back to the barracks room to wash my hands, brush my teeth and go to bed.  I got eight hours of sleep a night for all of NFAS / NPS.

On the weekends I'd get up, wash my hands and head out for a run.  Then I'd take a shower, wash my hands, and call up my special lady friend.  If she was busy I'd wash my hands, go to the mall and piss away some money.  In the evenings I'd wash my hands and TAKE A CAB (DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE) to one of the local watering holes.  When I was there The Shady Lady (sleazy white-trash bar, not strip club) had 25 cent games of pool, 5 dollar pitchers of Bud Light, and a jukebox.  I'd unwind with a few beverages, wash my hands, and go stay at the lady's house (when authorized).  On Sunday nights I'd go catch a movie at the nearby theater, wash my hands, and go to bed early.

The end.

[NukeLDO]

-1  RTFQ.  You were supposed to answer IN DETAIL!   

[withroaj]

-1  RTFQ.  You were supposed to answer IN DETAIL!   

Good call, sir.  Somebody started writing a good book about it.  If anyone knows him, hunt him down and have him finish...

http://oregonstate.edu/~melizas/life%20in%20the%20nuclear%20navy.pdf

[Abiien]

Man!

Bad-arse 'book'! I think it's definitely putting more peace in my heart than reading from Navy Enlisted who got coerced to do Nuke complain about how much it sucks. To see someone who actually loved the navy, and one who isn't afraid of goin through a lot of crap to get other 'crap' done, really inspires me.

Bravo!

P.s. This guy is pretty funny!

[NuclearVinny]

I heard about this site from the nuke detailer at Meps in Minneapolis.
I'm actually still here at NWS Charleston on hold company. I've been here about a year now and have just finished NPS.

Daily Nuke Life (abbreviated)
0515 PT  (held in morning because summer in SC is like 105 F with 100% humidity)
0600 Secure from PT, shower shave and don uniform
0640 Grab "Breakfast to go" from galley
0645 Arrive for muster
0700 Begin Class
1145 Lunch
1225 Return to Class for Muster
1235 Resume Class
1615 Class ends, begin study hours (ranging from 2-8 hours a night on average)
~1830 to 0015  Go back to BEQ, Iron, relax, sleep (if home early run out for beverages or a movie or to Dog Zebra your girl)

thats the average day. You will spend a lot of time in class and study halls memorizing "keywords and tricky phrases" drawing schematics, and well, wasting time. Unless you get really good grades you are ordered to spend hours in the building, whether or not you actually use them. You really should use them effectively but you will spend so much time in there... you will get distracted. Also, on a side note, there are way too many vending machines in the building. Don't use them, they will make you fat and since we don't really work out all that much in the first place you really don't want the extra calories.

I spent a lot of time racking up study hours during the week so I didn't have to come in Friday or Saturday and as little as possible on sunday nights. I would also do my weekend homework right after school on friday so I could do the minimum time on sunday too. As a rule I spent as much time away from NNPTC as possible because I really couldn't stand the place after a while. If you want to be a Nuke, you have to do the time. that's just how it goes.

I wasn't a very good student, I had like 8 waivers and an interview before they even sent me to Great Lakes. but I graduated NFAS with a 2.84 and NPS with a 2.71 all earned by brute forcing stuff into my brain, I was on 30-5 (thirty extra study hours a week, no less than 5 per academic night) for a fair bit of power school. I spent a lot of time utilizing NDI time and going over material with instructors, I'm a kinesthetic learner so getting quizzed and working out problems on white boards were key to my success.

Try and remember these things while you are here
1. NNPTC is not the real Navy, you are even separated from other commands on NWS Charleston
2. The real navy is nothing like NNPTC
3. Attitude is everything, don't be a drag. Relax. and try to have fun doing whatever you are doing while you're doing it.

Good Luck!
MM3

[IPREGEN]

Sounds like a drag compared to the old days, class 74-08 at Mare Island. Stumble out of bed, get to the cafeteria, eat, stumble into class by 0700. 1200 was lunch, the EM club was next to Nuke School at Mare Island and there was good old fashioned topless, that's right, topless dancers at lunch. Have a beer and a burger and right back to classes. Ahh, the good ol' days

[Marlin]

Sounds like a drag compared to the old days, class 74-08 at Mare Island. Stumble out of bet, get to the cafeteria, eat, stumble into class by 0700. 1200 was lunch, the EM club was next to Nuke School at Mare Island and there was gold old fashioned topless, that's right, topless dancers at lunch. Have a beer and a burger and right back to classes. Ahh, the good ol' days

   I have to agree, as long as we made it to class on time and past our weekly exams on every subject our time was ours. I lived off base and as long as my butt was in my chair on time ready for class life was good and duty was only every couple of weeks as a fire watch for the tinderbox they called a barracks.

[sovbob]

Daily Life at nuke school, huh?

Well, it's something like this.

Morning:
- Wake up, brush teeth, shower, do whatever you do in the morning.  When you're in A-school, you'll probably have one roommate and a shared bathroom with one other room (two guys per room, two rooms per bathroom).

- Since they do room inspections pretty regularly, and it's a pain in the ass if you fail a room inspection, you'll want to make sure your bed is made and the place is straightened up.  Absolutely no food can be left out, including spills or splatter on the countertop.  It's a health hazard and counts as an automatic room inspection failure.

- If you're a morning guy, you can head down to the "Refueling Complex" (yes, that's what it says on the side of the building) and sit down for breakfast.  I usually skipped breakfast because I was not, as they say, a morning person. If you're in a hurry you can grab a pre-packaged breakfast and head over to the schoolhouse (located about 100 yds away)  The food quality at NNPTC was excellent, compared to typical navy fare.

- When you first enter the building, you will scan your badge.  You may be randomly selected to have your pockets searched and a handheld metal detector used to search for weapons.  If your appearence is unsatisfactory (e.g. you didn't shave your face) you will be denied entry to the building.  The building is divided into NFAS on the left, and NPS on the right.

- Class starts promptly at 7:00AM.  You will sit in the same classroom, the same seat, for all of your classes.  The instructors will come in, bring their materials and teach it all to you.  There are 5-10 minute breaks every hour, allowing you to use the head (bathroom), grab something from the vending machine, and just stretch your legs, not to mention giving your brain a chance to relax.

- Every classroom is equipped with a projection system which the instructor will use to teach the class using CAI (Computer Aided Instruction).  In the old days, the instructor would write everything down on the chalkboard and students would copy it into their notes.  Yes, copy.  Exactly.  When I went through, they were using "structured notes" which was essentially fill-in-the-blank-spots-with-important-information.  The instructor brings the text up on the screen, reads it aloud, and then waits for everybody to finish copying it into their notes.  This uses a multifacted approach to training.  You see the text, hear it spoken, and write it down.

- Around 11:00, you break for lunch.  You can go to the refueling complex, bring your own, or go off site to the nearby Subway or other fast food joints.  It's essentially free time.

- One hour later, you're back at it again.  Often times, I found afternoon classes much more difficult to pay attention, since you've got the "After-Lunch-Sleepies".  Going back over my structured notes, I would find unintelligble scribbles where I just started dozing off.  Fortunately, everybody has the exact same notes so you can usually find somebody who has a good copy.

- At either 3:00 or 4:00 (I can't remember), you're let out.  Hooray!  Freedom!  Students come streaming out of the schoolhouse (Gotta scan your badge on the way out).  You're on your own time now.  Go back to your room and play video games, play a game of volleyball, whatever.

- At some point in the afternoon or evening, you'll have to come back to the schoolhouse for Night Study.  I usually did mine right after dinner, but some students would do it right after class lets out.

- At night study, you are not required to wear your uniform (except during the first couple of weeks).  You go into the building, scan in, and possibly get searched.

- In the classroom, you sign into the Night Study Log.  This log is very important, since most students are required to put in a certain number of Night Study hours.  The number of required hours is heavily dependant on how well you are performing.  If you're struggling, you may be put on 25-4, or in some cases 30-5.  (The first number represents the total aggregate number of hours each week, the second number is the number of hours required each night preceding a school day).  If you're doing well, you may be put on 0-0's or "voluntary study hours" or "vols" for short.  I was on 10-0's for most of A-school, and vols for most of Power School.  Even so, I averaged 13 hours a week in A-school, and 16 hours a week in Power School.

- During night study, you will usually have to do a homework assignment and a resubmit.  Every problem on your homework must be done perfectly.  Invariably, I got something wrong on my homework assignments and would have to resubmit some of the problems.  This was in addition to tonight's homework.  All of your homework MUST be stamped with the appropriate classification, since all materials in the schoolhouse are classified (to some degree).

- During Night Study, there is a student on night study watch.  Everybody takes a turn doing it.  The night study watch sits at the front of the room and ensures the classroom doesn't get too unruly.  The night study watch must be in uniform.

- Once you're done with your work, you sign out of the night study log and scan out of the building.  There have been cases where students have falsified the night study log, and were caught because the timestamp on the scanner didn't match.  In those cases, the student usually went to Captain's Mast.

- During Night Study, there will be an instructor on duty until 8:00PM, appropriately called the Night Duty Instructor (NDI).  Often the NDI will be be fairly busy tutoring and helping those students who are struggling, and those required to get a certain number of IA's (Instruct Assists) each week.

- At midnight, you are required to leave the building and be back in your room by 12:15AM.  This ensures that students get enough rest and don't burn themselves out trying to cram everything in before a big test.

And that's it.  A typical day at nuke school.  I went through a few years back, but for the most part that's what you can expect.

[Preciousblue1965]

- Every classroom is equipped with a projection system which the instructor will use to teach the class using CAI (Computer Aided Instruction).  In the old days, the instructor would write everything down on the chalkboard and students would copy it into their notes.  Yes, copy.  Exactly.  When I went through, they were using "structured notes" which was essentially fill-in-the-blank-spots-with-important-information.  The instructor brings the text up on the screen, reads it aloud, and then waits for everybody to finish copying it into their notes.  This uses a multifacted approach to training.  You see the text, hear it spoken, and write it down.

-

Ah yes the good ole days.  It took almost a year for the callus on your writing fingers to go away after trying to copy down all your notes from the chalk board.  Of course you also had the problem of your words turning into lines at the end of the page and dropping down sharply from nodding off.  Worst part was having to put all those notes into the bags at the end for proper disposal, especially when you had to remove the rings from your spiral notebooks.

[xforcehunter]

They don't have to put the notes in burn bags anymore either.  They simply carry the notes down to another room, drop their notes in a cardboard box, turn around and leave.  They even have lockers in their classrooms where they can drop their old homework and quizzes. 

[Fermi2]

There certainly is more structure to it than when I was in.

Mike

[Preciousblue1965]

There certainly is more structure to it than when I was in.

Mike

Yes but at least now they don't have to chisel their notes onto stone tablets.....

[IPREGEN]

The new routine sounds like a drag, Mare Island was great, had motorcycle - will roam, Berkley, Napa, Highway 1.  Do they still have "hack-boards" aka academic boards? way back it was 2-5 and survive, 2-8 and remediate. below 2.5 and you went to the academic board for review to see if you were capable of finishing with a passing grade. If not, off to the fleet with you and your 6 years too. If you were below 2.8 GPA you had the mandatory study time in the school until your GPA was above 2.8. Once over that number your nights and weekends belonged to you and the money in your pocket. So study with honest effort (honest to yourself) and you too can make it.

Prototype was another deal altogether. But to be honest, there were some people that would study more than anyone I had ever met and they were just barely hanging in there, others did well. Just because you qualify at the recruiter does not mean that you can make it. My class 74-08, all sections, had a drop rate of 38%.

if you need the conversion 2.8 = 70%, 2.5 was a 62.5% so 100% = 4.0,
You will also learn more about such terms as "drifty as a nuke" that is someone so preoccupied with DEEP thought that they don't pay attention to other stuff. and expressions like "he's a rock" someone that will find their way to the "hack board"