Whats basic like?

[nuketech33]

I'm scheduled to go into boot camp on the 23 of November. I just have a few questions about it. Whats the weather like at that time? I heard the facilities are indoors now. is that true? I'll be in for thanksgiving, Christmas, and the new year....Do I get time to see my family or just a phone call? any responses would help. Thank you.

[Glowing_Since_09]

You can search here, google, or youtube for that matter.

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[Already Gone]

It's like gym class and summer camp all rolled into one.
Indoors, outdoors, who cares?
Visit family?  Call?  Maybe on Sundays after your fourth week they might give you five minutes to call home.
Think of it like fat camp or rehab.  'Cause that's what it really is.

[Glowing_Since_09]

Think of it like fat camp or rehab.  'Cause that's what it really is.

Ha ha, enough said.

[nuketech33]

ha ha. Thanks for the responses. Just a few more questions. I'm going into the Nuke field and I'm almost positive that I've made the right choice. What should I expect school to be like as far as living? is it dorm or housing? do you have to be in your living quarters so to speak by a certain time with the lights out, etc.?

[Content1]

When I was in back in 1974 when "Nam" was winding down, we were starting to go through what might be called "The milding Down."  There is nothing like marching in perfect sync and with 1, 2, 3, BOOM! went down our heals.  We had to get out of cadence on bridges because we would start to destroy them.   They reduced its use for fear of hurting soldier and sailor's feet after my class.   

When the entire class was there for the graduating cermony, the entire place had the classic 1,2,3, BOOM!, but it was everyone there in sync and it echoed across the field.   We actually knew how to fling our rifles without hurting each other.  Yes, I would call it a summer camp in the the purpose what to break down our individuality and make us work as a unit, but it did not work with me one second after graduation, evil-old individual I was and it caused me problems the whole time I was in the service.  In fact, I think all the "Nukes" had that flaw of indivuality except for the few "lifers" we had back then.

[Glowing_Since_09]

Please use the search function.

http://www.nukeworker.com/forum/index.php/topic,17568.0.html

[Fermi2]

Please use the search function.

http://www.nukeworker.com/forum/index.php/topic,17568.0.html

You're a NUB and shouldn't be giving this sort of advice.

[Mike McFarlin]

You're a NUB and shouldn't be giving this sort of advice.

Do as you are told, you don't get to ask questions yet!

[Already Gone]

Oh mutant, don't you remember what it was like?  Dumbing down to the LCD is exactly what they do.  For guys like us, the hardest part of the whole experience was accepting how hard it wasn't.

Kid, just think of it as a Zen experience.  Clear your mind of all expectations.  Clear you mind if everything except what is necessary at the moment.  There is a reason why they call it BASIC training.  They will teach you very specific tasks that seem to have no meaning - yet you will probably do many of them until you are an old geezer like me.  Yes, it will seem silly to have to fold your raincoat a certain way (although if you do fold it that way it will take up less room in your luggage than a Bible, which will always be useful to you) but the important part of doing that is not actually to have a perfectly folded raincoat.  The important thing is the ability to follow instructions so that your actions will then become predictably correct.  In the end, although it seemed like they were just teaching you how to make your bed, fold your clothes, and clean stuff ( all very necessary skills for a sailor ) what they will have taught you will be far more than that.

But all that philosophy is something you will see for yourself in time.  For now, just go there expecting nothing, wanting nothing, fearing nothing.  Do as you are told without being given a reason, and the reason will be clear to you in good time without anyone ever having to tell you.  It will seem almost insulting to you that they treat you like an infant, but the opposite is true.  The Navy only takes intelligent people.  They are confident that you have the brains to figure it all out.  In a way, by treating you like a dummy, they are actually challenging your intellect far more than seems apparent on the surface.

Here's another lookup.  Occam's Razor.  Go read up on that.  You'll get the idea.

[IPREGEN]

people get yelled at for dumb stuff. Sometimes somebody will cry.

[kp88]

ha ha. Thanks for the responses. Just a few more questions. I'm going into the Nuke field and I'm almost positive that I've made the right choice. What should I expect school to be like as far as living? is it dorm or housing? do you have to be in your living quarters so to speak by a certain time with the lights out, etc.?

Just a friendly reminder, but, housing is typically on a ship at sea for most of your time in the Navy.

[IPREGEN]

Just a friendly reminder, but, housing is typically on a ship at sea for most of your time in the Navy.

RTFQ

[kp88]

RTFQ

The question was read and answered.  All I was trying to say was that at some point the Navy will send you off to sea for several months at a time.  I think that people sometimes miss the point.  They are not renting an apartment and going to college.  There is a commitment after the training.  They will not be provided with a dorm room on an SSN.

[Fermi2]

RTFQ

Pipe down son. His answer was very appropriate.

[IPREGEN]

It looks like he was asking about school living conditions.

As for boot camp, rent "full metal jacket" and then Navy boot camp is almost seem like fun.

[JustinHEMI05]

Navy Boot was fun. Then again, I must have had the easiest boot camp experience ever after my DC and I found out each other were Freemasons. 

[joncashk]

Wow it's been a while since I posted here.  My last topic was a question about reporting to the Enterprise.  4 1/2 years, 2 deployments,  2 shipyards, and 2 promotions later I'm finally at my PRD.  But anyways...

Boot camp is gonna be a mixed bag of emotions for you.  Especially if you've never really been away from mommy and daddy that much.  I was that way.  I reported to boot camp and immediately had a feeling of regret for joining the military, mainly because I was pretty sheltered.  I'm from the south, so being in the cold weather in Chicago, getting yelled at for stupid crap, folding my underwear a certain way, and sharing a room with 70 other guys that couldn't seem to do anything right really wasn't my cup of tea.

But, you get over it.  Boot camp is only a couple of months (I believe it's only 7 weeks now?) long and is only a tiny spec of your Naval career.  Just play the game and try not to stand out and it'll be over before you know it.  I'm not saying it's horrible, but I definitely could've gone without it and still been where I am today in my career.

Yes, the facilities are mostly indoors now (I was one of the first people to get the new "ships" back in 2003).  Your berthing, galley, and classrooms are all in the same building.  You will march to go PT in the gym and that's probably as much outdoors as you're going to see on a regular basis, especially considering the timeframe you're going to be there.

Phone calls, like mentioned before, depend on your RDC.  If you get an easy-going (I use that term lightly) RDC, they'll usually give you a call home after week 4 and if you get a perfect score on any of the 2 tests that you'll take while you're there.  That really isn't that hard, especially if you are good at memorizing cheat sheets.

I really can't say much about the weather because I left about the time that you're going to be reporting but from what I heard you're going to be shoveling a lot of snow.

Like I said before, boot camp is just a tiny spec of your Navy career, and in a few years you won't remember anyone's name from boot camp more than likely.  Other than running into my RDC during my most recent deployment, there are no ties between myself and boot camp right now.

The pipleine living conditions aren't bad at all and I honestly wish I could go back to those much simpler times.  A-school/Power School you have rooms that are nicer than college dorms, and you get your own room without a roomate for power school.  Keep it clean because there are random inspections and you don't want EMI on a Friday because you forgot to empty your trash before you headed out to class.

Once you get to prototype you get your own apartment.  Most guys go overboard and buy all kinds of crap and fill their apartment up with it.  My personal advice....don't.  Buy what you need and you should honestly look at renting furniture or getting hand me downs.  You have to realize as soon as you get to a ship as an E-4 that Housing Allowance goes bye-bye and your lovely padded paycheck from prototype seems like it cuts in half as soon as you get to the ship.  You'll barely be able to afford living in an apartment with a couple of roomates and it's honestly a safer bet to wait until you make E-5 and get that Housing Allowance back to try living out in town.  I got bit by having all kinds of things when I left prototype and I had to leave it all with my family in NC because I couldn't afford an apartment or even storage when I got to the ship because I blew all my money in prototype.

[Glowing_Since_09]

wait until you make E-5 and get that Housing Allowance back to try living out in town. 

I'm guessing when your assigned to a ship there's a waiting period of getting your housing allowance back?

[EasyLivin]

I'm guessing when your assigned to a ship there's a waiting period of getting your housing allowance back?

Yes, it's called making rank.

[joncashk]

Yeah, you're not authorized BAH unless you're an E-5 or an E-4 >4 years of service.  I think it's a ploy to keep the retention numbers up IMHO.  Think about it, you have BAH as a 20 year old, living it up in your own place with lots of nice stuff.  Then all of a sudden you report to your ship you more than likely lose your BAH.  You have all the crap you accumulated while you were in Prototype with no where to put it, plus you have to transition from living in a nice apartment to getting a 2x6 rack with a standup locker.  Unless you scrounge all the money you have and get a couple of roomates, you're not going to be able to afford an apartment.  But wait...there's another option...reenlist and make 2nd class!  Easy solution.  Problem is that a lot of the people that reenlisted didn't do it because they want to continue their career, they do it for the 2nd class and the bonus.  Granted, its a decent bonus, but you shouldn't be reenlisting until you know exactly what your job is going to consist of and that you can tolerate what you do.  I was one of the people who reenlisted for the money and I wish I wouldn't have.  Not that I hate the Navy, I just don't want to make a career out of it and I could've used the extra 2 years to get a jumpstart on the rest of my life.  I would've gotten out of the Navy earlier this month and more than likely would've still made E-6 before I got out. 

[DLGN25]

Not that I hate the Navy, I just don't want to make a career out of it and I could've used the extra 2 years to get a jumpstart on the rest of my life. 

Two years out of 80, or out of the 60+ I have been around does not make a difference...

Boot camp, Great Lakes, March 1966.

Enlisted in San Diego, expected to go to Basic in San Diego, nope, Great lakes.
First week, dressed in light clothing, just hanging around freezing in the snow.  "Nuts to buts" they shouted at us so we would bunch up to keep warm.  No tooth brushes.  Nothing.  I found out later, we were a part of a medical study to test flu vaccines and dental hygiene.  A lot of us came down with the flu that winter.

The barracks were new, assembled in a cluster, you marched to the chow hall, marched to classes, marched to the drill halls, marched everywhere.  All the places you went to had globs of flem on the frozen ground and hanging in the leafless bushes, like daemonic Christmas ornaments.  The 80 men our wing had only two toilets we could use.  The rest were off limits so we could get higher scores on inspection.  We hung, or rather tied our laundry (what little there was as most never left the locker) to lines outside in the snow to dry, the drying room was off limits.  Inspections.

Shine your boots, the ones that were never meant to hold a shine, until you could see your face in them.  Then march to the drill hall in the snow and sludge, only to get marks off for not having shined you boots.

I also remember the voices of the young recruits filling a drill hall as they sang the Navy Hymn at Sunday Services, very moving.

When it was finally over, and we marched as one in the graduation parade, I remember our Boatswain First Class saluting us as we passed, with tears in his eyes, he was so proud.  In eight weeks, he turned a bunch of wimpy 18-19 year olds into men.

Oh, I had a six year commitment, but that did not stop be from starting a short timers calender at week three.  I eventually got over it as will the new guy.

[stephpatton]

Okay, I just graduated basic on OCT 16.  Here is what happens:  1st week or two is spent trying not to make eye contact with your RDCs and follow simple instructions that everyone is too scared and retarded to understand.  Then you actually go to medical and get cleared for REAL bootcamp, where you will continue to avoid eye contact for a couple more weeks and try to memorize about 50 things and not say or do anything dumb enough to get IT'd.  Which is impossible.  So the first day of real bootcamp, they (RDCs) will find a reason you are all dumb, and you will be IT'd for about 2 hours until one (usually a female) can't take it anymore and leaves in an ambulance.  You will probably never see her again.  Then the RDCs get cool around the 3rd week.   Even better every week after that.  But you will always be dumb, and require IT to make you smarter at least 3 times per week.  You will mostly read a book called your training guide, when not reading that book, you will be carrying it everywhere you go, it is part of your uniform of the day.  You will have classes in classrooms, and work on computers, and study, every single day.  You will PT 6 days a week.  You will probably IT 3 days or more per week.  Usually right after your shower, or right before bed time.  It's not really that bad, since your PT isn't very significant enough to get you in that great of shape, look at it as time to loose weight or get stronger.  More than half of your division will fail the first PFA.  Nearly no one will fail the last PFA.  Only those that can't run for crap, and they have a special program you get sent to fix that.  Then you go to Battlestations, which rocks! I had to do it twice, my entire team failed the first time, don't ask, I'm not inclined nor allowed to talk about it.  Then you graduate and come here to NNPTC, I've been here almost a week.
At NNPTC you will get up and muster to clean around 07:30.  You will PT around 10:00, you will shower and eat chow,  and muster to clean what you just cleaned again. Then sometime between 14:00 and 15:30, you will be told to go do whatever.  Your room is a room with 2 beds and a sink and a couple of closets adjoined to a room just like yours by a bathroom that is a toilet and shower.  You are on liberty from the time you get off work until 00:15.  The door to your room knows if you come in late or leave too early, so don't chance it.  On the weekend liberty starts at 05:00 and ends at 00:15.  The catch is you will wear your peanut butters everywhere you go if off base, until they tell you otherwise.  If you are good and pass your PFA you get to wear civilian clothes on liberty weekends, but this takes 4 weeks after class starts (about 6 weeks after the time you get there).  Then you will be on phase 2 for another 4 weeks, and if you are still good, you will be allowed to wear civilian clothes after class on weekdays, too.  And drive.  Finally drive.  Phase 3.  So, Big Brother is watching, no females in male rooms, and vice versa.  And no underage drinking, or getting in trouble.  There will be plenty of guys marching around doing crappy jobs in bright green vests to attest to not being dumb.  Restriction looks like it stinks.  Then you will class up, do more briefs and begin your journey into the nuclear field.  Exciting stuff.  But bootcamp is just initiation.  It's not hard.  And a word from the wise, do NOT get your hair cut at the NEX.  Go to the mall on liberty weekend and get it cut there.  I am a woman, I had beautiful hair, I went in and asked for a layered bob.  She shaved me like a cocker spaniel.  I cried.  My chief saw my hair and asked what happened, and I cried again in front of everyone, I thought I had to shave my head.  Chief took it up the chain of command to the Master Chief of the base in one day and took pictures and everything of how I got screwed over.  It was that bad, but I didn't think serious enough to go all the way up.  I just thanked God my chief scheduled me to go the mall escorted of course, since I'm only phase one.  I had to get MORE of my hair cut off, so now, I'm walking around with the lower half of my head shaved, and the top part short, but better than what was going on previously.  I cried.  Like a little girl. AVOID the NEX salon!

[JustinHEMI05]

I am not sure if I am supposed to laugh or cry at that anecdote, so I did a little of both. 

Thanks for sharing and congrats on making it this far!

[Golly Orby]

I can't speak for anyone else's experience.

For my Christmas at bootcamp, the occasion was mostly celebrated at dinnertime.  We were fed turkey, yams, cranberry sauce, and all sorts of other good food.  We were also given something like 20 minutes to eat instead of the usual 8.  We were fed ginger cookies and pumpkin pie for dessert, and they actually encouraged us to have it.  We were even offered second helpings.

I was wary and didn't fall for the temptation, but that still didn't spare me from the division-wide Christmas beat-down we got when we returned to the barracks.  

There was no phone call for Christmas.  You only get to call home at regularly scheduled times.  The weather is really cold.  You'll hear the words "Lake effect" often.  You'll see road guard dominoes.  You're going to learn how to wear your outergarments properly and in many different combinations.

I hope that helps.

[edit]
There's actually one more bit I can share about the winter in Great Lakes.  The week before we graduated, there were a string of fire alarms in the middle of the night.  With the very first one, I thought it might have been a drill that we were supposed to do, but the word came that it was a prank alarm.  When doing a fire alarm, you basically muster outside with nothing but your blanket on and whatever you were sleeping in.  Standing barefoot on what feels like permafrost is really harsh.  I'm not ashamed to admit that we ended up clustering together in a big human ball of near-nakedness.  Needless to say, we were pretty angry about that.

But it happened again the very next night!  This time, we were made to wait out in the drill hall instead out out in the snow, so it wasn't as bad.  I think the damage had already been done, though.  When it came time to do Battlestations, I had a pretty good runny nose going on.

[KUrunner]

I went to boot camp December 22, 1999.  We didn't get to do anything special for Christmas (no phone calls or anything), but it was treated like a Sunday.  Basically, we had most of the day to sit around, write letters, catch up on ironing, etc.  Our sister division got to spend the day out in town with an adopted family.  My husband was in boot camp last year for Thanksgiving and Christmas (left on Nov 4).  For Thanksgiving, he said they had a really good dinner - pie and all.  He didn't get to call home that day, but they gave them their first phone call that weekend.  For Christmas, he wasn't adopted by anyone in town, but his division did get to go to Recruit Heaven and hang out for the day. 

As far as seeing your family, I got a letter from RTC asking if I would be in the area and would like to adopt my sailor for the day.  I'm assuming that your family will get something similar if you are far enough along in training.  If they live in Chicago or don't mind traveling, you will probably be able to see them for a few hours that day. 

Most of your training will be done inside.  You'll still muster outside and have to march to medical, chow, chapel, etc.  It's cold, snowy, and icy.  When I say cold, I mean cold.  Chicago has pretty crappy winters, but Great Lakes is usually about 10 degrees worse than the city.  You'll be wearing gloves, a watch cap and a sweater (at least we did with utilities... not sure about the NWUs), but when you stand outside for the better part of an hour waiting to go to chow, it gets really cold.  In case I haven't said it enough, it's cold.  You will also be standing snow watches which means that if it starts snowing at night, they'll wake you up and send you outside with a shovel.  The winter I was there, it snowed a lot.  In fact, the second day of training, one of the guys I flew in from MEPS with fell on the ice and broke his leg.  He was rolled back for almost 6 months. 

As for the road guard dominoes...  LOL!  Nothing like seeing one guy trip on the ice and take down a division of 80.  The beating we got laughing was worth it!

Enjoy the snow though; it will be a while before you see it again!  Goose Creek isn't exactly a winter wonderland.  In fact, it's going to be in the 80s this week.  Nothing like Halloween at the beach!

[Creeker]

I arrived at Great lakes Nov 15th, 1983, and thought it was kind of neat how as we did our first clumsy attempts at marching, (ala stripes) the first few flakes of snow fell.  The novelty did not last long.  Every now and again, the CC's would have us out on the grinders, practicing marching on the solid ice sheets...  One flank movement was all it took, as one man lost it, grabbed for another, and then everyone was flailing around trying to keep their feet.  Somewhere along the line, you moved from a beanie (called then a raisen) to a white hat.  Again, that was a neat feeling for about 10 minutes, then as your ears became brittle enough to snap off, you were wanting that raisen back!  I'm sure we only wore the white hats on relatively warm days (above 25 or so)... Around Christmas of that year, we had a cold spell.  Wind chill in the minus 80 region.  Layered clothing was the order of the period... Thermals, dungarees, sweater, blue jacket, and pea coat.  On your head, a towell wrapped around your face and ears, and a watchcap pulled down over that... If you went anywhere far, you built up a layer of ice on the outside of your mask as breath froze.  No one was allowed to go anywhere by themselves, as if one fell and broke a leg, he could freeze to death before being found.  Almost everything was done indoors.