SEAL vs AECF (wanna-be nuke)

[badassailor]

Hi everyone,

I am enlisting in the Navy on Tuesday. I was originally going to be enlisting as a nuke, however, my high school grades have held me back, even with waivers. I am now trying to decide between SEAL and AECF. I have no problem with the physicality needed for SEALs. I figure it would be very rewarding. But on the other hand, I originally decided to join the Navy due to wanting to get experience and training in the electrical field. If possible, I hope to be able to cross rate to nuke... I spoke to my recruiter about it and am waiting for a call from a nuke scout.

I would like to get out of the Navy with somewhat of an education as well as training that would be useful as a civilian. What would you do from my options, and why?

Thank you

[GLW]

.....What would you do from my options, and why?

Thank you

what - AECF....

what - college while afloat and then on GI bill....

why - civilian nuke opportunities for operators are shrinking....

why - with electronics and a solid degree a civilian can enter into civilian nukes should that opportunity improve...

why - broader horizon of potential civilian jobs with AECF....

[spekkio]

I would like to get out of the Navy with somewhat of an education as well as training that would be useful as a civilian. What would you do from my options, and why?

AECF, then use the GI bill as GLW posted

Why?

1) Because if you have to ask, you will ring that bell on day one of BUDS. Welcome to the Navy, HTSA. Or better yet, welcome to being administratively discharged and having to find a new job after going through boot camp with no veterans benefits.

2) You will not have the opportunity to voluntarily cross-rate on your initial enlistment. The recruiter will tell you it's possible, and he's technically right and probably can point to a handful of exceptional cases where a sailor was allowed to cross-rate in an initial enlistment for reasons other than being medically DQ or failing out of his training pipeline for his original rating. But I'd be willing to put my $30,000 bonus up to bet that recruiter that it's not going to happen to you. That's besides the fact that you will not be voluntarily let out of the SEAL community to cross-rate. But see #1 - you aren't going to make it through BUDS anyway.

3) Having good experience with computers will permeate into virtually every field these days. At some point, you will have to learn some basic programming for any technical white-collar job (I know that purists won't call MATLAB 'programming,' but I do). Not that an AECF rate will give you programming experience, but it will give you some experience with troubleshooting networks and give you a basic understanding of how they work. Nuke might give you some good experience at a technical trade - and if that's a civilian career you wish to pursue then that will be useful to you - but it won't help you much with jobs/careers that require more advanced technical degrees any more so than the non-nuke equivalent.

[Rerun]

Last I knew you couldnt enlist as a SEAL ..

[Rerun]

And since this is NUKEWORKER ..

[SloGlo]

tri talking that recruiter into putting yew inn both seal and aecf. yule bee th baddest-assed puter geek. ever.

[Tylor]

"I have no problem with the physicality needed for SEALs"
You're wrong.

If you need waivers for your high school grades, you can probably get it done. You'd just need to score well enough on your ASVAB and NAPT (if you have to take one).

If education is your primary goal, then no matter what rate you choose you will have the ability to go to school. You can use tuition assistance while you're enlisted to go to school, you can also obviously use your GI bill to go to school afterwards. There are also several commissioning programs available to you so you can go to school in exchange for a service commitment as an officer.

As a navy nuke, I don't know enough about AECF or SEALs to give you reliable information. Best of luck making your decision.