Prototype vs. Deployment/shipyard

[Marc622]

Hey guys, it's been a long time since I've posted, probably about 7 years.


A quick update: Joined in 2009. Did a 3 yr RO SPU tour in NY, and got picked up STA-21.


Never made it out to the boat and I'm about to start power school on the O-side. I've always wondered about boat life. I've received mixed opinions (I'm sure this will be the same but I like hearing the different perspectives), and I understand both has its pros/cons, but which do you all prefer and why?

[MMM]

Sailors belong on ships, ships belong at sea.

[Marlin]

Sailors belong on ships, ships belong at sea.

From the T-Shirt of another sick ex sailor "Only at Sea can a man be free" 

[spekkio]

Hey guys, it's been a long time since I've posted, probably about 7 years.


A quick update: Joined in 2009. Did a 3 yr RO SPU tour in NY, and got picked up STA-21.


Never made it out to the boat and I'm about to start power school on the O-side. I've always wondered about boat life. I've received mixed opinions (I'm sure this will be the same but I like hearing the different perspectives), and I understand both has its pros/cons, but which do you all prefer and why?

Prototype was my worst time in the Navy, but I never did an instructor tour there. However, an instructor tour at prototype is 100% the worst JO shore duty you can possibly do short of an IA in the sandbox.

No, it wasn't because I struggled. It was because I was held back by a backlog of senior classmates due to an incident report that caused a training all-stop. So my days consisted of coming in, being isolated to a cubicle and listening to some cocky E-6 yell "NO TALKING IN THE TRAINING AREA" every 20 min before going back in the office to snicker to his friends like that's fucking funny. I'd have to come in 1-2 hours prior to shift start to get at the top of the list for checkouts because the idiot in the senior class would take 3 hours to get through and by then the instruct, and even then I ran a 50% chance of getting kicked out due to "you're not the senior class and I can't sign too many signatures." So basically I was solitary confinement for 12 hours a day for about 2 months.

Oh, and when we'd go into the IDE to do self-run time and that same snot-nosed E-6 would go to kick us out because we had to be supervised. God forbid he leave his office and stop his routine of interrupting studying. It was fun once we told him we had top cover to be in there alone, you could see the steam coming from his ears.

Eventually I got to stand watch and qualify...after 8 months...but up until then it was awful. Do you know what it's like to spend 84 hours mandated in a week in a place and have nothing to talk about because all you did is sit and read the same books repeatedly alone in a cubicle, with the exception of eating lunch? Do you know what it's like when no matter how limited you are by 'the system' you are forced to work stupid hours and not speak to anyone while you wait for the senior class to qualify? Didn't help that I had friends in flight school literally studying on a FL beach, even though their pipeline purposefully attrited the bottom 5th despite the fact that the nuke program will pull teeth to get you to the fleet.

Got to the boat, qualified aft in 3 1/2 months, got to actually do my job and get some satisfaction out of the Navy. Actually got to interact with people and have interesting things to talk about (and some interesting things I wasn't allowed to talk about outside the boat). Never looked back. The hours might be long at times, but the job satisfaction is 1000000x better than prototype. Done shift work, written an incident report, sat in critiques for you name it - all better than being in that godforsaken building trying to stay awake reading the RPMs for the 1000th time with no ability to get ahead.

[Marlin]

From a member of my SubVets chapter who did a tour as XO at prototype.

"I did sea tours and prototype staff tours as both O and E. I'll take sea tours any day of the week and twice on Sunday before prototype staff. At prototype, Too much BS with 10x as many people standing around to tell you how you did everything wrong while not helping to make the place run better. At sea, everyone was literally in the same boat and worked to get a tough job done.

Easy question. :-) '

[ComradeRed1308]

You will probably spend even more time on the boat than you did as a student at prototype.  While qualifying is much less of a soul crushing experience than it was at prototype, you will gain many other responsibilities over time.  You will have to balance qualifying with standing watch, running your division, and any other tasks your dept. head will inevitably come up for you.  It can be a tough balancing act but you can't let your qual progress stall out which happened to me and many of the other JOs on my boat.  It doesn't get easier once you finish prototype and get to the fleet, but it definitely isn't nearly as crappy as being at prototype.  Although at prototype you did get to go home everyday...