Ship at port intervals.

[Finalman]

New Nuke here, DEP'd in on 18mayo6 and I ship on 07feb07. I'm gonna try to get MM and go carrier. But my Question is what sort of interval is the ship on to be at and away from port? One recruiter (AECF) said it'd be around 6mo. at sea, 18mo at port, another (nucMM) said i'd be at port for less time than that. So what would be a better picture of how long I'd be at sea and at port at a time?

BTW, feel free to add anything I should be ready for while on a carrier or anything else that'll help.

[ChiefRocscooter]

OK this ine is easy! You will spend a lot more time at sea other than 6 every 24!!!  Now a days the Navy is surging lots of ships. This means you go out for six come back for 5 or six then fyou go off for another 3 or 4 months!  The when you come back you get about a year to work up for next deployment, dring this "workup" you will likely spend 30-40% of your time at sea for carrier quals and ship drills and do not forget the show the flag trips to fleet week and else where (some are some are not). Just remember that this is the Navy and in that those in the Navy are sailors. Sailors ride ships and ship spend more time at sea (away from home than they do at home period).  Not to say that you will not get any time at home, you will get plenty but if you think it will be 18 months out of every 24 well I gots this bridge in Nevada I would like to sell you 

Rob

[Finalman]

That's how aecf explained it, he said i'd be out for 6, in for 6, and then w'ed go out every once in a while to test out the functions or anything they changed on the ship. so it's more or less 6mo of forgein ports, 6 at home port, then on and off for almost a year?

[taterhead]

The only time your ship will be in for 6 months in a row is when it is in the shipyard for repair.  This is no real vacation for you, as this usually entails working harder than you generally work over the course of the underway cycle.

Here is my ship's (carrier) schedule, more or less, for this cycle:

In shipyard from March-August of this year.

Underway for 2 weeks in September and all of October.  Inport for November. Out for 3 weeks before Christmas.  Out for 2 weeks in January and 2 weeks in February.  In for most of March.  Deploy from end of March til October.

This "out for 6, in for 18" months crap is rubbish.  It's a line to make you think that you are going to be in port far more than you are at sea.  In a year span, from October 2006-October 2007, my ship will spend 9 out of 12 months underway.

If you desire to be home more than gone, the Air Force is a pretty good option, plus, they have much better golf courses.