Leaving for Bootcamp in 10 Days, Hoping to Talk to Someone in the Nuke Program

[Brittie1993]

Alrighty, never done one of these and came across this site by chance. I'm a 22-year-old-female headed into the United States Navy's Nuclear Engineering Program. I read that I have to take special physicals as a Nuke at bootcamp and was wondering what exactly they entail.

I was also hoping to get some information from a submariner that deals with the nuclear power side. I volunteered and I've asked a million questions to the LPO at my recruiting office, who is a submariner, but he does SONAR and I was hoping to talk to someone in a similar rate as what mine will be. I also just have some questions as a female venturing into the territory of submarines and how men feel about that. I've had a few guys give me the same run around as SEALS or Rangers, but the LPO said its a totally different animal and I was really hoping to get an idea of how much adversity other ladies and I will be facing.

Anything anyone can give me really helps, but I leave in 10 days, so the sooner the better!

Thanks!

[spekkio]

Alrighty, never done one of these and came across this site by chance. I'm a 22-year-old-female headed into the United States Navy's Nuclear Engineering Program. I read that I have to take special physicals as a Nuke at bootcamp and was wondering what exactly they entail.

A chest X-Ray, color blindness test, more tests on your bloodwork, and a bit more of a thorough physical exam but nothing to be afraid of.

I was also hoping to get some information from a submariner that deals with the nuclear power side. I volunteered and I've asked a million questions to the LPO at my recruiting office, who is a submariner, but he does SONAR and I was hoping to talk to someone in a similar rate as what mine will be. I also just have some questions as a female venturing into the territory of submarines and how men feel about that. I've had a few guys give me the same run around as SEALS or Rangers, but the LPO said its a totally different animal and I was really hoping to get an idea of how much adversity other ladies and I will be facing.

Enlisted women are just hitting the fleet now. I'm not sure what 'adversity' you are referring to, but so far on the officer end there hasn't been any signs of discrimination. They phased women in at the department head level (senior LT or junior LCDR) first in order for there to be someone to go to on the ship if any problems came up. There was the one case where a PO2 thought it'd be funny to set up a camera in the wardroom head, he was promptly taken to NJP and removed from the ship for it. An isolated incident but unfortunately the world has idiots and some of them join the Navy. Women aren't the only targets of Sailor tomfoolery.

[HeavyD]

From what I've heard from my friends still on Active Duty, the sub guys have no problem with it (for the most part, always some archaic holdovers).

One group that IS up in arms about the whole thing, are the wives of the sub guys.  Go figure.

During my 20 years, I saw women reintroduced to the Nuke program and incorporated into the crews of combatant ships.  Show up on time, do your job and don't use the fact that you're a woman to get ahead or special treatment and you'll do just fine.

Around 90-95% of the women I encountered in the program just wanted to be treated like everyone else.  That other small percentage, just like men, want to get ahead for all the wrong reasons.

Best of luck and thank you for volunteering to serve!

[spekkio]

One "issue" is apparently only one or two women who came into subs as an ENS have committed to a DH tour. They even had face time with 4-stars... even though this tracks with SWO female retention.

As one of them explained, all these new-age solutions like 1 year sabbaticals are temporary solutions to a permanent problem.

So the solution is to bring in more ENS to meet control grade goals... but then personnel costs raise, so then Congress does things like cut COLA raises, BAH, and soon healthcare. I'm not saying women in the fleet are the sole cause of these initiatives, but when you have to hire 3 women for every man to fill a DH spot it is a contributing factor.

[Tylor]

You will be going through the pipeline for about 2 years, so by the time you finally get to your submarine, you should be all up to speed. That being said, I know you're probably excited about going to bootcamp and getting things going, so I'll give you the run down.

So as a submarine electrician your job will consist of three main things. Standing watch, doing maintenance, and qualifying to stand watch or do maintenance. When you first show up to your boat you'll have already gone through about two years of training, and quals shouldn't really be a struggle. You'll be handed a stack of qual cards and told to "get hot".

Watchstanding is pretty straightforward. For 6-8 hours at a time you'll be roving around taking logs and cleaning or sitting in front of a panel and taking logs. Sadly that description doesn't really do it justice, but trust me it can be pretty exciting. You'll learn a lot more about watchstanding as you go through the pipeline.

Maintenance is basically fixing motors, cleaning motor controllers, fixing random electrical equipment, and ESPECIALLY cleaning out your SSMG's (if you have them) Some of this is really boring follow procedure and put a check in the box, but troubleshooting a fault and fixing broken electrical equipment is one of the most rewarding parts of the job, in my opinion.

Qualifying is just learning what you need to know about something, and proving that you know it to the right people. If there's anything that you should take away from the pipeline, it's how to learn, because you should never stop learning while you're in the Navy. You'll keep taking exams to keep your level of knowledge high, attend divisional and department training at least weekly, and you'll continue to qualify hopefully the entire time you're in the Navy.

Best of luck at boot camp, keep your head in the books in A-school and develop good study habits. If you have any more questions about being a submarine electrician, I'm pretty active on here and always willing to help.

-EMN2

[MMM]

Since nobody has said it yet, one thing needs to be made clear: You are NOT joining the Navy Nuclear Engineering Program, you are joining the Navy Nuclear Power Program. It might not seem like a huge difference, but nothing you will be doing is related to actual engineering (theory/design). None of your experience will transfer to an engineering degree. You will be an operator/maintenance technician. If you have your heart set on engineering, you have along road ahead of you, if you're ok with engineering technology, you're fine.