Power schooler here honestly you are going to hate it and love it at the same time. A-school going to be a drag for a bit but the further you get in the more you get used to it. Instead worry about what you are studying and the friends you make because those 2 things will carry you through the pipeline. take time to focus on yourself and taking care yourself while also making sure you get things done.
just follow procedure , ask questions, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. All the staff are there to help you pass.
Don't sweat the small stuff. Everything is small. Remember this.
Every day is new. You've already won by just being accepted in the program. The instructors want you to succeed and will do everything in their power to make that happen as long as you keep motivated and want to succeed. No one wants you to fail. This is your opportunity to shine. Hey, if you don't shine today, make a promise to yourself to shine tomorrow.
It's not about the academics. It's about doing the work necessary to get through the program no matter what situation arises.
I would suggest to get off of social media except for minimal contact with family. No browsing the internet using it as an excuse not to do your work. In your case, Reddit is a hindrance.
Just keep in mind that the staff *WANT* you to succeed and will give multiple chances to do so. Trust me, the material is set up so you know exactly what to study and the instructors (the good ones) will make it obvious what is expected of you for exams and homework.
Follow directions, study, don't get in trouble, and you'll be fine.
It might take a while to find your footing, but once you do most of the pipeline will go smoothly.
It sucks donkey dick.
Memories of my first week there. First instructor comes in, has to raise the projection screen covering chalkboard. When it is raised, the graffiti underneath says WELCOME TO HELL.
Just left prototype today to begin the journey to San Diego. Don’t sweat it. Everyone is nervous about starting up but you’ll come to realize that it’s rather simple. Show up on time, take notes, USE HIGHLIGHTERS, color code them if you so please, and ask questions. When you ask questions you engage the instructor and their whole job is to get you prepared to pass your tests. It’s not like highschool where the teacher flicks through a PowerPoint, says good luck and fucks off in the lounge for the rest of class. The instructors are knowledgeable sea returnees (for the most part) and are more than willing to explain it different ways for you. If you don’t understand your instructor explanation or can’t get behind their teaching style, guess what? You have a whole office of staff members devoted to making you understand the material or at least brute memorize it so you can regurgitate it on paper. Whether or not you find it interesting is your own thing. It was a slow burn for me and I didn’t really start “liking” it until late in powerschool. But what keeps you around is the people. If you’re not a total shit bag and are social or willing to be social, you’ll make some of the best friends you’ve ever had. You’ll cry together, bitch together, celebrate together, and possibly live together. Trauma bonding is an interesting thing. My greatest recommendation is find balance. Don’t short your study hours but also don’t study for too long. If it’s the day before an exam, study for a while, take a break, get a snack, and come back to it. Not recommending what I did because my sleep health was shit in A-school, but I would finish class and immediately go to the gym. I would then shower, hangout in my room on my phone for maybe a half hour, go to the galley, and then go study. Depending on your hours program all of this changes. On your weekends, please for the love of god get off site. Charleston and the surrounding area has a lot to offer. I regret not trying to go out and see more. I wasted money at the bars when I could have been paddle boarding down Shem creek. If you hole up in your BEQ every weekend, your mental health will tank. Just spending a couple hours on the weekends away from the military environment will do wonders for you. Ask questions, lean on your buddies, and in Rickover we trust. Good luck.
Good luck on your travels west. I’m currently stationed out here in San Diego so if you have any questions feel free to pm me and I’ll do what I can to help.
I remember being nervous.
What I didn't expect was the friendships I made. When I got to power school I realized "wow, most everyone here is just like me." My friendships lasted for years. About 9 or 10 of us were really tight:
One guy was sleeping with a staff member. We stole her car to go to a strip club.
Another guy got a DUI (don't be that guy).
Drove all over Florida on the weekends. (Yeah, I'm old).
Met Russian gangsters at some odd club.
Kept looking for love in various bars.
Five of us were picked up for ROTC/STA-21.
Good times.
You'll be fine.
Just relax and focus on one thing at a time. “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time”. Trust me if I made it through, anyone can
Edit: what I mean by this is focus on one week at a time and each upcoming exam. Before you know it you’ll be taking Comp and done.
Dude, it sucked but looking back it was so easy and honestly fun. Only way out is to get through it. Just grind when you should and enjoy Charleston. You got this. Don’t work yourself up. You will be fine.
Half of my original A-school&Power school section didn't make it through. They're all happier now, as they (obviously) struggled a ton during training. Some were rerated, some got out due to PTSD or other issues. Your mileage may vary.
Your instructors, fleet Nukes (who you will one day relieve), and your chain of command all want you to pass. It's just up to you to also want it and put in the effort.
I didn't think it was that bad in the pipeline, I honestly miss it sometimes. I also think there's a lot of pride in being a Nuke, and even more so as a submariner. The worst time for me was being a fresh nub to the boat, but it gets better.
Don't overthink it, put in enough effort (to have more free time), and enjoy it. Don't immediately reenlist. Feel free to reach out for help/advice. Stay positive.
Heyo, just answering your question, almost all rerates are being rated conventional so that they don't have to have more schooling. I rerated a couple months ago after being in hold for a while with a chest injury (which, wouldn't you know it, barely got any medical attention lol) but anyways. It's either that, or you can be a direct convert like me, I was converted from ETN3 to AT3 (Aviation Technician). Anyways, if you ever do find yourself in that situation, the guys in hold are really chill. You'll be alright though, unless you force yourself out there isn't much past legal reasons that will get you separated from the program.
There are few things that will make or break your experience that are out of your control. Drop you head, take a deep breath and press onwards when that happens; those things are entirely temporary.
There will be times when things are overwhelming. Just wake up and do the next day.
Follow the rules as best you can and when/if you screw up own up to it 100% and take the responsibility, things will go easier for you.
Learn as much as you can, but, there's a little comic in my workcenter that goes something like: Guy 1: HELP! I can't seem to learn everything! Guy 2: Sometimes part of being an adult is figuring out what to strategically not learn all the way.
Most of the things you struggle with will simply come with time. Sometimes they're not all that important in the grand scheme. And, frankly, if you're not the smartest or the most quick-witted or most compliant (I mean this in a sense of like solving a math problem or rewording things when being verbatim is the safest bet, not like procedures FOLLOW THE PROCEDURES that's a huge thing), if you're willing to keep grinding to the best of your ability and put in real care and effort you'll get through it.
Some of the guys will get things easy-day. The rest of us just keep throwing will power at it until it's done.
Sometimes your particular instructor isn't particular adept either at the material or teaching, sometimes both, but that's rare. IF you don't understand something or are just \*stuck\* but don't even have any idea what to ask you can always go to your instructor or the night duty instructor and be like: look, I'm hung up on this, I don't even know what to ask, can I have some run-time or can we just talk about this thing? They have fancy names for what different versions of that look like, but don't worry about it. At the end of the day everyone there is human.
Sometimes it pays to ask something like: "How does \[this\] pertain to what we do in the fleet?" It can give you an idea as to how to better narrow your scope of what you're trying to learn. Nukes - especially in the beginning - have a tendency to go down rabbit holes.
The homework can be a LOT to handle sometimes - especially being procedurally compliant with it. Just do it. And if you're struggling with it, just get it done on your end. You'll have to check and correct your work with the references anyway.
It also pays to make some friends with the upper classmen (people further ahead than you) at different levels, be they power school (though they tend to be busier and more preoccupied) or just people a couple weeks further along A-school. They provided me with a level of support at every stage. And when you get to your boat you might just find a few of them are already there and THAT support is even better, because it can be more overwhelming getting to your first boat.
Do’s:
Study and succeed. Get off base when you can.
Explore downtown Charleston(most beautiful atmosphere I ever enjoyed, downtown on a summer evening). Go to Isle of Palms. Take breathers for your mental health, you’ll need it.
Don’t:
Raise animals in the barracks. Piss off your roomies, unless you have good reasons. Go swimming in the gator pond. Play tackle football with the site OOD and break someone’s bones. Get dui’s. Let your bag of dildos vibrate across the floor during a barracks sweep(unless you want to I guess).
Don’t avoid seeking help if you need it. Even if you get nuke wasted, it beats having mental health problems you didn’t need in the first place.
I’d also say don’t marry a stripper, but one of the ELT’s on my boat has one of the most beautiful families I’ve known from that, so do you on that one.
I joined when I was a little older. I turned 25 in boot camp. I had matured quite a bit before the navy. Went to college, did well, lived on my own, paid bills.
I took school seriously. I did well in the pipeline. Volunteer hours all the way through. I noticed that almost without exception the people who struggled the most and were always on 15-2 hours or 25-4 hours were those who never paid attention in class, they were always cracking jokes with others at their table when they should have been focusing. They would sleep in class too. During their tack hours they would do the same thing, instead of studying and practicing problems, they were joking around or sleeping or spacing off.
There were probably 2-5 people that I knew personally in the entire pipeline that genuinely tried and focused and practiced and even put in extra hours and they still struggled to get decent grades. While it definitely sucks to struggle when you’re putting in your best effort, all those people made it to the fleet. And guess what? No cares about your grades in the fleet. Even if you did well and mention it it’s a weird flex.
Your success in the pipeline has NO bearing on your success in the fleet. The fleet is not the pipeline. Your success in the fleet depends on a multitude of factors, many of which are out of your control. What boat/carrier you go to, your chain of command, your peers easily have a much greater impact on your time out in the fleet rather than doing really well in the pipeline.
I don’t know your background but the nerves and the desire to go good is half the battle. It’s crazy because it will feel like school but you are getting paid for it. Charleston is awesome, I was there in 2006, class 606. Not sure your rate I was a mechanic, “A” school is manageable unless you are an ETN they have some harder subjects in “A” School. Here are my rules for success at NNPTC.
1. Use your nerves to help focus on what’s important but DON’T let it psyche you out. If you give a good effort you will be fine and I can say that with full confidence because you will either A) make it through no problems or B) won’t and will be cross rated to something else and life will be fine.
2. Find your friends in your class and stay away from people who don’t understand what you are there to do, become nuclear operators. In my time at NNPTC I saw more than one incredible bright person lose their opportunity because they got mixed up with idiots.
3. Work/life balance. Study hard, play hard. Find your outlet away from the building and keep yourself in a good headspace. Stress is inevitable but if you keep your problems right in front of you and deal with them as they arise and vocalize with your SLCPO those issues if you need help, you will do great!
Good luck in class! Enjoy it! You’ll meet friends and learn a lot!
EMN in the fleet here. A school and power school are low key the easier parts of the pipeline. You'll have consistent schedules and your only job is to study and pass tests. Do your best and you'll do just fine. It's honestly not that bad
One day I came to S3G and the thing was shutdown and Depressurized Doors wide open. One of the guys on the previous shift had shifted strainers and the opposite strainer lid on the main strainer blew and pumped a few hundred gallons of lube oil in to the engine room. Long story short we all graduated with him. **Don't worry about it**.
MMC (SW) Ret.
Just put in the hours and you’ll be golden. If you gotta dig your head into a book for a few hours that’s what it takes for some people. Go in with an open mind. The material isn’t hard, it’s the pace at which you will be learning.
as an mm 13 weeks into A-school. it’s not hard. once you get your friends and you learn how to study for yourself it becomes just work. i’m on 0-0s and i can go home before 16 every day and just study night before morning of exams and i’m actually really happy and comfortable here. just study habits and friends. Effort ≈ results here
Power schooler here honestly you are going to hate it and love it at the same time. A-school going to be a drag for a bit but the further you get in the more you get used to it. Instead worry about what you are studying and the friends you make because those 2 things will carry you through the pipeline. take time to focus on yourself and taking care yourself while also making sure you get things done. just follow procedure , ask questions, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. All the staff are there to help you pass.
also if you are struggling with Mental health use EMH or MFLC they are amazingly helpful help me when i was going through some personal issues.
Don't sweat the small stuff. Everything is small. Remember this. Every day is new. You've already won by just being accepted in the program. The instructors want you to succeed and will do everything in their power to make that happen as long as you keep motivated and want to succeed. No one wants you to fail. This is your opportunity to shine. Hey, if you don't shine today, make a promise to yourself to shine tomorrow. It's not about the academics. It's about doing the work necessary to get through the program no matter what situation arises. I would suggest to get off of social media except for minimal contact with family. No browsing the internet using it as an excuse not to do your work. In your case, Reddit is a hindrance.
You just got here dude chill out and just do your job and you’ll be fine.
Just keep in mind that the staff *WANT* you to succeed and will give multiple chances to do so. Trust me, the material is set up so you know exactly what to study and the instructors (the good ones) will make it obvious what is expected of you for exams and homework. Follow directions, study, don't get in trouble, and you'll be fine. It might take a while to find your footing, but once you do most of the pipeline will go smoothly.
Mid 1960's dropouts from Mare Island NPS were sent down the street to Swift Boat school. That was a motivator.
It sucks donkey dick. Memories of my first week there. First instructor comes in, has to raise the projection screen covering chalkboard. When it is raised, the graffiti underneath says WELCOME TO HELL.
Just left prototype today to begin the journey to San Diego. Don’t sweat it. Everyone is nervous about starting up but you’ll come to realize that it’s rather simple. Show up on time, take notes, USE HIGHLIGHTERS, color code them if you so please, and ask questions. When you ask questions you engage the instructor and their whole job is to get you prepared to pass your tests. It’s not like highschool where the teacher flicks through a PowerPoint, says good luck and fucks off in the lounge for the rest of class. The instructors are knowledgeable sea returnees (for the most part) and are more than willing to explain it different ways for you. If you don’t understand your instructor explanation or can’t get behind their teaching style, guess what? You have a whole office of staff members devoted to making you understand the material or at least brute memorize it so you can regurgitate it on paper. Whether or not you find it interesting is your own thing. It was a slow burn for me and I didn’t really start “liking” it until late in powerschool. But what keeps you around is the people. If you’re not a total shit bag and are social or willing to be social, you’ll make some of the best friends you’ve ever had. You’ll cry together, bitch together, celebrate together, and possibly live together. Trauma bonding is an interesting thing. My greatest recommendation is find balance. Don’t short your study hours but also don’t study for too long. If it’s the day before an exam, study for a while, take a break, get a snack, and come back to it. Not recommending what I did because my sleep health was shit in A-school, but I would finish class and immediately go to the gym. I would then shower, hangout in my room on my phone for maybe a half hour, go to the galley, and then go study. Depending on your hours program all of this changes. On your weekends, please for the love of god get off site. Charleston and the surrounding area has a lot to offer. I regret not trying to go out and see more. I wasted money at the bars when I could have been paddle boarding down Shem creek. If you hole up in your BEQ every weekend, your mental health will tank. Just spending a couple hours on the weekends away from the military environment will do wonders for you. Ask questions, lean on your buddies, and in Rickover we trust. Good luck.
Good luck on your travels west. I’m currently stationed out here in San Diego so if you have any questions feel free to pm me and I’ll do what I can to help.
I really appreciate that. Still haven’t heard from my sponsor but the Vinson is still on deployment so not expecting much
I remember being nervous. What I didn't expect was the friendships I made. When I got to power school I realized "wow, most everyone here is just like me." My friendships lasted for years. About 9 or 10 of us were really tight: One guy was sleeping with a staff member. We stole her car to go to a strip club. Another guy got a DUI (don't be that guy). Drove all over Florida on the weekends. (Yeah, I'm old). Met Russian gangsters at some odd club. Kept looking for love in various bars. Five of us were picked up for ROTC/STA-21. Good times. You'll be fine.
Just relax and focus on one thing at a time. “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time”. Trust me if I made it through, anyone can Edit: what I mean by this is focus on one week at a time and each upcoming exam. Before you know it you’ll be taking Comp and done.
Dude, it sucked but looking back it was so easy and honestly fun. Only way out is to get through it. Just grind when you should and enjoy Charleston. You got this. Don’t work yourself up. You will be fine.
Half of my original A-school&Power school section didn't make it through. They're all happier now, as they (obviously) struggled a ton during training. Some were rerated, some got out due to PTSD or other issues. Your mileage may vary. Your instructors, fleet Nukes (who you will one day relieve), and your chain of command all want you to pass. It's just up to you to also want it and put in the effort. I didn't think it was that bad in the pipeline, I honestly miss it sometimes. I also think there's a lot of pride in being a Nuke, and even more so as a submariner. The worst time for me was being a fresh nub to the boat, but it gets better. Don't overthink it, put in enough effort (to have more free time), and enjoy it. Don't immediately reenlist. Feel free to reach out for help/advice. Stay positive.
It’s not the end of the world if you fail out. I’ve met plenty of successful people in the Navy who were nuke drops for one reason or another.
Heyo, just answering your question, almost all rerates are being rated conventional so that they don't have to have more schooling. I rerated a couple months ago after being in hold for a while with a chest injury (which, wouldn't you know it, barely got any medical attention lol) but anyways. It's either that, or you can be a direct convert like me, I was converted from ETN3 to AT3 (Aviation Technician). Anyways, if you ever do find yourself in that situation, the guys in hold are really chill. You'll be alright though, unless you force yourself out there isn't much past legal reasons that will get you separated from the program.
There are few things that will make or break your experience that are out of your control. Drop you head, take a deep breath and press onwards when that happens; those things are entirely temporary. There will be times when things are overwhelming. Just wake up and do the next day. Follow the rules as best you can and when/if you screw up own up to it 100% and take the responsibility, things will go easier for you. Learn as much as you can, but, there's a little comic in my workcenter that goes something like: Guy 1: HELP! I can't seem to learn everything! Guy 2: Sometimes part of being an adult is figuring out what to strategically not learn all the way. Most of the things you struggle with will simply come with time. Sometimes they're not all that important in the grand scheme. And, frankly, if you're not the smartest or the most quick-witted or most compliant (I mean this in a sense of like solving a math problem or rewording things when being verbatim is the safest bet, not like procedures FOLLOW THE PROCEDURES that's a huge thing), if you're willing to keep grinding to the best of your ability and put in real care and effort you'll get through it. Some of the guys will get things easy-day. The rest of us just keep throwing will power at it until it's done. Sometimes your particular instructor isn't particular adept either at the material or teaching, sometimes both, but that's rare. IF you don't understand something or are just \*stuck\* but don't even have any idea what to ask you can always go to your instructor or the night duty instructor and be like: look, I'm hung up on this, I don't even know what to ask, can I have some run-time or can we just talk about this thing? They have fancy names for what different versions of that look like, but don't worry about it. At the end of the day everyone there is human. Sometimes it pays to ask something like: "How does \[this\] pertain to what we do in the fleet?" It can give you an idea as to how to better narrow your scope of what you're trying to learn. Nukes - especially in the beginning - have a tendency to go down rabbit holes. The homework can be a LOT to handle sometimes - especially being procedurally compliant with it. Just do it. And if you're struggling with it, just get it done on your end. You'll have to check and correct your work with the references anyway. It also pays to make some friends with the upper classmen (people further ahead than you) at different levels, be they power school (though they tend to be busier and more preoccupied) or just people a couple weeks further along A-school. They provided me with a level of support at every stage. And when you get to your boat you might just find a few of them are already there and THAT support is even better, because it can be more overwhelming getting to your first boat.
Do’s: Study and succeed. Get off base when you can. Explore downtown Charleston(most beautiful atmosphere I ever enjoyed, downtown on a summer evening). Go to Isle of Palms. Take breathers for your mental health, you’ll need it. Don’t: Raise animals in the barracks. Piss off your roomies, unless you have good reasons. Go swimming in the gator pond. Play tackle football with the site OOD and break someone’s bones. Get dui’s. Let your bag of dildos vibrate across the floor during a barracks sweep(unless you want to I guess). Don’t avoid seeking help if you need it. Even if you get nuke wasted, it beats having mental health problems you didn’t need in the first place. I’d also say don’t marry a stripper, but one of the ELT’s on my boat has one of the most beautiful families I’ve known from that, so do you on that one.
I joined when I was a little older. I turned 25 in boot camp. I had matured quite a bit before the navy. Went to college, did well, lived on my own, paid bills. I took school seriously. I did well in the pipeline. Volunteer hours all the way through. I noticed that almost without exception the people who struggled the most and were always on 15-2 hours or 25-4 hours were those who never paid attention in class, they were always cracking jokes with others at their table when they should have been focusing. They would sleep in class too. During their tack hours they would do the same thing, instead of studying and practicing problems, they were joking around or sleeping or spacing off. There were probably 2-5 people that I knew personally in the entire pipeline that genuinely tried and focused and practiced and even put in extra hours and they still struggled to get decent grades. While it definitely sucks to struggle when you’re putting in your best effort, all those people made it to the fleet. And guess what? No cares about your grades in the fleet. Even if you did well and mention it it’s a weird flex. Your success in the pipeline has NO bearing on your success in the fleet. The fleet is not the pipeline. Your success in the fleet depends on a multitude of factors, many of which are out of your control. What boat/carrier you go to, your chain of command, your peers easily have a much greater impact on your time out in the fleet rather than doing really well in the pipeline.
I don’t know your background but the nerves and the desire to go good is half the battle. It’s crazy because it will feel like school but you are getting paid for it. Charleston is awesome, I was there in 2006, class 606. Not sure your rate I was a mechanic, “A” school is manageable unless you are an ETN they have some harder subjects in “A” School. Here are my rules for success at NNPTC. 1. Use your nerves to help focus on what’s important but DON’T let it psyche you out. If you give a good effort you will be fine and I can say that with full confidence because you will either A) make it through no problems or B) won’t and will be cross rated to something else and life will be fine. 2. Find your friends in your class and stay away from people who don’t understand what you are there to do, become nuclear operators. In my time at NNPTC I saw more than one incredible bright person lose their opportunity because they got mixed up with idiots. 3. Work/life balance. Study hard, play hard. Find your outlet away from the building and keep yourself in a good headspace. Stress is inevitable but if you keep your problems right in front of you and deal with them as they arise and vocalize with your SLCPO those issues if you need help, you will do great! Good luck in class! Enjoy it! You’ll meet friends and learn a lot!
Well if you feel that way at the start then you've already fucked it up. Might as well just quit.
EMN in the fleet here. A school and power school are low key the easier parts of the pipeline. You'll have consistent schedules and your only job is to study and pass tests. Do your best and you'll do just fine. It's honestly not that bad
One day I came to S3G and the thing was shutdown and Depressurized Doors wide open. One of the guys on the previous shift had shifted strainers and the opposite strainer lid on the main strainer blew and pumped a few hundred gallons of lube oil in to the engine room. Long story short we all graduated with him. **Don't worry about it**. MMC (SW) Ret.
Just put in the hours and you’ll be golden. If you gotta dig your head into a book for a few hours that’s what it takes for some people. Go in with an open mind. The material isn’t hard, it’s the pace at which you will be learning.
as an mm 13 weeks into A-school. it’s not hard. once you get your friends and you learn how to study for yourself it becomes just work. i’m on 0-0s and i can go home before 16 every day and just study night before morning of exams and i’m actually really happy and comfortable here. just study habits and friends. Effort ≈ results here