Hi all my son is in rtc and picked mm as his a school looking to be a engineering lab tech top 50 per cent can get it he says. He want opinions on duty choices seems he is thinking air craft carriers of course but is considering vol fast attack subs we would like to hear from anyone with experience in those options
Thanks
Craig
Cpt army retired
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On a boomer you do not visit ports, so if stopping in other countries and seeing different places is a goal of his, that will not happen if he gets a boomer. However they go on deployments a lot less, max 3 months at a time and there are also two crews to the boat so there are months where you aren't even dealing with it and working in an office building doing a normal work week(which is great). Fast attacks are cramped and newer guys have to hot rack with others(two sleeping racks for three people).
You have less amenities than a carrier. No constant internet connection, no satellite tv, no phones to just call out when wanted, no little stores to buy goodies at, no gyms with good amount of equipment.
On a submarine though since there are way less people you have a chance to get to know a lot of people outside the nuke group. I have heard on carriers that nukes mostly just stick with nukes and don't tend to have much to do with any other rates on the ship.
Hard to give good info on it. There are some people out there who have done both subs and carriers( 99% of the time due to being disqualified for subs for some reason), those would be the best guys to get info from. The one person I know of that is in that situation I heard he is hating it in the surface fleet.
Yes he about 2/3 thru basic says mm will be his rate and thanks I'll tell him not to vol for subs till later if that's his choice what was life on a sub like I'm army so I have no idea at all
-He may have picked MM but can still end up as an ET or EM. In bootcamp you put them in order of what you want to be. Needs of the Navy is the overall dictator to what you get so he can end up with one of the other rates in the end. If he is towards the end of bootcamp then maybe he already knows what he got, I am just assuming he is still in the early phase.
-Top 50% of MMs do not get ELT. There are a lot fewer of those and those that get selected are based on how well they do in A school, power school and prototype. Prototype is the big one as that is where he will inform them he wants to apply to be picked up ELT.
-Sub vs surface- This is going to vary largely amongst people, best thing he can do is talk with his instructors as he goes along and get info from them as to pros/cons and what each is like. I am a sub guy and can only give info on sub life, and not even all of sub life as I was only on a boomer. He does not need to decide right now if he wants to volunteer for subs. He can wait all the way up until prototype to choose that. I would tell him don't do it now as once you do you can't go back. Also if he does volunteer subs it is not a sure thing to get a fast attack, he could very likely end up on a boomer or even sent to the surface fleet still.
Nuke or conventional MM? I am told if you can handle sub duty it is the BEST duty in the navy. For conventional MMs they combined them with another rate which opens more jobs, including working on the small boats for the teams.
Replies
On a boomer you do not visit ports, so if stopping in other countries and seeing different places is a goal of his, that will not happen if he gets a boomer. However they go on deployments a lot less, max 3 months at a time and there are also two crews to the boat so there are months where you aren't even dealing with it and working in an office building doing a normal work week(which is great). Fast attacks are cramped and newer guys have to hot rack with others(two sleeping racks for three people).
You have less amenities than a carrier. No constant internet connection, no satellite tv, no phones to just call out when wanted, no little stores to buy goodies at, no gyms with good amount of equipment.
On a submarine though since there are way less people you have a chance to get to know a lot of people outside the nuke group. I have heard on carriers that nukes mostly just stick with nukes and don't tend to have much to do with any other rates on the ship.
Hard to give good info on it. There are some people out there who have done both subs and carriers( 99% of the time due to being disqualified for subs for some reason), those would be the best guys to get info from. The one person I know of that is in that situation I heard he is hating it in the surface fleet.
Here is a tidbit for ya
-He may have picked MM but can still end up as an ET or EM. In bootcamp you put them in order of what you want to be. Needs of the Navy is the overall dictator to what you get so he can end up with one of the other rates in the end. If he is towards the end of bootcamp then maybe he already knows what he got, I am just assuming he is still in the early phase.
-Top 50% of MMs do not get ELT. There are a lot fewer of those and those that get selected are based on how well they do in A school, power school and prototype. Prototype is the big one as that is where he will inform them he wants to apply to be picked up ELT.
-Sub vs surface- This is going to vary largely amongst people, best thing he can do is talk with his instructors as he goes along and get info from them as to pros/cons and what each is like. I am a sub guy and can only give info on sub life, and not even all of sub life as I was only on a boomer. He does not need to decide right now if he wants to volunteer for subs. He can wait all the way up until prototype to choose that. I would tell him don't do it now as once you do you can't go back. Also if he does volunteer subs it is not a sure thing to get a fast attack, he could very likely end up on a boomer or even sent to the surface fleet still.