I have big news, but haven't had the energy to type it out lately. I still don't, but I figure I've delayed long enough as I'm really excited about it.
Basically, I officially enlisted in the Navy. I stayed overnight at a hotel Thursday night with other military enlistees from all branches and we woke up at 4:45am on Friday to get bussed to the local MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station). Thus, the physical started. There was a lot of paperwork and shit. There was blood, vision, hearing, and flexibility testing as well as a urinalysis. It was all straightforward, but it took forever. The "flexibility" test was really just to make sure all your limbs functioned and such. However, they also threw in a couple of excruciatingly painful tests. Keep in mind during this we are all in our boxers in a room with a hard tile floor. The painful exercises were having to walk back and forth on our knees without our feet touching the ground. Holy fuck that was painful. The other painful one was where we had to walk back and forth on our heels without any other part of our foot touching the ground. I think they threw these in just to make sure we could handle excruciating pain. After the physical was our shitty lunch (however, not a speck was wasted as it had been 6 hours since breakfast) and then job counseling.
My physical was perfect except the vision in my left eye is only corrected to 20/25 rather than 20/20, so I didn't qualify for the Air Traffic Control job. However, due to my high scores and "clean" record, the Navy liaison singled me out for a program for the "mentally elite" called the Nuclear Field. It's possibly the most challenging program in the Navy besides being a fighter pilot or a SEAL, but that's a different kind of challenge. It's apparently extremely difficult to get into this program, but the liaison really thought I had what it takes. It's a six year enlistment, but the first two years are 'A' School (training school). This will be in Charleston, South Carolina and most of the classes will count as normal college classes. What classes does one take to train for the Nuclear Field? Glad you asked. Lots of Chemistry, Physics, Thermodynamics, Electrical Engineering, etc. It's going to be tough as fuck, but I can do it if I set my mind to it.
After 'A' School, I will go active duty for my remaining 4 years. This will probably be on one of the newer nuclear powered aircraft carriers. I'll probably have the option to go on a nuclear submarine, but I'm not sure I'm up for that despite the extra pay. But, that's all way down the line. I don't actually ship out to boot camp until November, which kind of sucks. However, I'm supposed to be the "Man of Honor" at my friend Jessica's wedding in August, so it would suck to leave before that and miss it.
Oh, and I forgot the best part of all of this. I get an $18,000 sign-on bonus for this program as well as advanced rank even without my school credits factored in. Since I wont be leaving til Fall at the earliest (the liaison is going to try to get me shipped out a month or two sooner than November if possible), I'll have the chance to complete my 2 year degree this summer. Why bother? Because having a 2 year degree will net me an extra $5,000 sign-on bonus, bringing my total to $23,000 plus advanced rank.
Comments (3)
awesome, grats again
do they just hand that over at the very beginning and you're rich for a year or what?
sounds like you have a promising career somewhere if you can get into a nuclear something or other... i wouldn't like going into a sub either but the small places in both would do me in. i've visited the one tourist visit in mobile bay and it seemed really spooky like out of some weird horror movie. corse my mom friend and i seemed to be the only one there as well.
@NightlyDreams - I forget exactly how the bonus is paid out, but it definitely isn't until after boot camp. I doubt that they give out that much all at once. It'll probably be in a few different payments or something. Maybe one after boot camp and one after A school.