Getting started at Goose Creek

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Permalink Reply by William in Nashua on May 16, 2011 at 10:42am

Mike, the first two weeks after arrival at Goose Creek is Indoctrination sessions where they will get daily lectures about the rules, what is expected of them, and how to get by at the school where they will be for the next 1-2 years.    While they are in Indoctrination Division they will be formed into classes according to their rating.  ET & EM start classes together, then split off during the second half, A school is about 6 months long.  MM have their own classes that are about 12 weeks long.  Students will bunk with another student who has completed the first half of A school. I think they try to bunk sailors of the same rating together. They have a small refrigerator and a microwave oven in the rooms.  There is wired Internet access available from Comcast but they have to pay for it.    The school is tough because of the sheer amount of material they cover but there is plenty of help available from the instructors.

 

When actual classes start they are very busy classes are about 45 hours per week in the school building, plus figure an average of 3 hours per night study so that is another 21 hours per week, give or take.   It is very tough and there is attrition: his A school that just crossed the halfway point last week, started with 24 ET students and now there are 19 left at the halfway mark.  The only advice I can give is work as hard as you possibly can, put in all the study hours, always be on time wherever you are expected, and look sharp.  Follow ever order to the letter, don't try to bend the rules or cut corners.  Keep your uniform sharp and keep your room clean. There are people dropped from the program every week for misbehavior outside of class and not following orders.    Attention to detail matters in everything they do. They are under orders to behave themselves on or off base. My  advice would be no matter what his age, do not drink alcohol during the entire program and steer clear of bars as nothing good can come of it.   Also if he gets sick and feels sick see the doctor right away and get treated so you don't miss any classes.  If they miss a day of class it is almost impossible to catch up with the material and they will be sent back a week to join another class.

 

At this point though I would suggest having your son focus on boot camp first, since from the dates you gave, he has just started it.  My son's division at boot camp began with 14 recruits having nuclear field contracts and by PIR date there were only 8 of them left.  He will not be told his nuclear rating until about the 5 week mark of boot camp.  Your son will learn a lot more when he reaches week 4 and meets with the Master Chief at boot camp who is the nuclear coordinator.  

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by Mike F. on May 16, 2011 at 11:10am

Hi William

Thanks for the great Info. This Info was more for my wife and I. I'm not going to tell him any of this till after his PIR, your right he has to much going on now to be thinking about A school yet. He knows it's a tough field to get into and the attrition rate is very high.

Best of luck to your son.

Thanks

Mike

 

Permalink Reply by Steve Goben on May 17, 2011 at 6:33am

My Son starting seconed week of Nuke School, @ Groose Creek. They are just doing cleaning, and class on Navy protocol. He said they do not start classes until the class in front of them PIR.

Permalink Reply by Douglas H on May 17, 2011 at 9:00am

William in Nashua said:

Mike, the first two weeks after arrival at Goose Creek is Indoctrination sessions where they will get daily lectures about the rules, what is expected of them, and how to get by at the school where they will be for the next 1-2 years.    While they are in Indoctrination Division they will be formed into classes according to their rating.  ET & EM start classes together, then split off during the second half, A school is about 6 months long.  MM have their own classes that are about 12 weeks long.  Students will bunk with another student who has completed the first half of A school. I think they try to bunk sailors of the same rating together. They have a small refrigerator and a microwave oven in the rooms.  There is wired Internet access available from Comcast but they have to pay for it.    The school is tough because of the sheer amount of material they cover but there is plenty of help available from the instructors.

 

When actual classes start they are very busy classes are about 45 hours per week in the school building, plus figure an average of 3 hours per night study so that is another 21 hours per week, give or take.   It is very tough and there is attrition: his A school that just crossed the halfway point last week, started with 24 ET students and now there are 19 left at the halfway mark.  The only advice I can give is work as hard as you possibly can, put in all the study hours, always be on time wherever you are expected, and look sharp.  Follow ever order to the letter, don't try to bend the rules or cut corners.  Keep your uniform sharp and keep your room clean. There are people dropped from the program every week for misbehavior outside of class and not following orders.    Attention to detail matters in everything they do. They are under orders to behave themselves on or off base. My  advice would be no matter what his age, do not drink alcohol during the entire program and steer clear of bars as nothing good can come of it.   Also if he gets sick and feels sick see the doctor right away and get treated so you don't miss any classes.  If they miss a day of class it is almost impossible to catch up with the material and they will be sent back a week to join another class.

 

At this point though I would suggest having your son focus on boot camp first, since from the dates you gave, he has just started it.  My son's division at boot camp began with 14 recruits having nuclear field contracts and by PIR date there were only 8 of them left.  He will not be told his nuclear rating until about the 5 week mark of boot camp.  Your son will learn a lot more when he reaches week 4 and meets with the Master Chief at boot camp who is the nuclear coordinator.  

 

 William, thank you for the insight.  Daniel is to PIR on 26 May and will go to Goose Creek immediately.  I will pass along your friendly advise to him.

 

Permalink Reply by Ric Pallson on June 12, 2011 at 2:46am

Enlisted nukes get a lot of benefits, rapid promotion, enlistment and re-enlistment bonuses.

AND -- you have to work hard, it only gets harder after PIR.

A-school -- whether EMT MM EM -- takes 3-6 months . 

 

THEN -- power school, at Goose Creek.  Any one who will operate, command any Navy reactor must pass this school.  At least 40 hours per week of class time, at least 30 hours of homework, any indication of slacking may be considered dereliction of duty.  They have a special division for suspected slackers, who are marched everywhere and only get a few hours off per week, like boot camp.  But with much more personal supervision.  Washout rate here, my guess, only 15-25% because they already lost the worst slackers.

 

Based on my NNPTC graduation printout for parents, the Navy puts a LOT of resources into this part.  Each section of 20-30 grads has 3 instructors assigned all Senior Chiefs or junior officers, all nuclear qualified, and extra-qualified,  plus a Senior Chief just to support the section of students.  You will not find such a high ratio of instructors to students hardly anywhere.

 

My daughter emailed or phoned me at least once every month or so.

 

Not much free time.

 

They also learn something about teamwork here.  Helping your fellow students to understand all that nuclear reaction stuff and heat equations, and whatever classified stuff, that's rewarded.  Cheating on tests gets you somewhere really bad.

 

So then, there's prototype, another six months.

Your kid can't tell you much, but when my daughter was doing this bit, it was 12 on 12 off, and she would call me at some strange hour every few weeks when she got a 36 hour long weekend.

 

So eventually, after 2+ years training, she got assigned to her carrier, sent to the Persian Gulf, "it's always 90 degrees in the engine room" and "When I get some seniority I'll get a more outboard berthing"

 

Main point being -- there's a lot they can't tell you -- getting nuke qualified isn't easy --

But for my kid -- definitely worth it.  She's already considering re-enlisting.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Ric

Permalink Reply by cTownTim on June 20, 2011 at 6:37pm

My son failed Comp test his last week of Nuke school.  He went in front of the board the day we flew in.  No Go.  Before that, he was 3.4 GPA.  We still flew down to Goose Creek to see him last week even with out graduation.

I don't get it.  What happened?  What now?