Navy Nukes

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Comment by lsdemme2001 on February 28, 2012 at 8:14am

Hi Richard,  Congratulations on your son completing RTC.  The hard part is now about to begin!  The descriptions regarding navy Nukes is pretty accurate.  This is a group of sailors who are all extremely intelligent and are among the very brightest in the entire US armed services.  The term "Nerd" probably has a little truth to it in all of the navy Nukes, but that is meant in the most respectful and admirable of ways.  

Good luck to you and your son as he begins this arduous journey to becoming a Navy Nuke.  You will find that your job will be to keep your son motivated and strong as he faces the difficult challenges ahead of him though the Nuke schooling.  My son is in his sixth year and readying for his second deployment.  He finished all of his qualifications during his first deployment and he is now fully qualified as an ET(N)  and should have a much easier time of it during his upcoming deployment.

All of the time, effort and hard work are worth it.  I wish you both the very best.   

Comment by Richard A on February 28, 2012 at 1:06am

Hi folks - 

My son is just finishing up at RTC, and is scheduled to head down to Goose creek for training to be ET.  

I read a description about Navy Nukes awhile ago, and had to laugh --- he has a little bit of a nerd factor to him. The description seemed spot on.  

Comment by jeremy mcelroy on February 22, 2012 at 7:49pm

@ Dan

While in A school and power school you technically have the weekends off. However depending on how you are doing with your grades you may have to use that weekend time to study. They will definitely allow a person to do whatever religious type things they want to do. As for getting to where he wants to do this at he may have to find a ride by someone there or there are lots of cabs that will give him a ride for a decent price.

Please feel free to ask any questions. I am very bored and found this site. I am a submariner nuke ET, been in for 8.5 years and will possibly be soon going back to prototype in NY as an instructor.

Comment by Bubblehead on February 20, 2012 at 4:15pm

What EMs do...  My experience is pretty old and was on subs.  Part of the duties that the link "old Lt" were right & some were wrong.  An EM is responsible for a huge range is equipment on board, and something is always breaking.  What's not broken requires regular maintenance.

If your daughter likes solving puzzles, she'll have fun as an EM -- so much of the repair requires diagnostic skills...  everything from diagnosing why a florescent light won't come on to want's wrong with the controls on a refrigeration system.

One thing that surprised me is how much time I spent replacing bearings on motors.  The EMs own everything on the motor up to the pump/fan coupling.  There are a lot of pumps, many in "hostile" environments, and the EM has to replace the bearings when they fail.  I think 50% of my repairs were bearings.

On watch, she'll probably start as some kind of roving electrician, doing many of the quick repairs, like replacing lamps.  On a sub, the next watchstation up the chain is throttleman -- the person who translates an ordered "bell" into steam flow to the propulsion turbines.  Next is the Electric Plant Control Panel (EPCP).  On a sub, this was easily the most complicated panel to man -- and the most fun.

The EPCP is the senior watchstation up to E6, but many will go further and qualify as Engineering Watch Supervisor (EWS) -- the senior enlisted watchstation.

Hope this helps.

Comment by old Lt on February 20, 2012 at 2:17pm

At the top of this discussion page,,about 4 inches up there is a link to "Click here for some Nuclear Field Information" In there there is a link to the description of what an MM EM and ET do in the nuke field. My son is an EM also. Welcome!

Comment by Thomas Mazzaccaro on February 20, 2012 at 1:22pm

We found out last night that our daughter will be an EM.  What exactly do EM's do?

Comment by Cheryl on February 4, 2012 at 12:58pm

My sailor was on "vols" which means he didn't have mandatory study hours, at least part of that time. And he was able to come home (I live in SC so we were within his mile radius) if he filled out a "chit" to give to his SLPO by Wed. am for the weekend, in phase 2. Something did happen that they could have been pushed backwards phase wise, one or two did something they should not have done and it could have affected the whole group, but I believe they got it all sorted out without losing their phase. During phase one, he was not allowed to ride in cars, unless his dad and I were over in GC for the weekend, then it was fine. And he had to be in uniform, until he phased up to wear civilian clothes. Once he was allowed to have his car, his dad and I took his car to him. At that point they start to relax a bit. The program is still hard, they study hard and are under pressure, but they are able to have some free time to unwind a little bit. If they get mandatory study hours, that is normal, my son had them too at least part of that time.

That link I posted is from 2010, but it was a great help to me, to kind of give me an idea of what  the phases were and what to expect. I could not read the docs, I had to save the images to my pc and zoom in so I could read it.

Comment by old Lt on February 4, 2012 at 12:11pm

sorry about the repost, had to correct something

Comment by old Lt on February 4, 2012 at 12:10pm

I think that pretty much covers it! I added before that if one of the other sailors screws up in class or about class they could all be de-phased. There were 2 times in his A school this happened. He was phase 3 at thanksgiving, had started A school in Oct. He was able to drive to Ny with permission, I believe no more than 8 hours per day so take a buddy if they have a bit to drive. When he returned, around this football time, one sailor threw a piece of chalk or erasor like a football to another when the instructor was out of the room. As with anything like this, an officer was walking by and saw it. They were made to stand at attention and their chairs removed. Everyone went back to phase 1. 2 days of class without chairs then I think it was about 2 weeks in phase 1. The moral to this is this. It didnt matter if mom and dad were coming or a fiance was coming, they were phase 1. Even tho they werent involved. They are supposed to self police each other. Drinking, they only have to be where there is underage drinking. If it is found out, and if someone is caught they will, everyone there faces the same punishment for not turning the offender in. I believe this is the only base with this stricter code of conduct. My sailor tells me that this base leads in mastings,most of it alcohol related. He was over 21 at the time so he could have a beer but the group of older sailors he was with were very careful about who was with them,, even if the sailor wasnt part of the group. I think they even carded one person.  Everyone goes.

Comment by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on February 4, 2012 at 9:08am

was looking for an updated version to post here for you all, but cannot find one on the 'net.......

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