« One of a Hundred – page 93 – Job’s Story part 2 | Main | Sermon Given to 5000 Youth »
The Navy Adventure
By Marc | May 16, 2008
via videosift.com
From 1992 until 1996 I was enlisted in the United States Navy.
When I signed up, I was a college dropout living in an apartment above a bar in Des Moines, working at Target as a cart wrangler/carryout dude/mop boy. I drank at the bar almost every night, ate whatever I could afford, and smoked like a chimney. I needed a change and I needed discipline.
When I told my friends and my girlfriend I had joined, they were not too happy with me. Looking back, not telling them beforehand was a boneheaded move, but the past is past.
Two of my roommates joined up around the same time. One drank and smoked more than I did and occasionally did drugs when available. The other smoked pot quite a lot and dropped acid. I had tried marijuana maybe five times. We all scored fairly high on our ASVAB tests (98, 99, and 96 respectively) and could have easily gotten good jobs. I was honest about my drug use; my roommates lied and said they had never done any. They got nuclear school; I got the aviation apprenticeship program (the “best they could do for me”). I soon learned that honesty and volunteering information is rarely beneficial in the military.
Since they went to nuke school, they had recruit training in Florida. I went to Great Lakes RTC in Illinois (right next to Lake Michigan, north of Chicago, in the middle of winter).
Great Mistakes was a crash course in discipline and doing the impossible. It’s nothing like the Marines, but it had its moments.
Sometime you should try getting uncomfortably close to 90 or so of your closest friends to wait for food. Standing there (nut-to-butt), wearing a trench coat (with liner) over a work jacket over a blue long-sleeved shirt over a wool sweater over an undershirt, wool cap over a ski mask, gloves, dungaree pants, two pairs of socks, steel-toed boondocker boots, canvas duty belt around your waist on the outside, and carrying a 4-inch thick book. While you’re standing, remove gloves, ski mask, and wool cap and place them in the pockets of the trench coat. Remove the duty belt, unbutton and remove the trench coat, unzip and remove the work jacket, replace the duty belt around your waist and drape the coats over your arms. Remember that you are cramped, cannot move, and you had better not drop anything, least of all the book.
I had the book (as a study aid) because I was the “Educational Petty Officer” for our company (because of my ASVAB scores and college experience).
After boot camp was my apprenticeship training. Think of it as trade school compared to the specialty schools many got. I’m not knocking trade schools, but they don’t get the respect from most that those universities get. That’s what the aviation apprenticeship felt like. Also, because of that, I wasn’t guaranteed a specific job in the fleet.
My assignment was the USS Constellation (CV 64), a diesel powered Kitty Hawk class aircraft carrier, also known as the Connie, America’s Flagship (given that name by President Reagan), Motel 64 (they’ll keep the light on for you), and like every other ship in the fleet: “the boat”. I was taken to the personnel department, gave them my orders, and waited until some shop came down to pick out bodies for grunt work.
I was picked up for work by the S-3 division, or the Ship’s Servicemen (SH). They controlled laundry and dry cleaning, the stores, and the soda machines.
I hated the soda machines. When you’re out to sea, where do you keep the cans of soda for those machines on the Connie? I’ll tell you where: in storerooms. Not just any storerooms, the ones that are nearly impossible to get to, the ones that have no steps leading into them (just a scuttle (manhole) in the overhead (ceiling)), and the ones that are incredibly hot (especially if there are catapult steam lines running through them). When soda cans get hot, the pop gets acidy and weakens the metal in the cans, and when the cases of cans are stacked really high (7 feet or so to the overhead), the cans at the bottom have to carry all the weight of everything above them, so if they break, the whole stack crumbles and you get a lot of broken cans sitting in a mess of syrup. That syrup then eats through more and more cans, contributing to the yuck. And if you are in a warm climate, watch out for the fruit flies and other insects that love that stuff.
Remember, if you get a can of pop out of a machine, for the love of God, please clean that thing off before it touches your lips. I’m not saying they are always unclean, but it’s always best to be safe.
After a while, I got a chance to move to another shop and work in a job I enjoyed. I went to the print shop to work with the Lithographers (LI), and later was promoted to third class petty officer as an LI. I stayed there until my time in the Navy was over.
I do have a few regrets about my time in. My greatest is that at nearly every port, I spent most of my time in a bar. I could have spent a lot more time soaking in the cultures, seeing the sights, getting involved in activities, or maybe even doing some charity work that was always going on. Instead, I drank and smoked. Oddly enough, today I don’t drink except on rare occasions (and only lightly) and haven’t smoked in over six years.
I went to the most beautiful and interesting ports in the world, and I feel like I wasted opportunities I might never get again. We went to Trinidad (home of Carib!), St. Thomas, Acapulco, Mazatlan, Hawaii, Pusan (South Korea), Hong Kong, Singapore, Jebel Ali (UAE), Vancouver, Seattle, Perth, and Sydney. And I was either drunk or searching for a bar at most of them. Hooray for me!
I also wish I had saved some of the money I earned. For most of it, I had very few expenses, except for paying off my credit card debt and student loans. I spent a lot going out, buying crap I didn’t need, and junk food at the ship’s store. When I left the ship, I had maybe $2,000 in my pocket and a plane ticket.
During the last year or so, I lived with a woman in an apartment in El Cajon (a suburb of San Diego). When we started dating, I made it clear that when I was out of the Navy, I would be going back to Nebraska. I have no regrets about leaving her, because I am so fortunate for Julie and the family I have, but I do regret how I ended the relationship. I was cold and a total jerk. I had my plan and I wasn’t going to let emotions stop me from changing it.
I am really glad that I waited until after my military time to get married, though. The time apart puts a lot of pressure on marriages. I’ve seen couples grow apart emotionally, people forgetting their vows when away, and the longing for the spouse take over every aspect of life. There were what were called “Navy widows” at the local bars. They were wives of sailors whose ships were on a cruise, and those wives were lonely and looking for fun. Not all Navy marriages are that dismal, but it certainly does happen (and isn’t rare).
After all of that, I really miss the Navy.
I miss the smell of the ocean. That salty air is something I’ll never get over. I could spend hours breathing in that air and watching the waves.
I also miss the rocking of the boat. It gets some people sick, but the motion, especially in high seas that will really get a carrier rocking, is very calming and rocked me to sleep at night in my tiny little rack.
In 2001, Julie and I went on a Disney cruise and I was in Heaven. I got the smell of the ocean combined with the gentle rolling of the sea. It gave her motion sickness, but I loved it. Also, I got to enjoy it and didn’t have to mop one deck, sweep one overhead, or polish any brightwork!
I recommend at least one stint in the Navy to anyone. You’ll learn a lot, and your chances of seeing the world are better than any of the other branches of the military.
Topics: Life and Living | 2 Comments »
May 16th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I talked to the Navy when I was in college about their NUPOC program, and about aviation. Probably went 65% of the way through signing up when my recruiter moved on and I got assigned to a different guy. Lucky for me that guy was a total jerk and made me rethink what I was doing.
Decided not to sign up, and about 3 months later met the girl that is now my wife. No way she would have even considered dating me if I had a Navy commitment hanging over me.
So glad I didn’t go through with it.
That being said, I work for Boeing now on the F/A-18 and got to take a 10 day work trip out on the USS Harry S Truman last summer. That was totally awesome. Hopefully I am going to be getting another trip this summer.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:13 am
I know what you mean about recruiters (and other people in sales). A good one can totally sell the package, but a bad one can leave you with a nasty taste about everything relating to their company.
I’m glad you had fun last year. If you go this year, I hope it’s even better.