Quote:
Originally Posted by Spike88
The one I was asking had his dolphins. The head recruiter(who will probably be my recruiter) wasn't that bad.
Although the recruiters that were there the first time I thought of joining were friendlier.
And the Navy Work Uniforms look pretty nice.
Anyways, my question is, what is the lifestyle like on a sub? I understand that on some fast attack subs you have to hot rack, what ranks don't have to do this?
What do you do when you're not out at sea?
Where do you live?
Also, should I get an account with Navy Federal Union when asked?
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Every recruiter is different, some like the job and genuinely want to help you join the navy and do something you will enjoy, some just see you as a number and want to get you to join no matter what, while some are good sailors that have become fed up with some of the BS that goes on in the recruiting world and that negativity translates to their performance.
Now as for life onboard, that depends on what class of boat you get. All 688 and 688i boat you will have to hot rack if you are E-4 and below from what I've heard (this was from guys I served with that had been on a fast attack). Your schedule is really up in the air and at the whim of the powers that be. I've heard of 2 week deployments last 6 months.
In port there is always some maintenance to be done on the boat. You may live on the boat or they may have a barracks room for you, pretty sure you get a barracks room though. On a SSBN/Ohio class/Trident sub there is no hot racking at all. Every man has his own rack, even if they have to set up a temporary rack in the torpedo room. There's also two crews to every boat, one takes the boat out to sea while the other spends their time training ashore. There's a transitional period of about 3 weeks in which both crews perform maintenance on the boat before heading back out to sea. My longest patrol was about 86 days, but the Blue Crew on the Maine just completed a 100+ day patrol. When the other crew has the boat you have a barracks room to stay in. Usually they are two man rooms and your roommate will be from the other crew. You keep this room even when you go to sea. The SSGNs are still using a two crew system and they fly the relieving crew out to Guam to change commands. That's about all I know about them. I would imagine that the Seawolf boats are the same as a 688. And the Virginia's I know nothing about as they came out after I got out.
About Navy Fed, when I went to Great Lakes we had the choice of either Navy Fed or Armed Forces Bank. I recommend going with Navy Fed because where ever there's a naval base you can pretty much guarantee that a Navy Fed will be nearby. I still have and use my Navy Fed account and the closest branch to me is 200 miles away. They've never screwed me over in any way.