My Military Career

Surface Warfare Pin (SW) Silent Service Pin (SS)

U.S. Navy Surface Fleet U.S. Navy Submarine Fleet

The Beginning

I joined the Navy originally to get away from going to college and to get my journeyman's card in graphics design. So, where am I now? An Electronics Technician in the Communications field. How in the world did I get here? That takes some skillful tactics from the US Gov't and Navy Recruiters. I went and took the ASVAB, which is a test that you take before you enlist to show what fields you qualify to place in. In my case, I qualified to have any job in the enlisted ranks that I wanted, that even qualified me to take the nuclear test... which I did but did not qualify high enough for that field. But, I wouldn't do that job anyway. So, I was happy that I was qualified for the job I wanted, graphics design. Then, Uncle Sam waived $3000 in front of me to enlist as a Electronics Tech. Well, that looked pretty nice, since I had never seen that much money at one time in my life (little did I know that Uncle Sam was going to take 28% back for taxes). So, I enlist for 4 years to be an Electronics Tech, but, in order to get the $3000 sign-on bonus, I have to sign an extension for 2 additional years. So I did. But that also got me automatic advancement from E3 to E4 which was nice. Now, the kicker to this is that if I had waited till the new fiscal year (which was 20 days away) the sign-on bonus would have been $8000, they didn't tell me that, and I wasn't smart enough to do the research.

So, how did things start out? After I took my ASVAB test, I was signed into the delayed entry program (DEP) which means that I was guaranteed to enlist on a certain day, that day was Sept 12 1996. I could have enlisted that day in June when I went there but I had just graduated Lakeshore High School in May and wanted to take the summer off to have some fun before I was committed to something that I wasn't really prepared for. On the day of Sep 11, 1996, I entered a Greyhound bus at the Benton Harbor bus station and left for Lansing, MI to the MEPS (Military Entry Preparation Station). I spent the night in a hotel somewhere in Lansing. This was my last night of civilian life. So what was I going to do? Well, me and a couple of buddies I meet went to a Meijer store across the street. Inside we found the toy department... we had alot of fun. Played kickball, had races on the large bouncing balls, and had a Nerf foam dart fight. We were shortly kicked out of the store. The next day, processing me into the military begins. To sum it all up, there were a lot of medical test and paperwork done. After a full day of physical and mental anguish, It was time for the oath, I was now sworn into the Navy. Now there was nothing I could do, at least not for the next 6 years. Into the evening of the same day, I was bused to the airport (with a bunch of other guys) and flown to O'Hare airport. We were picked up by 2 buses and transported to Recruit Training Command (RTC) Great Lakes, Illinois for basic training.

Well, its been over 9 years since basic, so I will write what I can remember. We pull onto RTC, stop and exit the bus with what we have, and follow a military instructor into a building where the real entry process happens. I walk into a room and place my things on a table, this houses us for the next few hours. The first thing we do is a haircut, the men are all shaved to the skin and the women are cut to the top of the neck. This is a major breakdown point for alot of people. Next is first issue and the packing process. We change out of all our civilian clothes and change into Navy issue blue sweats. Next we pack up almost every thing we brought with us to ship back home. We had to pack up like everything, all clothes, your watch, any jewelry except a wedding ring, wallet (i.d. and money included, there is no place to drive to and we cant spend money on anything), lets just say that the only things I could keep were a small picture album and my tennis shoes. Basic... It was for the most part the same every day of the week except Sundays. We would wake up at 0430 in the morning, shower/shave, march to breakfast, march back, then PT (get beat) for an hour or two. We go to class then, after class off to lunch, back to class for the rest of the afternoon, then dinner. After dinner we usually got beat again (PT) for at least 2 hours. We called it beatings, because just imagine you doing calistetics until you are physically exhausted, but you are only half way through.... it seems like eternity then. After we showered and changed again, it was time for personal/study time.... this was usually 2 hours. During this time you would study the material you learned throughout the day for quizzes and tests that are throughout the week. You also could use that time for writing letters, I also used it too look at my picture album they let me keep. Bedtime was 2200 (10:00PM). Then it started all over again, the next day. Sunday was a relax day for the most part, you could attend church if you wanted... but other than that you had to march to and from chow (breakfast, lunch and dinner), could study or write letters. This went on relentlessly for the first 6 weeks. Week 7, was a real break. It was called work week. Work week consisted of going to the galley to work, which was a huge relief from the regular schedule. I was attach to the tiger team, which mean unload trucks and stocking/distributing the food shipments throughout the galley. Week 8 started up from where we left off at the end of week 6, this continued to week 10. Week 11 we prepared for Pass-in-Review (Graduation). On the final day, we got to sleep in to 0500, cleaned up, marched to chow for breakfast then to the graduation hall. A ceremony was held with all 11 divisions present and an Admiral to speak on behalf of the Navy too all of the guests (Mostly family and friends). That Friday/Saturday/Sunday was liberty weekend. We were able to go out off base and visit with family, we just had to be back by 2200 each night. The following Monday I packed up all my uniforms into my seabag and garment bag and marched over to Naval Training Command (NTC) Great Lakes to begin my training in Advanced Electronics Technical Core. Boot camp was by far the most physical and mental anguish I have ever gone through.... but that is no comparison to BUDS (SEAL Training) or being a POW. To follow my career click on Duty Stations here or at the bottom of the page.

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