Getting out of the Navy in November

[mussa]

damn i should of went to the navy.  doesn't sound like your too bad off right now. 

[MURP]

damn i should of went to the navy. doesn't sound like your too bad off right now.

yeah, except for the part of thinking everything in star wars is real.   

[hbionic]

Aw, you two are totally in love. How gay.

You ARE aware that I am a female, right?

Somebody identify sarcasm in here, please.

Actually, don't. This is pointless...

I feel your pain.

[MURP]

no, no you dont. 

[PhillyGirl]

no, no you dont. 

[rjs246]

Wait, who's spanking who in this scenerio? Is PG spanking MURP? Is MURP spanking Mike Patterson? Is hbionic spanking himself? Is Jessica Alba spanking Angelina Jolie for being a very naughty girl? I'm guessing its all of the above.

[Yeti]

That still doesn't beat the three spanker you got on the french handshake thread.

[Sgt PSN]

At some point I thought I'd make the transition by staying connected to the Navy Reserve. I was assigned to a P-3 squadron up in Willow Grove. It was a huge mistake. Reserves are nothing like the real thing. There was more Mickey Mouse bull shtein with less purpose. Good thing was that my commitment was up and I didn't have to stay.

   

That's pretty much the same thing I told him.  Didn't get so much into the fact that the weekend warrior program is a joke but that's because the country wasn't at war when you got out back in 95.  These days, most reserve units have signifantly improved their training regiment.  My focal point on the reserves was the additional college money he could get for joining but since he's already got a significant amount of college under his belt, it may not be worth it for him to get the extra cash for college since he'll probably never use most of it. 

The biggest piece of advice that I can give in regards to college (for anyone else here who is either in the military/been in the military or knows someone getting out of the military) is not to get caught up going to a major "big name" college.  If you've been in the military for 4 years or longer, you've already aquired plenty of "real world" experience in terms of specialized training should you chose to persue a civilian career similar to your military occupation not to mention the fact that even after just 4 years in the military, chances are you've already been put in some type of leadership position.  Those traits are more important to business than the name of the school on your degree. 

So having said that, my advice is to go to a small college or community college.....FULL TIME.  The money you recieve from the GI Bill is yours whether you need it all for tuition costs or not.  As it stands right now, the GI Bill pays $1004.00 a month for full time students.  A semester is what, 3 months?  It doesn't cost anywhere near 3 grand to go to a CC for a semester.  So use whatever money you need to pay for college and put the rest in your pocket.  That'll help cover other expenses like car payments, insurance, gas, beer and will decrease the need for a job while going to school.  That'll allow more time for study and play and less time working to pay for both. 

[rjs246]

That still doesn't beat the three spanker you got on the french handshake thread.

French handshake? Three spanker? Stop speaking in code you hairy imaginary freak!

[Drunkmasterflex]

Congrats on getting out! As far as the job market are you talking about a job while you are still in college or after? Either way if you aren't afraid of getting dirty I highly recommend the construction field.

[Phanatic]

At some point I thought I'd make the transition by staying connected to the Navy Reserve. I was assigned to a P-3 squadron up in Willow Grove. It was a huge mistake. Reserves are nothing like the real thing. There was more Mickey Mouse bull shtein with less purpose. Good thing was that my commitment was up and I didn't have to stay.

   

That's pretty much the same thing I told him.  Didn't get so much into the fact that the weekend warrior program is a joke but that's because the country wasn't at war when you got out back in 95.  These days, most reserve units have signifantly improved their training regiment.  My focal point on the reserves was the additional college money he could get for joining but since he's already got a significant amount of college under his belt, it may not be worth it for him to get the extra cash for college since he'll probably never use most of it. 

It wasn't even the training at that point. They didn't seem to even know what to do with my aircrew 3000 hours + in the back of a plane a$$. Mainly because I was an 8284 AE. I doubt that will mean anything to anyone but they told me the only thing I could do for them was fly as a Flight Engineer. I was tactical so I said farg that. I'll go drink beer instead!!

The GI bill has gotten so much better from when I signed up. That should be enough.

[SD_Eagle5]

damn i should of went to the navy.  doesn't sound like your too bad off right now. 

It's not really that bad as far as pay and benefits goes. When you're off duty you feel like you're living the life, but when you're on duty it's like you're in hell. I've been in port a whopping 7 days since the beginning of April. From now until late August we'll be in port for 5 days (which I'm spending in Philly). The next year we might spend about 1 month in port. Underway we work anywhere from 12-20 hours. I have 100 iceholes barking orders at me on a constant basis for no reason other than to justify their existence and to make themselves feel worthy. Imagine Office Space on an Aircraft Carrier, only there's 100 Lumberg's instead of 1. Other than that my actual job isn't that bad and most of the people I work with are alright. Of course, I'm the Leading Petty Officer of my division so they somewhat have to suck up to me. 

Biggest adjustment was the culture shock. No reason to get up in the morning, and no one telling you what to do. The intense atmosphere is gone. Cracking open a beer whenever you damn please will help immensely with that.

Good Luck

That's been my biggest fear: Self motivation. But now I'm over it. I know what I want to do and have my goals set. I have a plan A, plan B, plan C, and a plan D. I'm really looking forward to waking up at a normal hour vice the 4 AM I have to get up at now.


As far as the reserves go, I'm still 50/50 on whether or not I want to do it. On the one hand I'll still be part of the Navy, but on the other hand there's always the chance of getting activated, which would suck. 

[mussa]

SD-A close friend of mine is in pearl harbor. hes a nuke sub guy.  ive heard it all from him.  hes a pretty intelligent guy and too be surrounded by mostly idiots for 6 years has gotten to him.  he has 2-3 more years left.  hes leaving hawaii cause hes sick of it(don't ask how) and hes going to work in the admirals office in DC.  no uniform apparently required and its all office type work.  hes really happy because hes only like 2 hrs from home too.  hes a nuke engineer, so he figures hes gonna get out--work in a power plant and make at least 100 grand a year to start.  and hes been almost around the entire world.  not bad for when hes out he'll be ony 26-27. 

[SD_Eagle5]

I'm on the USS Ronald Reagan, which is the Navy's newest Nuclear powered carrier. A LOT of the Nukes onboard here have the same plan as your friend. They promote really fast and offer large re-enlistment bonuses to stay active. One guy was 4 years from retirmement and finally said farg it. 

[Sgt PSN]

See, now that's just dumb. 4 years away from retirement, you might as well suck it up for 4 more years and make Uncle Sam pay you for the rest of your life.  I mean, I've only got 11 years in but I'm at the point now where I'm more than half way to collecting a pension.  Fortunately I still love being a Marine but even if I got sick of it, I'm still going to stick it out until I retire.  Unless you have the luxury of running your own business, you're never going to be in complete control of the environment you work in or who you work for and with.  There's just as much "bullshtein" in the civilian workforce as there is in the military.  Might as well go for the early pension rather than throw all that time away.