It seems like the ultimate suggestion for someone who wants adventure to join the navy, so I'm wondering before I go and do something I could regret, is that just a cliché or is it true?

I talked to a recruited today. He told me it will be fun at times, but you just have to know when to be serious and have fun. He said it's mostly like a 9-5 job with free time on a base or shore. I am going in 3 months

I work for a Navy contractor, in my civilian job. Most Navy people I've met didn't seem to have much adventure in the navy. Even the officers get shit a lot. People I've met who've been on ships, all say it's like being in jail. Carriers, I hear are notorious for having "gangs" and "cliques". If you join the navy, I'd suggest trying to get into an Air MAG. They seem to be the most laid back.

Watch "Carrier" on PBS. It's very candid and revealing.

I'd imagine the Navy recruitment commercials are just that, commercials. There's a chance to have a bit of fun once you hit shore for how ever many weeks, (the rumors of having a girl in every port are confirmed) but you have to take into consideration that in order to get to those ports, your ass is on a ship for 25-45 days or better, and it doesn't have "Carnival" written on the side. But it's like any job, you have to work before you get to play.

Well, is the work part any fun? Except for scrubbing the deck and maintaining the machinery, what exactly do you do there anyway?

What you're trained to do. Failing that, what you're told to do. The way it works (short version) is this.

You walk into a recruiters office, and say you want to join. You sign a bunch of papers and take a bit of a pre-test. Then, you sign some more papers, take a drug test, and proceed through the seventh circle of hell, otherwise known as M.E.P.S. (Military Entrance Processing Station, the gummit loves acronyms, so you'll see alot of them). There, you'll be given what's known as an A.S.V.A.B. (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, see what I mean about the acronyms?). That will basically tell you what jobs you're qualified for. Then, after sitting about for a few hours, doing nothing really, you get to go to a nice 3 star hotel (least I did...) and have a free meal. Then you get up at four in the A.M., and take the longest physical of your life. Then you talk to a career councilor and they tell you what jobs you're fit to do. Usually it's a list of four or five, but it could be more or less depending on what your A.S.V.A.B. was. You'll get a full description of what the job entails and you're off and running.

Once you go thru boot camp, you'll be sent to your A school, where they'll train you how to do whatever it is you picked to do, and there you go.

Really, it all depends on what rating (Sailor jargon for "job") you pick.

www.navy.com

Look at that, and there were a few more good links floating around this forum, see if you can find them.

Wait, 3PushesBullet, that was subtly different then the MEPS I went to. We never discussed jobs at MEPS, at least I didn't. I had already taken my ASVAB earlier that year at school so they used that. Basically, instead of discussing jobs with a guy at MEPS, they just had one of the Marine NCOs there sign some papers, including the paper that "guaranteed"(I use that term loosely) my job as 0300 Infantry(I specifically remember the Infantry paper said that this in no way guarantees you a spot at Recon training). I never went over jobs at MEPS, my recruiter had the paper in the manila envelope I took down with all my other enlistment papers.

Well, you're in the Marines and I'm in the Navy, so there's one reason our MEPS experience was different. Also, you took your ASVAB in high school, and I did not. Usually you DO discuss what job you want to try for with your recruiter, but there's quite a few mitigating factors to. When I took the ASVAB, I wanted to leave in August, so I was given a list of jobs that my score qualified me for that were leaving for boot in that month. However, I didn't like them, so I said I'd ship out in October and got the CM rating. But, if you don't know what you want to do, after you take the ASVAB, you'll be given a list of ratings or MOS's that you're qualified to do, and you can pick from there. There are also other programs where you don't have a set A School and all, but I'm none too clear on those.

Like most people say, talk to your recruiter and ask alot of questions. Keep in mind that there are some of them out there that are devious salesmen who are trying to get their numbers up, but those are the ones that are the very small minority.

Eh me and my recruiter did it at MEPS im a 1345. But Recon is never totally guaranteed cause you got to pass an Indoc.

Well anyway you could go green side corpsmen and pound some ground with the marines.

launchin Marines and then sitting around drinking coffee and eating ice cream is always an adventure.

launchin Marines and then sitting around drinking coffee and eating ice cream is always an adventure.

Is that because your stuck in a fucking cereal bowl... or what?

launching Marines and then sitting around drinking coffee and eating ice cream is always an adventure.

It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it.

Well anyway you could go green side corpsmen and pound some ground with the marines.

That was basically the only thing I talked to the Navy recruiter about. I considered being a corpsman, but I don't know if I could psychologically handle that sort of shit.

A few interesting facts about the U.S. navy:

Forward deployed forces such as Seventh Fleet are away from their home port longer than any other fleet.
Don't let the shore-duty talk make you think it's all great: forward deployed shore duty personnel are underway longer than sailors that are permanently attached to a ship. Kind of ironic, but that's the navy for you.
Myth: the navy is full of gay dudes. Fact: I've seen one gay guy enlisted. However, I've seen no less than twelve lesbians across the fleet.
As far as other "adventure" is concerned: 20% of state side shore duty go directly to Afghanistan, Iraq, or the horn of Africa for one year.
Outside of special warfare groups such as SEAL, SWCC, and EOD, there's expeditionary warfare units such as "riverines" and mobile communications units.

If you want to join up for adventure, you're going to get pretty disillusioned, pretty fast.

If you want to travel and do stuff, you can do that outside of the armed services.

That was basically the only thing I talked to the Navy recruiter about. I considered being a corpsman, but I don't know if I could psychologically handle that sort of shit.

Well you can go blue side then, they have nothing to do with Marines unless we have to go to a navy hospital. But you can be a CEBE. There fat asses but there fucking hilarious and there as bad as us when it comes to do stupid shit . Out of any service in my mos i love working with them. They know there shit too. But when i was in peru with these guys they would jump the fence to go to the whore house in town. When people caught on they dug a tunnel underneath it.

Well you can go blue side then, they have nothing to do with Marines unless we have to go to a navy hospital. But you can be a CEBE. There fat asses but there fucking hilarious and there as bad as us when it comes to do stupid shit . Out of any service in my mos i love working with them. They know there shit too. But when i was in peru with these guys they would jump the fence to go to the whore house in town. When people caught on they dug a tunnel underneath it.

Did you mean "seabees?" 'Cause I take offense at that. I'm not fat at all.

If you want to travel and do stuff, you can do that outside of the armed services.

You would have to have a wealthy family to get in as much travel(while being very young) as all the guys I've known in the service. My recruiters have been to interesting places in Europe, Africa, the Pacific rim, and Iraq. Everywhere it's a lot of places you'd never see if you weren't rich, or indigenous.

Also, StealthyRacoons, I have wanted to be a Marine for the past couple of years, so that's why I only considered being a green-side Corpsman. They go through MCRD and all that, since they have to be relied upon by infantrymen in combat.

I don't know about wealthy, but yeah it would cost a couple of grand.

With that said, travel in the military isn't exactly city to foreign city. More like pacific island airstrip like Guam to desert base in Iraq with a couple of R&R stops to nearby friendly country.

That said I can appreciate that before the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, you could be doing a tour in South Korea or Okinawa, etc and have an expenses paid foreign experience.

With the Navy my impression is (rightly or wrongly) 6+ months at sea broken by a week say in a friendly port. Working a regular job you could probably manage a foreign holiday for a week if you put your mind to it.

If the guy just wanted to see foreign countries and then maybe serve Uncle Sam theres always USAID, the state departments Project Reconstruction Teams (or whatever acroynm they're calling it now) or the peace corps which have shorter contracts mostly than doing four or five years in a military service.

I personally think that joining up for 'adventure' is a quick path to disillusionment and maybe being unable to live up to the contract.

With the Navy my impression is (rightly or wrongly) 6+ months at sea broken by a week say in a friendly port. Working a regular job you could probably manage a foreign holiday for a week if you put your mind to it.

.

Very rarely is it six months straight. Six months total, yes, but 25 days to get to the area where you need to be, a week off, 45 days of war games, one or two weeks off, 25 days of travel, 2 or 3 days off, etc. etc.

I don't know about wealthy, but yeah it would cost a couple of grand.

I don't know anyone right now working a job at 18 that is able to save a couple of grand for a vacation. You make this sound like it's an easy thing to do that anyone with no education and an unskilled job could do. The military gives you 30 days of paid vacation a year, which is already way more than almost any employer you could find yourself with at 18 in the USA. Not only that, but US armed forces can often get free flights almost anywhere in the world on a military transport, or fly commercial at reduced rates.

So no, don't think I am saying the military is the best way to "see the world". But when you consider the other options anyone at 18 with no family wealth has, it's certainly the most attractive option for going to foreign countries. Remember also that a great deal of the foreign sight seeing doesn't have to be done while in port aboard a naval vessel(even though that still amounts to quite a bit). What I want to get across is that you get your 30 days of vacation, and as an unmarried enlistedman living on base you actually get paid more while on vacation due to the food allowance.

You talk about saving up money for vacation as if that is easy when you have rent, utilities, food, etc. Thankfully, while in the armed forces all that is taken care of, so really you could save practically all of your pay, and spend it on whatever you want. Including vacations.

I agree with what you say. Minor point: Anyone can save money, though I also know it takes a lot of pain and discipline, and thats something some 18 year olds don't have.

I think my biggest concern is having the guy in a combat situation by your side, or doing the 101 tedious but neccessary chores/jobs you've got to do, and just getting broken down by the situation because he wanted just to see the world and wasn't ready or hadn't thought about what else the 'job' entailed. The last thing you need is having to rely on someone who doesn't want to be there.

Did you mean "seabees?" 'Cause I take offense at that. I'm not fat at all.

No offense ment, i just seen alot of fat ones. You guys know what you are doing and all that matters. And ya i never actually had to read it or write it down so i don't know how to spell it my bad

Anyway as far as i know corpsmen do not go through MCRD they do however have a rigorous training program. Bootcamp isn't hard it just takes heart. It molds people into Marines MCT and there MOS train them in there job and combat skills

No offense ment, i just seen alot of fat ones. You guys know what you are doing and all that matters. And ya i never actually had to read it or write it down so i don't know how to spell it my bad

Anyway as far as i know corpsmen do not go through MCRD they do however have a rigorous training program. Bootcamp isn't hard it just takes heart. It molds people into Marines MCT and there MOS train them in there job and combat skills

I was just fuckin' with ya.

Fun Fact: The term "SeaBee" is derived from "CB's" Construction Battalion. Get it?

I actually did know that. Jarhead comes from the way we look not that many of us are retarded. Thats why i spelt it CeeBee