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Best: Stationed in far away ports and duty stations in places I never thought I would go, serving with exceptional people doing a difficult job well.
Worst: When you draw a poor commander, and the PT tests. I am not a runner, and found it dumb to have to run all the time for training.
How the heck far can you run on a ship or a sub? The Navy isn't the Army, running won't get you away from trouble.
Anyway, it was one of the best experiences of my life. I would have stayed past my 8 years and been a lifer, but family needs took precedence.
Lived in Southern Europe for over 2 years and pretty much hit a bucket lists of places to visit, museums, historical sites, food, and people. Understanding at a young age how to file papers, regulations, and red tape and how to exploit it for your own benefit by this I mean why you need to turn in this form to get this done oh you want to go to a school, can you site a regulation? etc. On the job training that leads to a very good middle class lifestyle.
Long ass hours in school, 8 hours of school + 2 hours study + duty every 4 days + company time = 14 hour day. ****ty leadership I had a PO2 who couldn't understand a simple duty swap chit and wonder why I wasn't there, he also signed it.
Unrealistic qualification timelines & duty days that interfered with my drinking and nightlife. Honestly if are within a 5 minute drive of the facility and it is manned by operators 24 x 7, why require people to sleep over night @ the facility? Just call them on the phone to come in and fix it.
Saying that you're interested in joining and wanting to know the best and worst experiences, I think it's important for people to mention their rate or job they had. Since it kind of matters to how your daily routine will be or the type of environment you'll work in or the places you will most likely deploy to or get stationed at.
I'm an ET (electronics tech) almost 7 yrs. now. I joined in 2007 after high school. I'm in DC now, finishing my last bit of my enlistment.
Best Experiences:
-Travel: (Germany, Dominican Republic, Chile, Panama, Puerto Rico, and a lot of places in the continental USA like New Orleans, LA, Boston, MA, Miami, FL, Pensacola, FL, Sand Diego, CA, Virginia Beach, VA, Washington, DC, Fort Knox, Chicago, IL etc...
-Deployment to Iraq
-The technical training and experience I got and still working on
-The time spent as support in the Naval Special Warfare community. I got to shoot lots of guns, train with, and operate and maintain the communications equipment with them)
-Being able to take online college and have it paid for
-Finding my wife
-Lastly just wearing the uniform with pride
Worst Experiences:
-Being away from family back home
-constant travel (ironic) but it got exhausting. Looking back, I'm glad i had the chance to go to all these places even though it seemed like work at the time.
-Long working hours
-Shift work
-being on watch after working long hours
-Doing drills/exercises after working long hours
-The time spent being the new junior guy and cranking (mopping, cleaning, painting, chipping paint etc...)
Best-travel. Spent 8 years and saw many countries. Most I was happy to see. Not every ship will see a great many countries. Was lucky that my second ship was homeported in Gaeta, Italy. Travel experiences I enjoyed includes walking inside the pyramid in Giza Egypt, seeing the Sphinx, walking through the Rock of Gibraltar, walking the city of Barcelona, Venice Italy, Malta, Rhodes Greece, Athens Greece, Varna Bulgaria, Odessa Ukraine (city on the rise and now marred in conflict), and Jerusalem.
Worst-Working in the engine room was over 110 degrees with long hours. It also meant that you had to be on the ship at least 24 hours before going out to sea while other crew are still partying. It was also very dangerous working on old steam driven ships. Sleep was rare when at sea. Some of the countries we visited were heartbreaking. My ancestry is from France. Was excited to visit France until I got there. Went to Toulon, Monte Carlo (a principality of Monaco), and Nice. Their attitude was so horrible I vowed never to return to France. Even worse was seeing a beggar boy whose family had cut out his tongue to make him a better begger, an old man trying to sell his daughter, a teenager with deformed legs caused by the Communist police who broke his legs and prevented anyone from helping him, and the general life in muslim nations. If you offered me millions of dollars to spend a week in a muslim nation I wouldn't accept.
I served in the US Army, but my best experience was courtesy of the US Navy on a troopship pulling 16 days of KP. I was going home after 15 months in Korea.
Worst: Highlining with the Chilian Navy in 18 degree weather and 25 foot seas (DLG 17)
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