From 1977 to 1985 I was in the U.S. Navy. I was a member of the submarine
service, and was trained as an electrician in the nuclear power field.
The first thing you go through in the service is Basic Training, or "boot
camp". I went to boot camp at the Naval Training Center in San Diego,
California for nine weeks from the end of September 1977 until about Christmas
time. Below is a picture of Drill Company 940 of which I was a member. Why
else would this picture be here?
From top to bottom
BACK ROW:Burnett, Erickson, Nutter, James, Vollmers, Ericson, Holm, Spieker,
Bullock, Fisher
2nd ROW:Voss, Cranford, Leahy, Kiskaden, Rogers, Anderson, Oliver, Martin,
A.L. Smith, Seltzer, Stoddard
3rd ROW:Jarvis, Zaentz, Sparks, Brauer, Benefield, Boyle, Lindeke, Glaze,
Rooks, Beaty
4th ROW:Guile, McDougle, Greschke, Hernandez, Day, Thomas, Blackford, Weilmunster,
Latimer
5th ROW:Williamson, Pinkston, Cote, Olivas, Kortan, Ingell, Salazar, Palmer,
Roberts, Pascual
6th ROW:Haddock, Marney, Carver, Beyer, Aguirre, Lilley, Michal, Kerian,
Tucker
7th ROW:Simpkins, Henderson, Concepcion, R.E. Smith, Huntsman, Sloan, Price,
Herbert, Pung, Conover
FRONT ROW:Rosa, Graves, Belt, CPO Belt, Brown, Johnson, Dickson
After boot camp you attended an "A" school where you learned the
basics of your chosen trade in the Navy. My field, or rating, was Interior
Communications Electrician. Each rating had a different symbol associated
with it that you wore on the sleeves of your uniforms. The symbol for "IC-men"
was the globe and telephone handset below.
Following "A" school came Nuclear Power School at the Naval Training
Center in Orlando, Florida. That lasted about nine months and was all classroom
work. If you survived "nuke school" then you went on to "prototype"
where you studied and became a nuclear power plant operator of a real power
plant. I went to the Nuclear Power Training Unit in West Milton, New York
and qualified at the Modifications And Additions To Reactor Facilities (MARF)
plant -- for those who know about these things. This plant was the reactor
compartment and auxiliary machinery spaces of a submarine, which generated
steam that was piped to an adjacent building that housed the engine room components
of a World War II destroyer. It was a little strange. This phase of training
took about nine months.
2018-03-02