Monday, April 30, 2012
USS Harry S Truman- Interesting Facts
The USS Harry S Truman is a Nimitz class, nuclear powered aircraft carrier. It's around 97,000 tons of steel. The flight deck is the size of a football field. It can cruise at speeds up to 37 mph. It's steam powered by the heat of it's two reactor. Therefore, it only needs to refuel every 20 years!!! It carries 90 jets.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
2.5 Stay Alive
I graduated high school 5th in my class out of 273 people. I made a 29 on the ACT and a 99 on the ASVAB (twice). Having said that, I found Naval Nuclear Power school extremely challenging. I was in class for 8 hours a day, minus time for a short lunch and only a 5 minute break between subjects/classes to go to the bathroom and go to the next class. The instructors lectured page after page of new information every day and rarely spent much time covering any one particular subject. At night we received homework problem samples from the new material, and the next day we moved on to new topics of equal difficulty. We would take pages and pages of notes.
At the end of each week we were tested on new information and were expected to be able to regurgitate it all back onto paper in essay form. Our answers had to be almost verbatim to the "key words and tricky phrases" used by the instructors. It was an enormous volume of information. While being tested at the end of each week, if even a few of the words in our responses were wrong our scores would be low or failing, and we might have received a GCE which stood for Gross Conceptual Error.
The subjects we were learning we're no joke. We were learning things like physics on an atomic level, reactor theory, electrical theory and more. The grading scale was 4.0 with anything below a 2.5 being a failing grade. This is where the term "2.5 stay alive" came from. Failure was not an option. This was military school not high school or college. We were essentially ordered to learn this stuff and perform at a satisfactory level, and if we were failing that opened up a whole new can of worms such as possible dereliction of duty.
At the end of each week we were tested on new information and were expected to be able to regurgitate it all back onto paper in essay form. Our answers had to be almost verbatim to the "key words and tricky phrases" used by the instructors. It was an enormous volume of information. While being tested at the end of each week, if even a few of the words in our responses were wrong our scores would be low or failing, and we might have received a GCE which stood for Gross Conceptual Error.
The subjects we were learning we're no joke. We were learning things like physics on an atomic level, reactor theory, electrical theory and more. The grading scale was 4.0 with anything below a 2.5 being a failing grade. This is where the term "2.5 stay alive" came from. Failure was not an option. This was military school not high school or college. We were essentially ordered to learn this stuff and perform at a satisfactory level, and if we were failing that opened up a whole new can of worms such as possible dereliction of duty.
Naval Nuclear Power School
"The nuclear program is widely acknowledged as having the most demanding academic program in the U.S. military. The school operates at a fast pace, with stringent academic standards in all subjects. Students typically spend 45 hours per week in the classroom, and study an additional 10 to 35 hours per week outside of lecture hours, six days per week. Because the classified materials are restricted from leaving the training building, students cannot study outside of the classroom.
Students who fail tests and otherwise struggle academically are required to review their performance with instructors. The student may be given remedial homework or other study requirements. Failing scores due to personal negligence, rather than a lack of ability, can result in charges of dereliction of duty under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Failing students may be held back to repeat the coursework with a new group of classmates, but failing students are typically released from the Nuclear Power Program and are re-designated or discharged."
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Power_School
Students who fail tests and otherwise struggle academically are required to review their performance with instructors. The student may be given remedial homework or other study requirements. Failing scores due to personal negligence, rather than a lack of ability, can result in charges of dereliction of duty under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Failing students may be held back to repeat the coursework with a new group of classmates, but failing students are typically released from the Nuclear Power Program and are re-designated or discharged."
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Power_School
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Women in boot camp in 1998
When I arrived at boot camp in Great Lakes, Il, women were still fairly new to the Navy, and they were working on integrating them into the recruit training command (boot camp) and into the fleet (sea duty). The question was "Should women be treated differently than men in boot camp. We could not really be held to the same physical standards as the men, but is that fair?"
Friday, April 27, 2012
A little introduction.
When I was 24 I decided I was tired of waiting tables so I joined the Navy. After two years of training I was assigned to the USS Harry S Truman (CVN-75). The Truman is a Nuclear powered aircraft carrier. It was my home the majority of four years. I know a lot about life on an aircraft carrier and a lot about women in the Navy, and I believe a lot of what I know (and some of it will shock you!!!) is interesting. I guess what I'm saying is... I've got something to say.
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