Whoo! I just spent the last 2 months in the US Navy's boot camp! It was quite the experience, and I'm now in South Carolina for my Nuke School. I know there's at least one fellow sailor on these forums, and I was curious to see if there were any more. I'm interested in any advice you can offer a new sailor, or any great (or not so great) stories about your time in the service. I'm interested in what other branches and other countries have to say as well.

Also, I made some GOG converts while in boot. One has already bought a game, and several others will be making purchases once they settle into their A Schools.

I'm not a member of the Armed Forces but as a United States citizen, i'd like to say grats for graduating Boot Camp and to say thank you for serving this country, bud..glad to see you and your mates on here

Congratulations! :)

Does the navy get the 'jesus loves nukes' lesson like the air force does?

Lovely Great Lakes to South Carolina eh? ;)

Best advice? Enjoy your time in Nuke school and take the instruction seriously. You nukes are in school a long time, use it wisely.

Second - you will almost definitely get a sea duty assignment as your first set of orders. The key to sea duty is to remember that you have to be able to fit everything you own [uniforms, personal items, etc] into at max 2 lockers [usually a bunk locker and a half stand up]. When you get on board ship learn what the DC regulations are for personal electronics - most ships require you to have any personal electronics safety tagged [take it to the Ship Safety Office and they will make sure it isn't pulling too much juice, etc and tag it as "safe" - with no tag they have the right to take the offending item from you as a safety violation].

Don't be a dirtbag - respect your fellow salts and they will respect you. Khakis may seem like dicks now and then, but most have their heads on straight [the best gold braided khakis come up from the ranks].

Congratulations :)

~Formerly MS2, US Navy - USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) [Tip of the Spear, Yokosuka Japan]

Congratulations!

I was in the Army a long time ago (74-76); guarded nuclear (Pershing) missiles in Germany.

Enjoy your time as you will look back with fond memories eventually.

Most of my squid experience has been with corpsmen and chaps, cool dudes all around... and chasing sea cows on ship. There she blows! ;)

Please explain the purpose of blue cami's. I don't get it.

EDIT:
rant
... and then the army is like, "aww, our cami's suck. We want yours."
... but the Commandant is like, "Hell no!"
... so the army says, "Fine, we'll make new ones that make even less sense!"

EDIT: My advice is to be smart with your money. You can live entirely off of what the government gives you if you're single. Take advantage of it, especially if you're 4 no more. Most guys live paycheck to paycheck and leave with nothing to show for it. A couple of years and not even counting deployments I could make a down payment on a decent house when I was out. Do have fun, of course. Just be smart.

You haven't happen to meet a fella named Jeffrey Spiegel "Speegs" have you?

Do tell us if the Navy is gayer than popular culture implies.

Pretty much majority of men in Finland does some time in the army.
I was in mortar unit six months. I didn't turn up to be a perfect soldier but what else is new. Well one time I made staff sergeant (google translator) go down in the ground and checked for weapons when I was guarding the camp. He didn't remember the password.
I got a donut later.
Experience but now I'm bit older and glad that I got that over with.

And nowadays I guess even this country has replaced me with some kind of tank.
Good thing.

Also my forklift course is almost starting (good thing it's just this day). Stresslevel is rising. Well.. at least I'll see if I can still sit and hear hours of theory and then crash on the wall with those things.

*sings* Yvan eht nioooooj! Yvan eht nioooj! Yvan eht noij! */sings* :D

Thank you everyone, and thank you to those who have served in the military.

Aliasalpha- We haven't had any lessons like that, but during the first week we wore Jesus Chains so people knew we were new and to help us.

carlosjuero- I'm enjoying Nuke school so far, it's a nice place. Of course, any where is nice when you've spent two months getting cussed at and beat for mistakes other people made! My classes should be starting in about a week, I'm looking forward to them! I'll remember what you said about having my electronics tagged, I've already passed that info to some of my friends. I'll do my best to not be dirtbag, I have no desire to be one. My group of friends from my boot camp division are all good guys and we'll keep each other straight. How is Yokosuka? That was one of the areas I was thinking about for stationing after school.

Tuliva- I think the blue cami's are because we just want to look prettier than the other branches :P At least, that was one reason I heard from a female sailor. I'm doing pretty well money wise, I still have most of my paychecks left from while I was in boot, other guys are almost drained.

A_Future_Pilot- I haven't, is he a friend of yours down here in Goose Creek?

Michaelleung- There are things in boot camp that most college frat boys would call "gay", even though there were no homosexual acts being taken.

Again, thanks everyone for the advice and well wishes!

Was your drill sergant like the one from Fallout 2?

Hey man, glad to hear you made it through. You'll probably be glad to sleep again. I almost joined the NROTC program years ago but thought better of it. 2 of my buddies joined the Naval Academy, 1 washed out of Westpoint, and one ended up as a fighter pilot in the Air Force.

Thanks! Not much sleep has happened though, I get up at 5 every weekday for mandatory PT, and on the weekends I sleep in till 7am. Today I slept in till 8! That's the sad thing about the military, 9pm feels like a late night, and waking up at 6am is sleeping in. I don't mind it though, the PT wakes me up and I have a full day.