Commence reactor start up! The statement itself conjures up many memories for me, and can be a metaphor for the start of my Navy career. As a refresher (for those who don’t know), I spent ten years in the Navy as an electronics technician, nuclear trained reactor operator, and finally, a recruiter. In the Navy, there are three different enlisted nuclear rates – Machinist Mate (MM) that includes the Engineering Laboratory Technician (ELT), Electrician Mate (EM), and Electronics Technician (ET) home of the Reactor Operators. Now, I have to admit that whoever decided to make me an ET knew that my mechanical skills were…um…less than optimal for the other rates.
My career started in Great Lakes, Illinois at Recruit Training Command (boot camp). After boot camp in Great Mistakes er..Lakes, I headed off to Electronics Technician “A” School (during which I spent a grueling winter on the shores of Lake Michigan). After graduating, it was off to Orlando for Nuclear Power School (aka Uncle Hyman’s School for Misguided Children – nicknamed for the father of Naval Nuclear Power, Admiral Hyman Rickover). After warm sunny Orlando, it was off to Idaho (yes, a Navy school in Idaho) for prototype training, where I actually ran an operating nuclear power plant.
This is me with my Recruit Training Command Company. We were the Color Company of our graduating class (I’m in the lower right hand corner of the picture).
One very cool thing about graduation was the keynote speaker. Admiral Grace Hopper – one of the pioneers of modern computers – was our graduation dignitary! The lovely and adorable Lana often uses this quote attributed to Admiral Hopper: “A ship in port is safe, but that’s not ships are built for.” Powerful words from an amazing woman!
As I mentioned earlier, I was lucky enough to spend a winter in Great Lakes attending ET “A” School. We learned to troubleshoot electronics gear and managed to survive the snow and ice of a northern Illinois winter. For someone who had lived in South Georgia for a long time, it was cold and miserable!! Below is my ET “A” school graduating class.
Sunny Orlando was the next stop on my Navy journey. Before Nuke School started, I was a Master At Arms at the Transient Personnel Detachment. What does all that mean? We were the shore patrol for the barracks for the Nuke School drops that were headed for the fleet, or, depending on the reason for the drop, perhaps out of the Navy. Too many stories to tell about that temporary duty station, but it was certainly an eye-opening experience! The fun had to come to an end, though, and it was off to Nuclear Power School.
Nuclear Power School Orlando, FL:
How can one describe Nuclear Power School? To say it was difficult would be a massive understatement. Basically, you crammed mathematics, nuclear physics, electrical power and generating equipment, nuclear reactor technology, thermodynamics, chemistry, materials science, metallurgy, health physics, reactor principles, and reactor ethics into 6 months. Taught at the college level, our classes ran from 8:00 – 4:30 pm, and students still had to stand watches. Oh, and you had to do homework at school since the training materials were classified and couldn’t leave the building.
Grades and studying:
That was 40 classroom hours per week. I was on suggested 20 study hours while I was in Orlando, so I had at least 60 hours per week in the classroom. Others had mandatory study of 40 hours, so 80 hours per week in the classroom. Add to that the pressure to excel or even to keep up, and it’s understandable why the attrition rate was and still is, by some accounts, > 70%! We had to maintain at least a 2.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and the popular view was 2.8 and skate! Somehow, I made it through with a decent GPA and it was off to Idaho! Here is the 8407 Class picture. Interestingly enough, my future Executive Officer (XO) on the Sandlance is in this picture.
Prototype in Idaho Falls:
I arrived in Idaho Falls, Idaho on February 14, 1985 to three feet of snow. After Great Lakes, though, I was ready for the snow. What I wasn’t ready for was prototype. Yes, we still had a lot of theory to learn, but now we were actually running a nuclear reactor.
We worked 12 hours days on a rotating shift, rode a bus for an hour in each direction (which turned our 12 hour days into 14 hour days), and generally lived at the site. Prototype training lasted 6 months, just like Nuclear Power School, and was just as intense – though in a different way. A lot of students who did well in the theoretical world of Nuke school struggled putting theory into practice.
Again, with a lot of help from my sea dad, my advisers, and my classmates, I made it through prototype. I actually performed a reactor start up for the first time at prototype. Idaho Falls was its own adventure, but that is a story for another time! I was the second person in my class to qualify Reactor Operator. My orders sent me to the USS Sandlance (SSN660) home ported in Charleston, SC.
There you have an outline of the beginning of my time in the US Navy. In a future post, I will talk about my time aboard USS Sandlance (SSN660) a Sturgeon Class fast attack submarine. If I hadn’t had these experiences, I couldn’t have used them in my fantasy adventure series The Gemstone Chronicles!
I love to connect with other submariners and current and former Navy nukes. If you are one, or know one, please leave me a comment and let me know about your experiences. As always, shares and feedback are always welcome!
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Very cool to hear about the start of your career in the Navy.
Thanks, Steve. Not a glamorous life, but it was definitely a challenge!
BootI enjoy hearing otherS Story Of Their Adventure Thru The Pipe Line. I Served From 1997 – 2006. BoOt Camp In GreatLakes…A School And Power School In Orland Prototype In Saratoga Then ELT school. I Served On CVN 71 From 1999-2003 Then My shore Duty Was NRMD In Pearl Harbor.
I was in from 1983-1993. Great Lakes, Orlando, Idaho Falls (S1W), USS Sandlance, then recruiting duty and then out! Never worked in civilian nuclear power, but most of my post-Navy career has been in pharmaceutical supply chain. Good to hear from you! What do you do now?
Hey! Current MM at the Charleston Prototype as a student. That “Uncle Hyman’s School for Misguided Children” is probably the funniest thing I’ve heard in a LONG time!
Hi Dylan, we had a few of those kind of things. I think the Charleston prototypes would be very cool to see. It would beat the snow if Idaho! Do you still call nuke drops “nuclear waste?”
Haha nah. Usually just the sad pandas or psych drops. Big Navy has cracked down hard on anything that could be construed as hazing or degrading or anything like that. I know it’s not, but some people get super upset over that. How’s Fast Boat life? theyre what I’m hoping on being on.
@Dylan, those PC’s of today would not have lasted a week thirty years ago. While I can’t see degrading a person, without the humor and ribbing we’d have gone nuts on patrols and spec-ops.
@Dylan, yep, nuke waste, mop and glows, things like that. I remember when the Navy cracked down on hazing – right before we did our Bluenose ceremony. Didn’t stop the ceremony or even change how we did it, but it seemed a little hypocritical to say you can’t haze and then do Bludenose!
Words to live by: When a man is down, kick him. When it looks like he’s about to get up, kick him again. For the day after it may be you who is down.
Though for most of us it was all in fun and a way to relieve the tedium of endless days without sunlight.
All great points Eric! Thanks for stopping by!
Basic: Great Lakes. 10-4-71 to after Christmas. However long in 71
EM”A” Jan to June 72
TDY USS Lexington in Pensacola Jun-Dec 72
NNPS Bainbridge, MD. Jan 73 to Jun 73
NPTU West Milton, NY Jul 73 Jan/Feb 74
March 74 USS DACE (SSN-607)
Eighteen years later retired. 😀
Drop me a line for the rest of the story, Bill. 😀
Hi Lee, Good career! I probably would have stayed in, but when I was ready to leave recruiting duty, I wanted to go to King’s Bay, GA., but my detailer said Bremerton or Pearl Harbor, My wife was in graduate school and my daughter was a junior in HS, so I decided I wasn’t uprooting them, so I got out.
I was class 8408 as well. MM section 8. Funny thing, after I retired in 2004, I landed a job with a gas fired power plant here in Arizona. I saw a guy that looked familiar and he said the same about me. After several minutes of comparing stories about being Nukes, I figured out that we very well may have had the same instructor. I went home that night, pulled out my Nuke School class photo and found him standing right beside me. 20 years had gone by and we hadn’t once thought about where each other were. He had gotten out after 6 and moved back to AZ to establish his roots. Talk about small world! Pretty cool event!
I haven’t met many of my former classmates, but when I first started in the human pharmaceutical world, there were 6 or 7 former nuke officers at the plant. It is a small world. One of my former Div O’s lives in Atlanta and we have connected via FB.
Mark, I remember you from Idaho. We actually hung out for a while. Not sure if you remember me. I was graduating the year you were leaving Idaho.
Mark Serna, I remember you when you lived in Idaho. We actually hung out. I was graduating the year you were leaving Idaho. Not sure if you remember me or not.
I was an 8602 MM. Got on as a Staff Pickup at A1W/A at NPTU Idaho. Went to the fleet as a MM1/ELT and qualified SS on the USS Georgia SSBN 729 Blue. Had a great time in the Navy, but always wanted to fly, so I got out and worked at Los Alamos at the LANSCE Proton Accelerator for 5 years saving money for flight school & taking more college. Now, I’m a Captain for Allegiant Air based in Orlando, where I first soloed an airplane when I was in the Navy Flying Club while at NPS Orlando!! Been a wild ride!!
Hi John! Thanks for stopping by and telling me about your career! Glad that you followed your dream to fly and it worked out. So few get to say that! Yep, the Navy was a ride, that much is for sure. I actually have an HR Bachelor degree and a Management Masters, but I am in Supply chain. Funny how things work out. While you were in Idaho, did you happen to know Dan Gallagher? He was an ET staff P/U at S1W (and my sea dad).
When I tell people I was in the Navy and stationed in Idaho Falls, Idaho I get the funniest looks. I usually tell them I was part of the Snake River Fleet. A little known branch of the U.S. Navy.
Hey Flip! I get the same thing. I like the Snake River Fleet, though! I hadn’t heard that one! 🙂 I did find out recently that there is a submarine R& D facility in Idaho, so I guess we could use that…
Or we could be the “little lost river fleet”…
I was in 8408 (MM Section 2). I remember Mark Serna clearly.
That winter of 83-84 was absolutely brutal. Nothing like digging out MM’A” school out of 3 foot of snow by hand.
I believed we classed up in April of 1985 in Idaho Falls. I’m pretty certain we graduated the first week of October. Mid February of 1985 is when 8407 graduated from Orlando…and the day after I showed up to a dress blues inspection in my room in brown corduroys. (I could have been drinking the night before…) You also might want say that it is your section picture instead of your class picture, otherwise Mark and I would be in it with you!
Hi Glenn! Yep that winter was brutal. Good point about the section picture, I hadn’t thought of that. I could well have been in 8407…it was too many years ago to think about!
Bill,
I followed along in your footsteps, just a couple of years later.
I went through A school in Orlando in 1986, just after they started it. Then went through power school (2.5 and survive; though I carried about a 2.8-2.9) then to S1W in Idaho. There I was a SPU until we pulled the fuses for the last time and prepared for a Monroc float (that was the name of a local concrete company). Got to do some interesting things at the request of NR once we were done training students….. Maybe someday I’ll be allowed to talk about them.
Hi Eric. I was on Crew C. Helped set up and run the freeze seals to get ready for the Monroc float (I laughed when I saw your comment – had forgotten all about that joke!).
NPS class 8407. So many memories recalled from this.
Greg, what rate were you? Where did you go to prototype?
electrician, went to prototype at A1W in Idaho Falls, Class 8407, little of a oops on here, 8407 graduated Orland in late November/ early December, only reason I remember the time, I left Orlando at 83 degrees at ten in the morning. got into Idaho Falls at 2 in the afternoon with two feet of snow and 10 degrees.
I know what you mean. I drove to Idaho and arrived, if I remember correctly, on Feb 14th with snow on the ground. Quite a change for this S. GA boy!
Great to hear other stories. Two other RO’s wrote books with more detail on their adventures: 2190 days by Daniel Bil, and Watertite: How I survived the submarine force without loosing my mind by Karl Heckman. I overlapped Dan on the NYC 696 for about two years. There were a number of events that he talked about in the book that I recalled. The major takeaway I had from his book was that even with events shared with a number of people, the perception of the events, the experiences, and the personal impact are different, individual, and very personal
Hi Tom! Thanks for reading the post. I know what you mean. My recollections are mostly of the good times (I think i must have blocked out the bad ones), and the people. i don’t miss the boat so much, but the people were awesome. I still stay in touch with about a dozen of my former shipmates and they don’t reall the things I do, or they recall them slightly differently.
Thanks again for stopping by and thanks for your service!
you guys make me feel so old. boot and ‘a’ school in glakes. nuke school in bainbridge, class 71-02. still using slide rules then. calculators? science fiction. proto in windsor locks, ct. then sub school. then pre-com on uss tunny, ssn682 in pascagoula, ms, then to the woodrow wilson, 624, 4 years later, after ‘c’ school in norfolk. then one patrol on the vallejo, 658. then out. one plankowner boat, one fast attack med cruise, 5 boomer patrols. highest qual was EWS, but did sonar operator too, just for grins. did a few years as mmc(ss) in the reserves while working at pnsy as a civilian instructor, kittery, main. served on naval reserve rifle and pistol teams in the mid 80’s, and won two SECNAV trophy rifles while with them. alas, both were 2nd place trophies. could have completed almost three 20 year careers by now. still proud to have served, and during vietnam too. thanks to all vets for their service. does anyone truly regret their time?
Steve, first let me say thanks for your service shipmate! Just to really make you feel old, I was 9 in 1971… 🙂 I was at PNSY in 1988-89 and then went to recruiting before getting out in 1993. Been doing the pharmaceutical industry since. I don’t regret my time and I certainly miss the people, but I can’t honestly say I miss the boat. Being a nuke taught me lessons that I still use today, so for that I am forever grateful!
Hi Bill! Was in class 8206 in Orlando and then went to A1W. I served on Plunger out of San Diego before returning to NRF as staff at S1W. It looks like I arrived around the time you left for your boat.
Hi Ted. Yep, I left Idaho in August 1985. There was an electrician instructor there named Randy (don’t recall the last name) who was on the Parche. Any idea about him? My seadad was ET2 Dan Gallagher.
Our stories are close except I was an EM class of 8302 at power school I I was at TPD as well and had to do a couple of brig tuns to other parts of the state. Went to ballston spa for prototype and then to rotten Groton with orders to report to USS Rhode Island SSBN 730. The gate guard told me it wasn’t there. They changed the name to Henry M. Jackson
Our stories are close except I was an EM class of 8302 at power school I I was at TPD as well and had to do a couple of brig tuns to other parts of the state. Went to ballston spa for prototype and then to rotten Groton with orders to report to USS Rhode Island SSBN 730. The gate guard told me it wasn’t there. They changed the name to Henry M. Jackson. Retired in 2003
Good for you on retiring. I got out after 10 and went to work in the pharmaceutical industry. In the animal health side of the business now (along with writing my books). Welcome aboard shipmate!
Nice, I was 8305, section 13.
What boat (or ship if you were one of those skimmers) were you on?
I was in 8407. I looked in the picture then realized I was in the Rock ET class section 5 and this was the smart ETs when I saw Hargrave and King.
Not sure if any of us were that smart, but we made it through! Glad to virtually meet a classmate. Happy Father’s Day!
Great Lakes..ETN…MINSY..7204..Idaho Falls..S1W..SSBN 598G & SSN 639. Thanks for the memories of my Glory days.
Welcome Shipmate! Glad to bring back the memories!
Just ran across your site. My nuclear time was a little different. Boot/EM A school at Great Lakes. 4 months on the USS Grand Canyon waiting for bps start. Class of 72-01 at Bainbridge section 13. I had the least college. D1G and that’s where it gets strange. Surface fleet was short ELTS so they accepted EM. I was 2nd class of Ems. Then asked for tender duty as there were only the 4 surface ships. Turns our sea experienced nubs weren’t going to tenders so I got the USS Canopus in Scotland, radon for 2 1/2 years. Then with an error on my orders back to Great Lakes to ICC school. 6 months later assigned as LELT on T Roosevelt SSBN 600 as a green 1st class. Finished active duty at sub base Bangor setting up a radon dept. Went to reserves at 12 years EMC. Made senior in the reserves and with a MBA accepted for commission in supply corps. Ended up in Cargo Handling (Ship loading) and ended up a CDR an CO of a Battlion mobilizered to Kuwait and Iraq in a 500 person task Force. At 37 years pulled the plug. Loved it all.
Welcome shipmate! Glad you found the site. Quite an interesting career path you had!
I just ran across this page while looking up images of S1W. A lot of familiar sights. I also did ET ‘A’ at Great Lakes. I was in NPS Class 8603 at Orlando (1st class to have our pre-school in the new Nuc Field ‘A’ School building. Qualified at S1W and did a two year staff pickup instructor tour there. My last 6 months at NPTU I got volunteered to go help at A1W for their shutdown. I worked for the Plant Leading ELT doing exposure reports and RAM logs. Being at A1W helped because I had orders for USS Enterprise. I had a chance to familiarize myself with the plant before heading to the Big E. I got out after a world cruise and just as the refueling overhaul started. I did another 14 years in the USNR as a conventional ET.
Hi Douglas. S1W was a trip for sure. I enjoyed my time in Idaho but was happy to leave for the warmer climate of Charleston. Glad to connect with another S1W alum!