A good way to look at being in the military (navy) is you are not so much employed as you are maintained. This is the way I thought of it. Lots of school (18 months full time) then you go to the fleet, train, train, train. Maintain your equipment. Sit an wait. For 23 years.
I originally went in to the navy because I couldn't bear the thought of another failed job interview. It was really messing with me and sadly, making me aware of who I was and the discrimination I could expect going forward. Then my friend who joined a few months prior, and was home on leave after boot camp said, "Hey, I'm going to go say hello to my recruiter. Want to come along?"
"Okay."
That was a big okay.
I didn't plan on staying in. I went to TAP class (I'm getting out school) four times throughout my career. But, I had nice duty stations and it was such a learning experience to meet people from other countries. I just loved to try and converse with them. Sit with them and observe their interactions. Awesome. And I love eating with Filipinos. Such happy people.
The expensive weapon systems can be fun. For the most part I worked on
Close In Weapon System. Another system I worked on later,
Rolling Airframe Missile was fun too but we didn't get to shoot it nearly as much.
Peace time or war, didn't much matter with regards to the excitement level in that no one was shooting at us. We got paid more during war time and stood more watches in very cold rooms. The navy likes to keep their electronics at about 55 F. That feels very cold after sitting still for a few hours. Keeps you awake. I stood watch with the same person over and over in our little corner of Combat Information Center on the carrier. Conversations got weird after awhile. For example, she was into gymnastics in school and claimed to be very flexible to this day. I just nodded thoughtfully throughout. You couldn't read books, magazines, play with any gadgets, etc. You could study textbooks, get away with writing some, and read anything as long as you printed it out and stapled it together so it looked official.
I had a few females in my division. Three of our four work spaces were outboard of male berthing compartments and heads. The girls would have to call "female on deck" before passing through. Which in time of course ends up being a call out
while they are passing through. Girls just don't care. Oddly a few of the guys in the berthing would complain about being in various stages of undress while the girls passed through. Male modesty. Who would have thought? It's cold in the berthing compartments too.
I enjoyed the ports most of all. We had Greenpeace come at us pulling into Sydney back in the late eighties when I was on an Adams Class Destroyer out of Hawaii. I was in deck department back then and at sea and anchor detail on the fo'c'sle. No one could throw a monkey fist like me. I was the best. Anyways, there were Greenpeace small boats coming at us. Guys manning the fire hoses. This one poor dude in the water was pinned up against the side of the ship. Couldn't swim away and they kept blasting him with the hose. I didn't like that. What was cool was there was a small schooner that tried to block our way. We didn't back down. We went ahead, probably 2/3rds or full on the engines. The schooner ended up running into us and loosing a chunk of his bow on our starboard screw guard. That I liked.
We picked up Vietnamese refugees twice. That was nice. Afterwards we got to blast the shit out of the boat they were on with the 50 cals. It's a navigation hazard, you know. That was nice too.
Guns are fun. I don't own a gun but I understand the attraction. Probably don't own one because they're all so tiny out here. I've shot so many different weapons and they are a blast. I can't deny it.
Oh, there's nothing like the sunsets and the night sky out at sea. That makes it all worth it. I don't know how many times I had CSN playing in my head while looking at the night sky. I want my daughter to see it. Not by joining the navy but, she has no idea what the night sky is suppose to look like. Some of my best memories are of standing lookout watch at night.
I'm not an aggressive person at all. I was glad that the weapon systems I maintained were programmed to be defensive. CIWS couldn't shoot unless something was very close to us and very likely to hit the ship. That's it's mission. I joined because I needed a paycheck. Things worked out for me. I got good duty stations. It's the luck of the draw. My friend who went in a few month before me, got stuck on a carrier out of Norfolk for his first duty station. He was an airman. Worked his ass off. Couldn't get out of the navy fast enough.
If I had a son that wanted to join the navy with the thought of staying in for awhile, I'd tell him to go for it. The travel. The experience. I have no regrets at all.
