Newly Graduated Sailor! Ask Any Questions!
 

I graduated RTC on September 6th. So if you have any questions, feel free to ask! I will not answer any questions about Battle Stations!

I just got my braces off last month. Can I bring my retainers to boot camp? Thank you.

Yes you can! Plenty of the recruits had retainers.

So what would be your best advice to people about to head off to RTC?

Congrats, OP!

You beat me to it! :) I hope we'll have time to rinse them in the morning, otherwise they get nasty.

Best advice? Shut up and do what you're told. Also wake up one hour before REV so your DIV can get into the uniform of the day and stick down the compartment.

Do they still cut hair? Your allowed to keep your phones? Do they still "degrade you", ACTUAL cuss words, and Knife hand?

Yes they cut your hair. They cut it 3 times while at bootcamp for males. The RDC's can cuss at you but they cannot degrade you with cuss words. I have no clue what you mean by knife hand? Don't sweat boot camp. It's really easy and time flies by after the 2nd week.

what is the physical exam like when you get there? similar to meps?

You don't know of knife hands? What the hell are they teaching the blue-ropes up there in Great Lakes these days!?

http://blogs.militarytimes.com/battl...-CD297-029.jpg

http://terminallance.com/comics/2010..._Hands_web.gif

Hey
 

How did you get up an hour before? Are you allowed to use an alarm?

I'm not worried about boot camp at all. That's the sad part. It just has seems to be getting weaker and weaker as the months/years go on. Thanks to the way certain groups want the NAVY to be portrayed. I hope they still do a few things that are intense. I ship out in 8 days and I'm hoping for some type of "excitement"! lol

We actually talked about this in our DEP meeting tonight. Whomever is on watch will go around and wake everyone up prior to the RDC's coming in for rev

ive memorized my general orders, rtc maxim, sailors creed mission of the navy, alphabet, and rank and recognition. is there anything else that is recommended knowing for rtc? if i have to ill memorize the entire start guide, but i know that alot of it is learned in bootcamp.

and how easy is it to get advanced?

i graduated august 30th. memorize all that and you'll be fine. mission of the navy doesn't matter really. creed, orders, and recognition is the most important. and the better shape you're in the easier the entire experience will be.

if you know that stuff really well you will easily learn the chain of command in p-days, and then you can get to the other stuff like learning about ships and aircraft. you will have plenty of time to study that stuff.

How was the gas chamber?

we didn't get another physical like at meps (unless you were nuke or aircrew or swcc, i think. in which case they got a pretty thorough exam).
it's pretty much shots and hearing/eye exams. but the flexibility/ range of motion type stuff we didn't do.

Tell the recruit on watch at 0400 to 0600 to wake you guys up an hour early before REV.

But yes, bootcamp, battle stations, gas chamber, and hell week was a joke. Pretty much everything you do in boot camp is a joke.

I heard no gas chamber in the winter

No gas chamber in winter?

Gas chamber is inside, I don't think the season makes a difference. I did it in March, the rest of my division did in January.

In dep meeting the told us that forgot the reason why though,I'll ask again and follow up

We did it all inside when I went through... during summer months, they let you walk outside to "air out" afterward.

Gas chamber is for everyone all seasons. I did mine in November, but instead of airing out outside, we aired out in the classroom.

Everyone will do the gas chamber. You have to know how to deal with a CBR attack. We aired out in the classroom.

FALSE. This is new, but if heat condition is set to black on the scheduled day for your gas chamber "experience" then you will not have to do it. Lucky or unlucky, depends on your perspective but the sodium in your sweat will react with the tear gas to amplify it's effects.

I graduated 3 weeks ago and was personally very upset that our division was not allowed to preform this right of passage.

wow- I also heard the new recruits get sleep on their first night there too now- Not sure how true it is.

Sorry to revisit a previous question, but I wanted to know if this has to be a "pre-existing" something-or-another. In other words, would the need for retainers have to be declared in any kind of paperwork (MEPS medical docs or otherwise) before leaving for bootcamp? I remember my recruiter having me make a note on one of the first documents I filled out, but haven't been asked about it or seen anything regarding that since.

There's something else that's been bothering me as well. Is it true that it only takes the Navy 1-2 weeks to have all your past medical documents? The reason I ask is, I recently recalled a visit to the doctor in my freshman year of high school (which has been over 5 years) in order to get a physical done; it was part of the admission process. Then I also remembered that before I got my braces on, I had to visit an oral surgeon to get a tooth taken out of my gums.

Should I be worried about that surfacing any time in the future? My recruiter says no, but I figured I should look for a second opinion. I just don't want to be discharged for fraudulent enlistment later on.

First question is a maybe, I have a perm-retainer on my bottom teeth and I know didn't need to be listed but "temporary" retainers might.

As for the second part, to my knowledge they don't get all your medical history. They pull medical docs based on the info you provided them but getting every bit of medical history on you would take a lot of time and money for what in most cases would end up giving no useful information (plus lots of medical documents are lost/destroyed/otherwise unobtainable). I may be wrong on this though.

I think I've heard of the military looking into any possible med docs if you ever get injured. Say you hurt you knee, they might skim for medical history, for anything related to said knee.... Whole Fraudulent Enlistment situation.

We were not allowed to sleep the first night. And many of us (myself included) had watch the second night.

I currently don't ship out till April of 2014 and i've heard and read a lot about the PT and i just wanted to know What should i do to prepare for PT. I currenly got to the gym for an hour or 2 everyday but mostly just work on running and swimming.

Everybody wants to know what all the physcially d3emanding things are. What I want to know is: how do you overcome the missing home, how do you get over the irritaion when they yell at you, how often do they let you call, how it is when you are being isssued your gear, how it is like going to the NEX for the first time. Small things like that, Boot camp is just the beginning. It isnt to make people frightened, but to weed out the people who are not meant for the United States Navy.

Is getting a leadership position the best way to get advanced in basic? I'm going in as a E-1.

That is no guarantee at all..the best way is to pass your first tests when you first get to boot. (ie, book knowledge and physical)

Do you get the weekend off after graduation to spend with family if your "A' school is out of the Great Lakes area?

Depending on where they are going (and how lucky they are) they get a couple hours or the whole weekend off before reporting to their next command.

So since I will repot to San Antonio for HM school there is a good chance I will fly there Friday afternoon?

He'll graduate at 10am on Friday and be released on liberty around 11am and have until ~7:30pm that night before he has to be back... he'll then leave RTC for the airport between midnight and 6am Saturday morning.

Nobody flies out Friday afternoon... all divisions are on Grad Liberty with family until ~1930.

Thanks man, I appreciate all of the info.

Just curious, do you know when they changed that?

It was like that for a while before I went through... and as budget cuts closed ships and reduced staffing, the ability to keep graduates through the weekend went away as well.

What ribbons can you get while in basic? What's the most you can get?

Everyone gets the National Defense Ribbon.
You also have an opportunity to get a Pistol (Marksman, Sharpshooter, or Expert) Ribbon.