Getting along with fellow nukes
 

I'm a nuke depper, and several times in the civilian world I've either had my START guide or Navy shirt with me in public and had Navy vets ask me about it or been having a conversation with a random person who, by chance, is a Navy veteran. Upon telling these people, who all applaud my decision to join the Navy, that I'm in the nuke field, their response is unanimously something along the lines of "holy shit! I would've never guessed you were a nuke, you seem like a totally normal, outgoing and friendly dude." I've had two people cite Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory as a nuke posterboy, and the other nukes I've met in DEP seem pretty weird. Now I'm not passing judgement on these people for being weird, but my recruiter himself said nukes are weird dudes and I'm hoping going through the pipeline and working in the fleet with unusual people won't pose a problem for me. I don't think it will, I generally get along well with all types of people, but I'm just hoping my coworkers in the fleet will be down to go barhopping on Liberty rather than go to museums or something. I'm super stoked to be in the Navy and be a nuke, but does anybody (nuke or otherwise) have anything to chime in on this?

I'm a nuke depper and I've heard the same things. One of the nukes who came back to my recruiting station told me everyone has a niche; mostly nerdy ones involving video games or anime lol. I don't consider myself a weirdo, I'm just not looking forward to the superiority attitude a lot of nukes have

No one thinks of themselves being weird.

But Nukes are the hardest job to qualify for, and not many people do. Which makes you clearly different from most people who join the navy.
Nukes also have training far more rigorous academically than every other rate, again making us different.
So yeah, Nukes are weird. But not all nukes fit the "weird" stereotype, like playing dungeons and dragons, and never missing an opportunity to larp fan fiction of Game of Thrones.

As for me, I think I'm a pretty normal future nuke.
I like to play a bit of guitar.
I like to ride bikes.
I currently coach parkour and gymnastics professionally..
I drive a 1978 MGB.
Pretty normal I think, I just happened to score pretty well on my tests!

I personally have no problem being compared to Sheldon. But honestly my recruiter has not said much negative about those in the nuke field. I scored well although I hadn't prepared. Nukes are weird compared to those not in the nuke field, but nukes all have a similar personality that will stop each other from feeling weird.

The one Nuke guy in my DEP pool is completely self-absorbed and very obnoxious, but that could be simply because he's still a kid and just graduated high school. The other high school graduates aren't like that, though, so I don't know if it's just a nuke thing or what. He likes to think he's something special because he's going nuke and will be E-3.

I was much the same when I was in the DEP pool haha people were like "whoa wait...you're a what now??" Some thought I even meant they'd implanted a nuke inside of me...who's weird now? Haha But no...there are quite a few really freaking weird people here in Goose Creek (which by association I'm going to assume there's some nutjobs in the fleet), but for the most part Nukes are just as normally insane as any other Sailor out there. To be frank...the weirdest I've come across are actually officers...

shortstuff

Dude I'm with you, if people compared me to Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory I'd probably think it was pretty cool, I hope nobody inferred that I felt being like Sheldon was a bad thing.

Teck3
Though I haven't noticed it more with nukes than non nukes in my DEP pool, I have noticed that they almost all are recent (less than six weeks) HS graduates, and are on the more immature side of the spectrum in my opinion. I think that may be in large part due to the fact that it's June, however. But, props to them for having the courage to make a life changing decision like joining the military right out of, or in some cases while still in, High School. I'm very glad and proud that I've joined the Navy, but I think I'm equally glad that I didn't do so right out of school, and went several years working in different fields and trying college before I decided the military was right for me.

To be fair he must have done something well to get nuke, and humbleness isn't required.
If he's real rude, just call him out on it. I'm sure everyone else thinks the same as you.

I disagree, nobody is special in the military, and just because someone is in DEP as a nuke doesn't mean humility isn't required or you can be a dick. NUC or BM, we're all in the same boat.

He tested well - that's about it. He's too young to really have any big issues for a security clearance and he's willing to go into arguably the military's toughest pipeline school. That doesn't make him better than any other [future] sailor, nor does it grant him a pass to act as such.

The best word I can use to describe him is that he's arrogant, which I suppose comes with the territory of his being 18 years old. Even with him starting as an E-3, I'll outrank him in a year anyway and, come my ship date, will very likely never see him again.

E-3s and below are all called e-nothing's. All an e-3 gets is a little extra pay a month. I hope he goes to boot with the same attitude because it will be shot down quickly by his RDCs. And if it doesn't happen, he's going to get to a school where everyone has the same rate and he's going to get a reality shock that he isn't special.

I'm not sure what rate you have, but not many rates advance as fast a nukes.
This past cycle ETN grp 1's made E-6 100%, MMN grp 1's made E-6 at 86% and EMN's grp 1 made E-6 at 80%
Nukes also Enter as E-3, and get push-button E-4 after A-school.
So unless he ships far later than you, without me knowing your rate, I'm guessing you won't "outrank him in a year". Also remember, regularly, there are time requirements for making rank. 9 months for e-2 and e-3, 6 months for e-4 and a year for e-5.

But, I suppose you are right when you said you'll likely never see him again.

This past cycle ETN grp 1's made E-6 100%, MMN grp 1's made E-6 at 86% and EMN's grp 1 made E-6 at 80%

What comprises a group, surely not all ETN E-5s made E-6? And what duration constitutes a cycle?

A cycle is 6 months (spring and fall). Here are the group breakdowns:
http://i58.tinypic.com/30az3w0.jpg

I'll be getting push-button E-4 after "A" School if I have time in rate, and I'm pushing for E-3 through referrals. If I don't snag 'em, I'll still be getting E-2 at the end of boot (cutting 7 months off the promotion never hurts).

Nukes, an interesting group of sailors...yes they can be a bit different than many other sailors...my son went nuke, (he is civilian now) and was actually a jock! He totally didn't fit in with the stereo type of a nuke...he was a jock all through school, (football, basketball, soccer and track) AND in all the AP classes...so a smart jock. He found his nitch, but also found he was put in the place of being in charge of making all the others do PT. As far as going out to "party" when you pull into some port somewhere, yup...many do and get totally hammered! He was on a carrier and never really made friends outside the nuke department...to this day he still is a "smart jock" he does all sorts of sports and now is in charge of 3 power plants, 2 in Texas and 1 in New Mexico for Xcel Energy....he too went in right out of high school at age 18.

The people here aren't too bad.. As long as you go outside.. the real crazy ones stay in their rooms and play card games, video games, role playing games, or any other game that allows them to be social in a very small tight group.

That sounds fairly normal then, in my experience it's like that everywhere.

It's normal. But there are a higher concentration of the extremes here. And that breeds the influenceable younger nukes to join in and over compensate.. It's just all how you look at it.

Nukes are generally strange. I should have been one. :laugh1:

My boot division had one "normal" nuke recruit who was really concerned about the type of people he was going to be associating with for the next six years.

For what it's worth, the kids hiding in their barracks room playing WoW know how to stay out of trouble better than the bar-hopping crowd (worked great for me!).

The people in Rhode island is weird i meet about 5 people at my dep meeting that turned down nuke. down south in Georgia people aimed for nuke. oh well each to there own.

I mean not everyone wants to be an engineer. I probably could have qualified had I taken the test, but I would have zero interest in doing that job personally. On the other hand I know guys that have been doing it for a decade and love the shit out of it. Just because you don't want to go Nuke doesn't mean anything negative; do people look differently at you because you're not trying to go SEAL? lol

/r
CTT1

I am one of these kids. Throughout High School I didn't have much of a social life and that allowed me to stay out of trouble.

Also a future Nuke here, and I can confirm I'm definitely down for some barhopping, going to concerts, kayaking around base and stuff. Not going to lie, I'm also completely into gaming and used to really be into anime and manga, so if there's a convention nearby I'll probably be hitting that up too, and I probably will also check out the museums and read up on the local history. :p