Have ?'s ~ Never fear! I am here to help
 

Hi there Future Sailors!

Airmen Mellon (AD) here, graduated boot camp about a month ago. Have been down here at NATTC in Pensecola, Florida since. (where all of you Aviation Rates will be)

If you have any questions regarding RTC or Pensecola, I would be more than happy to answer your questions in detail y'all. I remember using this site before I shipped out and some of our wonderful shipmates took the time to explain things to me, so now I am trying to return the favor. Please use me as a resource! :D

Either post here on the thread or text me (240)382-7719 if you'd like to get into contact with me. Looking forward to calming some of your nerves down, god knows I had a bunch haha!

Take care, stay strong, and keep on preparing Future Sailors! Hooyah!

1) Were there any recruits having trouble sleeping due to loud snoring in the berthing? I was told that I will be too tired to care about snoring, but that has been my pet peeve from childhood.

2) Have you witnessed much truth to rumors of violence in basic training? (FYI, the rumors I have heard came from an unreliable Army attemptee, I'll say, who was dropped half way through boot camp. I have not heard about Navy violence specifically)

Thank you for offering to help here.

How intense in the PT? I've been going to the gym and doing cardio, weight lifting, and abs 6 days a week since I signed my contract in May and I don't ship until January 2014 and so I should be in good shape by then.

On my mobile device - so I apologize if my texting comes out horrid.

OATMEAL: You will have some shipmates who snore at the level of a Lion's roar, but I have to agree that you will probably be too tired to care. In my division the problem we had most was no one could shut their mouths. And every night we would have someone try to give a 30 minute motivational speech after taps.Taps to Reveille Is precious recovery time, take advantage of it and do your best to ignore whatever distraction there is.

There is no violence among staff or recruits at RTC honestly. And even if there was, you report it and Captain Dye will deal with it personally. Our brother divisions RDC lost her title as an RDC for cruelty with the excessive use of IT. Someone in the div reported her and within 3 days she was gone. Trust me you got nothing to worry about in that department.

FutureSailor24: PT is pretty easy. It's the IT and the ITE that'll wind ya. As long as you are confident that you meet your PFA standards you have nothing to worry about. Just steer clear of the cookies at chow! :P

Hey! I am wondering about MEPS. I have my nose pierced and tattoos.. Should I have my nose stud out and tattoos covered when I go to MEPS?? I know it has to be out before boot camp and I can't have a retainer but I'm trying to hold on as long as possible lol.

You would recommend that you take your nose stud out and cover up the tattoos at MEPS. You will have to get waivers for the tattoos.

You don't need to cover up tattoos at MEPS. They are going to stick you in a cold room just in your skivies and make you do the duck walk and check your balance and your feet and palms etc. So if you have tattoos, you can't hide them anyway. Plus, unless it's something drug or violence or gang related the tattoo waiver is simple to get. As far as the nose stud, yeah I would take that out. Makes you look more professional.

I suggest you take it out. As for the tattoos, no biggie on that. I have visible ones and they didn't give me problems. All you have to do is write out statements for each one and give a brief description. (:

One question: How do you like AD so far? That's the rate I chose and I'm so curious as to how A-school is.

I haven't classed up yet. Still waiting! The wait on average is about 8 weeks or so. Although, I will say Pensacola is rad.

Oh, what do you do while you wait to be classed up? What is there to do at NATTC?

Clean. XD

NATTC has a movie theater, 2 gyms, 2 indoor pools, 1 outdoor pool, a bar, the MWR (computers, movies, video games, pool), an arcade, running trails, a golf course, beach, and a bunch of other stuff.

Are we aloud to freely use the head whenever, like at PT, in the galley, during drill instruction, etc.? or is it more like high school where the teacher controls your digestive and urinary systems?

Your second guess is a lot closer. We mostly got head breaks when our RDCs told we could have them. We were pretty much expected to use the head by the galley after chow (that way we didn't have to clean ours as much, although the people on ship's staff had to clean it . . .). During in-house PT there were no head breaks, although when we marched over to Freedom Hall they would give us one right after we got there. After taps you could use the head as much as you felt like, but if the OOD came, you'd get in trouble if there were too many people out of their racks.

Generally whenever we had classes outside of our compartments the instructors would tell our MAs to collect pens. If you needed to go to the head, you gave your pen to your MA (I was in an integrated div, so the female MA took the females' and the male MA took the males') and took it back when you came back. There'd be a limit on how many people could be out at a time, and this would include people going to fill up their waterbottles (although if you were going to fill up your waterbottle, you'd generally take a whole bunch with you and fill them all). That wasn't always true though - for certain classes we would get head breaks every hour or two instead of going little by little, but then we couldn't start until everyone got back.

And of course, if it's an emergency you go, making a mess would definitely be worse . . . but be prepared to explain that when you come back.

Ahh, gotcha. Are the classes all self paced on computers or do some have a live instructor?

The majority of classes will have a live instructor. There are some self paced computer classes, but most of them are time killers that aren't actually required, although they're useful. Generally if you're in the computer room you'll have an RDC with you.

This may be an odd question, but did you have anyone in your division that wore retainers? I've had my braces off for about 2 years now but am still required to wear retainers at night (otherwise my teeth start shifting again). Will the Navy issue/fit me new ones, or can I bring mine?

Edit: Belated congrats on your graduation! Ooyah!!