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Originally Posted by Roelrod
I was curious about A school & how tough that is?
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The AW(A1) "A" School that AWO's and AWR's go through is tough. The first 2/3 of the course focuses on acoustic analysis: it starts with oceanography and how sound propagates through water, then moves into gram analysis and submarine parameters for diesel and nuclear submarines. Then the final 1/3 is focused on non-acoustic radar/ESM: you'll learn basic scan types and how radar can be analyzed... then you'll have a final test where you have to memorize ~50 radar types, between 5-10 numbers associated with them, ships or aircraft that use them, what weapons they carry, the NATO reporting names of said weapons, and the range of said weapon. All said and done, I filled 3 11x17 whiteboards with words and numbers from memory... most of us actually left class with headaches studying for that damn test! Two classes ahead of mine, 15/17 people failed the final test and were rolled back into the class ahead of me. We lost 3 people in my class academically, and 2 of them were later dropped from the rate. If you fail a test, you'll have an Academic Review Board and they'll almost always let you re-test... if you fail the re-test, you'll roll back into the class behind you. If you fail again, you'll most likely be dropped from the rate.
With the exception of Oceanography, all acoustic and non-acoustic material is Secret... you will have class hours, plus an extra 2 hours of night school to study the material, but there is no studying beyond that. It's essentially designed to blast a fire-hose of knowledge at you and see if you can handle it; this is to make sure you have the aptitude to handle what's to come in Fleet Replacement Aircrew training and farther along once you hit your squadron and start your 18 months of upgrader training.
It sounds bad... and it kind of is... but as long as you have the aptitude for this job, and you're determined, your instructors will help you through it.