Week 6: The Final Trials Before Battle Stations

This will be the last full week that I cover with possibly a summary post to come in another post. I am not allowed to talk about any of the events that occur at Battle Stations 21 to any person who has not undertaken the task yet.

All 5 days will have a test. This is a potentially stressful week especially for the people who have worried about that ever-important run in the PFA. I will list the tests now.

Final Comprehensive Test: This will be the last computer based test of 50 questions summarizing what you learned in Firefighting. This is strictly all forms of damage control. Make sure that you have payed attention in the weeks prior. This was was worst test. I believe I scored a 4.4 so that means I missed 6 questions. Not bad, but if you pay attention during the classes, you can do better than that mark.

Drill Inspection 2: This will be the same inspection as the one in week 4. You will form up as a division, march to the drill hall, and go through the tape that you have practiced for weeks.

Final PFA: This is the last of 3 PFA's and a must-pass for anyoone who wants to have a chance to become a US Navy Sailor. I ran my best time of 11:20 (I hate running haha) so I was pretty stoked to know that I got through the most mentally blocking part of my boot camp: worrying about passing the PFA. If you do fail any of the parts of it, you will have a chance to redo it until Battle Stations. Just remember to get your practice running before boot camp.

Static Zone Inspection: This is the zone inspection that no one knows is coming. I was lucky enough to record the hits that the FQA Chief was pointing out. I was even awarded a Bravo Zulu chit for it though it didn't matter much. Make sure to have your gear stowed correctly for one last time with nothing hanging out, and the RDC's should be more lenient on your racks if you do well.

Uniform Inspection (WARNING: DUE TO UNIFORM CHANGES, THIS WILL BE A BIT DIFFERENT): Our division was split up into 4 sections with each section wearing a different uniform: dress whites, dress blues, working whites (obsolete), and working blues (obsolete). You have a certain amount of time to prepair again, and are read one last question that pertains to BMR, chain of command, 11 general orders, etc.

You have completed week 6! Once again...I can't tell anyone who hasn't done Battle Stations 21 about the aforementioned subject. I am legally bound so I am not giving anything away. It is for you, the aspiring sailor, to find out. I have done what I can to give you a head start. It's up to you to decide that you want to serve your country that bad enough.

Week 5. Firefighting

Wow it's been a while. I have already finished my first cruise (5 months) and have done my food service on it. Anyway..on to week 5.

Week 5 is all learning about firefighting. Topics you will cover include:

Shipboard Damage Control
How to Read Bullseyes (locations of compartments and fittings)
Classes of Fires
Equipment for fighting Fires
Survival Equipment
Confidence Chamber (fun, fun)
Fighting a Simulated Fire

Now it has been more than a year, so my mind isn't totally refreshed on this but the week should be pretty busy going to the firefighting building everyday.

Shipboard damage control consisted of a little bit of everything mentioned. You will learn what X-ray, yoke, and zebra fittings mean. A quick rundown is that out at sea, the ship is set to X-ray meaning that doors marked with an X are supposed to be closed at all times unless logged open in a place called Damage Control Central. There is an exception if there is a "Man Overboard" as you need to take the quickest route to where you muster. If a ship is set to Zebra, most likely the ship is about entirely on lockdown due to a hazardous reason or practice for that. You may hear of the term "Battle Stations", but it is called General Quarters on the ship. Someone will talk over the 1MC (speakerphone located all over the ship) and say that it is Genral Quarters and all hands are to man their battle stations.

It is an absolute necessity to learn how to read a bullseye. Here is a picture below and I will tell you what it all means:




The top line is a must know if you are to find your way around any ship.

The beginning number is what deck or level you are on. The quarterdeck will be on the main deck which is always 1. 1 is your starting point. If you go one ladderwell below this deck, you are on the 2nd deck. Going one ladderwell above the 1st deck and you well be on the O1 level. O is the letter and not a number.

The second number tells you the frame of the ship that you are at. By looking at the number 202, I can tell that most likely this is an aircraft carrier as they go up to 250 or so frames. If you were to read 10 or 20, you would be at the front of the ship.

The next number is also very important as you can tell which side of the ship you are on. Even numbers designate port side, while odd numbers designate starboard side. An easy way to remember this is (PESO) Port is Even, Starboard is Odd. As the numbers get bigger, the further you are from the middle of the ship. The zero in that pictures tells me that it is at the middle of the ship going from starboard to port.

The last letter is not as important as the 3 numbers before it. This letter simply designates the type of space it is. The L in the pictures stands for living space.

There are 4 types of fires aboard Navy ships: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta.

Alpha is the most common being ordinary compustibles like paper.
Bravo is your liquids such as oil and fuel.
Charlie is the electrical equipment.
Delta is combustible metals such as if an aircraft is on fire.

You will learn how to locate and oprate numerous types of survival equipment including EEBD's and SCBA's. It is vital that you pay attention when they tell you how to use them.

Near the end of the week you will have the "confidence chamber" which is a nice way of saying gas chamber. It was one of the worst feelings of my life. I recommend trying to sneak holding in your breath as breathing the gas in will make you gag and your eyes aren't really affected too much.

The last day will consist of fighting a couple of fake fires with your division. It's kind of fun, but it gets hot and sweaty so be prepared!

You will now be ready for your final tests in Week 6!

Week 4

This is probably the second-most eventful week in boot camp. The second training day of this week is spent at a firing range. Don't expect to shoot real bullets yet though. This day is an introduction to the 9 millimeter pistol (watch turnover weapon) and the shotgun and their components. You will then fire electronic weapons and will probably do very bad at it because I don't believe any kind of laser to screen targeting is too accurate. This introduction course is known as Small Arms Marksmanship Training (SAMT). The next training day after SAMT is the real stuff. Time to prove what you are made of with a little pistol. It's.....LIVEFIRE! With distances ranging from 3-15 yards and hand positions to keep it switched up, you have at maximum 4 rounds (which is a lot) to earn your second ribbon. Your first ribbon is the Nation Defense Service Ribbon (well...medal and ribbon). You may only earn a medal in pistol shooting if you achieve an Expert rating. You will also hear something at the beginning of the week called "Breaking Blue." This instance is when you are doing something with the gun that you aren't supposed to be doing, ie. pointing the gun other than at the target. I was afraid the whole week that I was going to get sent back a week in training for this infraction, but in reality, the instructors seemed pretty lenient and unless you actually point the gun at their face, you are going to be fine. You will most likely make it out with your second ribbon, whether its Marksman, Sharpshooter (S), or Expert (E). The second to last major event of this week is the Drill Inspection. With more than 2 weeks to practice for this event, the inspection should go pretty smoothly. You march down to the Pacific Fleet Drill Hall which is pretty far from any of the barracks and then you execute all of the commands from the videotape inside the drill hall. You are inspected even on the way there, but the division is not inspected on the way back. Our last event of week 4 is the second academic test which is over Marlinespike terms, U.S. Naval History, gun components, and a few other things. All of these events sum up what I thought was the most stressful week in boot camp.

Week 3

There isn't much to be said about Week 3. Just the usual PT, folding clothes, and preparing for two key inspections coming up in week 4. This whole week was spent practicing Weapons Turnover and Drill and one event called Marlinespike. We would practice with a 9mm pistol that had the firing pin removed and would have to go over the proper procedures for turning it over to the oncoming watch stander. That brings me to a little introduction to watch standing. There is at least one watch for the compartment 24/7 unless it is secured because of inspections or specific instructions. Watches in our compartment are usually 2 hours long, but in the fleet they can go up to 12 or maybe even more! The watch stander is responsible for the safety and integrity of his or her shipmates. Everything important done in the compartment, whether it was go for a roving tour around the compartment, logging it off spot (messy or not right) due to instruction or training, or even checking temperature) had to be written in the log. Official logs can be used in Captain's Mast cases where disobedient sailors are punished for being ignorant or reckless. An improper watch stand can even result in punishment because it is that person who is supposed to make sure everything is in order. That's about all I will delve into on watch standing; I may make a page about it later if anyone seems interested. Now that all of that watch standing is out of the way, our next task was practicing for our first drill inspection. They would play a tape and we would have to execute all of the commands swiftly and efficiently. This tape was basically what is on the graduation schedule so it truly is very important to understand it sooner than later. The final task of the week was Marlinespike. This is basically preparation for getting the ship underway and mooring it to the pier. In civilian terms it is untieing the lines from the ship so it can go out to sea and tieing it back up to the pier. There was even a short exercise of a man overboard drill in which I was the lucky one to be the man overboard (I got to hide in the back of the ship). Our division had listening problems all around so we didn't do exceptionally well, but at least it was done with. By this time everything is getting very repetitive with only a couple events each week that are different. Pretty easy stuff...

Week 2

I thought this week was so important...and then I realized that RDC's live up everything as if it were working on a million dollar piece of equipment. This week had 3 inspections and the academic test that I stated before. The first two inspections were on the same day and one after the other. They called this the CART PI/DMI. CART is phase 1 of boot camp. I am not sure of exactly what it means, though I do know the other two. PI stands for personnel inspection, while DMI stands for dynamic material inspection. The PI is where they have you do a few commands that they will pass down to the Recruit Chief Petty Officer (RCPO though said as RPOC). A couple of the commands were to:

1 pace forward march
hand salute
cover
uncover
attention
parade rest

Not very hard at all. Well the inspector goes around and checks every single person for uniform infractions. A couple of the infractions, or hits, you could take on your uniform are:

gig line not even (shirt to belt to pants line)
gear adrift (loose threads)
dirty boots
dirty uniform
metal to metal on belt not even
bootlaces not tight enough
belt not through all of the loops
all buttons not buttoned

The inspector would also ask a question about the 11 general orders, chain of command, or rate and rank recognition, and you had to answer it in the correct manner while keeping proper military posture and bearing. Some other hits the inspector could give are:

military posture
military bearing
incorrect or no answer to a question

I actually remember getting my first PI question wrong because I was so nervous and forgot that a perched eagle was part of what a second class petty officer wears on the sleeve of his or her dress blue uniform. Anyway, before we knew it, the PI was over and we did pretty good on it. Next was the DMI. One side had bunk making, the other with lockers. I was very pleased to have the locker inspection because I hated making a bunk. We had to take out a utility shirt, trousers, and jacket and unbutton and unzipper everything on them and then re-button and zipper and fold and stow them properly. I took one hit on my jacket's zipper pointing up when I refolded it. Zipper must be down on many things in boot camp. A majority of the bunk making side failed while we did great. To end this day, we were warned of bunk drills ahead because the one side did terrible on it.

Two days later was our zone inspection. This is where FQA inspects every area of the compartment, including the RDC office. We had multiple problems with that office, and I think one of them was dust. Now a petty officer would inspect every top bunk's lucker and every bottom bunk's bunk. Since I was a bottom bunk, you would probably think I would fail right? No sir; we were able to make the compartment look good and dress our bunks and lockers accordingly. I had help from a shipmate and my bunk looked really good. After about 2-3 hours of the inspection, we came out with almost the whole division failing. I am glad to say that I was one hit away from failing because the petty officer was going really in depth and was looking for everything that he could find. Well..another taps and we were ready for our first test! Time to show off my awesome EPO skills, hoo-yah! Well it turns out that I didn't know that our utilities could be regular machine-washed. Our laundry PO's never washed them in our compartment, but that was simply because there was too much clothing to be washed. I made a 4.9 (49/50 correct) on that test, so it wasn't bad at all. We had 2 people fail, and both that I tutored ended up passing the second time around. We got our first achievement flag to march with: the Academic Flag. That was our very stressful second week of training, and now we were off to MCA Phase (Mid Cycle Assessment).

Week 1

Week 1 was very boring....just like the last week. Only this time if we screwed up, we would be issued some intensive,or sometimes known as instructional, training (IT). IT consists of various exercises that are horrible for the human body. Though some are good like the sit-ups and push-ups, others are bad for the knees. WE always started off on that black line with my favorite (actually most hated) exercise, 4-count jumping jacks! An RDC's IT card would consist of:

Jumping Jacks (usually 40-50 reps)
Leg Lifts, Left Side (again, 40-50)
8-Count Body Builders (25-30)
4-Count Mountain Climbers (20-30)
4-Count Sit-ups (20-30)
Leg Lifts, Right Side (40-50)
Down...............................Up Push-ups (25 or so)

I changed my mind. Mountain Climbers and the very long down up push-ups are my least favorite 2. With this push-up they will not say up for a good 15 seconds and that gets very tiring.

Sometimes IT sessions also had Squats and Arm Circles thrown into the mix.

Moving on....the whole week was practice for the second week's test and inspections. We had bunk and locker drills every day. We had to fold and stow our gear perfectly and make our bunks with precision and care...all under a horrible time limit, but it wasn't that bad on the actual inspections. The first test's study materials were for uniforms and grooming, rate and rank recognition, Navy ships and aircraft, and first aid. I was made the Educational Petty Officer (EPO) for the division, so I was in charge of making everyone pass and helping those that didn't study a little harder. At the end of the week was our Baseline Physical Fitness Assessment (PFA). It wasn't counted against us if we failed. They just basically wanted to know where we were at and if we could perform the tasks required for the regular Navy Physical Readiness Tests (PRT's). My age and gender group consisted of a minimum of 46 push-ups, 54 sit-ups and a 12:15 mile and a half run. I passed my run and sit-ups but failed my puch-ups by 2. Two weeks without PTing hurt a bit and my rust showed. But I won't beat a dead horse. In a nutshell the first training week was folding clothes, making bunks, introduction to military drill (marching), a little PT, studying, cleaning, and that Baseline PFA.

Processing Days

The next 4-5 days after receipt day are known as Processing Days (P-Days). Medical and dental indoc gets done here to make sure you are able to train properly and efficiently. Haircuts are issued and pictures for the ID cards are taken. Most of these P-Days we ended up waking up at 0400 and tapped out at 2000. These are probably the most boring and horrible days of boot camp. You are not allowed to physically train yourself by doing push-ups or sit-ups (PT), and by the end of P-Days I definitely noticed a change to my pectoral strength. Just a whole bunch of yelling throughout the day and minor lectures along with all of the regular P-Day things was just about it for a week. We also by now should have been learning our chain of command. The chain of command is vital to know in all cases where conflicts may interfere. You must never jump up the chain of command but if all else fails, the next person up the ladder might be able to help. At the end of P-Days we did end up moving to our permanent (well...rest of RTC) home: Ship 12, the USS Triton. Every night after the first night consisted of constant talking and lost sleep. Well that was my case anyway. We started day 1-1 of training on the following Tuesday.


NEW EDIT 10DEC08

I forgot to mention the "Moment of Truth" and the PQS Written Test.

If you read in the DEP guide, you will know that the Moment of Truth is where you can disclose any information that you have hidden. Some people may pretend to be bipolar or anything because they do not like the first couple days. Just stick it out.

If you have done the DEP PQS, you can get advanced from Bootcamp if you pass this multiple choice test with 80% or above and passing everything on the Baseline PFA. A lot of questions are common sense, but don't think that if you are really physically fit that you can just get E-2 like that. You must pass both.