Announcement

**Goldie fish** · 1 January 2005, 03:40

Great Lakes is something of a bad description really,considering that they are about the same size of the irish sea..each...Lookin forward to the next update.

**faughanballagh** · 1 January 2005, 04:35

Glad to see everything is back in order. Good luck with your process, soon enough you'll be on your way to becoming a "Shellback."

**hptmurphy** · 1 January 2005, 06:30

Good stuff.delighted to see that a new carreer is emerging ...best of luck and welcome to the land of the crab!

**strummer** · 2 January 2005, 10:04

IT,

Unfortunately you will not qualify for any security clearance without having US citizenship. However, you will be eligible to apply for citizenship after a very short period of active duty with the Navy. There is an office on each post to assist you with this. But by that time you will have signed your contract and chances are it will be next to impossible to change your rate to the one you want. The classic catch 22. Make sure you run all options by your recruiter. Don't let him fob you off, he is trying put bodies in hard to fill slots. Your situation is gonna mean more work for him to get you what you want.

If you do sign on the dotted line, let us know. I'm about 40 minutes from Great Lakes NTC. I can pick you up if you get a weekend pass or deliver some beer to you !!!!! Actually, word now is that GLNTC is like a summer camp these days. Not too taxing at all. Recruits don't even pull KP anymore !!! You sure you really want to be a squid ?????
Later.

**I.T** · 4 January 2005, 09:34

Well it was an uneventfull recruiter trip today, Mainly just a weight and BMI checkup, I started playing football a few months back and had to pile on some weight and now I need to drop it again to get under the maximum allowed standard. But they dont want me looseing weight to fast so its back and forth pretty often to get rechecked, so far I seem to loose 2-4 Lbs a week and am down to 23% body fat. Other then that I have to throw in some major study time for the ASVAB which will be comeing up shortly. Most of the sections seem easy enough except for Auto/Shop which I didnt do in school and the Math, most of which I havent needed to know since the leaving cert.... and even then I didnt care about it all that much. But it isnt to bad I should do fine on the tests.

It does look like I will be going with the DC rate, I aint thrilled by that but it was either that or yoeman. Oh will it will just be added incentive to get through the dive training.

Strummer, I did contemplate army for about five minutes, because the have a dive unit too, but it didnt take to long to realise I am a born squid. I am only really happy in my life when I at sea. "sticks and stones may break my bones but storm force 10 excites me!!"

and since I arrived it this great land of diverseness I have discovered a particular fondness for Pacific Island ladies...... dont think I would find to many of them around Bragg or Lewis. But if I can swing a posting to MDU-2 then life will indeed be good *LOL*

I assume by KP you mean the Service week of boot?, If so you are right they dropped last year I believe for an extra week of anti terrorism training and more live fire range time. Civvy contractors handle all the service jobs now I believe, Will be sure to let you know when I finally get to ship

**Goldie fish** · 4 January 2005, 16:36

Originally posted by I.T

"sticks and stones may break my bones but storm force 10 excites me!!"

Thats a good line..

**JAG** · 5 January 2005, 20:31

I.T., you are aware of the brevity of the working life of a commercial/salvage diver? Crippling changes in bone density due to sustained high pressure? Most commercial divers don't last six years; they either quit, get hurt or die within that time.

Your life & health expectancy would be much better served by staying above the waves (or within recreational limits), but if you insist on deep diving.....can I have your equipment

mmmm......narcosis.....mmmmm

**strummer** · 5 January 2005, 21:59

What about the US Coast Guard? Rescue Swimmer is a bad-ass job !!! They've got some other cool stuff too!!!

**I.T** · 6 January 2005, 06:06

Originally posted by JAG

I.T., you are aware of the brevity of the working life of a commercial/salvage diver? Crippling changes in bone density due to sustained high pressure? Most commercial divers don't last six years; they either quit, get hurt or die within that time.

Yup I am fully aware of it, in fact my common term for a surface supplied diver is "dope on a rope" they most often have to do whatever dive whenever ever they are told to do it, more often then not they seem to be just a number to an employer.... if you dont do the job there will be 10 other guys in line behind you willing to do it.

This to me is the logical progression of my life, I can never remember a time when i wanted to be anything other then military, I may not have known what branch or specialty. It can seem corny but I believe the sea is somewhat in my blood for atleast three generations I believe so from age 12 or so I never considered anything but Navy. I moved to the US almost 5 years ago and allowed myself to get distracted from my course Now I am 25 and to old to enlist back home anymore so the US Navy is now my best option. I havent seen an ocean or ever a large lake since July 2000 and it is almost eating me up. I think I have reached the now or never part of my life I can take the heartache of the job and all its ramifications but I cant stomach the idea of growing old after missing my chance and not atleast tried

Originally posted by JAG

Your life & health expectancy would be much better served by staying above the waves (or within recreational limits), but if you insist on deep diving.....can I have your equipment

I couldnt stay within recreational limits, Even when I was a sport diver. A lot of my dives where deep and most of them where solo. I remember takeing a scubapro service course and the head of Scubapro UK ran downloaded my computer to his system ... he then preceded to tell me I should already be dead and started to teach me safe diving practices.
I told him that if his system said I shouldnt have made it, and it would seem that I did then it was obvious that they had programmed to much of a safety margin into the computer, and that I didint start diving to be told by his computer what my limit was, I was doing it to find out for me what I am capable of. That is why I am doing my upmost to get to where I want, either NEDU or MDSU-1.

Sure you want the equipment? Shipping and handling costs could be pretty big

**I.T** · 6 January 2005, 06:14

Originally posted by strummer

What about the US Coast Guard? Rescue Swimmer is a bad-ass job !!! They've got some other cool stuff too!!!

Strummer, I did consider the USCG enough to chat with their recruiter But both Navy Dver and CG Rescue swimmer are High Speed carreers... the washout rate for both is pretty high and I have to consider where I would be happiest serving my time if for somereason I cant get my Ideal posting

**yooklid** · 6 January 2005, 06:30

Hey IT,

If you've been there for 5 years (on a green card, I'm assuming) you are eligible for citizenship, and that opens up a whole host of other opportunitites. I know that the BCIS is supposedly getting down the App process to 6 months. Maybe worth checking this out...

-Y

**JAG** · 6 January 2005, 16:09

Nevermind

**FMolloy** · 7 January 2005, 01:40

Again, JAG shows his expertise in every field & his canny knack to say he knows someone after 8 posts.

We're so lucky to have someone like you here.

**Joshua** · 7 January 2005, 02:46

FM, I.T is showing complete disregard for diving guidelines and JAG is highlighting this.

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