Andrew's Corner

Hey all! So this is going to be my first post since I finally A – found time, and B – figured out what the heck I’m even doing with this site (I think(?)) so the first thing I could think of is my journey up to and including my “boot camp” for the US Navy.

I’ve wanted to be an officer in the Navy for a long time, and I wasn’t really sure what path to take. I’ll definitely do a post about things that inspired me to do this soon, but I knew that I feel this calling to serve and this is the best way I can think of on how to do that. There’s two main ways to become an officer – either by attending the Naval Academy, or by doing ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) at a college that has that. You have to compete for a nationwide scholarship, which I did and I got a 4-year which covers all of my tuition! I’m really grateful for that because now I only have to worry about room and board. I applied my scholarship to the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), and I love it here! But, before I could get activated, I had to complete a 3-week program at Recruit Training Command (RTC) in Great Lakes, Illinois.

Side note: So far you probably noticed that there’s a LOT of acronyms for absolutely everything (like I couldn’t even write the title without one) and that’s kind of just how the military works because no one wants to say things long; “Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?” -Kevin “The Office”

Anyways so I was nervous going into it and a little annoyed that it was going to take up a good chunk of my summer and I would miss out on working and having fun but it wasn’t so bad. I had a friend who had done it last year who let me know what to expect a lot of the time,

NSI is an interestingly abridged version of Navy boot camp where we do all the “high risk” trainings they have in 3 weeks, and learn about leadership and the different service communities. I wish I had more pictures but they took our phones for almost the whole time, we only got them once for 15 minutes to call our families and that was definitely my favorite part because I missed them a lot.

Arrival

I flew from TF Greene in providence to Chicago Airport, and from there, there were some processing midshipmen and officers who helped us out, then we got on the bus to RTC.

After that began what’s called the receiving phase where we pretty much just get a lot of gear and uniforms issued to us in what was probably the most ridiculously inefficient process that you’ve ever seen but I guess it had to be like that to fit 600 people at once. I got my Navy Working Uniforms (NWUs or N-Dubs), and my Summer Whites. And lots of other stuff, then we stenciled absolutely everything in existence with our names so we wouldn’t mix everything up or steal each others things by accident.

This is also the part where all the men had to get our heads shaved 😦 I miss my curls a lot but they’ll be back one day! Just gotta be bald in the meantime. There was nothing quite like seeing myself in the mirror after this happened for the first time. I just remember being in absolute shock since I had kept my hair long for so long up to that point and now it was ALL gone but oh well, it’s hair it grows back!

This part was when we first got to meet our Midshipman Instructors (MIs) who were older Midshipmen who had already done this and were going to either Sophomore, Junior, or Senior years of college. We got our first inside joke when this one guy kept messing up the stenciling so one of the MIs, Midshipman Baek said “Call my name before you do it so I can make sure you do it right” so every single time he had to do something he would have to yell “Midshipman Baek!” and we just started saying it whenever we had free time incessantly because it was honestly hilarious.

We also met our RDCs (Recruit Division Commanders) who are senior enlisted men, not officers who directly oversee our training. These guys were professionals at what they do, and it was pretty shocking at first, but eventually we got used to them for the most part. They were mean on the outside, but honestly amazing people who taught us a lot. They did not hesitate to use their Red Card, which we learned was the sign that we were about to begin a LOVELY ITE (Incentive Training Exercises) Session. Now, there one should see ITE but read (getting absolutely PTed and smoked, basically, being forced to do exercises because we messed up and now we’re getting punished. But at least there was usually an inspirational speech after about how to not screw it up in the future.

The first Sunday I also got the opportunity to go to Chapel and experience Church in a military setting, which was not only a welcome break from the screaming and the stress but also really helped me grow closer to God; I’ll definitely do a post on this in the future 🙂

Training 1 – Marlinspike

Okay so before I start this part little disclaimer – I’m not entirely sure if this was really the order of operations and which training was when here my memory is a little messy with this because it was a very stressful environment and you kind of just gotta disassociate and get through it sometimes but here it goes

At RTC, the USS (United States Ship) Marlinspike is used to teach recruits, and now us candidates basic ideas of seamanship, like how to tie and unite a ship to a dock or pier.

This part was really fun because all of us got to participate (also our compartment (group) was 97 people and there were 6 groups that size throughout the whole thing so it was all 97). My role was a line handler and this picture I had to screenshot from my friend I was on FaceTime with but it got posted on one of the RTC Instagram posts as me and someone else catching a line that got thrown to us so we could put it on the thing (I forgot what it’s called maybe I should have paid better attention). But we got through it with 9 seconds to spare because at parts we sort of took our time. But it was so fun!

Training 2 – Firefighting

So this training started as we marched all the way across Naval Station Great Lakes to get there because it was on the complete opposite side of the base. After a very, very long walk to get there we got introduced to types of shipboard fires and how to handle them. Pretty much all I remember is some are chill, and some are nasty and you can’t throw water on them so you gotta get creative, like with Jet Fuel or electrical equipment. We got to practice how to put on the gear, and how to rotate positions on a hose. They had controlled fires through a hatch that we got to shoot water at, and I don’t have a picture but it was super cool!

Training 3 – Guns!

We got to have a few days learning how to safely operate the M-18, the US Navy service pistol. I had never held or shot a gun before, so this was definitely the most new experience that I got while there. Again I don’t have a picture but we spent a lot of time learning how to take it apart, put it back together, load it, unload it, and how to guard against recoil which was the hardest part for me for some reason.

I also learned something interesting that I had never known, which is that apparently, I am left-eye dominant. Meaning that my left eye is my primary sight line which is weird because I’m right-handed and I’ve really always used my right eye for anything I need to close an off eye for. If you want to test this what you do is put both hands in front of you, touch the tips of your thumbs and index fingers to make like a triangle shape, then make the triangle smaller by moving your hands closer together. After that, pick something across the room like a doorknob or something small and circular, center it in the triangle you made, then close your eyes one by one. Which ever eye you can still see the thing in when you close the other is your dominant eye.

This was important because you always want to use your dominant eye with the sights on a gun to see where you’re shooting. This was a learning curve for me and I wasn’t very good. I got a score of 168 out of a possible 240, which is 2 less than recruits need to pass so I think I need to practice when I can.

Training 4 – Gas Chamber

This was definitely the training I was dreading the most. I was really nervous for this because I don’t like being in environments like it, but I guess that’s why they call it the “confidence chamber” because that sounds a lot nicer. The idea is that you gotta have confidence in your equipment, instructors, and in yourself. I was bad at this part and you’ll see why.

So basically I wasn’t really sure what to expect here. They showed us how to put on the gas masks that we were going to be using, and right away there was a problem, mine was too freaking big. Like the straps were as tight as I could make them and this thing WOULD NOT SEAL onto my face so like the second I walked into this “confidence” chamber the gear I was supposed to have confidence in already messed me up. They were kind of like “oh this guy’s tall he can have an extra large sure why not?” So I’m in the room and already my eyes are burning but I’m not really breathing it yet. Then they tell us to take the things off and THEN I get to experience the whole force of this gas.

The gas they use as a training agent is chlorobenzylidene-malononitrile. I had to look that up because I got a B in AP Chem but I have no clue what that means – its more commonly referred to as tear gas or CS gas but basically for me it felt as if someone took a crop of Carolina reapers, made a smoothie with them in a blender, and then threw it into my face.

But I got threw it, got outside, threw up, whatever. Spent the rest of the day with residual spicy flavor in my nose and mouth so not super fun, wouldn’t recommend, but definitely a cool memory and something I can say I did now!

Physical Training and Swimming

So a lot of days we had waken up early to get outside and run and do PT exercises I passed my PRT (Physical Readiness Test) both times and I was really happy about that, though I didn’t do as well as I thought I would, and I am setting a lot of goals centered around improving that score. There were a lot of push-ups, planks, running, but I was most excited for swimming.

But the day before we were going to get to the pool, a shoulder injury I had been dealing with since baseball season finally caught up with me, and when we were having to do an ITE Session because out RDCs were mad about something, they noticed me in pain and struggling and made me go to the medical people the next day, so I wasn’t able to do swimming. The doctor said I had strained (?) my rotator cuff in my shoulder and it was funny because he was confused at first then asked “Do you play baseball, son?” and I had just finished the season so I said “Yes, Sir.” So he was like “Oh, that makes sense.” He gave me Light Duty (LD) for 3 days after that and a bunch of meds to manage the pain which was super helpful. I was sad that I didn’t get to do the swim day, but it’s okay I’m pretty sure I know how.

There was a weird absence of running. I thought we would be running all over the place every day and trained hard for that part, but no. Really the only running we did was on the PRTs and this one morning where we did a run with everyone lead by Rear Admiral Pottenburgh, the main guy in charge of the whole officer training program in the US Navy, which was super cool!

Funny Memories & Gong Show

This is definitely the part I remember the best, and my favorite part. So, even though there was a lot of stress and hardship throughout this whole program, there were a lot of positives. Almost all the time, we weren’t allowed to laugh since we had to keep our bearing almost all the time, which makes it really hard to not laugh at something, because when you’re not being allowed to laugh, it seems like everything become the funniest thing in the world.

We had been compiling a list of the funniest interactions we had with our MIs, RDCs, and DI. This worked out because at the last night, when morale was super high because we knew we would be graduating and leaving the next day, we got to have what they called a Gong Show, where basically we were given permission to roast and make fun of anyone we wanted, and say basically anything we wanted to. Sufficed to say, not everything… some things… almost nothing is repeatable in full in polite conversation, but it was truly the funniest times I’ve ever had. Though it was kind of a “you had to be there” sort of thing here are some highlights and their contexts. I also sort of directed this because I involved myself in almost every skit I could and organized the order so we didn’t make fun of the same people over and over several times in a row.

One day, the MIs were explaining the different types of ships the navy uses, Destroyers, Aircraft Carriers, Submarines, etc. They used this white board and the guy who was writing just kept mis-spelling every single word almost and it was just really funny, so of course, we had to make fun of him for it. So we got the same white board, and I started asking the other candidates what a DDG was, to which they said “Guided Missile Destroyer!” so I said, “Outstanding! Ok, guided.. um… G – I – D – E – B !!” okay who can tell me what the “N” stands for in “SSN?” – “Nuclear!” – “Correct! Okay, Nuclear… N – U – K – L – A – R ! Perfect!” And a few more but I made people laugh and I was happy.

During that same less on about ships, the MIs got into this funny argument. When they were talking about the differences between Submarines that carry Nuclear Missiles vs the ones that don’t, one of the MIs said “Hell yeah, that’s what we dropped on Japan!” which isn’t technically wrong but the US dropped the Hiroshima bomb to end World War 2 with a plane because missiles didn’t really exist yet, so they just got into this funny argument with a MI who goes to MIT trying to explain what ballistic means, as a trajectory that goes way up, usually into space then comes back down. She finished by saying “Well, maybe if you went to MIT, you’d understand that.” We were definitely going to make fun of this, and then we found a guy in our compartment who could do a REALLY good impersonation of her and when they reenacted the argument, as soon as he said her line we just all started dying laughing it was beautiful.

Our RDC had a really funny habit of playing Pokémon Go on his phone in the middle of training us, so literally you might be getting smoked and trying to do push-ups and he’s over there yelling at you and then he’s like “ooh! a Squirtle!!” It was super funny and weird, but one of the other rather inappropriate but stull hilarious things he said whenever we messed something up that made him mad, was he would ask if our Dad would be coming the graduation ceremony, and when we said yes, he would say, “Well, if you keep screwing this up, I am going to f*** your dad!!” It was honestly so bizarre and just hilarious that he would threaten that, and I knew it had to go in the show. So I got up at part of it and just started yelling as loud as I could, and said, “I’m so f****** mad I can’t find a f****** Squirtle right now! SO, if no one can find me one, I’m gonna go on Facebook, find all your Dads, DM him, meet up with him, and then… IM GONNA F*** HIM!! You hear me? I WILL F*** YOUR DAD!! and in 6 months [he always said 6 for some reason] you’re gonna have a brand new baby sister or brother if you can’t figure this s*** out!” So I know that sounds super vulgar and I promise that’s not how I normally talk. Maybe I’m not explaining it well but you have to understand how hard everyone was laughing, especially the MIs and officers who came to watch.

The last thing, and probably the most creative one we did, was our song. For context, our DI’s title was Gunnery Sergeant since he is a Marine, and our RDCs were Petty Officers since they’re in the Navy. Sometimes, people would mix it up and accidentally say “Gunnery Officer” or “Petty Sergeant,” and oh, how they hated that. One time someone mixed it up while Gunnery Sergeant was punishing us, and we were holding a plank, so he said, “Alright, we’re just gonna stay down here until we figure out what the f*** a Gunnery Officer is!” so we called the song “My Petty Sergeant” as a mix between the two, and set it to the tune of “Frosty the Snowman.”

There is a lot more that we did and a lot more training that happened. A lot time here was spent in briefs and classroom environments, and there was a lot of things in between.

Graduation!

We got to have a full graduation ceremony on the very last day. We all marched in with our compartments in our summer whites and stood in formation listening to speeches from high-ranking officers congratulating us on the path we had chosen to take, and it was a really cool ceremony.

We stood at Parade rest for an hour, and it’s not even supposed to exhaust you but my right hand always goes numb for some reason, not sure why it’s just the right but by the end I couldn’t even feel it.

When the ceremony was over, the command of “NSI 2, Dismissed!” was given, and it was the most welcome order we received the whole time. We saluted, turned around, took a step forward, and we were done. Celebration ensued. I think you could find it online somewhere if you tried (I’m in the first group the third one in the back rank walking in).

Afterwards, we all got to take pictures with people, and the guys we were going to be going to school with! The guy on the right was my battle bud, and he’s at the same school as me! #traumabonding

After the ceremony it was time to get on the bus to drive to the airport to come home! Before that, I wanted to stop by the Navy Exchange shop to buy my first piece of chocolate since I started. I bought them, as well as some shirts for my family, and coming out, I held the door for some junior enlisted men, and they saw my officer cover, and saluted me and said, “Good morning, Sir.” For context, they’re only supposed to do this for commissioned officers, not Midshipmen since I’m just an officer in training. It was cool, but also was like a weird feeling.

This was me right after. Rip my curls 😦

Then after an unnecessarily long layover in Philadelphia, and a scary landing in Providence, I was finally home!! I got to see the Newport Bridge lit up from the sky, and it was a really welcoming sight.

The End!

I hope you enjoyed my story and I hope it made sense! I used to be scared of joining the navy, and what it would be like, but I’m so happy and excited! Please comment – I love getting comments!

✨Andrew

song of the moment