whats life like once you're in the navy? leaving for boot camp in a few weeks!?

[kdog3355]

I'm leavign for naval boot camp, just curious what i'm getting myself into, looking for some candid experiences, fun times, bad times, advice, etc. I am going to be an ATC. ..

[at3wells]

well, you can expect to be challenged in Boot, then in Pensacola at AC "A" school. I found Pensacola to be more physically challenging than BC due mostly to the presence of Marine Corps instructors (all navy and marine aviation personnel are trained at NATTC Pensacola) whom seemed to really get off on running us navy guys and having us sing Corps cadences. The runs were vastly longer than anything the Navy requires and were at the crack of dawn before a minimum eight hour school day. I was challenged academically as well (I'm an AT) during all of this. You will hear the phrases "its not like this out in the fleet" and "in the fleet things are a lot different" all the time. And they are very much true. BC and A school are military indoctrinations. Once you get your first station and get a couple months there it very much turns into an average job that can be as good as you want to make it. One other thing, I don't know how much you know about aircraft or the AC rating, but I would encourage you to get ahead of the curve a little bit and at least learn terminology. check out http://www.liveatc.net/feedindex.php and just listen to some of this when your otherwise just surfing the net. Best of luck and most of all Fair winds and following seas.