In The Navy (FT “C” School), Part 11

I was in night school now and it was a pretty big adjustment, but we all survived. Class started at 3:30PM each day and typically ran till 11PM. Since this was my second time though the class, this was all review (for a while anyway). I was acing my tests regularly and didn’t have to study much at all for class, in the beginning. It was a good thing, because I was up to advance to E-5 (Petty Officer, 2nd Class).

I realize I had not covered how you advance rank in the Sub force. It’s different than the Surface Fleet; everyone enlisted starts at E-1, which is a nubbins rank, nowhere to go but up. After boot camp, anyone who had a rate defined ahead of time was automatically promoted to E-3, “Seaman”. http://www.military-quotes.com/ranks/navy-rank-insignia.htm Once you finish “A” School, you are promoted to E-4, “Third Class Petty Officer”. So I was at that rank back before I got sick.

The way these promotions work is, the Navy has a set number of openings (they call them Billets) for a given rank and rate. The highest test scores (there may be a bonus for time in Rank) get chosen first to fill those billets. The strange thing about the FTG rate was that we had to learn both Submarine and Surface FTG information for the test. I was studying to calculate how high to point the gun on a battle ship, when I would never use the knowledge on a submarine. I hear they separated FTG into two rates, but I am not sure.

I took the test right at the end of school and felt I had done well. It takes a while to find out the results of the test. I didn’t get the news until I was actually assigned to a Boat, so I will wait till I get to that part of the story to revisit this.

By now though, Dyke and my other friends were gone, assigned to a Boat and out of our barracks. I befriended a few of the guys in the new “C” School class. First was Dennis, a smarmy guy around my age. He was the equivalent of an Arabian snake charmer, very captivating. He was certainly the leader in the class. His friend Bob was always at his side. Bob was older, maybe 30 or 35 years old, and reminded me of my Uncle Harvey. He was worldly and contrived, always. He took things slow and always thought before he spoke.

Bob had a funny habit of putting his school books under his pillow. If asked, he would say he was learning by Osmosis. It was funny, but I think he really believed it. Bob and Dennis both had a very sharp wit and I always thought they should not get along because of it, but it was never the case.

We started going to the Bar with the Shuffleboard table after school got out. We would jog down the hill to the barracks and change into our civvies as fast as possible, then pile into a car and head out. Since we didn’t have to be up early, we almost always closed the bar at the end of the night and then went out for breakfast. This tail end of the night was always the most amusing part of the evening.