Royal Navy

DrWise

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Is anyone with them or been with them
Shed some light on what it's like
 
I was a guest on HMS invincible, while being a guest for a couple of days is a far cry from serving it was great fun and the crew seemed very happy.
 
Oh its about ships.
Thought it was a cigarette thread
 
It depends very much at what level you go in at.
Basic training is nothing like the real thing, but you have to remember that ships and submarines don't self clean, so someone has to clean them.
I did 22 years and had some great times and met some great people.
If you end up going submarines and end up on Trident (SSBNs) then you won't see much of the world.
 
Not entirely about ships
More about the prospects
What to look forward to etc
 
I dont know much about it and have no experience, but I do like Pussers Rum, its my favourite tipple...

click me, I'm tasty..
 
Not entirely about ships
More about the prospects
What to look forward to etc

It’s hard to answer your questions directly.

You’ll get out of it what you put into it and your prospects are what you make them.
One thing to bear in mind is our armed forces are ever shrinking.

Have you applied to join? What branch?
 
In process of applying
Got the initial meeting
Than fill application form etc
Than medical fitness etc
 
send buster broon a pm, im 99% sure that was what he did/does
 
My brother is in the RN.

It has its ups and downs. Sometimes he loves it, sometimes he hates it. He's emailed me to say its freezing cold and doing 18 hours on watch, 6 hours down to sleep, shower and eat. He's hating it. But last year when he was in Dubai he was loving it!

He does spend a lot of time cleaning, derusting and painting, which he finds tedious. I get the impression they're very overworked, understaffed and under resourced at times.

I think overall he enjoys it though. Don't think he earns enough, he always moans about not earning enough for the work he does. It certainly makes you stronger and builds you mentally and physically.
 
If the Channel 5 doc base on HMS Ocean is anything to go bye you just save you beer tokens, then get ****** and sun bathe on the deck ;) not sure if its always like that.

In all seriousness I reckon it would be a positive experience, with lots of travelling and things you can learn that would apply to civil life.

I am fascinated about life as a submariner, that's commitment, it must be a quite surreal life. I know a bit about the current Astute Class subs and I have seen them being constructed etc.
 
I am fascinated about life as a submariner, that's commitment, it must be a quite surreal life.

It’s a different life for sure.

It’s hard to describe what life on an SSBN is like, with a 90 day (dived) patrol and limited one way communications with home. All communication is strictly one way and is censored with any bad (private) news being removed.
 
My brother is in the RN.

It has its ups and downs. Sometimes he loves it, sometimes he hates it. He's emailed me to say its freezing cold and doing 18 hours on watch, 6 hours down to sleep, shower and eat. He's hating it. But last year when he was in Dubai he was loving it!

He does spend a lot of time cleaning, derusting and painting, which he finds tedious. I get the impression they're very overworked, understaffed and under resourced at times.

I think overall he enjoys it though. Don't think he earns enough, he always moans about not earning enough for the work he does. It certainly makes you stronger and builds you mentally and physically.

That’s the rub.

As long as the good times outweigh the bad, then it’s worth staying.

As I said in a previous post, ships and submarines don’t clean themselves. That side of life doesn’t really get a mention at the carers office.
 
I was an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve for 5 years and I absolutely loved every minute of it. I'd always dreamed of serving my country as a young man and this seemed like the perfect way for me to get my kicks whilst still having a normal career.

I was there long enough to realise it wasn't for me as a full time gig, I've been around business too long to be able to give up the trappings of a capitalist society and family life.

On that subject it was pretty disgusting to see what a lot of the navy wives got up to when their husbands were on deployment. Although perhaps I had slightly less morals back then...

I enjoyed being an officer a lot more than I would have enjoyed being a rating. There was something satisfying to my egotistical nature at being part time but still having 80% of people I encountered salute me and call me sir even though they probably knew a lot more about seamanship than me as a part timer!

Ultimately it depends what you want out of life. I was born by the sea and lived next to it almost all my life and I also love travelling, and the Royal Navy ticks those boxes like no other service. You do need to get used to the way of life though. Sharing space with Royal Marines requires a certain amount of mental fortitude. If you can't handle several pints some nights and then be able to get up at 4am the next morning and give a good impression of a normally functioning seaman then you're not going to fit in as well. Although being at sea is quite different, you'll do a lot less drinking, a lot more work and the camaraderie is like nothing I've encountered in the private sector.

Then there's the subsidised pints and bar accounts....
 
In process of applying
Got the initial meeting
Than fill application form etc
Than medical fitness etc

Best of luck with your application. :thumbsup:

I joined up at 16 in 1982 and trained as an Artificer so got fairly quick promotion (I was a Petty Officer at 22). Unfortunately I had to leave on medical grounds so only did 7 years out of my 22. The training has stood me in good stead and I've since worked as an Electronics Engineer (making amplifiers and other comms gear for the RN). Then as a Field Service Engineer for temperature measurement equipment and for the last 8 years as a Supervisor Field Service Engineer for a company that supplies to the Pharmceutical industry.

I also learnt how to weld, use workshop machines such as lathes, etc, how to solder, read circuit diagrams and even design electronic circuits. If you look on my '12 year makeover' thread you'll see that I pretty much do everything DIY apart from the legal requirements, all due to the training and mindset that the RN gave me. Of course I got to see a bit of the world too, though most of the time I was in training establishments due to the long course.

I went to a 30th Anniversary reunion last September and was surprised to find that a number of the people I joined up with are still serving (one or two even transferred across as commisioned officers and have reached the dizzy heights of Commander :eek:). There was much discussion about how things have changed since 'our day' but I think it's still a good experience judging from what I hear from my nephew who joined up about 5 years ago.

Hope it all works out for you. :smashin:

PS. No one saluted me...I worked for a living. ;)
 
I also joined at 16 as an Engineer. Joined 91 and left 7 years later.

For me it was a fantastic time, loved it... Boy did I travel on the 2 ships and 5 years at sea.

If you are young with no ties it really is a great place to be.

Go for it:thumbsup:
 
Mmmmm goods outweigh the bad for sure wicked
I will go for it
Now time,to roll my sleeves and get fit
 
Depends what you want from it. My brother was a navy officer while i was a royal marine. We had very different careers. His more the well to do officer life on ship, mine learning serious war craft and deploying on the ground in iraq and ganners, getting into contacts. While we both enjoyed our time in, i think we both only enjoyed it due to the very different paths we took suited us as people.

Work out what you want from it, then see which route fits.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
 
Yeah I know
Guess the initial meeting will answer a lot for me
And if its for me
 
Got my interview 21st may :)
 
Got my interview 21st may :)

Things to note.

The Navy always has one, or more, shortage branches.
They target these branches and try and get people to join them.
If you elect to join a shortage branch, you can generally join up as soon as the recruiting process is complete.

If you want to join a non-shortage branch, there may well be up to an 18 month waiting period before you can join.

If someone says join branch X (to join up quickly) and transfer to branch Y whilst in, they’re not lying to you, but branch transfers are (or were, I left in 2008) relatively uncommon.

Don’t believe the hype. Unless you join as an officer, cleaning, washing, etc will feature quite heavily in the first 5 or so years of your career.

Do some homework; know types and numbers of ships/submarines. Have an idea of what working within your chosen branch entails. Have an idea of where and for how long your training will be. The Royal Navy web site will help with this.

Don’t forget your fitness, you need to be able to pass fitness tests to join and then laterly to be considered for promotion.
 
Good luck with your interview.
I joined as a tiff in 88 and left after 13 years. You can tell from my nickname that I was somewhat jinxed in my ships deployments! My advice would be join as a tiff or an officer. As you will get a career which you can use once you have left the mob.
Get yourself fit, try out the military circuits as that is what you will be doing in basic training with a lot of running on top. If you are fitter than everyone else, basic training will be a breeze.
The main thing though, is to enjoy every minute. The Navy, drinkers with a sailing problem!
 
My advice would be join as a tiff.....

They no longer exist in the guise that you or I knew. Around 2006 the tiff and mechanic branches were mergered into the ET (Engineering Technician) branch.

An ET (WE) equates to a WEM and a POET(WE) equates to a POWEA, with deeper theory being taught on progressive courses.

:)
 

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