The Deckplates

What am I doing with my life? That is always the big question in everyones mind. This is an even more important question for those in the military, and in my experience, the Navy. I have been in for almost three years and I do have a pretty good idea of what I want.

I wish I could say everyone had a plan for when they separate, but unfortunately, all anyone in the military wants to do is just get out, mainly those who’s time in service have been unfulfilled. One of my buddies is planning to get out of the Navy, with five years of service. He was first stationed in Korea and after that the USS Chancellorsville and USS Shiloh. He wasn’t even an IT when he joined, but a forced convert after a merger. He is an E-5 and only one school, but not an NEC, which he believes is the highest accomplishment one could have, and trust me it isn’t.

What I am worried the most about for him is that when he does get out, that he wont have anything to fall back on. His biggest problem that has affected his experience in the Navy was that he could never retain any information put out to him. You could show him how to setup a simple circuit and seconds later it would be erased from his memory. How is someone like that supposed to function in society like this? And even worse, when he leaves, he will realize that the Navy is all he had going for him and reenlist.

The Navy needs to take a good look at who it brings into the Navy because it takes its toll on those who strive to put a bit more effort in what they do. I am not going to brag about what I have done as far as the Navy, but it’s the little things like this that makes jobs more difficult to accomplish because of the work to be made up due to a single persons inability to comprehend a simple task.