Nuclear Power School Instructor Recruiting Video
Couldn't pass up posting this recruiting video from the Navy to try to get college students to become Nuke School Instructors, although I don't necessarily recommend watching the whole thing -- it's incredibly boring.
I for one am thankful for the Navy program whereby they make people officers and tell them their job is to put on an officer uniform and teach for four years without ever going to sea; this way, sea-going Sailors don't have to worry about having to fill a whole bunch of really cushy shore duty slots. I'm also thankful that young Sailors can learn that, although "Direct Input Limited Duty Officer" makes for a fun acronym, these Direct Input Officers aren't really Limited Duty Officers. (Actually, I don't even know if they call them Direct Input Officers anymore.) And I won't even go into how many enlisted Sailors first enjoyed the illicit thrill of having sex with an officer with these teachers, because I'm sure that's no longer a "problem" like it was back in the day.
posted by Bubblehead at 10:14 AM
35 Comments:
I took the ASVAB in High School and did well, I guess. Back then it was a 'do you put the square peg in the round hole, or the square hole?' test it seemed.
Star Trek had given me aspirations towards the Navy (must have been the rank structure I guess) so I indicated that as my preference on whatever form they give you. A recruiter called soon after and later came to our house to talk about it. He said I had good enough scores for Nuclear Power School in Orlando. (I later heard that just about everybody was told this)
If I'd chosen that direction in life and been physically and mentally able of getting through it all, I would have loved to be on subs. I joked to my wife that if JAG had been on back then I probably would have joined the Navy for sure. (I know how silly that sounds)
I enjoy the blog and kind of look at is as a 'what might have been' type thing. I love hearing about everybody's experiences.
2/18/2010 10:36 AM
We had a young female D.I.L.D.O. that taught a couple of our classes that was the one of the two highlights of six months of mind numbing drudgery. Made me glad to be sitting in the front row with the rest of the dumb guys. The other was that I had a future VADM sitting directly behind me that cracked us all up on a daily basis.
2/18/2010 10:42 AM
I'm amazed that this guy is an instructor with all his stuttering. Personally, as an enlisted member, I'm glad that we have DIOs. After all, if it wasn't for them those impressionable young students might have *gasp* another enlisted person teaching them "math" and "physics" and "Heat Transfer" And with so few enlisted people staying in due to only being able to go to prototype and not power school it really helps with our manning. My DIOs were forgettable and carbon copies of each other, although I agree with Veeman about the female officer, it was a night break.
2/18/2010 10:59 AM
Where are you now, LT Furcrotch, Chem Instructor? I think for the most part going with DIO's is the right choice for NPS. There are some enlisted guys that can be good instructors, but there's no way you can put a DIO up as a protype instructor. They could function as well as a SPU, but the loss of the SR experience would hurt the program.
2/18/2010 11:38 AM
When in Nuke School, we had a HUGE female D.I.L.D.O. that taught us EE. One morning, while waiting for her to arrive, the class clown got up at the blackboark, drew a couple of electrical diagrams and a caricature of a fat woman, and proceeded to use a pointer and announce: "Here is a diode. Here is a triode. And here is a fattoad!"...just as she walked in. He turned red and walked back to his seat. She didn't say a word and he never heard from anyone about the incident!
2/18/2010 12:20 PM
Ahhhh, memories of Ensign Boydstun teaching Class 8506 in Orlando. Of course, the EM1 section advisor was providing direct input for the DILDO (pun intended).
2/18/2010 2:40 PM
What about the civilians who teach at prototype? They have no experience out to sea. I don't know about the officer side of power school, but as for the enlisted side... I wish there were more enlisted instructors teaching. I always found it to be much more laid back when we had an enlisted instructor.
2/18/2010 3:23 PM
I was crushed to get a letter at A1W from Lt H_____ that she was now Mrs. Lt. H___ and hoped I wished her well.
-3383
2/18/2010 3:57 PM
Just curious, but why does he have the GWOT ribbon on? I thought that was something you got for being at an actual operational command? Maybe I'm wrong... I know we couldn't wear one when I was there in 04.
I always preferred the SR guys over the DIO's, the sea stories always made class a little more bearable! We had a chief teaching us Materials, probably one of the better instructors.
2/18/2010 4:14 PM
That particular DILDO seen in freeze frame for the video is actually going/has gone line officer... so there's that
2/18/2010 4:34 PM
No hot DILDOs in Orlando when I went through. We had a previous AF guy who taught us the MM class, and he used to complain about his "Air Force Longevity Ribbon" that they gave to folks in Leavenworth if they had been in for more than 4 years.
In fact the best story from NPS/NPTU was later.
In ELT school in NY, on of our civilian female teachers explained that she had narcolepsy and sometimes when she got excited, she fell asleep. One of my classmates immediately commented, "That must make sex a bitch!"
2/18/2010 4:37 PM
I have always seriously disapproved of the DIO program. I can't think of one class that couldn't have been taught by SR enlisted or officers. I had a DIO who taught chemistry, which was fine, but could she have done a better job than an ELT?
The best DIO instructor I had was for reactor principles. He was a former ET1(SS) who discovered that it was a great way to pay for college, and then get a masters degree. The other DIOs seemed to fear him, which he found funny.
Never understood why more former enlisted didn't jump on the DIO bandwagon - can't beat 6 years of shore duty, 2 of it in college, 4 of it teaching nubs.
2/18/2010 7:37 PM
Back in '89, we had a NNPS outing at wet-and-wild. They have these relay races down the giant slide, enlisted vs the instructors type of thing. This female D.I.L.D.O. was the anchor of her team and thus last down the slide. We'll she goes down the slide and looses her bikini top when she hits the pool at the bottom. Although she was maybe the 4th best looking female instructor, she was the most endowed physically (IMHO). About 300 or so nukes witnessed this and made quite a roar, probably heard all the way back to NTC.
2/18/2010 7:46 PM
I don't think there's any doubt that SR enlisted instructors are better, but it seems like there aren't enough to fill all the slots. First off, all SR's wouldn't be good at it. Need to have high standards, top half of the class or other criteria.
Given that not so many are available, would the limited number be better used as classroom instructors or prototype/MTS instructors?
I think we use the resource we have wisely by having them at prototype/MTS. Probably can't have DIO's doing PM's on the MTS anyway!
2/19/2010 7:18 AM
The best teacher I've ever had in my life was a prior mm1 gone DIO that taught MTMO. He not only taught the material very well, but really taught me how to study which helped me all the way through my time as a student and spu.
For those saying that they wouldn't do well at nptu, the CTEs are effectively the same thing and most of them are very knowledgable about the plant and it's operations. I don't know how well that translates for watch officers who go on to the fleet (as I haven't been yet myself) but it's probably best to put all of them on the same baseline for watchstanding and allow the more senior officers on the boat to mold them with regards to operating a submarine at sea. There's only so much you can simulate on a plant that isn't going anywhere and is in no danger of sinking (well, it's probably in danger, but won't sink very far).
2/19/2010 1:15 PM
I don't know - I always thought the KAPL civilians (NPE's, I thought?) were a real cut above the DIOs. Certainly they get paid a hell of a lot more.
2/19/2010 3:17 PM
That dude's got dick sucking lips.
2/19/2010 8:38 PM
Class 8407, my DIO LTJG (I think) math instructor disappeared one day, forever. One of my classmates ran into him on the base a week or so later and found out that he popped positive for weed on a piss test. Good times...
2/20/2010 1:17 AM
I worry more about the pedagogical soundness of using recent college grads to teach theory to future operators. Research in k-12, post-secondary, and vocational education domains has shown a pretty consistent positive correlation between the number of years a teacher/instructor has "used" a particular science, and their ability to teach it to novice learners.
I had a couple of very good and a couple of very poor DIOs when I went through the Enlisted power school in 1996-1997. I can't help but wonder how differently I might have learned the content, and how the overall attrition rate down the pipeline might have changed, had those same courses been taught by KAPL operators with plant experience, or enlisted/officers on shore duty who could anchor the lessons in plant operation.
After leaving the Navy I became a high school science teacher, and was reminded time and again of our DIOs when I would sit in on other early-career teachers' classes who hadn't actually experienced science outside of their college lab courses.
2/20/2010 7:44 AM
I just want to cock-punch this retard.
2/20/2010 9:47 AM
What about the civilians who teach at prototype?
Different class of critter. In the interests of full disclosure, I must point out that I went through the program as an Ensign and then went back to be a civilian at the MTS.
The most compelling reason for keeping the civilians is to ensure continuity of knowledge for the prototypes. The short tours for the Navy personnel limit them unless they come back. Back in the day when A1W was operational, there was a steady stream of people who left Enterprise to go to A1W and vice versa. Those guys were so heavy they could diagnose a hot bearing in the pot water pumps by the taste of the water in the coffee maker. With the possible exception of S8G and the Ohio class, I don't think there is any such cycle currently in place.
As a result, sea returnee experience no longer translates to technical expertise with respect to prototype operations. The Civ-gangers are the reservoir for that now.
From a different perspective, but one that still supports the fleet, the civilian billets at prototype serve as the best source of operationally experienced engineers at the design labs. A substantial majority of the team leads and first-line management positions at both Bettis and KAPL are filled by people who got their start training in the plants.
2/20/2010 3:11 PM
35 years later the ONLY instructor I remember at Bainbridge was a mustang Lieutenant who had the dolphins and the chemical engineering degree to go with it. Man the chemistry classes he taught I still remember. There's just no substitute for experience.
2/22/2010 4:48 PM
Do you want to wear one of the same uniform as our fighting men and women but don't want the hassle of leaving your family for months on end? Would you rather teach people how to regurgitate key words and tricky phrases rather than train them on proper operations and lessons learned? Join the Navy's Nuclear Power Training program as a Direct Input Officer and you'll immediately command the respect of all E-9 and below. Why, in two years, you can even admonish prior-enlisted Ensigns for not saluting you on the NPS campus!
Sign up today.
2/24/2010 8:27 AM
NNPS 9203: We had a mix of good and bad. MTMO we had a brand new German female sparkplug for an instructor. Being all new and nervous, I thought it would be an obstacle to overcome, but she actually turned out to be pretty cool, and genuinely interested in making sure everyone got the material.
I told you all of that to tell you this...I agree. The boy in that video sure does have a pretty mouth.
2/27/2010 8:00 PM
Ouch. Nothing like singing up for a job that everyone seems to despise you for. Some of us chose this route because of our immediate family obligations and interest in teaching, but intend to transfer into a seagoing billet as soon as the tour in up.
3/02/2010 6:36 PM
I'm finishing up power school now. I liked the DIO instructors we had on the officer deck. They are all very well educated, and they don't teach the things they don't know about. DIO's teach the more pure-science type of courses like Math/Phys and EE and RDCC where their degrees make them a little more knowledgeable than a lot of the sea returnees. It would be dumb to have them teach ARPO or CMR, but I never saw a DIO in those offices.
3/15/2010 6:46 PM
We had a CMR Instructor. Ms. Abantantuano (sp?). We broke her I think. She told the whole class that we had to resubmit our homework because so many people had the wrong definitions for Caustic Stress Corrosion Cracking and Brittle Fracture. I had the word-for-word definition of of them both. Several other clasmates immediately started pointing out that they had the right definition too. She screamed at the top of her lungs, "YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHAT CAUSTIC STRESS CORROSION CRACKING IS!!" and stormed out of the room. I don't think we saw her for like a week after that...
8/09/2010 2:51 PM
I was actually surprised to read some of the comments about DIOs. I know there were some who couldn't teach there way out of a wet paper bag when I was there, but there were some who were really good instructors. The same can be said about the SRs.
From the instructor perspective I thoughtDIO and SR in the same teaching division made a good mix. I taught E-CMR and the MMC (also ELT) in the division was able to tech me everything I ever needed to know about what ELTs do. With my engineering background I was able to really explain fracture mechanics to him beyond the watered down theory provided in the curriculum. He was able to understand it better and able to teach it better.
Also ever section had that one nerd who wanted to geek out on theory and really dig into the science. Those guys would get sent to me. Even better was that jackass who just wanted to play stump the chump and prove he was smarter than the instructor. He'd end up in our office during a study hall and I'd pull out a college text from my senior electives and make his head explode.
8/17/2010 5:57 PM
Brings back a lot of memories. A lot of them are even good ones!
Was in class 8005. As I recall, we had a pretty good mix of senior enlisted and officers. Don't remember the term DIOs, but most of the officer instructors were not from the fleet.
8/21/2010 1:54 AM
This can't have effect in actual fact, that's exactly what I suppose.
12/31/2011 1:34 AM
I still remember one Monday morning when Ensign Bond came into the room to teach the first lesson of the morning (I think she taught chem/radcon). She had some serious rug burns on her knees, must've been a hell of a weekend. I saw her after lunch wearing pants instead of her uniform skirt, her co-workers must've said something.
She was a chunky single-mother that we called "the moped": lots of fun to ride until your friends find out.
6/24/2012 10:48 AM
Sounds like a program for engineering grads who can't get a job because their college GPA is in 2.0-land.
No worries, little Hoss, the Navy is more worried about filling slots than what you did on your senior design project or the fact that you stutter and ramble when you interview or talk in front of people.
6/24/2012 11:21 AM
@ Bill G. When I was there (DIO, 84-89) you needed to have a 3.5 GPA to become an instructor.
I think most SRs didn't want to teach math, physics or heat transfer, etc., and how much is sea experience going to help with physics problems, anyway?
7/12/2012 12:17 PM
@Bill G. - The previous Anon was correct. You need a 3.5 GPA to get in the program - and the preferred degrees are Math, Physics, Chem, AND Engineering.
The Navy will pay you E-6 Pay up to 30 months prior to your graduation. The pre-commission compensation package is list at salary and benefits of $168,300 - I imagine a portion of that is tuition, books, and housing?
That sounds like a pretty sweet deal for finishing college. Not to mention a great experience for anyone interested in a Professor position later in life.
Are you going to tell me that a SR can teach you the Math and physics better then a Math or Physics major? We'd be lost on the engineering side, but we didn't get degrees in Engineering for a reason.
When you can pull out a 3.5 in Math or Physics you let me know. Any Engineering degree caps out at Physics 1 unless you are EE when you get to use Physics 2.
6/30/2013 1:41 PM
I like a good deal of the comments on DIOs. I'm a former instructor and lateral transferred to the fleet. I've been all over the world for the Navy to include a year in Afghanistan. I can't tell you how irrelevant a job is as a DIO. I think they should go all-in and make them civilian positions. I'm not sure the value in having someone in uniform vs in a tie teaching you the info. It seems there would be less animosity from students if it were just a civilian. Many rightly resent that they wear the same 'line' uniform as the warfighters. That said, it was the start of a great career for me. I think that I definately got more from the first 4 years than the value I added to the Navy. In the end, you gonna hate the player or the game? I signed up in what I thought would be a challenge and ended up transferring to seek the challenge I was promised.
1/03/2014 11:54 PM
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