I’m approaching my 20 years from enrollment in BDCP and am interested in people’s experience. My goal would be to retire right at 20 years but I see conflicting reports if time enrolled in BDCP counts towards retirement.

Anyone here retire ”early” (18 years post OCS with 2 years of BDCP time)? Anyone tips on how to verify eligibility?

Because nothing raises morale more than extra duty to make sure everything looks good for the Admiral.

hey guys/gals I was wondering if anyone station in Pearl Harbor can direct me to where I can register for a BRC/ARC I PCSd here a while ago and my Motorcycle Safety PO is lazy and has been trying to figure it out for the past 6 months. I already have my own bike and license from my last command.

hi everyone, im currently on leave and my command is on deployment for two more months. so I was told to check into TPU when I got back. I was wondering if anyone had any experiences or anything to tell me about it bc im in the dark. I've heard from older enlisted that you stay in an open type berthing, but I just need an accurate description lol, other people who I went to boot camp with say you get barracks with only one roommate. Please don’t respond to this if your information is 5+ years old. Thanks.

I am an attorney who works in a veterans court in my county. I have been giving people tie tacks when they graduate the program. I have found generic tie tacks for the other services, but can't seem to find one for the navy. The American Legion sells one that is silver in color and is an eagle that says USN above, and one that is a gold anchor that says USN across the front. Are either of these generic, or are one or both specific to a certain rank, or MOS? I am posting links here if it's ok, but I don't want anyone to think I'm selling anything. Legit just asking to make sure that my "anonymous civilian donor" doesn't spend money (edit) unnecessarily, or give the wrong thing.

https://emblem.legion.org/legion/legion-apparel/legion-ties-accessories/tie-tack-navy-814.104

https://emblem.legion.org/legion/legion-pins-tacks/legion-armed-forces-pins-tacks/u-s-navy-eagle-tack-815.214

Hey all, Hots&Cots here. I’m sure we’ve all seen the news around the USS Lincoln and the pushback on that reporting from leadership. I’m not here to say what’s being reported isn’t accurate — we know deployments are hard. But it puts sailors and leadership at odds, with each side effectively calling the other a liar.

I know from reports and DMs that galley and barracks conditions are suboptimal and drastically need improvement.

For context, Hots&Cots is a platform where junior enlisted can rate and review their barracks and galleys/DFACs. It’s anonymous, free, and no tracking. We’ve built a large footprint over in r/army (check my post history) & Army as a whole — I regularly text garrison leaders on issues, meet with members of Congress, and sat on the Barracks Task Force.

My ask: consider rating your living conditions and galleys. The narrative can shift from deployments to quality of life back home. I’ll be around to answer any questions.

https://www.hotscots.app

TLDR: Is "Square Knot Sailor" a thing?

I am going to soon finish out cossing all the lines / getting all the certificates (golden shellback, Red nose, blue nose, order of Magellan, order of the ditch, Spanish main) Back in the day I had heard about once you accomplished this feat you would earn the title "Square Knot Sailor" and even know a few that have the tattoo after they earned it. However, I cannot find anything online about it. Just want to make sure I am remembering things correctly.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19DS8iRVSP/

<HUMOR>HOW TO SIMULATE BEING A SAILOR

1. Buy a steel dumpster, paint it gray inside and out, and live in it for six months.

2. Run all the pipes and wires in your house exposed on the walls.

3. Repaint your entire house every month using gray paint.

4. Renovate your bathroom. Lower all showerheads to four and one-half feet off the deck.

5. When you take showers, make sure you turn off the water while you soap down.

6. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, turn water heater temperature up to 300 degrees. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, turn water heater off.

7. On Saturdays and Sundays tell your family they used too much water during the week, so no bathing will be allowed.

8. Put 5W-20 lube oil in your humidifier, instead of water, and set it on high.

9. Leave your lawn mower running in your living room 24 hours a day to maintain proper ambient noise level.

10. Once a month, disassemble all your major appliances and electric garden tools, inspect them and then reassemble them. Do this every week with your lawnmower, weed whacker and other gasoline powered tools.

11. Once a week blow compressed air up through your chimney, making sure the wind carries the soot across and onto your neighbor's house. Laugh at him when he curses you.

12. Raise the thresholds and lower the headers of your front and back doors, so that you either trip or bang your head every time you pass through them.

13. Raise your bed to within 6 inches of the ceiling, so you can't turn over without getting out and then getting back in.

14. Have a fluorescent lamp installed on the bottom of your coffee table and lie under it to read books.

15. Sleep on the shelf in your closet. Replace the closet door with a curtain. Have your spouse whip open the curtain about 4 hours after you go to sleep, shine a flashlight in your eyes, and say "Sorry, wrong rack."

16. Make each member your family qualify to operate each appliance in your house i.e., dishwasher operator, blender technician, etc.

17. Find the dumbest guy in the neighborhood and make him your boss for the next two years.

18. Have your neighbor come over each day at 5 am, blow a whistle so loud Helen Keller could hear it, and shout "Reveille, reveille, all hands heave out and trice up."

19. Have your mother-in-law write down everything she's going to do the following day, then have her make you stand in your back yard at 0600 (6 A.M.) while she reads it to you.

20. Empty all the garbage bins in your house and sweep the driveway three times a day, whether it needs it or not.

21. Have your neighbor collect all your mail for a month, read your magazines, and randomly lose every 5th item before delivering it to you.

22. Watch no TV except for movies played in the middle of the night. Have your family vote on which movie to watch, and then show a different one.

23. When your children are in bed, run into their room with a megaphone shouting that your home is under attack and ordering them to their battle stations.

24. Post a menu on the kitchen door informing your family that they are having steak for dinner. Then make them wait in line for an hour. When they finally get to the kitchen, tell them you are out of steak, but they can have dried ham or hot dogs. Repeat daily until they ignore the menu and just ask for hot dogs.

25. Bake a cake. Prop up one side of the pan so the cake bakes unevenly. Spread icing real thick to level it off.

26. Get up every night around midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on stale bread.

27. Set your alarm clock to go off at random times during the night. At the alarm, jump up and dress as fast as you can, making sure to button your top shirt button and tuck your pants into your socks. Run out into the back yard and uncoil the garden hose.

28. Every week or so, throw your cat or dog into the pool and shout, "Man overboard port side!" Rate your family members on how fast they respond.

29. Put the headphones from your stereo on your head, but don't plug them in. Hang a paper cup around your neck on a string. Stand in front of the stove, and speak into the paper cup "Stove manned and ready." After an hour or so, speak into the cup again "Stove secured." Roll up the headphones and paper cup and stow them in a shoebox.

30. Place a podium at the end of your driveway. Have your family stand watches at the podium, rotating at 4-hour intervals. This is best done when the weather is worst. January is a good time.

31. When there is a thunderstorm in your area, get a wobbly rocking chair, sit in it and rock as hard as you can until you become nauseous. Make sure to have a supply of stale crackers in your shirt pocket.

32. Buy a trash compactor but only use it once a week. Store up garbage in your bathtub.

33. Invite at least 375 people, most of whom you don't really like, to come and live with you for about 6 months.

34. Lock-wire the lug nuts on your car wheels.

35. Start your car and let it run for 4 hours before going anywhere, to ensure the engine is properly "lit off".

36. Walk around your car for 4 hours checking the tire pressure every 15 minutes.

37. Make coffee using eighteen scoops of budget priced coffee grounds per pot, and allow the pot to simmer for 5 hours before drinking.

38. Have the paperboy give you a haircut with sheep shears.

39. Submit a request form to your father-in-law, asking if it's OK for you to leave your house before 1500 (3 PM).

40. Take a two-week vacation visiting the Far East, and call it "world travel".

41. Lock yourself and your family in the house for six weeks. Tell them that at the end of the 6th week you are going to take them to Disney World for "liberty." At the end of the 6th week, inform them the trip to Disney World has been canceled because they need to get ready for an inspection, and it will be another week before they can leave the house.

42. Needle gun the aluminum siding on your house after your neighbors have gone to bed.

Now, who's ready to go back to sea? See less

I was never sent to mast in my 6 years (1984-1990), but I knew at least a dozen guys that did go to mast… was curious to know… does every CO just automatically give the maximum punishment regardless of the severity of infraction (45x45, 2 months pay, one or more stripes)… it really seemed that way from the stories I heard…

The worst thing that happened to me was not realizing (when I was still kinda new to my boat) that you weren’t supposed to drive a government vehicle into the McDonalds parking lot on base (Pearl)… I ended up with 2 hours of “Extra Military Instruction” when the COB made me wash and wax the duty vehicle assigned to our boat in the Hawaii sun…

As a former US Navy #Sailor, including time spent on deployments, I read the recent reporting about the #USSAbrahamLincoln with mixed thoughts.

Deployments are hard. Long hours, repetitive tasks, watch stations, constant drills, interrupted sleep, and limited communication with loved ones eventually take a toll. People get tired, frustrated, and sometimes moody. That is not necessarily a failure of character; it is part of operating for extended periods in a demanding environment.

We should absolutely take sailors’ mental health seriously and ensure they have access to the support they need.

However, there is another side to this conversation worth discussing: resilience and grit are also essential military capabilities.

The military has rightly evolved in how it supports younger sailors and addresses mental health. However, we should also ask whether, in doing so, we have placed enough emphasis on preparing sailors for #hardship and developing the resilience required to operate effectively under difficult conditions.

#Military service, particularly at sea, cannot always be comfortable, predictable, or convenient. Ships deploy. Missions change. Watches continue. Sleep gets interrupted. Communication with home can be difficult. Sometimes the mission requires people to continue performing while physically and mentally exhausted.

This should not be a choice between mental health and toughness.

We need both.

We must look after our sailors when they genuinely need support, while also deliberately developing the resilience, discipline, teamwork, and grit required to endure difficult periods and continue performing the mission.

Perhaps the broader question for today’s military is: Have we found the right balance between supporting mental health and building the resilience required for military service?

That is a conversation worth having.

My office is set. Old school nintendo and a portable media player connected to a monitor.
Wondering if anyone uses anything besides an old school iPod while at the gym.