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Military Life vs. Family Life

Joining the military not only affects you, it also affects your family. The transformation can be very hard on your family at first. During the 8 week boot camp you will not be able to see you family untill graduation day. This can be very hard on spouses and children.

Another commonly faced problem is moving to different locations. This can be extremely hard on children who are in school. Another of the challenges to be overcome is relative isolation. While military bases have many amenities, this is not the same as having everything you might desire or need, and typically the area immediately around a military base isn’t family friendly.

The most challenging issue is deployment. Staying behind while the service member is sent overseas, possible to a war zone is one of the hardest tasks a family will ever face. While military units will try to prepare both the service member and dependents, this is never really enough.

Life on a Ship

Life on a ship is different for everyone. While some truly enjoy the experence others don't feel that same.

Where you sleep and the condition of your sleeping quarters is based on your rank.

Commissioned Officers are berthed in staterooms, junior officers (considered to be Ensigns through full Lieutenants or O-1 through 0-3) are usually 2 or 3 to a stateroom without their own head (bathroom). Senior officers (Lieutenant Commander through Captain) are usually no more than 2 per stateroom (which had their own head facilities) for Lieutenant Commander and single man staterooms for full Commanders and Captains. Of course, the Executive Officer (usually a Commander or Captain on an aircraft carrier) has his or her own stateroom and office quarters, and the Captain (Commanding Officer which is almost always a Captain on an aircraft carrier) has basically two staterooms (the Captains at-sea cabin which is located directly off of the bridge and is usually where the Captain sleeps while the ship is underway) and the Captains in-port cabin, usually located on the O-3 level around frames 98 to 120 amidships. This is the cabin that you always see in the movies and is very ornate and comfortable for the Captain.

Offciers are given better living conditions due to the very nature of their rank and because there are a fraction of them compared to the number of enlisted personnel. A comissioned officer in the Navy generally holds much more responsibility than an enlisted person. Ensigns, Lt(jg)'s and LT's are usually division level officers (although some full Lieutenants have been known to be Department Heads), LCDR's, CDR's and CAPT's are Department level officers (the Weapons Officer is generally a CDR (Commander), while the chief engineer can be a CAPT (Captain), as can the AIR BOSS, the senior Medical Officer, etc. It is not uncommon for an aircraft carrier to have up to five or six individuals all with the rank of "Captain O-6", ...but there is only 1 commanding officer.

Enlisted people E-1 through E-6 are generally berthed in a mass "berthing area" which can be as few as 5 "racks" to as many as 300, depending upon the need of the department. Deck department usually berthed all of their enlisted people in one massive berthing. Supply department was very well known for doing this as well. While in Weapons Department, while we did have a mass berthing known as "Weapons Overflow berthing" located on the 3rd deck aft, we were generally berthed by division which meant our berthing areas were smaller and gernerally cleaner and better kept. In my division (called "W" Division), we all had extremely high level security clearances and were only allowed to be berthed exclusively with our rating (Weapons Technicians or WT's). Our berthing consisted of 30 racks for all E-1 through E-6 and seniority dictated who got the rack closest to the deck (the racks were stacked three high).

Enlisted personnel E-7 (Chief Petty Officer) thorugh E-9 (Master Chief Petty Officer) are berthed in one of two seperate Chief's Berthings, either forward or aft on the third deck amidships. While the Chief's enjoyed slightly better conditions than the E-1 through E-6 personnel, they basically had the same set up. A "coffin" locker with space below and a larger stand-up locker adjacent to their rack.

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