Re: "Full Metal Panic" dub (disc 1).

Galen Musbach wrote:

>Started bootcamp at age 18 in Aug'83 (G.Lakes RTC);
>E3 on completion (after about 2 months ... I don't recall
>exactly).

Hey, we might have met if I hadn't taken a few years to flunk out
of college and flail around before the Navy recruiter called!

> Basic Electricity and Electronics class was supposed
>to take another 2 months, but I finished in 2 weeks because
>it was self-paced and I already knew most of it. That allowed
>me to start A-school ahead of schedule, which required ...
>32 weeks? I think. Promotion to E4 on completion, and

32 weeks sounds about right.  Through spring, summer and fall
(proving Great Lakes in the summer is as miserable in its own way
as in the winter).  Don't know why I was thinking E4 was after
Power School.

>sent on to Power School (6 months in Florida Summer),
>followed by Prototype (6 months in Connecticut winter). 
>During Prototype, I took the advancement test for E5, 
>and passed it, although I couldn't receive the actual pay 
>until I'd completed the 1 year time in grade.

That's right, I remember the E5 exam at S1C.  By my time, tho,
there were so many second class EMs that you had to wait until
one of them died before getting promotion.

>Then I was 
>assigned to a ship; where, after 3 years time in grade, 
>I took and passed the E6 exam.
>
>Since I'd made E5 in under 2 years, I was an E6 in
>under 5 years.

Congratulations!

>And at 5 years,
>I received a promotion to duties I subsequently found
>myself unable to handle -- the navy doctors told me I'd
>be dead before 30 if I couldn't reduce my stress level --
>and re-enlisting would have been suicidal.

Condolences.
As for me, I burned out on responsibility and have a degree as an
electrician and a job in a factory where I don't use it much (I
call my machine troubleshooting technique "Just keep pushing
buttons until something happens.")

-- 
-Jack