A little thought

A lot of people outside of the Navy don't understand why I (Matt) would want to leave the worlds finest Navy, because I have so many benefits, and may not make the same money out side of the Navy. So I wanted to share with you my problem. My problem is that I love my family, I love my wife, and I want to spend our marriage together. From Sep 2006 when I reported to the Enterprise to Dec of 2007, I spent 83 nights asleep with my wife at home. Yes in over a years time I spent less then 90 days during which I was able to sleep with my wife... And that includes the leave that I took. That is unacceptable to me.

The reason for all of those nights away from my wife (besides deployment) is what is called DUTY. Duty is when I have to stay on board the boat for 24 hours straight while it is in our homeport of Norfolk. And after that 24 hours, if it is a normal work day, then I have to work the full work day. So it ends up being 36+ hours away from my family. hmmm that's quite a bit of time... Also while I am on duty, more likely then not, I will not be able to sleep more then 4-5 hours, of broken sleep in a tiny coffin.

Now I have duty once every three days.. so consider every third day I have to spend it away from my wife, and then the next day I am almost always cranky and tired beyond belief from having to work either late in the night or early in the morning. So the day after duty always sucks. Then the next day is the day before duty, oh and duty starts 2 hours before the normal work days, so the day before you have to go to bed early.

And now consider that I have duty every three days. That means I only get two days off in a row (sat. and sun.) ONCE every three weeks! and I work 6 day work weeks the other two weeks. So that means in a normal week I am at work for 86 hours in the Navy thanks to 2 duty days and 4 normal work days

So here is a sample of my schedule from Friday at 00:01 in the morning to Monday at 23:59 in the evening. This is exactly what this weekend is for me. But if you don't really want to see the hour by hour breakdown scroll down.

                FRI     SAT    SUN     MON
         00:01   
Asleep         05:00   
Getting Ready 05:45   
Driving         06:45   
At Work – Awake 16:00   
Driving         17:15   
At Home         21:00   
Sleeping  04:15  
Getting Ready  04:45  
Driving          05:30  
At Work – Awake  12:30  
At Work – Asleep 13:30  
At Work – Awake  22:00  
At Work – Asleep  01:30 
At Work – Awake   07:00 
Driving           07:45 
At Home – Dead Tired  21:00 
Asleep           05:00
Getting Ready          05:45
Driving           06:45
At Work – Awake          16:00
Driving           17:15
At Home           21:00
Asleep           23:59

So lets consider this for a moment or break it down into a convenient bar graph to visualize my life this weekend.


phew that is a pretty lousy weekend, especially when you realize that the yellow TIME OFF at home I was DEAD tired from being awake since 0100 in the morning! now lets consider if I get a civilian job where I have to work 50 hours a week, or 5 ten hour days, and I only get 7 hours of sleep, and my commute is the exact same as my current commute. Here is the same graph with a civilian job.



Holy cow, is that what it is like to have weekends off! Ohh my goodness, that is amazing. But what would be even more amazing is if i could go home each day and spend it with my wife.

So while I may not find a job where I make as much money, or where I may be just as unhappy as I am with my current job, at least I will have my family time and life, and I won't have to spend sooooo much time away. That is a game breaker for me. Thank you all for your concern, and for being scared for change, but Pam and I are ready. We have been planning our transition to the civilian life for several years and appreciate any assistance or guidance you may have for that transition. But please realize that Pam and I are the ones who are in the Navy, and deal with real life ... garbage ... that comes from that job every day, which is something a Navy Recruiter, or commercial, will never share with you. Being an enlisted Nuclear Electrician, absolutely and totally sucks, and I understand what we will be losing when I leave the Navy, and I hope that you all can see what we will be gaining =)