kind of a two answer , answer
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I was on the carrier for almost 3 years
so the answers depend , if we were import or out to sea
half of those 3 years we were in dock at Norfolk or Newport News Virginia
after a carrier comes home from it's near year deployment over seas , it heads to Norfolk or Newport News Virginia , or both , , and basally almost gets rebuilt
flight deck and catapults get refitted or replaced , everything inside the ship gets stripped down and replaced , fire fighting equipment , ammunition gets off loaded , etc ,etc , etc
but when we're in port , it's basically just a 9-5 job , or , 7-5 job , in the Navy's case , when 5 o'clock struck , you showered , put on you're civilian clothes , and did whatever ya wanted ,
married guys had either base housing or apartments in town , and just went home after the days works , singles guys lived on the ship
only thing different , was every 6th day , we had to , what they called "stand duty" , you had to stay on the ship , and we would rotate armed watch , but the other 5 days , you were free to do whatever you wanted after work
now , ..........
when we were out to sea , and deployed over seas , then you work every single day , 12 hours on , 12 hours off , 7 days a week
but those days go from one extreme to another , if we're doing weapons on load or war games , , then I might go 3 days with out hardly ever seeing my rack , only time you left your work area , was to go eat or go to the bathroom , but to the other extreme as well , we'll go days without doing a thing , napping in a corner somewhere or cleaning , or doing maintenance , do a LOT of maintenance , but it can get pretty boring , at the time , I think I read every Star Trek book ever written , probably every Stephen King and Tom Clancy novel as well
Now I didn't have to share a rack with anyone , we all had our own , but they were pretty damn close together , but when you're on 12 and off 12 , half of your department was always in the berthing area and or sleeping , and the other half was at work , you weren't really suppose to go to your berthing area while at work , although , you would sneak down there every now and then if you needed to get something , but couldn't hang around
what did we do in our free times , played alot of cards , read alot of books , played alot of Dungeons and Dragons , they actually had a pretty large video game arcade when was in , well , it was the 80's.....................lol ,
I suppose now , everyone has their own Playstation or Xbox , and hooked up to Netflix , we ,
watched alot of movies , pretty sure I've seen Sylvester Stallone's Cobra and Iron Eagle with Louis Gossett Jr and least a thousand times
I'm sure it's alot different now days , with satellites and wifi , , as far as your recreation time is concerned
spent alot of time standing in line going to chow ,
I was aviation ordnance , meant I spent alot of time on the flight deck loading and unloading weapons on and off the planes , or , in the belly of the shipped , prebuilding all the weapons
but there's alot of stuff to do in your free times , they pretty much always had basketball hoop s, and volleyball nets set in the hanger bay , and there is always a game going on , there's weight rooms , there is even a recording studio , because there are always guys putting together rock bands or country bands , or what ever and recording their own stuff , if you're looking for something to do , you can usally find it
I've looked on youtube several times for a good video , thats just shows , normal everyday kind of stuff , but never can find any goods ones , , there are a whole bunch of flight deck and chow hall videos , but just regular stuff , , nope
these first two pictures , were actually my berthing area , and my berth mates..............lol
the first picture is where I actually slept , my rack was the top one on the right . we were stacked three high , the second picture was our community area , shared that with 90 guys , hard to see , but there are two tables in there , always a couple card games going on , and our TV in the corner
this first video shows what the hallways look like , there are literally , thousands of hallways just like this , that go on forever , you spend the first 3 or 4 months on a carriers , just learning your way around the basics , I was on there three years , and there were still parts of that ship I'd never seen
I spent a whole lot of time doing this , this was our weapons on load out to sea , probably didn't once every two weeks or so , and it would take "ALL" days , sometimes two
typical day at work , while out to sea
but there is a lot of free / down time while out to sea but no one ever seems to make a video , of the boring parts
when we were over seas , we went on liberty quite a bit , Spain , France , Italy , Greece , Egypt
, life on a carrier is complete chaos...........................but you get used to it ,
very little privacy , half the time there was no hot water , the french fries were never fully cooked , we had 5 or 6 flavors of bug juice , but they all tasted the same , and it was usually warm , always arguments on who turn it was to make the coffee , rank does have it's privileges , the berthing area always smelt like a locker room , you always hoped the other shift had to sort out the laundry
here's video of what our berthing racks look like , pretty empty in this video , now imagine 90 guys trying to get in and out of there with all their crap
just the first half of the video
for me , the toughest part , was probably learning to sleep with a lot of noise around you , TV's we always on , , conversations going on all over the place , , people getting in and out of their racks right next to ya , our berthing area was only a couple decks below the catapult system , listening to that thing banging every time a jet takes off
but like most things , after time , after time , you get used to it and don't even notice it anymore
had some good times in the Navy , when ever anyone asks me , if I would it again ............................probably
so the answers depend , if we were import or out to sea
half of those 3 years we were in dock at Norfolk or Newport News Virginia
after a carrier comes home from it's near year deployment over seas , it heads to Norfolk or Newport News Virginia , or both , , and basally almost gets rebuilt
flight deck and catapults get refitted or replaced , everything inside the ship gets stripped down and replaced , fire fighting equipment , ammunition gets off loaded , etc ,etc , etc
but when we're in port , it's basically just a 9-5 job , or , 7-5 job , in the Navy's case , when 5 o'clock struck , you showered , put on you're civilian clothes , and did whatever ya wanted ,
married guys had either base housing or apartments in town , and just went home after the days works , singles guys lived on the ship
only thing different , was every 6th day , we had to , what they called "stand duty" , you had to stay on the ship , and we would rotate armed watch , but the other 5 days , you were free to do whatever you wanted after work
now , ..........
when we were out to sea , and deployed over seas , then you work every single day , 12 hours on , 12 hours off , 7 days a week
but those days go from one extreme to another , if we're doing weapons on load or war games , , then I might go 3 days with out hardly ever seeing my rack , only time you left your work area , was to go eat or go to the bathroom , but to the other extreme as well , we'll go days without doing a thing , napping in a corner somewhere or cleaning , or doing maintenance , do a LOT of maintenance , but it can get pretty boring , at the time , I think I read every Star Trek book ever written , probably every Stephen King and Tom Clancy novel as well
Now I didn't have to share a rack with anyone , we all had our own , but they were pretty damn close together , but when you're on 12 and off 12 , half of your department was always in the berthing area and or sleeping , and the other half was at work , you weren't really suppose to go to your berthing area while at work , although , you would sneak down there every now and then if you needed to get something , but couldn't hang around
what did we do in our free times , played alot of cards , read alot of books , played alot of Dungeons and Dragons , they actually had a pretty large video game arcade when was in , well , it was the 80's.....................lol ,
I suppose now , everyone has their own Playstation or Xbox , and hooked up to Netflix , we ,
watched alot of movies , pretty sure I've seen Sylvester Stallone's Cobra and Iron Eagle with Louis Gossett Jr and least a thousand times
I'm sure it's alot different now days , with satellites and wifi , , as far as your recreation time is concerned
spent alot of time standing in line going to chow ,
I was aviation ordnance , meant I spent alot of time on the flight deck loading and unloading weapons on and off the planes , or , in the belly of the shipped , prebuilding all the weapons
but there's alot of stuff to do in your free times , they pretty much always had basketball hoop s, and volleyball nets set in the hanger bay , and there is always a game going on , there's weight rooms , there is even a recording studio , because there are always guys putting together rock bands or country bands , or what ever and recording their own stuff , if you're looking for something to do , you can usally find it
I've looked on youtube several times for a good video , thats just shows , normal everyday kind of stuff , but never can find any goods ones , , there are a whole bunch of flight deck and chow hall videos , but just regular stuff , , nope
these first two pictures , were actually my berthing area , and my berth mates..............lol
the first picture is where I actually slept , my rack was the top one on the right . we were stacked three high , the second picture was our community area , shared that with 90 guys , hard to see , but there are two tables in there , always a couple card games going on , and our TV in the corner
this first video shows what the hallways look like , there are literally , thousands of hallways just like this , that go on forever , you spend the first 3 or 4 months on a carriers , just learning your way around the basics , I was on there three years , and there were still parts of that ship I'd never seen
I spent a whole lot of time doing this , this was our weapons on load out to sea , probably didn't once every two weeks or so , and it would take "ALL" days , sometimes two
typical day at work , while out to sea
but there is a lot of free / down time while out to sea but no one ever seems to make a video , of the boring parts
when we were over seas , we went on liberty quite a bit , Spain , France , Italy , Greece , Egypt
, life on a carrier is complete chaos...........................but you get used to it ,
very little privacy , half the time there was no hot water , the french fries were never fully cooked , we had 5 or 6 flavors of bug juice , but they all tasted the same , and it was usually warm , always arguments on who turn it was to make the coffee , rank does have it's privileges , the berthing area always smelt like a locker room , you always hoped the other shift had to sort out the laundry
here's video of what our berthing racks look like , pretty empty in this video , now imagine 90 guys trying to get in and out of there with all their crap
just the first half of the video
for me , the toughest part , was probably learning to sleep with a lot of noise around you , TV's we always on , , conversations going on all over the place , , people getting in and out of their racks right next to ya , our berthing area was only a couple decks below the catapult system , listening to that thing banging every time a jet takes off
but like most things , after time , after time , you get used to it and don't even notice it anymore
had some good times in the Navy , when ever anyone asks me , if I would it again ............................probably
