Another accident, or fate?... I took the ASVAB to join the military and as I usually did I scored very highly on the math and physics portion of the test. So high that the Navy recruiters talked me into taking yet another, more difficult, test. As a shining example of a geekdom, I loved tests. Even tests in subjects which I wasn't very well versed I tended to score better than those who knew more than I.
 
So, I scored high on the physics test, which turns out, was a way they prequalified prospective Nuclear Technicians and Reactor Operators. So, now I was headed down a new road that I was even apprised as to what would happen through this training for the geek elite. US Navy Nuclear Power School was where you are basically surrounded by the top 5% of every high school in hundreds of different parts of the US. This means no matter how smart you looked in high school, which I was only barely in the honor roll once or twice, I forget, but I aways scored A's in Math. So this beast was hard. I only wanted to pass after about a month. Two years of forced 'mandatory study.' You see, if you scored well, but not as well as the number crunching computer said you could score, you went into Mando. Mandatory study halls after hours, when you wanted to be partying with everybody else your age in the world.

So I made it, midway in the class. Not last but far from the top of the class. There were guys at Nuke School who had all the manuals memorized before leaving Nuke School. A significant advantage as we all moved to 'C' school. This is where you get 'hands on' the reactor plant control panel. well, they didn't give me ANY physics or math tests while screaming alarms went off, pretend leaks whirled, fake radioactive materials were dropped and where the fate of a real reactor core and fellow shipmates lives were at your fingertips. If they had, they would have seen that my IQ dropped by about 100 under this type of extreme circumstance.
Accident, or more fate? I was one of three people who, after over three years of very expensive training got reassigned to one of the next most expensive training regimes in the U.S. Navy, other than seals and commissioned officers.   
 

Experience gained:

  • Reactor Plant Control Panel Operations during a real shutdown and startup of a nuclear power plant. A very rare thing to be able to say you were a part of.
  • Reactor plant cintrol panel ops during simulated leaks and other emergency ops. Pretty cool stuff.
  • Advanced Nuclear Physics & Technolgy 
  • Complete advanced training on all nuclear systems, electrical, fluid flow, chemistry, steam properties, pump ops, steam generators, primary, secondary and tertiary systems from the ground up.