Nuclear-trained sailors, considered the Navy’s ‘best and brightest,’ face mental health challenges A mental illness diagnosis could lead to expulsion for sailors who want to work the nuclear reactors powering subs and aircraft carriers. They often mask their struggles instead of seeking help, current and former sailors said.
Nuclear-trained sailors, considered the Navy’s ‘best and brightest,’ face mental health challenges
A mental illness diagnosis could lead to expulsion for sailors who want to work the nuclear reactors powering subs and aircraft carriers. They often mask their struggles instead of seeking help, current and former sailors said.
A grueling program
The nuclear academic program is “widely acknowledged” as the most demanding in the U.S. military, the Navy says on its website.
On top of spending about 45 hours a week in the classroom — mastering subjects like nuclear physics and engineering — students can be mandated to study for another 10 to 35 hours on their own, its website says. The mandated study time varies depending on a student’s academic performance.
In a statement, Lt. Andrew Bertucci, a Navy spokesperson, said it is “very rare” for a student to be assigned more than 25 hours of study and that the average 45 hour-week includes both classroom instruction and mandated study hours.
Johnson and others interviewed said that wasn’t rare and that students who have fallen the most behind are pulling up to 16-hour days at the school because the program materials are confidential and can’t leave the premises.
“It’s complete sensory deprivation,” said Johnson, who was at the school from 2019 to 2021 but did not complete the program and is no longer in the military.
Jacob Slocum was 17 when he signed up for the Navy and initially didn’t want to pursue the nuclear route. But his mother, Kimberly McInerney, said he scored so high on his entry exam that the Navy flashed a $16,000 sign-on bonus, which would have seemed like a lot to a teenager.
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