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Yes, I think so. You’ll learn transferable skills in A School and get college credits for the training. I’ve seen UT’s doing copper piping, bathrooms, and also installing HVACs. I would try to get a public works posting after A-School if you can, as I think there is more work on base for public works Seabees involving plumbing skills.

@@seabeescholar3495 good to know

Congrats on the journey to being a Seabee!

I've never heard of that, or actually anyone failing their Seabee A-school for academic reasons. I believe if they failed A-school on their first contract after boot camp, they might be offered another A-school based on needs of the Navy. Probably not another Seabee rate though, because I think the Seabees are popular, so there wouldn't be a spot in a class forming up that wasn't already taken by people coming out of boot camp on an A-school contract or people transitioning from another rate in the fleet who had a applied to cross-rate (had a few of those in CB A-school).

When I was in the Corps, one of my good friends was a Seabee in Japan. So I assume yes.

i hope you pushed for E3

Perhaps SW, CE, and BU, because you could be more likely to be up in lifts or working on higher structures.

My experience was they all can, more dependent on rank than rate. All rates can stand guard duty, but as far as being permanently assigned to gate guard and working outside of your rate entirely, I've heard of a junior SW doing that when I was in. Generally, I think that there isn't much welding work and electrician-specific work (wiring panels, for example) in battalion where/when I was in. Maybe more in public works.

When was this? Do seabees get station to philippines?

Yes, you can work in different trades, depending on what the command needs. Your main jobs will be in your rate though. Electrical engineer would be a CEC officer, and their system is different. You might help the CE's (Construction Electricians) as a BU though, for example pulling wires.

@@seabeescholar3495 swing hammers standing up walls placing concrete

Yes, you can, although this is rare for BU A-school as it is mostly hands-on and the written tests are construction terms and builder math (geometry). It's pretty easy to pass. No one I knew failed Builder A-School. I've heard that other Navy A-Schools like Nuclear always have some academic failures.

@@seabeescholar3495 what score do you need on the asvab. And do they work 6 days a week or 5 once the get station. I’m not good with test but I learn faster hands on

@@fatormadeddeh8501 You currently need 145 for BU. Here is a good website to check: www.military.com/join-armed-forces/asvab-and-navy-mos-jobs.html. The minimum scores change from time to time I think. Seabees generally work 6 days a week or more on deployment, but much less in homeport, depending on your role in the battalion. I think Public Works has a 5-day schedule.

Congrats on enlisting as a UT. The Seabees are a great outfit and I think you'll have many good memories of your time like I did. Sure. 1) First deployments are a bit confusing. You don't really know what to expect on the projects, and living on a US base overseas (unless deployed stateside) is a new experience unless you've lived in other countries before. Also, deployment is really busy. Often 10-hour days and lots of turnover work with the other unit at the beginning and end. 2) Not really, unless you go amphib. Mostly just knowing the Navy administration, the terms, how the big Navy is organized, and the personnel structure; you'll be on a Navy base probably, so good to know about the fleet as Seabee projects are supporting the fleet functions. 3) Best benefit is learning how to manage construction work from inside a public bureaucracy. I worked on the private side before joining the bees, so all the administrative work I learned in the Bees was really applicable in my work current as a municipal engineer.

Im a UT2 just curious how much concrete you placed and how many nails you've struck lol. UTs basically Charlie Co helpers

I just swore in for UT today I leave Feb 13

@@keke5868 hope you get California. Gulfport sucks

@@DB-dm2xm whats wrong with Cali ? I was actually hoping for Cali , Florida or Gulfport

Thank-you. I think it's not too late to sign-up. Just might be awhile for a BU or SW billet. There were quite a few older people when I was in A-School who had come from the fleet, or civilian jobs.

I believe that is in the UT rating; I'm not sure if they have a C-School for that though. I remember the UT's hooking up AC units when I was in camp.

Right on. Congrats on getting EO.

Great! Hope you have many adventures.

how was corpsman a school, i’m debating between BU & HM

Sure, the best parts were working (mostly) daylight hours on shore and seeing what your crew is building take shape on the ground over a deployment. Working alongside local civilians doing small renovation projects was also fun, and I liked being able to do different construction jobs. The Bees are also less formal and on the job sites, it seem rank doesn't matter as much as in other parts of the Navy people come with different levels of construction knowledge and skill. Worst part was small projects like painting and constantly changing objectives, changing projects, crews, etc. Good luck and hope you get a Seabee rate.

More new construction on battalion projects.

I'm not too sure about the reserve deployments. But I don't think they get deployed as often as active because active units go on scheduled deployments. Having said that, it depends on the needs of the Navy as whatever is going on in the various theatres during your reserve time might mean more reserve deployments.

@banana banana, I have several Seabee friends in the Reserves … some deploy on a regular basis by choice (volunteer) while others wait for their battalion turn to be activated. If you want to deploy / go on extended orders in the Reserves = definitely network 👍

If you are in the reserves and never been active duty, you want to try and get deployed some where for at least 90 days, because that makes you a Veteran and eligible for benefits.

Good luck with application process! Great step to be taking. Well, I think your best bet be may be just turning in your lease while you have the chance to come in under the Relief Act. It would be one less hassle in your transition from your enlisted station to starting as a midshipman at Annapolis. Also, plebes and second-years can't have cars on base anyway and there is a "career-starter" loan that juniors can take which is basically an advance on your officer pay and is about 30K from what I remember. Quite a few people get cars with that. If you just need a car for a short period, that might be another option like turo or monthly rental which might be expensive, but take care of that while the application is active - probably be until Spring next year before you know anything. My experience was that they select all the priors pretty late as some may go to NAPs vs direct entry.

Oh good for you. I also took construction management courses. I think waiting until you graduate may be a better choice as it might be hard to complete your Construction Management fourth-year courses once enlisted, unless you're maybe looking for tuition assistance to help with some of that coursework.

@@seabeescholar3495 yes my pell grant expires next semester before my senior year, and I was thinking maybe I can do reserves

@@daisyg1201 Okay got it. Seabee reserves might be hard to get into; not sure how it is now, but the Seabees are generally hard to get into. Another thing to consider might be Army or Airforce (Redhorse) as they do engineering, construction, and project management. I think they have tuition assistance as well in their reserves.

@@seabeescholar3495 my Asvab score was a 65. The only issue is I have a small neck tattoo so that’s why I’ve only been looking into the navy

No. It is possible to cross-rate from one Seabee rate to another, but that is very rare and I only met one Seabee who did that - SW to UT.

@@seabeescholar3495 thanks

@@seabeescholar3495 do you mean before your contract is up? You can change jobs to another rate when your contract is up, right?

As a reservist, it is up your the specific unit you get assigned as to what you will really be doing. Hopefully, it is in rate trainings or specific work pertaining to whichever rate. Yes, as a reservist you are by contract supposed to complete 48 drill periods in a fiscal year (one weekend a month) and if you aren't aware, you are also supposed to complete the 12 days of AT (annual training) as well as meeting satisfactory PFA scores amongst other things. Most of the time, yes you will stay home and basically be a civilian

In my area, being a Sea Bee reservist was horrible because we were not allowed to do anything, because the local contractors said we were taking their work, so we sat around reading training manuals all day. So I re enlisted back to active duty. It all depends on your reserve unit and the city you are in, I was in a small city, so work was limited anyway.

@@christheisgen2979 : I know you are absolutely correct ! Too many people are naive . They get suckered .

What do you mean??

Awesome. Good luck in the bees.

Today at meps I was very lucky getting EO, I ship June 2nd 2022 for basic. How do you like it so far and if you have any tips on what to expect?

On a first enlistment, likely based in Port Hueneme or Gulfport unless you get public works. Most large navy bases have Seabees working in public works on base. You'll probably go on 3 or 4 deployments abroad from your base on a first enlistment. Hard to predict where for obvious reasons, but I think in peacetime you would go to do work at Navy or NATO bases over in Europe and Asia. The advancement isn't great at all. I think it has gotten worse, but when i was in it was hard to make E5/E6 even if you had good test scores and evals. I think alot of people stay in the Bees and want to join, which makes advancement difficult and I do believe they downsized the Bees as well.

@@seabeescholar3495 Thanks so much for the info, according to my test results I qualify for all the seabee jobs, but not sure if seabees need anyone at the moment.

​@seabeescholar3495 Before Gulf Port, Seabees were at Charleston and Norfolk. But they moved them to Gulf Port

I went to BU A-school in Gulfport. I didn't do any combat training in Lejeune, but I did field exercise in Fort Hunter-Ligget and Camp Shelby.

Seabee is a great choice in the Navy which is why I think it's so popular and hard to get into. You have the option of signing a confirmed Seabee contract when you join the Navy which is a guarenteed Seabee A-School (CE, SW, BU, etc.), provided you meet the ASVAB score and other requirements for that rate. Since Seabee rates are popular, you will likely have to wait quite awhile to ship I waited months more for a BU contract to come up after turning down a UT contract, that I was offered at MEPS after a couple of months waiting for BU (MEPS detailer wanted me to switch). I would not recommend just joining and hoping you can strike for a Seabee rate or cross-rate into the Seabees later. That's definitely not a sure thing even if you are an outstanding sailor.

@@seabeescholar3495 thanks alot man that was really helpful!

I was with NMCB 40 and NMCB 133.

@@seabeescholar3495 what were the chiefs like experiences with them ? Also did you know anything about machinist mates ?

@@stevenmajicmike The chiefs in the Seabees I met were mostly older family people who were committed to the Seabee life and were good at leading the wide variety of people who were assigned to them. There was a few who I would call "old school" no-nonsense chiefs who would cuss people out on the job or at PT, and get roaring drunk after-hours, amongst other things. I remember a couple of us wrestling with one chief trying to keep him from getting into his truck drunk, but I found that was the exception. Most were knowledgeable, professional leaders with good people skills. Some were quite mild-mannered. Some had college degrees or were working on them. I think that is more common now. I was going to community college in the same class as one of my chiefs. Great guy. As for machinist mates, I unfortunately don't know anything about that rate other than my Seabee battalion did have one who worked in the CM shop.

@@seabeescholar3495 Was in MCB 40 in 68-69 in Phu Bai. Made CMA2 at 2 years. Should have stayed in.

What its it like to be a heavy equipment mechanic in the seabees? I wouldnt imagine that they are working on tele equipment constantly. What do they do when the equipment doesnt need to be worked on?

Sure. I know it's a hard rate to get. In battalion they do planning & estimating, panel hook-ups, installing conduit, fixtures, they' might also work on vehicles or in supply. It's a good A-School. Alot of times, I've seen the junior CE's doing other rates' work though (framing, concrete, driving, trenching).

Yes, they do. If you're in battalion, you may go to Naval / NATO bases in Spain, Sicily, Greece, Japan, Korea and other Navy bases. You can also go to various naval installations around the States. You can also work for the State Department as a Seabee and go to US Embassies, but that is usually on a second enlistment.

@@seabeescholar3495 wait I wouldn’t travel until my second enlistment ? Or I’d have to wait to work on the us embassy and things like that for my second enlistment?

@@seabeescholar3495 and do you know how difficult it is to actually get into the Seabees everywhere I look it says it’s extremely difficult to even become a seabee that they are never really looking for people?

@@jamesrick6371 You can travel on your first enlistment, but in your second enlistment you get more choices such as State Department or maybe public works at a base overseas. Agreed, the Bees are hard to join. I had to wait months to ship when I joined in the late 90's on a BU contract. It's really hard to cross-rate into the Bees as well; I think just waiting to ship on a Seabee contract is the best option, but may take a long time to ship and following up with the MEPS detailer.

No, there is a special Navy Builder's tool kit that you learn to work with in A-School. It has basic stuff like hammers, tape measures, plumbs, square, etc. - a kit for four people. There are also other tools that can be checked out, saws, drills, masonry tools. In stateside deployments, some people would get their own tools in town, like personal dewalts or nicer hammers because they preferred them to what the Navy had, but the Navy gives you all the tools you need, or they get you the tools.

@@seabeescholar3495 : TOOL & SUPPLIES COME OUT OF THE GSA CATALOG.

I do know a bit. It's, in my view, the best Seabee rate. You learn estimating, project planning, surveying, soils testing, drafting, and other skills that are useful in the management side of construction. I've noticed that the junior EA's tend to work in the other rates in bat because there sometimes isn't much work for them. It's a versatile rate, but hard to get into. You need a 207 ASVAB and college trigonometry and I believe people with some college technical coursework are given preference to enter the rate. My experience is that the EA's in my battalions were older and some had college degrees from other countries - an architect from Mexico, engineers from Nigeria and Portugal who enlisted as EA's in the Seabees. They were older with families when they signed up, like late-twenties, early-thirties.

I would recommend this video: czcams.com/video/lH6N2717OF0/video.html, as it probably describes the rate better than I could.

Yes, good question. Thanks. I will upload a video about my enlisted college experience shortly.

Sure. I can answer that. It was an overall good experience. The best part was going to different countries and doing projects; you may have time to take leave in country and explore around, as you might be there for months instead of days as the ships are. Worst part was field exercises and all the military training we do in homeport; some people like it, but I preferred the project work by far. You kind of learn the lower-level tasks of other rates as needed. For example, if they need people to drive trucks, they might have people get licences; if they need people to dig trenches and place pipe, do basic framing, or help with rebar, the project supervisor may just train you on the job. It's easy to pick-up that kind of stuff by just doing it. I did work outside my rate as a BU. I got licensed on the backhoe and dump truck; I helped solder copper pipes with the UT's; I also had some construction experience before coming in (grew up working construction sites and farming), so I knew about driving heavy equipment, doing basic indoor plumbing and installing large irrigation systems. Some of that was useful on the projects. Different people come with different construction skills even at the same rank/rate. We had an older CE3 that had supervised concrete floor placing and finishing crews before coming into the Seabees. So, that's what he helped with and directed a bit as needed. Seabees are a diverse group in terms of construction experience/skill. A lot of construction learning can happen after A-School. You kind of have to proactively try and get it though. Look for the right mentors/projects. Networking is still important in the Bees, as people will take the time to teach people who they get along with and are squared away.

No