My experience in the Navy

I joined the Navy right after I graduated high school at the age of 18. I thought that it would be a great learning experience for me. I wanted a chance to get away from home and get out of my shell. All of my life I was always viewed as the sweet,shy,innocent,quite girl. This was what I considered my chance to break out of that mold. The time that I spent in the military was definitely a learning experience. I learned that you need to be able to depend on no one but your self. During my stay I had a long time to think about my life and what I wanted to do with it, because after graduation I really did not know what I wanted to become.

There were also some very disappointing times during my enlistment. One of the most disappointing times was when I was banned from taking my very first enlistment exam. In the Navy everyone gets to advance automatically until they become the rank of an E 3. After this period of time you are required to take exams to advance to the next rank so you can earn a raise. When it was my turn to take my very first advancement exam I studied night and day. I had other higher ranked ship mates help me study and question me all of the time.

Just two weeks before the exam I was informed by my Senior Chief that I was in eligible to take the exam at the time. She stated to me that I was too immature and emotional also too young to be aloud to take the exam. What that meant to me at the time was basically that my youth and also being an African American female was a disadvantage. After I was informed of this they told me that I had the option of re enlisting for another 4 years and that I would have to be sent to a new base. They also said that I would not be eligible to re take the exam for two years. At this point it was my decision to leave the Navy. I was given an honorable discharge.

P.S. I would also like to add to any Navy personell who might find this post to be not true or disturbing to them in any way, that this is all true and it really did happen. It was my experience on my last duty station that the African American's had the lowest rank. There should be no reason for anyone to be witheld the chance to take an advancement examination for the chance to make rank, because there is no guarantee that you will pass the exam. I knew people that had to take the exam twice before they passed it and made rank, and there chance was not completely taken away from them like mine was. That is discrimination in any branch of the millitary or civilian world. I believe that the discrimination was largely based on my youth and the fact that I had a baby face, and yes I will say it again because of my race.