Question: what was it like in the navy?

Tom Rooney answered on 19 Jun 2017:

Hi Sophia,
I had a great time in the Navy. I learned a great deal about engineering, the world and about myself. It was hard work, often uncomfortable, but enormously rewarding and I had some amazing experiences. For example, I’ve been inside both polar circles and crossed the equator 12 times. Stood on top of an extinct volcano, walked through a desert and been in a rain forest… all thanks to the navy. I got to play with some cool kit, work with some great people and seen some things that few get to see. I remember having to get up before dawn one day so that my colleague and I could get out on deck to repair a broken radar at first light; we had a planned exercise later that day involving real aircraft pretending to attack us so it was essential we fixed it. It was fresh clear morning, the sun was breaking over a glassy smooth sea off the coast of Plymouth and we set about our task. We were about halfway through the repair work when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye out to sea, I looked up and said to my colleague “Deano, check this out!”. All around the ship were dolphins… probably thousands of them! It was the biggest pod of dolphins I’ve ever seen and if I wasn’t an engineer, fixing a radar at 5am I probably would not have seen this amazing spectacle.
Life in the Royal Navy is not for everyone, there are downsides and hardships, but if it’s for you, if you’re tough enough to make it through training and grasp life in the military it is the best job in the world!