Definitely an interesting experience, especially coming back as an instructor vice a student.  To the Navy, it's considered an "arduous shore duty" which means that I got a follow-on shore duty because duty at NPTU is too "tough."  The main thing that wears on you after a fairly short period of time is the rotating shiftwork schedule.  An example of the schedule:

The letter on top is the day.  Saturday, SUnday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, THursday, Friday.  The letters below the day are as follows:
Days  8:30am - 4:30pm
T-Week  6:30am - 3:30pm
Swings  4:30pm - 12:30am
Mids  12:30am - 8:30am
          Off

Good about this schedule:
The 4-day off after T-Week is a real 4 days off

Bad about this schedule:
The "2" days off after swings turns into only a day and a half because if you get off Tuesday after midnight, and by the time you get home, and accounting for getting into work, you've lost at least half a day.
You never do get used to working the midshift.  It just keeps beating the pee outa ya.

After day 35 (end of week 5), the schedule repeats.  For Days, Swings, and Mids, you're working on the boat; starting-up, shutting-down, running drills, performing maintenance, and training students.  T-Week is "training week" where you have staff training to maintain your level of knowledge on reactor fundamentals and operations until noon, and then train students for the rest of the day.

If you're lucky, you get a daystaff job in which you work 8:30am - 4:30pm Monday through Friday, but most do not.

Some information on the command is located at www.npdc.navy.mil/nptu/ 

One disturbing thing I've noticed about the kids nowadays is their attitude.  To clarify, the "kids" I'm talking about are the student officers, all of which are college graduates.  The deal with their attitude is that they don't want to do anything themselves.  They want someone else to do everything for them, including qualifying them.  When I was going through as a student, sure I would have liked someone to do everything for me, but I did it myself.  Kids nowadays are used to getting whatever they want; probably due to parental upbringing.  If you're a parent, I urge; nay, I beg you... please do NOT give in to their every whim.  They need to realize that the world is not out to please them and that to get what they want they need to work for it.

Anywho, not much to say about prototype.  It's in sunny Charleston, SC, and I trained a bunch of students.  For my follow-on shore duty, I went to Naval Nuclear Power Training Command (NNPTC) Charleston, also known as "Power School."

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