A wannabe with a story and some different questions

Well, after about six months of reading this forum almost daily, I've decided to tell a little about myself and ask a couple of questions that I haven't seem to find answers to. First of all, there is two things in life that I always wanted to do ever since I was about 10; 1. control airplanes and 2. drive a truck. I joined the Navy 10 years ago and I do #1 and I absolutely love it. However, I've reached a point in my career where I'm now the supervisor and my actual hands on is over with. Last year I had a choice to either wait one year and get out of the Navy or accept an Officer commissioning program and do my 20. I chose to stay Navy and put by second career desires on hold until 2018. I figured that while on shore duty in Salt Lake (where I am now) I would have lots of time to go to a CDL school and "casually" drive on weekends to make sure that I can do it. However, due to this site I learned that it would be stupid for me to drop $4000 on a school (Sage) because no one will hire a weekend only driver. I don't want to do any local driving or dump trucks (which Sage and Roadmaster said I would have no problems getting...yeah right). I want to do a weekend dedicated either solo or with a someone that is professional and now I know that it doesn't really exist dispite the fact that money would not be my concern, rather learning and experience being my goals. So, unless someone can prove to me that I'm wrong about all of this, I'm stuck counting down until I can retire and finally get in a truck. I failed to mention earlier that the reason why I want to be a truck driver so bad is because growing up my step-dad was a driver. He worked for Bekins and later Mayflower and I would spend every summer with him. My other brothers and sisters would get tired of it after 2 days, but I would spend every possible day of the summer with him. I hated the work of moving associated with his job, but I loved being in the truck so that made the manual labor not so bad. Now to the questions. 1. I've never driven a manual anything before so would that be a problem someday when I finally learn how to drive a semi? 2. I'm a naturally small person. I'm 5'7" and I weigh 113. I've only gained 11 pounds in 10 years and trust me, I eat and drink a lot. Some say I'm blessed and in the Navy it's a good thing. I want to know if it sounds like I would have a problem with the clutch or any other normal driving aspect. I've heard that it takes about 50 pounds of pressure for the clutch. I've asked my dad about these questions and he just laughs and says I would be fine. Of course he doesn't understand why I would want to drive and still hopes that I "get it out of my system" without ever trying it. He stopped driving about 5 years ago but that's an entirely different story. I think I would love being a driver because I'm familiar with the lifestyle and being away from home does not bother me or my wife. In fact, I've been home everyday for the last 8 months and me and my wife are going crazy. It's the first time in 9 years that we've had to really live together for an extended period of time. Like I said before, unfortunately I have 10 more years to go and at least I'll have a nice retirement check (O-3E) so if it doesn't work I won't be in panic mode (but I know it will work!). My only fear is that trucks will disappear in the next 10 years due to high fuel prices and polititians with all their ideas. I just want to have the opportunity someday (hopefully sooner than later) to drive. Thanks for reading and for moving my goods across the country and everyone be safe out there.

 

Notarps, thanks for the reply. I'm not worried about using my GIBill as I was about to spend the $4000 of my own money back in Nov to train at Sage until I came across this site and realized that after the school I would have a very little chance of getting hired somewhere for my idea of fun, I mean experience. I don't want to spend that kind of money for only 120 hours behind the wheel and that's it and then have to pay it again in 10 years to be retrained. If I could get a lot more hours out of it with actually experience I would do it in a second, but like you said, it just doesn't really exist for someone new like myself. Overall I'm more worried about the physical aspect of the job rather than the mental aspect. If I can do 20 years in the military I think I would do just fine at any line of work I decide on afterwards. The military has done a great job on making sure I don't know what it means to quit or what a sick day is or how to be late for anything. All great work ethics that I'll always cherish.

 

T_Wilson, thanks. That's what I was looking for. People who don't know anything about the trade like to tell me that I'm too small. I remember when I was a kid, my dad would come home in the middle of the night and park his truck in front of the house. Well, in the morning my mom wouldn't be able to get out of the driveway so he would let me back it up so she could get out and then I would pull it forward. I was about 14-15 back then and smaller and I never really remember having any problems with the clutch and such, but then again, I really wasn't doing anything.