Hi! I am new to this site and this is my first post. First I want to say thank you to
fccpopeye for making this thread and also to the other members of this forum for contributing helpful information.
Some details about me:
I am a 23 year old student finishing up my last quarter of college (2 more classes) and will be finishing this December. I am a General Biology major. Last time I checked my academic history my GPA was around 3.7. I've been a student worker for San Diego County (Dept. of Child Support Services) since June '08. I know my current job is not related to my field of study and I never had such a job (i.e. lab work/research).
my motivations for wanting to join:
My father is a retired first class petty officer (E6) after putting 20 years in the Navy. This means I've been a military dependent for practically all of my life and I am infinitely thankful for the comforts and privileges it has granted me (e.g. Commissary, Navy Exchange, Cal-Vets for college tuition, etc.). Basically, I want to give back to the military by going into service and I also want the honor of serving my country.
I never knew about the BDCP until I lurked/scoured this site so it looks like my only option is the OCS. The thing though is that my work is giving me a 3 month grace period to continue working for them before I get terminated (since I will no longer be a student at that time).
I haven’t talked to an officer recruiter yet, but I was thinking about contacting one after I get fired. Would it be too late then? I was hoping to use the time from now until then to improve my fitness, study for the ASTB (which I just learned about now), and basically just keep researching/reading about the commissioning process.
Some questions for now:
1) What exactly is a package? Is that basically the ADDOCS and FINDOCS combined?
2) How does one exactly go about "assembling" this package? I've read all the posts in this thread and I saw that it takes about a month to complete?
3) I’m oblivious to what types of fields exist for naval officers. From this thread, I’ve gathered that there is supplies, intel, aviation, nuclear, etc. I’m not interested in aviation but I read that I should still take the ASTB since certain portions of it are considered. Right now, my mindset is to become a U.S. Naval Officer but I never considered what fields I should be looking into. Anyone with a similar background who can offer some insight? Is there a more comprehensive link that I can be referred to?
4) How does one go about obtaining LORs? From what I read so far, knowing someone in the Navy who is in a field you are interested in applying to would be a good candidate. The only "viable" person I know is my college counselor who is a retired Commander (I believe) but I don't recall his field of duty.
Again, I want to thank this forum community for all the helpful information it provides!