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30 for 30: BDCP

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exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
xmid said:
Come to think of it, that may have been how she found out. His ID card said E7/CPO if I remember correctly. He was definitely apologetic about it. Like "Hey, I'm sorry I didn't ask for it." And we had two Chiefs in our class that didn't think it was very funny either.
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I believe from the people I took to get ID cards it is supposed to be OC2/E-5, OC1/E-6 but RUFIO would probably remember better than I would, of course it is up to the person making the ID cards to get it right.
 
Bergers2short

Bergers2short

Well-Known Member
None
BackOrdered said:
Did most stay or did they do their first term and bounce? And will meeting that requirement then create an appetite to bring the program back today?"

We won't know that answer here, but anyone who had experience with BDCP and are still around care to share how life is treating them and their thoughts?
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I got out after my initial obligation. After getting my SWO pin, I knew my choices were to either, (1) bounce and use the GI Bill on law school (thanks BDCP!) or (2) apply for the law education program. While certainly not the main reason for my choice, the extra BDCP years actually discouraged me from staying Navy for two reasons.

First, LEP tacks on 6 years of obliserve. With my BDCP years, that'd push me to about 12 years AD. So the weight of the decision was heavier--I knew I was really deciding whether or not I'd be making the Navy my career. I knew I wouldn't voluntarily leave with less than 8 years to the pension.

Second, LEP eligibility is limited to JOs with "2 to 6 years' AD service (including any active enlisted time) as of the time of proposed entry into law school." Thanks to BDCP, I had 5.5 years of active duty service when I finished my 2 sea tours. So I knew it would be an extremely tight window and I really needed to be motivated enough to start the process during my 2nd sea tour. After a crazy OPTEMPO in my first tour, I wasn't gunning to sign up for the full 20 years ASAP.

That said, I still think BDCP has a generally positive impact on retention. It definitely impacted my decision to go Navy over other branches. I figured that as a civilian applicant, my personal "ranking" of branches was imperfect because I didn't have enough direct knowledge of life in different branches. So I figured I would follow the $ and apply to whoever offered college $ for students w/non-tech majors. Well...I did know not to apply Army ;)
 
E

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
Bergers2short said:
I got out after my initial obligation. After getting my SWO pin, I knew my choices were to either, (1) bounce and use the GI Bill on law school (thanks BDCP!) or (2) apply for the law education program. While certainly not the main reason for my choice, the extra BDCP years actually discouraged me from staying Navy for two reasons.

First, LEP tacks on 6 years of obliserve. With my BDCP years, that'd push me to about 12 years AD. So the weight of the decision was heavier--I knew I was really deciding whether or not I'd be making the Navy my career. I knew I wouldn't voluntarily leave with less than 8 years to the pension.

Second, LEP eligibility is limited to JOs with "2 to 6 years' AD service (including any active enlisted time) as of the time of proposed entry into law school." Thanks to BDCP, I had 5.5 years of active duty service when I finished my 2 sea tours. So I knew it would be an extremely tight window and I really needed to be motivated enough to start the process during my 2nd sea tour. After a crazy OPTEMPO in my first tour, I wasn't gunning to sign up for the full 20 years ASAP.

That said, I still think BDCP has a generally positive impact on retention. It definitely impacted my decision to go Navy over other branches. I figured that as a civilian applicant, my personal "ranking" of branches was imperfect because I didn't have enough direct knowledge of life in different branches. So I figured I would follow the $ and apply to whoever offered college $ for students w/non-tech majors. Well...I did know not to apply Army ;)
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you must have been in one of the last groups picked up for BDCP
 
Bergers2short

Bergers2short

Well-Known Member
None
I was! I will always remember hearing the news about the great recession starting and simultaneously thinking, "I've got to get that medical waiver pushed through ASAP!" I knew that government hiring-freezes would lag behind the private sector, but I figured that BDCP would either close or become outlandishly competitive. I'll always be grateful to make it in under the wire.

Interestingly, my OCS class was almost entirely BDCP, CEC, and NUPOC contracts. The Navy realized that they were wasting money on paying us while waiting to class-up and bumped regular applicants to move us up.
 
E

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
Bergers2short said:
I was! I will always remember hearing the news about the great recession starting and simultaneously thinking, "I've got to get that medical waiver pushed through ASAP!" I knew that government hiring-freezes would lag behind the private sector, but I figured that BDCP would either close or become outlandishly competitive. I'll always be grateful to make it in under the wire.

Interestingly, my OCS class was almost entirely BDCP, CEC, and NUPOC contracts. The Navy realized that they were wasting money on paying us while waiting to class-up and bumped regular applicants to move us up.
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BDCP is the only one that is no longer used, still available but not needed. The numbers compared to the actual selections for SWO, NFO and Pilot were small, there were many who were picked up in their last year of college so the USN didn't pay them for that long. The ones that were able to be picked up and get a full 2 years were the lucky ones.

One thing that changed was that originally you just had to be accepted to a 4 year college if coming from a 2 year, but I guess after seeing peoples grades fall going from 2 to 4 year colleges they wanted a full semester at the 4 year, so by then given the board times many of those were getting selected in the Mar/Apr time-frame, so they were being sworn in around May/June, so they as well were getting paid for around a year.
 
FinkUFreaky

FinkUFreaky

Well-Known Member
pilot
So long story, I decided too late and could have been paid longer. For engineering degrees they allowed up to 3 years from grad. Towards the end of my 3rd year of school of 5 and a half (first two at a community college), I took a Co-op at United Space Alliance to work with the space shuttle. The job was mostly rather boring cubical stuff, but found out Astronauts are military pilots for the most part (mind blown; should have known this years ago but didn't). Decided to go for it, got my last year+some months on BDCP. A lot of awesome bennies (early payscale, walking out of OCS with 45 days leave and managing use or lose every year since as a result, etc). And yeah the time counts towards retirement. And if you had a state scholarship ("bright futures" funded through idiots buying lotto tickets was awesome in FL, good grades in high school = full tuition and a book stipend) it was all free money, and far better than ROTC (OCS required, not all the other BS on campus).

The best BDCP CAC story was when I went on a cruise for a honeymoon after an (eventually failed) marriage while still in the program. Coming back through customs I (extremely stupidly, really can't state this enough) said I had nothing to declare even though there were a couple bottles in my luggage. I'm not a good liar, and I'm glad I'm not. Got pulled aside... He asked for ID before searching the bag and after I showed it he thanked me for my service and apologized for the inconvenience...

Sidepost, I know enough to know I will never be an astronaut haha. But it's what brought me in. And the "long-term goal" invited laughs from my OCS Class Officer (helo pilot type) back in the day.
 
Gator NFO

Gator NFO

former TACAMO NFO
None
I joined via BDCP in Oct 1994 and had about 11 months in the program before going to OCS. My plan is to retire with 29 years, 1 month of commissioned service + 11 months of BDCP to get to 30 total years of service.
 
vxc961

vxc961

.
Nice to hear! I wasn't a fan of being a nuke, but I definitely can't complain about the NUPOC program. It was great while I was in college, and when I left active duty and had a couple "bad" years for the reserve, it really saved my bacon on being able to get to retirement.
 
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