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Caution to SNA/NFO prospects

Anchors_Away

Active Member
I believe now if a person needs to redesignate they get SWO unless they are NPQ for SWO then they can try for something else, most other designators only need a fraction each year compared to SNA/SNFO/SWO so a few people that redesignate into those small designators can mess up or push people to the next FY
From my expereinces so far it seems to be having a major impact on SWO as well.
 

pilot_man

Ex-Rhino driver
pilot
Bullshit. There is nothing wrong with joining for a specific job and walking if that job goes away for some reason.


Once you are commissioned and in a squadron, yes. Until then, your number one priority is to get your wings and training. And if you don't, you can take the option to walk. No one wants to be stuck in a job they didn't want. It doesn't make you a "bad officer" nor is there any other reason not to quit and go home if you are offered the chance rather than serve in a designator you didn't want.

I do agree that while serving in a leadership role, being a good leader is important. But trying to be the best pilot (or whatever) possible and caring about that as much as being a leader does not have to take away from your leadership. Nor does hating your job. None are not mutually exclusive.

If it's more important to you to be an officer than anything else - great. But I doubt that is the norm for those applying.


THIS!

I didn't join the Navy to drive CRUDES.
 
I know it's bad to DOR – but could he have changed his designator NOT being SWO? EOD, Intel etc..

No other community was open. Those designators take a much smaller number of candidates every year, and they fill up quickly after the fiscal year resets. And EOD doesn't take candidates unless they were enlisted EOD prior to OCS.

For the guy who graduated in Jan, what class were you? 05? The class before me and after me got hit hard too. If your class did so well, maybe they were being super strict earlier in the fiscal year due to excessive pro rec Ys. All I can speak to is what I saw personally.

My original post wasn't to scare anyone or say the sky is falling, just a tip to others to be 100% covered medically in case NAMI continued to hit hard.

Also, I don't know why aviators are in here, off topic, becausr I said being an officer is the overall goal. We clearly have differing opinions, please stay on topic.
 

Tycho_Brohe

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
Also, I don't know why aviators are in here, off topic, because I said being an officer is the overall goal. We clearly have differing opinions, please stay on topic.
Just to defuse this, aviators are "in here" because the vast majority of the forum is comprised of aviators. If you post in Air Warriors, you're gonna hear from pilots and NFO's.
But I like how you warned us that this sentence was off-topic, and then ended it with "please stay on topic."

My class also had a handful of people NPQ during the week of graduation, so they got stuck in student pool where they either redesignated or separated. I think it's total bullshit that we were asking people at Pass in Review if they got their NAMI letter or orders yet.
 
Just to defuse this, aviators are "in here" because the vast majority of the forum is comprised of aviators. If you post in Air Warriors, you're gonna hear from pilots and NFO's.
But I like how you warned us that this sentence was off-topic, and then ended it with "please stay on topic."

My class also had a handful of people NPQ during the week of graduation, so they got stuck in student pool where they either redesignated or separated. I think it's total bullshit that we were asking people at Pass in Review if they got their NAMI letter or orders yet.

I asked why they were in here taking this thread off topic, not why they were in here :p

I do agree it was BS that people were graduating without NAMIs, they shouldn't be worrying about such things by that point in OCS. We had about a dozen aviators go to student pool after graduation to await NAMI letters. The way that people are medically screened needs to be done in a more efficient matter. Honestly, it should be done prior to OCS, although MEPS is a total joke. It was sad to see so many people go home mid-training, and others have to redesignate to less preferred positions AFTER graduating. I got to walk across the stage as they said "ENS **** is currently undesignated and awaiting designation". It was a slap in the face and downright embarassing.
 
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JollyGood

Flashing Dome
pilot
I asked why they were in here taking this thread off topic, not why they were in here :p

I do agree it was BS that people were graduating without NAMIs, they shouldn't be worrying about such things by that point in OCS. We had about a dozen aviators go to student pool after graduation to await NAMI letters. The way that people are medically screened needs to be done in a more efficient matter. Honestly, it should be done prior to OCS, although MEPS is a total joke. It was sad to see so many people go home mid-training, and others have to redesignate to less preferred positions AFTER graduating. I got to walk across the stage as they said "ENS **** is currently undesignated and awaiting designation". It was a slap in the face and downright embarassing.

I think the way it is being done boils down to saving money. It is cheaper for the Navy to have NAMI take a long hard look during OCS then PCS people to Pensacola and get the NAMI whammy there.

On a related note, are the physicals at NHCNE being done by a real flight surgeon now?
 
I think the way it is being done boils down to saving money. It is cheaper for the Navy to have NAMI take a long hard look during OCS then PCS people to Pensacola and get the NAMI whammy there.

On a related note, are the physicals at NHCNE being done by a real flight surgeon now?

Several of my classmates were getting flagged by medical once they got to Pensacola for things like color blindness. I know I was tested multiple times for this in MEPS and at OCS, so how do they miss this stuff through both of those processes? We may never know lol...

Yes NHCNE has an actual flight surgeon now. He supported myself and the two other priors I mentioned earlier in this thread and he greenlit us. We all got whammied from the top of the NAMI food chain. This is why I say its inefficient. He seemed very professional and thoroughly explaind (to me) why I was greenlit with him. Once I was NPQed he couldn't offer any explanation because he wasn't given anything to work with from NAMI.
 

Cals3390

Member
Hmmm interesting, I just looked through my FM 2808 from package and the functional reach doesn't appear to be on there...my guess is I'll probably have to do it again if I get selected at OCS
 

Austin-Powers

Powers By Name, Powers By Reputation
No other community was open. Those designators take a much smaller number of candidates every year, and they fill up quickly after the fiscal year resets. And EOD doesn't take candidates unless they were enlisted EOD prior to OCS.

For the guy who graduated in Jan, what class were you? 05? The class before me and after me got hit hard too. If your class did so well, maybe they were being super strict earlier in the fiscal year due to excessive pro rec Ys. All I can speak to is what I saw personally.

My original post wasn't to scare anyone or say the sky is falling, just a tip to others to be 100% covered medically in case NAMI continued to hit hard.

Also, I don't know why aviators are in here, off topic, becausr I said being an officer is the overall goal. We clearly have differing opinions, please stay on topic.

Flying is great, so is leading. I don't think it's right to astray aviation hopefuls (like you were) and saying being an officer, because if that was the case, there wouldn't be a lot of pilots or NFOs, just my thought :cool:
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
I asked why they were in here taking this thread off topic, not why they were in here :p

I do agree it was BS that people were graduating without NAMIs, they shouldn't be worrying about such things by that point in OCS. We had about a dozen aviators go to student pool after graduation to await NAMI letters. The way that people are medically screened needs to be done in a more efficient matter. Honestly, it should be done prior to OCS, although MEPS is a total joke. It was sad to see so many people go home mid-training, and others have to redesignate to less preferred positions AFTER graduating. I got to walk across the stage as they said "ENS **** is currently undesignated and awaiting designation". It was a slap in the face and downright embarassing.

It just isn't cost effective to do NAMI prior to OCS, especially given that overall the number of those dropped from aviation is very small, I know your class was hit hard, but I had guys in classes where no one was hit, and I had guys in classes where several were affected, the ones that were dropped that came from my NRD we had most of them pegged before OCS, they all had prior issues that their recruiter had worked on getting a doc to clear them, borderline eyesight, borderline BP, borderline depth perception, previous history of asthma, etc. We also had a few that were the odd ones, injured at OCS and then had to redesignate, one was found to be allergic to something and after testing was only PQ for RL.

NRC actually has and used to send out statistics by class on what each person was dropped for, I always read that to know what was going on.
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
Several of my classmates were getting flagged by medical once they got to Pensacola for things like color blindness. I know I was tested multiple times for this in MEPS and at OCS, so how do they miss this stuff through both of those processes? We may never know lol...

Yes NHCNE has an actual flight surgeon now. He supported myself and the two other priors I mentioned earlier in this thread and he greenlit us. We all got whammied from the top of the NAMI food chain. This is why I say its inefficient. He seemed very professional and thoroughly explaind (to me) why I was greenlit with him. Once I was NPQed he couldn't offer any explanation because he wasn't given anything to work with from NAMI.

On colorblindness it is because I have know recruiters to "doctor shop" with applicants until they get one that clears them, it can happen with other things as well, I didn't play that game.

I know you think it is inefficient being what happened to you, but years ago we asked about this and a brief rundown on the numbers shows it actually isn't, this was an emotional thing that happened to you but when it comes down to it everything is about numbers and cost for the USN, just like any civilian corporation out there, the word they use in civilian corporations is "business decisions".
 

MGoBrew11

Well-Known Member
pilot
No, I don't think its anyone on waivers, it appeared to be directed at those on the back end of the waiver. I graduated 3 weeks before my waiver would have ended, if that helps give you a timeline.



Plenty of people have said this, but its the wrong outlook to have. Regardless of your designation, being a leader is your number one priority. If you care more about your specific job, your people will take a backseat, and you can't do that as an officer.

And no, I can't laterally transfer over because NAMI already disqualified me. I can apply for other designations after I qualify as a SWO, though. I'm not worried about any of that right now, however... just worried about getting my pin.

image.jpeg
 
On colorblindness it is because I have know recruiters to "doctor shop" with applicants until they get one that clears them, it can happen with other things as well, I didn't play that game.

I know you think it is inefficient being what happened to you, but years ago we asked about this and a brief rundown on the numbers shows it actually isn't, this was an emotional thing that happened to you but when it comes down to it everything is about numbers and cost for the USN, just like any civilian corporation out there, the word they use in civilian corporations is "business decisions".

It just seemed odd that (not just me, or my class) the class before us and the several that followed us had a lot of NPQs. From what some more recent grads have said, it doesn't seem to be that way anymore. That's why, from my experience, it seemed inefficient.

Sure, I'm still sad about being whammied considering my otherwise perfect health, but I feel like there could be a better way to move things along for future applicants. But, I also can't see it from the view of NAMI.

I'll just add, I was mostly upset with them for not attempting to fix my issue. The hearing loss I've sustained from 4 years of shooting during my enlistment was mild/acceptable, and then they cited "negative ear pressure". I've been SCUBA certified my whole life and flown quite a lot, without any pressure problems. However, even so, the fix for negative ear pressure takes like a week (30 minute procedure and a week to heal). I spent 5 extra weeks in student pool instead of an extra week in medical and another week waiting on NAMI PQ. They didn't even try. So, anyways, that's my specific experience.
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
It just seemed odd that (not just me, or my class) the class before us and the several that followed us had a lot of NPQs. From what some more recent grads have said, it doesn't seem to be that way anymore. That's why, from my experience, it seemed inefficient.

Sure, I'm still sad about being whammied considering my otherwise perfect health, but I feel like there could be a better way to move things along for future applicants. But, I also can't see it from the view of NAMI.

I'll just add, I was mostly upset with them for not attempting to fix my issue. The hearing loss I've sustained from 4 years of shooting during my enlistment was mild/acceptable, and then they cited "negative ear pressure". I've been SCUBA certified my whole life and flown quite a lot, without any pressure problems. However, even so, the fix for negative ear pressure takes like a week (30 minute procedure and a week to heal). I spent 5 extra weeks in student pool instead of an extra week in medical and another week waiting on NAMI PQ. They didn't even try. So, anyways, that's my specific experience.

One thing to remember that for many medical items it is not that you had an issue and recovered, it is that you had the condition at all, and some conditions NAMI will waive for current aviators, but not those trying to be aviators. Unfortunately since NAMI doesn't give detailed explanations you won't know if this was or was not the case with your hearing. Something else is that while the fix may take a week there are many items that they want to see what the fix has done at several points down the road so that could have factored in along with your age.
 
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