National OPO Blog

[National OPO]

I have a quasi-hypothetical question. If you are given a pro-rec Y, is there any way to purposefully delay shipping off to OCS (for say 6 to 9 months)?

A little background on my situation. I just got offered a great job for a prominent defense/aerospace contractor which I accepted, but my gut tells me to continue with the Navy career path I have had my sights set on for a long time. The thing is that experience less than 1 year for a job like this doesn't look too good and my ultimate goal is to get 20+ yrs in the Navy and retire and hopefully come back to work for this same company I just got hired by (in a really good position because they love former military).

Don't get me wrong, the Navy is still my number one priority, I would just prefer to get some time under my belt at this job before shipping off. If I were forced to make a choice I would leave at any point in time for the Navy. If I were to get a pro-rec Y in May (or end of April) as I hope, I would probably work for this company for only 3-5 months or as long as it takes to get FS before leaving (most college hires stay at the company for 15+ years) which is not enough time to get anything useful out of it for both parties involved (company and myself). However, I didn't want to be completely illogical and say no, screw myself out of a job if for some reason I can't get into OCS or some unexpected tragedy occurs.

Any suggestions? I have briefly thought about telling my recruiter to delay submitting my application but I'm worried that I will come off as not committed to the Navy and it will put me in a bad light. Not to mention the past 7 or so months we've both spent on my application (mostly him, he does all the work). I'm 23 years old which leaves me 4 years left to be eligible for pilot, I don't believe an extra 6 months or so would hurt my career in the long run. Also, according to my recruiter, my application should be submitted on Monday, if that's of any importance to anyone reading this.

I apologize, I intended this to be a simple question with a factual-based answer but instead it has turned into more of a plea for career advice from the more experienced folks on this forum. Any input would be helpful.

V/r

It really has to be a decision on your part and isnt one that I can make for you. But facturing in that the entire application process can take anywhere from 3 months to 10-12 months (from application submission to shipping to OCS), perhaps delaying your application might not hurt, but submitting it now might not hurt either since NRC is presently selecting individuals to ship to OCS after July 2014 anyways. So if were to submit your application soon, it would still be another 5-7 months before your assigned shipping date to OCS.

 

[National OPO]

tdogsmith - I concur with what everyone else was saying. And considering NRC is processing and selecting applications who would looked to ship in the July-Sept timeframe, that might align with your plans anyways. And at least you would have an answer about whether selected or not, which helps aid in your decision making. In the end, this has to a decision that you make that no one else can make for you.

 

[utswimmer37]

As for OCS dates, yes you can request to ship out at a certain time, but no more than six months if you ask me. As for reasons why, it better be a damn good one. For instance, I had one applicant who's wife was expecting. He requested an OCS date a month after the birth so he could see his new child being born. Similar situation with weddings, etc.

I found out I could knock out my last MBA class this summer and graduate Aug 16, Is that a good enough reason for a request for Aug 31 OCS to be accepted?

 

[National OPO]

Concur with what everyone else has been saying. Additionally, NRC is processing and selecting applicants to fill shipping seats in the July-Sept timeframe, which adds a little time between submitting an application today (for example) and then worrying about when you would ship to OCS. And as someone already mentioned, applicants have been allowed to extend (within reason) their ship dates to account for family events such as wedding, funerals, birth of children, etc.

 

[National OPO]

For the group - the next AC IDC proboard, scheduled for 14Apr14, has been moved to the first week in May14 to account for scheduling conflicts with IDC community leadership. As such, the results will be delayed by a few weeks and would now expect to be able to release them by the middle of May14. The results will be released to the Navy commands via BOL leadership accounts (CO, XO, CMC, CCC) and then released a few days later to the Recruiting Districts. This is done to provide professional courtesy to the Navy commands to notify their Sailors before finding out their results from "unofficial" websites like this one.

 

[National OPO]

For the group here, concur with what has been said to date about the question about delaying applying to NRC due to wanting to spend some time in a new civilian job. Concur with all that has been said and realize that any decision has to be made as a personal decision and that no one else can make that type of a decision for any applicant. Also keep in mind that NRC is presently processing and selecting Pilot and NFO applicants to fill OCS shipping seats in the July-Sept timeframe. So applying today (for example) would still provide another 3-5 months until having to ship to OCS. And concur that NRC has on occassion allowed applicants to extend their shipping date to account for major family events such as weddings, funerals, birth of a child, etc.

 

[theghettodefendant]

For the group here, concur with what has been said to date about the question about delaying applying to NRC due to wanting to spend some time in a new civilian job. Concur with all that has been said and realize that any decision has to be made as a personal decision and that no one else can make that type of a decision for any applicant. Also keep in mind that NRC is presently processing and selecting Pilot and NFO applicants to fill OCS shipping seats in the July-Sept timeframe. So applying today (for example) would still provide another 3-5 months until having to ship to OCS. And concur that NRC has on occassion allowed applicants to extend their shipping date to account for major family events such as weddings, funerals, birth of a child, etc.

National OPO I've seen a lot of people selected from the December board for SNA get their final selects recently but not many who were selected for strictly NFO have gotten theirs. Are the final selects coming soon for all the NFO selects from the December and March boards, or will the December board selects be getting theirs sooner?

 

[National OPO]

I found out I could knock out my last MBA class this summer and graduate Aug 16, Is that a good enough reason for a request for Aug 31 OCS to be accepted?

Within the application, you can indicate what your "availability date" is, which gives an idea to NRC when you would be available to ship to OCS if selected. So putting down an availability date of "Sept14" or "after 15Aug14" would be completely appropriate to take into account an expected graduation date. This is also typical for our undergrad applicants taking into account when they expect to graduate college.

 

[National OPO]

National OPO I've seen a lot of people selected from the December board for SNA get their final selects recently but not many who were selected for strictly NFO have gotten theirs. Are the final selects coming soon for all the NFO selects from the December and March boards, or will the December board selects be getting theirs sooner?

We have been pushing to identify all remaining Pilots to fill remaining Pilot shipping seats within the April-June OCS classes. That is the reason for the flurry of Pilot Final Select (FINSEL) letters compared to NFO letters. We were/are further ahead with filling remaining NFO shipping seats in those same OCS classes (April-June), so they havent been as numerous as the Pilot letters. As we continue to move through the rest of April and into May, we will begin issuing letters filling the July-Sept OCS classes for Pilot and NFO (and many other of the OCS programs). The push right now is to ensure that all remaining April-June OCS seats, by designator, are filled. Once we are done with that, will be looking to fill the July-Sept OCS class seats with FINSEL letters being generated across all of the programs. I expect that we start making this shift at the end of this month and more so moving into next month.

 

[WB16]

National OPO,

I originally put my OCS availability date at 01Jan2015. I got Pro-Rec Y SNA in the late Feb board. I then decided to take summer classes and graduate in early August. My OR just recently sent a letter updating my OCS availability date to 15Aug2014. Is there usually any luck with moving availability dates forward and getting an earlier OCS date? I'm really hoping for the 31Aug OCS date.

 

[Sache]

For the group - the next AC IDC proboard, scheduled for 14Apr14, has been moved to the first week in May14 to account for scheduling conflicts with IDC community leadership. As such, the results will be delayed by a few weeks and would now expect to be able to release them by the middle of May14. The results will be released to the Navy commands via BOL leadership accounts (CO, XO, CMC, CCC) and then released a few days later to the Recruiting Districts. This is done to provide professional courtesy to the Navy commands to notify their Sailors before finding out their results from "unofficial" websites like this one.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

For the group - the next AC IDC proboard, scheduled for 14Apr14, has been moved to the first week in May14 to account for scheduling conflicts with IDC community leadership. As such, the results will be delayed by a few weeks and would now expect to be able to release them by the middle of May14. The results will be released to the Navy commands via BOL leadership accounts (CO, XO, CMC, CCC) and then released a few days later to the Recruiting Districts. This is done to provide professional courtesy to the Navy commands to notify their Sailors before finding out their results from "unofficial" websites like this one.

It is funny that after all these years they finally figured out something like this.

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

National OPO,

I originally put my OCS availability date at 01Jan2015. I got Pro-Rec Y SNA in the late Feb board. I then decided to take summer classes and graduate in early August. My OR just recently sent a letter updating my OCS availability date to 15Aug2014. Is there usually any luck with moving availability dates forward and getting an earlier OCS date? I'm really hoping for the 31Aug OCS date.

I encountered a similar situation with a CEC applicant wanting to ship sooner. It's honestly case-by-case with NRC, however there's a possibility you could be "rolled-in" to a sooner OCS class if someone cannot ship at that time (medical/legal issues, personal situation, withdrawal, etc.).

 

[Hybrid55]

We have been pushing to identify all remaining Pilots to fill remaining Pilot shipping seats within the April-June OCS classes. That is the reason for the flurry of Pilot Final Select (FINSEL) letters compared to NFO letters. We were/are further ahead with filling remaining NFO shipping seats in those same OCS classes (April-June), so they havent been as numerous as the Pilot letters. As we continue to move through the rest of April and into May, we will begin issuing letters filling the July-Sept OCS classes for Pilot and NFO (and many other of the OCS programs). The push right now is to ensure that all remaining April-June OCS seats, by designator, are filled. Once we are done with that, will be looking to fill the July-Sept OCS class seats with FINSEL letters being generated across all of the programs. I expect that we start making this shift at the end of this month and more so moving into next month.

National OPO,

So does that mean that the July-Sept OCS classes for Pilot and NFO will likely be filled with people accepted from the February and earlier boards or is there a chance that some accepted in the April/May board will make it to these classes? Any insight is greatly appreciated!

 

[National OPO]

National OPO,

I originally put my OCS availability date at 01Jan2015. I got Pro-Rec Y SNA in the late Feb board. I then decided to take summer classes and graduate in early August. My OR just recently sent a letter updating my OCS availability date to 15Aug2014. Is there usually any luck with moving availability dates forward and getting an earlier OCS date? I'm really hoping for the 31Aug OCS date.

It all depends on on how fast NRC is filling near-term classes, the volume of prior selected applicants "sitting on the bench" waiting and ready to ship, and the rate in which any of these loaded shippers might decline or otherwise refuse to ship. As mentioned in another post, we do sometimes ask shippers to roll-up and ship eariler if they have indicated that they can support shipping earlier either on their application (based on the availability date) or if indicated as such through their recruiters should we have other shippers decline or need to be rolled out due to circumstances. Just looking at where we are at regarding loading the July-Sept OCS classes and the volume of prior-"selects" already in the queue from prior boards, I would think that you would have a good shot of shipping in August.