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NFO to SWO

Steve Wilkins

Steve Wilkins

Teaching pigs to dance, one pig at a time.
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Figured I'd pass this along since I found it particularly intriguing. I ran into this guy yesterday at SWOS. He's in one of the DH classes here. I noticed he was wearing NFO wings on the bottom (for the unitiated, below his ribbons on the left side). I thought this was a bit unusual so I decided to ask him about it. Turns out the guy is a prior A-6 NFO who got out of the Navy back in '96 as a LCDR select. He went to medical school for awhile and then decided to come back in. What was interesting was that he had to come back in as an Ensign AND he had to go SWO. Now he's a LT and in DH school. :eek:
 
Steve Wilkins said:
Figured I'd pass this along since I found it particularly intriguing. I ran into this guy yesterday at SWOS. He's in one of the DH classes here. I noticed he was wearing NFO wings on the bottom (for the unitiated, below his ribbons on the left side). I thought this was a bit unusual so I decided to ask him about it. Turns out the guy is a prior A-6 NFO who got out of the Navy back in '96 as a LCDR select. He went to medical school for awhile and then decided to come back in. What was interesting was that he had to come back in as an Ensign AND he had to go SWO. Now he's a LT and in DH school. :eek:
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WOW... That guy is most definately hard core, he must LOVE the Navy. We had a guy going through VT-6 as a flight surgeon, only thing was - he had pilot's wings. When asked, he was originally an F-14 pilot who decided to become a doctor after his second deployment. My response - "Wow, sir... You love to study, don't you?"
 
Steve Wilkins said:
Figured I'd pass this along since I found it particularly intriguing. I ran into this guy yesterday at SWOS. He's in one of the DH classes here. I noticed he was wearing NFO wings on the bottom (for the unitiated, below his ribbons on the left side). I thought this was a bit unusual so I decided to ask him about it. Turns out the guy is a prior A-6 NFO who got out of the Navy back in '96 as a LCDR select. He went to medical school for awhile and then decided to come back in. What was interesting was that he had to come back in as an Ensign AND he had to go SWO. Now he's a LT and in DH school. :eek:
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I've heard of dropping a rank if inter-service trasnfering.
But never from LT back to ENS for a recall...if that is what he did.

Did he get out and stay USNR...or resign his commission?
 
The only instance of dropping rank when transferring jobs is when guys get selected for Med school, they drop to Ensign again. They get commisioned as an O-3 (I think) and the guys who have prior service usually get O-4 really quick. The Flight Doc in my last squadron was a former A-6 B/N and he was an O-4 when he showed up to our squadron, and he had been out of Med school for little more than a year.

What I speculate may have happened is that may have been commisioned as an Ensign in the Med corps while in Doc school and switched to URL after he changed his mind, maybe :confused: ? I don't know, makes me a little suspicious :watching3 .

Several rules I thought were hard and fast about ranks are not necessarily the case as I believed. I thought that the services had to honor your previous rank if you switch, but I know that if you switch to CG they make you go in as a LTJG, even if you are LT. And the strangest one I have seen so far, I went to a promotion of an Air Force E-8 recently who used to be an O-3 missilier. So I guess anything is possible....
 
If you resign your commission and then decide to come back in, I would think you start the process over. You are, after all, a civilian at that point. If you don't resign your commission, then you would retain your last permanent rank. Any involvment in the MC brings with it all sorts of special rules. The MC to URL is a possiblitity

Either way it transpired, he must have known what he wanted. Good for him.
 
First, the guy is out of uniform. He should wear his wings above his ribbons until he receives a subsequent warfare pin. Then his wings go below that pin.

As for the missile O-3 to E-8: in most such cases, the missile billet went away and the USAF had no further billet for him as a Capt. So they offered him a bullet as an E-7/8 with which to finish his 20 years. He'll retire at the highest grade held (O-3).

I knew a chaplain who had been an NFO. He continued to wear his wings on top of his ribbons because the chaplain corps has no warfare insignia (at least not then).
 
ip568 said:
First, the guy is out of uniform. He should wear his wings above his ribbons until he receives a subsequent warfare pin. Then his wings go below that pin.
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What made you say this? :confused:
 
Steve Wilkins said:
What made you say this? :confused:
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Steve,

Correct me if I am wrong but was this at DH school? Since there is no baby SWOS any more, SWO's go right to the fleet so it is very possible for a LT to show up at SWOS with his warfare pin.

As for the original post, Whidbey guy or Oceana? If he was a Whidbey guy, I may know him and vice versa. Ask him if he knows the infamous "Meat" with two class 'A's. :D

BTW, I am over at NWDC (Sims Hall). Down at C2F this week but get home tomorrow. O'Club deck Friday????
 
ip568 said:
I knew a chaplain who had been an NFO. He continued to wear his wings on top of his ribbons because the chaplain corps has no warfare insignia (at least not then).
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Chaplain Corps still doesn't have a warfare pin. Along with chaplain, the majority of RL communities don't have a warfare pin. I hate to say it, but I like how the army wears the rank one the right collar, and the branch insignia on the left collar (infantry, armor, engineer, quartermaster, finance, air artillery defense, you get the idea). With the RLs, you've got a bunch of guys walking around with two rank devices and no warfare pin to distinguish intel, crypto, AMDO, Human resources, Info professional, PAO, etc, etc. Plus, for warfare qualified guys who lat xfer, you might think they're still in that warfare community.
 
SteveG75 said:
Steve,

Correct me if I am wrong but was this at DH school? Since there is no baby SWOS any more, SWO's go right to the fleet so it is very possible for a LT to show up at SWOS with his warfare pin.
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I can guarantee you no LT will be showing up here to DH school WITHOUT a SWO pin. Which is why I was curious why he would be out of uniform. He has his SWO pin on top, and NFO wings on the bottom as it should be.

SteveG75 said:
As for the original post, Whidbey guy or Oceana? If he was a Whidbey guy, I may know him and vice versa. Ask him if he knows the infamous "Meat" with two class 'A's. :D
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Will do.

SteveG75 said:
BTW, I am over at NWDC (Sims Hall). Down at C2F this week but get home tomorrow. O'Club deck Friday????
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Sims eh? You know a Paul Younis or Mr. Ragazzio? What at the O'club deck on Friday? Free beer? :D :icon_zbee
 
Thisguy said:
Along with chaplain, the majority of RL communities don't have a warfare pin. I hate to say it, but I like how the army wears the rank one the right collar, and the branch insignia on the left collar (infantry, armor, engineer, quartermaster, finance, air artillery defense, you get the idea). With the RLs, you've got a bunch of guys walking around with two rank devices and no warfare pin...
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What about the specific insignia some of the RL communities (such as the medical, chaplain, and JAG corps) wear on the left collar of their khakis (and in lieu of the URL star on the SDBs and whites)?
 
Thisguy said:
With the RLs, you've got a bunch of guys walking around with two rank devices and no warfare pin to distinguish intel, crypto, AMDO, Human resources, Info professional, PAO, etc, etc. Plus, for warfare qualified guys who lat xfer, you might think they're still in that warfare community.
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At a minimum intel and crypto are not restricted line. They are special duty unrestricted line.
 
No such thing as crypto anymore and no, Intel and IW (formerly Cryptology) are definitely Restricted Line.
 
peanut3479 said:
What about the specific insignia some of the RL communities (such as the medical, chaplain, and JAG corps) wear on the left collar of their khakis (and in lieu of the URL star on the SDBs and whites)?
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You're thinking of Staff Corps, not Restricted Line
 
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