Nuke lateral transfers

[Abelian]

I'm applying to be a nuke officer (probably surface, but it's a tough decision). Now, unfortunately, this application process has been somewhat tough for me, because it's been very difficult for me to decide what I want to do in the Navy. This is largely because my main motivation for joining the Navy is to be a Naval officer, rather than to have a particular job. Thus, deciding on a particular job has been tough (though at the same time I remain confident that whatever I choose, I'll enjoy it well enough). The biggies for me are SWO, subs, pilot, and special ops, which I'm aware covers a good chunk of the URL communities. Now, assuming I go nuke SWO and later, upon "experiencing the navy," decide that I really want to be a pilot (or EOD, whatever), when, if ever, would I be able to do a lateral transfer? Part of me hates to ask this because I feel like I should make a solid commitment, but I want to know what my options are/will be. Thanks.

 

[webmaster]

Once a nuke always a nuke... when the nukey community invests all that time, money and training in you, you are theirs for life (or as long as your commitment runs in the Navy). As a former submariner, when I got picked up for commissioning, a number of the JOs on the boat recommended to me that I should never come back as a nuke officer (real poor JO retention on the boat I was on), instead go aviation or intel or something like that... Anyways, maybe it can be done, but it would take heaven and earth to get moved for it to happen. Though, when I went through Dive school back in '95, there was a LT there who had his Gold dolphins (nuke officer), and had a gold BDO pin from the diving community, and was doing a tour and the Navy Diving Salvage Training Center... don't know how that happened, or his story... but if one person could do it...

Switching from SWO to other communities would probably be easier. Steve should be able to answer that one a whole hell of a lot easier.

 

[Mcaf]

I got the same speach from the JO's on my ship. I'm a prior nuke from a carrier. They basically all said look at these panels; they still look the same on the O side. About changing billets, nuke officers can leave the pipeline but only for a short amount of time. I know my department head(full bird) was the CO of a conventionally powered cruiser before he came to my ship. I asked my DIVO(nuke officer) about this and he told me that (take with grain of salt; just what he told me) after your first 6-8 years you can transfer to a non-nuke billet but you must return to a nuke billet after that then rotate accordingly. I guess they figure after 6-8 years of navy nuclear power; you will never forget it. This info is also 3 years old but thats my 2 cents(maybe all its worth).

 

[Steve Wilkins]

You all are wrong. Standby for more details to come. I just got back from being underway so I'm tired. Meaning: I'm not going to address it right now, but I will tomorrow after work.
--Steve

 

[webmaster]

There goes Steve again, about as subtle as a bull in a china shop....

 

[Abelian]

Thanks for the help so far, guys. I look forward to your input as well, Steve.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

I've been trying to access the online reference, but have not had any success over the last few days. I'm getting underway tomorrow as we head down to Cabo San Lucas. I shall be back in two weeks, though. As for John, he is still suffering from shell shock from SERE school. So I would discount anything that he says on the matter, including the "bull" commnent. See you guys in a couple weeks.

--Steve

 

[JasonG]

Darn is SERE that Bad????? Just curious

 

[JTurse]

I will not give advice, only opinions....

Coming into the Navy as an officer, have a good idea of what you want to do, and stick to it. From personal experience in the aviation program, I know the costs of waffling on this point.

Doing a lateral transfer is rarely easy. Most programs are competitive to get into, and then you also have to deal with whether or not your community will let you go. All that said, it is GENERALLY easier to lateral from SWO IF you have your CO's and XO's support. If you go SWO, or SWO Nuke, I would not recommend advertising that you are considering a transfer into another community. That would give your CO the carte blanche to give his better Fitrep numbers to guys that are going to STAY in the community, killing your lateral transfer chances (read again: most programs to which you will lateral transfer are competitive).

Navy Fitreps contain a numerical score. Each commander has an average number for a particular rank. Say your commander has a 3.4 average for LTs aboard his ship. In order to take care of his hard-chargers, loyal to the SWO community, he needs to grade them above a 3.4....out of loyalty, he will probably award these numbers to the guys that are sticking around, not the guys who are going to lateral transfer, or to the guys who have applied for a release from active duty.

Some thoughts....

JT

 

[Teddy]

Darn is SERE that Bad????? Just curious

Shipping to USMC OCS 7 October, so this is obviously a guess. SERE stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. Look at those four words, and what they will entail if you ever need to use the skills in a real life wartime situation. Now think of the US military, which is pretty thorough in its training. Now imagine what the training is like. My guess is that those who attend are not allowed to discuss it. But I bet it ain't fun.

Just my uneducated guess and $0.02

Teddy

 

[Steve Wilkins]

A reply to JT. If the CO is a true professional (which I believe most are), then it isn't going to matter if you're staying SWO or not. What matters is your performance at sea.

--Steve