Norfolk is fine. The hipster crowd in Ghent is cool and there are some cool restaurants. Things to do usually aren't lacking. The city overall is kind of a mess and is very street by street in terms of liveability or whatever. It's not San Diego or Hawaii and J-ville is overall a nicer place.
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OCS SWO Ranking and Ship Selection
- Thread starter Keegan Hoey
- Start date
Norfolk is fine. The hipster crowd in Ghent is cool and there are some cool restaurants. Things to do usually aren't lacking. The city overall is kind of a mess and is very street by street in terms of liveability or whatever. It's not San Diego or Hawaii and J-ville is overall a nicer place.
Phoenix19917
Well-Known Member
How common are overseas orders during selection at OCS?
My class had 2 for Spain and 3 for Japan. It varies from class to class, so you could have only Norfolk to choose from or nearly all the homeports to choose from.
Phoenix19917
Well-Known Member
Thanks, good to know !
ClassyGent23
Well-Known Member
Do we get time to think about the options? I know I am engaged, and while it may not matter much to me...to may matter to her.
44magnum
Active Member
You know you are engaged? That's good. I didn't know when I was.
They gave us the list on Wednesday during 8th week I think. We had to turn it in on the following Monday, but we made our selections that Saturday. So 3-4 days. I recommend you discuss it with your fiance now, and rank order the different ports so that when ship selection happens you don't even need to think about it.
This. I wasn't with my (now) husband during his first ship selection but when it came time for his second DivO tour he called me and told me the options then said he needed to let the detailer know later that day so...yeah...what did I think? It was only because we had talked about generic details that allowed our discussion to last under 10 minutes and he got, more or less, what he wanted.
I actually recommend you and your betrothed doing it the way they ask SWO DH tours to be ranked. Rank homeports, platforms, and billets* then rank what is most important to the two of you. Are you both absolutely set on San Diego? If that is the number one priority than go into ship selection knowing you might get a crappy billet on a crappy ship to get that. If you have your heart set on a platform, i.e, you can't live if you aren't part of the new LCS/FF crew, go with that as the priority. Just make sure that both of you are aware of the consequences of that ranking, e.g., might end up living someplace you don't want for the platform you do.
* Do initial SWO billets come out as billets "ElectrO on USS Firstship out of NS XX" or just 'USS Firstship out of NS XX'?
ClassyGent23
Well-Known Member
Thanks to both of you, that really helps!
Preach, brother, preach!
To OP, like it has been said before, if you want orders to Norfolk, it's really easy to get them. As a SWO if you want to go to Norfolk, you'll get orders to Norfolk; heck, even if you don't want orders to Norfolk, you'll eventually get orders to Norfolk. Also, unless things have changed significantly since I graduated, the class officer will drop a big (or small) list of potential orders in the laps of the SWO-selects sometime after RLP (week 4 , IIRC). Once that happens, they usually have a week or two to figure out amongst themselves who gets what. My class was lucky in the fact that not a single one of us got orders to Norfolk, the class behind us was about 90% Norfolk/Little Creek. The caveat to all of this is that while his first tour may be to Norfolk, be prepared that homeport shifts could happen at any time, and at some point in his career, yours may have to take a backseat to his or you'll have to endure long periods of separation to both progress in your chosen fields.
And to close it all out, if your husband has the option, tell him to pick an Gator Freighter out of Little Creek over Norfolk. Little Creek's no hustle ways and less gate traffic makes it the prime choice for discerning SWOs in the Hampton Roads area.
At OCS it's all listed as hull and homeport, so "USS NEVER-DOCK out of Naval Station Norfolk."
BT
How do I multi-quote? This new forum software has got me confused.
Keegan Hoey
New Member
We've talked about that and I understand that at some point we will have to move. That being said, we have been told that homesteading in Norfolk can be done if you really push for it. But at some point, we're gonna want to have kids so when we have to start moving that will be the time. Was just hoping to finish the degree and pay it off before that all started up! Thanks for all the advice guys, it's really helpful to hear your opinions. I definitely can't weigh in on the prior/non prior discussion, as I'm just a newbie navy wife
Keegan Hoey
New Member
Thanks! That is great advice! Yes we've been concerned that his class will be the class with no Norfolk orders which would be just our luck. But at this point, all we can do is wait until they release the list and go from there. Apparently the SWOs are set to receive the famed list on Friday of this week. I will definitely pass along the information about Little Creek as well. Thanks so much for the heads up!
We've dealt with distance before. It wouldn't be ideal but we could do it. However, at this point, as my grandmother says, don't borrow worry! So we're just trying to concentrate on what's in front of us
