Questions about OCS and gym facilities onboard ships

[Fluffplc]

I am having a very low confidence in your recruiter, either they are just completely clueless or have been just saying what you want to hear to get you in, what did your OR do in the USN because I am really wondering what was going on with him or her.

Sea time is the norm for new SWO's as like has been said you need to get your pin and to do that you need sea time and to be a part of things like entering and leaving port, underway replenishment, and many others.

A rough schedule that we had on a CVN and it appeared our small ships with us had a similar schedule was something like 6 months yards, then workups/local ops in and out of port for 6 months, then a 6 month deployment, and then 6 months local ops in and out of port. There are some that go into the yards for extended times but in those cases I have known SWO's to get sent TAD to ships going to sea so they can get experience.

My OR mentioned the 48 months of sea duty, but said the amount of time you spend out at sea just depends. He said some SWOs spend more time at sea than others. I don't have a problem being out in the water, but I was curious if there was any general consensus on how long a deployment at sea might be. Or how much say we had in being ashore or at sea.
I'm excited to do the job and SWO was my first choice. I thought this would be a good place to ask general questions for newbies like me so I could get a better sense of what to expect. I've never had to live on a ship before so just trying to get basic questions out of the way.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

My OR mentioned the 48 months of sea duty, but said the amount of time you spend out at sea just depends. He said some SWOs spend more time at sea than others. I don't have a problem being out in the water, but I was curious if there was any general consensus on how long a deployment at sea might be. Or how much say we had in being ashore or at sea.
I'm excited to do the job and SWO was my first choice. I thought this would be a good place to ask general questions for newbies like me so I could get a better sense of what to expect. I've never had to live on a ship before so just trying to get basic questions out of the way.

Depends could be true I mean 58% at sea and 62% at sea is a slight difference.

That 48 months is broken up into 2 tours on 2 different ships, estimate about 40% of your time will be inport during those times, but of that a big part will be in the yards, so when not in the yards you are spending lots of time underway. One of the LCDR's in my department had a husband on a small ship and they would get underway Monday morning and return Friday afternoon, that schedule continued for weeks.

Your time on shore will generally be minimal, and even if the ship has an extend yard period you may not be able to benefit from it.

 

[Brett327]

My OR mentioned the 48 months of sea duty, but said the amount of time you spend out at sea just depends. He said some SWOs spend more time at sea than others. I don't have a problem being out in the water, but I was curious if there was any general consensus on how long a deployment at sea might be. Or how much say we had in being ashore or at sea.
I'm excited to do the job and SWO was my first choice. I thought this would be a good place to ask general questions for newbies like me so I could get a better sense of what to expect. I've never had to live on a ship before so just trying to get basic questions out of the way.

Well, I can tell that you’re going to have a transformative experience that will probably blow your mind. Try not to get too hung up on whether you can do the same workout routine as you do now, and please don’t factor that into what ship you strive to select. A big part of the Navy experience is adapting under austere conditions. You’ll find ways to stay fit… we all do, for better or worse. Be prepared to unburden yourself of your normal, day to day expectations. You’re going to have a cool job, leading young Sailors, and being an integral part of making a warship function well. You will traverse oceans, makes life and death decisions, and you will see and experience things that your mind cannot presently conceive of… both positive and negative. Good times.

 

[Jim123]

Several years ago, the deployment cycle was 18 months divided into three six month parts: workups, deployment, and post-deployment. Workups was a couple, very short underway training periods, a 1-2 month group exercise, and a ~2 week group exercise, plus a few other short periods as required (east coast ships had to sail up the coast to Yorktown for weapons unload, for example). Deployment was deployment, gone for six months straight albeit with liberty ports in other countries. Post-deployment was minimum underway time, maybe some good deal, short, mini deployments to Central and South America for example, or to different U.S. cities for Fleet Week and the like.

Historically, some decades had busier schedules, others had lighter schedules. A lucky few ships have done deployments lasting a year or more.

It depends.

That 18 month thing was never really a thing for very long anyway. Schedules change, things happen in the world. The Navy has been chasing the unicorn of predictable schedules for a long time.

 

[Fluffplc]

Let’s back up a bit. What interests you about the Navy and why do you want to be a SWO. If you don’t want to go to sea, that seems like an odd career choice. Give us some insight into your motivations and long term plans.

I want to have a job that challenges me and one that makes me feel like I'm doing something worthwhile. I like the lifestyle of the military (deployments, structure, moving around, travel overseas). I just had a personal issue come up recently that makes me want to stay ashore for the beginning of my career, so I was wondering if that was possible. If not, then OK.

I want to make navy a career and stay in as long as possible. SWO was my first choice. But it seems like 80% of what I read about the SWO community online is negative so that makes me a bit weary. I want to see what it's really like and if I end up hating it, I'd like to consider the possibility of lat transferring. I know that's an option, just not always easy to get. But I've seen stories online of people quitting the Navy altogether because they hated swo so much, and I've spent enough time in the civilian world; I don't really want to go back. I'd rather just try switch to another designator in the Navy if swo really is that bad. Who knows if that'll be possible for me, I'm just trying to have a general idea of what my options may be.

Depends could be true I mean 58% at sea and 62% at sea is a slight difference.

That 48 months is broken up into 2 tours on 2 different ships, estimate about 40% of your time will be inport during those times, but of that a big part will be in the yards, so when not in the yards you are spending lots of time underway. One of the LCDR's in my department had a husband on a small ship and they would get underway Monday morning and return Friday afternoon, that schedule continued for weeks.

Your time on shore will generally be minimal, and even if the ship has an extend yard period you may not be able to benefit from it.

What do you mean by in the yards? The ship is in port? It seems like that guy was basically living on the ship 24/7 until the weekends.
So I should expect the first ~4 years to be mostly on ships, deployed. And not much time on land?

You won't know anything about what kind of tours you'll be doing beforehand will you? Is it kind of a, find out when you get to the ship ?

Well, I can tell that you’re going to have a transformative experience that will probably blow your mind. Try not to get too hung up on whether you can do the same workout routine as you do now, and please don’t factor that into what ship you strive to select. A big part of the Navy experience is adapting under austere conditions. You’ll find ways to stay fit… we all do, for better or worse. Be prepared to unburden yourself of your normal, day to day expectations. You’re going to have a cool job, leading young Sailors, and being an integral part of making a warship function well. You will traverse oceans, makes life and death decisions, and you will see and experience things that your mind cannot presently conceive of… both positive and negative. Good times.

Thanks. Working out is a huge part of my life so that's something I want to continue as best as I can in the Navy. Other hobbies and whatnot, I don't really care about. I've read a lot of good and bad things about different kinds of ships online. I'm not sure I could make a decision on what would be the best for me without having experience it myself. I'm going to learn new things on whatever ship I end up on; I figured if it's possible to get on a ship with a solid gym, why not. It's a huge stress reliever for me and being to work out will help me deal with all the crap that'll come up.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

What do you mean by in the yards? The ship is in port? It seems like that guy was basically living on the ship 24/7 until the weekends.
So I should expect the first ~4 years to be mostly on ships, deployed. And not much time on land?

You won't know anything about what kind of tours you'll be doing beforehand will you? Is it kind of a, find out when you get to the ship ?

Yards is when a ship is generally having work done by a shipyard, it is when they do a lot of repairs or upgrades to equipment.

I would expect a large amount of sea time, that is what a SWO needs to get qualified, the majority of time not at sea will be when the ship is in the yards.

Yes he was living on the ship 24/7 except weekends because they were out to sea.

Most everything dealing with SWO requires SWO's to be at sea.

There is a lot of negative info about SWO life, it is challenging and I worked for several SWO's who even though they enjoyed being a SWO they still would complain. It is one of those things that you take the good with the bad.

The other thing is working out when at sea is another challenge, standing watch, admin duties, sleep, and other items all compete for time, not to mention working out when a ship is rocking back and forth, it is interesting but can be done.

 

[Fluffplc]

Yards is when a ship is generally having work done by a shipyard, it is when they do a lot of repairs or upgrades to equipment.

I would expect a large amount of sea time, that is what a SWO needs to get qualified, the majority of time not at sea will be when the ship is in the yards.

Yes he was living on the ship 24/7 except weekends because they were out to sea.

Most everything dealing with SWO requires SWO's to be at sea.

There is a lot of negative info about SWO life, it is challenging and I worked for several SWO's who even though they enjoyed being a SWO they still would complain. It is one of those things that you take the good with the bad.

The other thing is working out when at sea is another challenge, standing watch, admin duties, sleep, and other items all compete for time, not to mention working out when a ship is rocking back and forth, it is interesting but can be done.

Thank you for the detailed responses. Everything here was very helpful. I have a better idea now of what to expect, which is what I wanted. thanks a lot

 

[croakerfish]

I just had a personal issue come up recently that makes me want to stay ashore for the beginning of my career, so I was wondering if that was possible. If not, then OK.

There’s always flight school…that’ll get you 1.5-2.5 years ashore at least.

I want to make navy a career and stay in as long as possible. SWO was my first choice. But it seems like 80% of what I read about the SWO community online is negative so that makes me a bit weary…

Heed the warnings!