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Shortest time at sea?

T

tcc8988

Member
I'm trying to choose my first duty station and one of the many factors in my decision is time at sea. I know no matter what that I'm going to have to spend a long time at sea but I don't want to be away from family too long. I heard that coastal riverine are never gone for too many months. What are the best and worst options for time at sea?
 
Ummmm... you joined the Navy. Expect to go to sea.

You joined the military, expect to be away from family.

Without knowing much about a SWO career path, I cannot imagine that a Riverine squadron is an option for first tour SWOs. And while they may not be "at sea" for months, they are detached out to places like Bahrain for extended periods of time, so you'll still deploy and be gone.
 
Sailors belong on ships, ships belong at sea.

If you’re a SWO you need to go to sea for your career.

That said, don’t pick Japan if you don’t want to be a sea dog.
 
Ya I figured I would get heat for this post. But I think it's a legit question. I won't mind spending time at sea at all, I'm excited for it. I just wanted to know which ships are more likely to be gone for months at a time and which are more likely to be gone for a week or 2 each month on and off. It's one of many factors influencing my "decision"
 
tcc8988 said:
Ya I figured I would get heat for this post. But I think it's a legit question. I won't mind spending time at sea at all, I'm excited for it. I just wanted to know which ships are more likely to be gone for months at a time and which are more likely to be gone for a week or 2 each month on and off. It's one of many factors influencing my "decision"
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Just about all the ships that a first tour SWO could go to are going to be gone for months at a time.
 
There isn't any legitimate answer with this. Also, RIVRON isn't a first tour opportunity. If you really want to avoid a high OPTEMPO/underway time, avoid Japan.
 
tcc8988 said:
Ya I figured I would get heat for this post. But I think it's a legit question. I won't mind spending time at sea at all, I'm excited for it. I just wanted to know which ships are more likely to be gone for months at a time and which are more likely to be gone for a week or 2 each month on and off. It's one of many factors influencing my "decision"
Click to expand...

avoid Japan to minimize sea time, but expect for every 2 years at sea to do about a 6 month deployment, then add in workups, I was on a CVN multiple times but we had escort ships, and we would go out with them for sometime 6-8 weeks at a time, sometimes about 4 weeks at a time, when I added up all my times at sea it worked out that on a 4 year tour I spent about 2 years of it at sea.
 
tcc8988 said:
Ya I figured I would get heat for this post. But I think it's a legit question. I won't mind spending time at sea at all, I'm excited for it. I just wanted to know which ships are more likely to be gone for months at a time and which are more likely to be gone for a week or 2 each month on and off. It's one of many factors influencing my "decision"
Click to expand...


I spent 19/39 months at sea during my first sea tour, and I'm not a SWO. Never had an underway less than 1 month either.
 
tcc8988 said:
I'm trying to choose my first duty station and one of the many factors in my decision is time at sea. I know no matter what that I'm going to have to spend a long time at sea but I don't want to be away from family too long. I heard that coastal riverine are never gone for too many months. What are the best and worst options for time at sea?
Click to expand...

As already noted, all ships more or less operate on a similar deployment rotation cycle, so on average, it all looks the same.
And every deployment is basically going to be about 6 months minimum.

The only way you can avoid that is to go to a FDNF (Forward Deployed Naval Forces) ship, such as in Japan or Rota, Spain. They do not do the standard single long deployment, because they are homeported near their operating areas.
However...the tradeoff here is they are extremely busy and subject to surges. So you won't be gone for that single long duration period, but you could be constantly heading out for a month or two with only a few weeks in between to recover.

Every time North Korea sneezes, some Japan ships are likely to get extra tasking.
 
A cruiser that hasn't gone through it's phase modernization yet...if there's even any of them left now.
 
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