When the time comes to get your orders to your first assignment, do people generally get the option to choose a certain home port rather than a certain boat? Or does it fluctuate between the two?

Also, this may seem dumb, but are orders to fast attack boats come up more often than to boomers? (since there are more fast attacks than boomers)

Thanks for the responses

Unless things have changed since I was a sailor boy it kinda goes like this: You will fill out a dream sheet with what home port you want and class of boat. There are a lot of factors involved too. What is your rate is one. Example: MT's do not serve on fast attacks. When I was in we had several classes of attack boats with different systems onboard. When I was going to 'C' school my NEC limited me to Groton and San Deigo. There was going to be one set of orders to San Deigo and the rest to Groton. We got to pick orders by class ranking. I busted my butt to be first in the class to get the orders I wanted. Today it might be a bit different.

quote:

Originally posted by Arved:
When the time comes to get your orders to your first assignment, do people generally get the option to choose a certain home port rather than a certain boat? Or does it fluctuate between the two?

Also, this may seem dumb, but are orders to fast attack boats come up more often than to boomers? (since there are more fast attacks than boomers)

You pick by home port. Ratio? Example: for my son's class, of 22 billets offered, only 3 were for SSBN ports, while the rest were for SSN ports, 3 only for Hawaii, and the rest for Groton or Norfolk.

You also get assigned based on class rank and needs of the Navy. If you're first in the class, ask for a boat out of HI and there ain't one available, you ain't going

GUAM is also a potential home port.....

Assuming no follow on training sometime around the 3/4 mark of 'A' school your instructor will either list homeports or platforms. It all depends on the billets available from the detailer and, of course, needs of the Navy. Usually class ranking and military performance dictates picking order, but it doesn't always. Not to add to paranora, but I've heard of classes losing the right to pick anything - orders just showed up on their desks one day . As to your second part, it depends - I've heard of whole classes going "boomer" while others go "Fast Boat", this is the exception and not the rule.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: spolen,

quote:

Originally posted by Arved:

Also, this may seem dumb, but are orders to fast attack boats come up more often than to boomers? (since there are more fast attacks than boomers)

Thanks for the responses

But remember, there are two crews on a boomer.

It would also depend on what you want to do travel wise. If you want to see the world, don’t pick a Trident.

Bangor (Naval Base Kitsap) has all three types (SSN,SSBN,SSGN)

I was leaning towards a Trident boat, but then I realized chances aren't that great in hoping to get assigned to one (not as many Trident as Fast Attacks)

Also, are orders to Bangor really rare? I see alot of orders for Groton or Norfolk, doesn't seem like there are many for west coast, is that usually true?

If you are shooting for a boomer then your only choices will be Kings Bay, Ga. and Bangor, Wa.

quote:

Originally posted by Arved:
I was leaning towards a Trident boat, but then I realized chances aren't that great in hoping to get assigned to one (not as many Trident as Fast Attacks)

Also, are orders to Bangor really rare?

My hubby just picked his orders about a week ago, and from my understanding it went a little like this...

There are 9 guys in his C-School class (since he's an MT, he's guaranteed to be on a Boomer). They got to choose their orders based on their rank in class. Since my hubby is first in his class, he went first.

There were 9 orders posted on the board and as each guy chose his orders they were crossed off. In his class they got 3 orders to Bangor, 1 order to stay here in Kings Bay, and 5 orders to the USS Alaska which is in refit (or something like that) in Norfolk but will be stationed in Kings Bay when it's finished.

So since my hubby went first he picked Bangor. From my understanding Bangor orders aren't rare per se, but as with most things in the Navy it's really luck of the draw. From what we've learned, I would say to try to stay at the top of your class and talk to the other guys about what you want. All of the guys in his class knew that a certain Sailor wanted to go back to Bangor (to be near his family, etc.) and they held off on picking his orders.

Good luck!

Arved,

I did some looking on the internet (I don't have any first hand knowledge as I'm not in the Navy), and found this:

18 Ohio class boats * 2 crew * 140 enlisted = 5040
44 Los Angles class boats * 1 crew * 116 enlisted = 5104
03 Seawolf class boats * 1 crew * 121 enlisted = 363
03 Virginia class boats * 1 crew * 113 enlisted = 339

These numbers may be wrong/outdated, but it was the best I could find on the web.

So, it doesn't look like getting orders to a boomer are as hard as you think when you look at it as a purely numbers thing. What this doesn't account for is the retention rate for the classes and the desire for sailors to pick a certain class. As an example: If everyone wants to be on a boomer, boomer sailors don't want to change classes, and are more likely to reenlist, then it would be even harder. In that case, you would need to adjust the numbers above with a "fudge factor" to find the likeliness of orders to a boomer.

Basically put, You get to choose between Bangor and Kings bay for boomers or Groton, Norfolk, or San Diego for fast attack. The majority of the time there's bound to be some Hawaii and Guam orders in there too. Picking orders just depends on your command. In my radio class we didn't get to pick until the Hawaii and Guam orders were gone. Basically, if you were top of the class, you got screwed. I'm happy I got Bangor... it's a little wet, and the strip clubs out here are ridiculously cheesy, but the people are nice and the command is fair.

Roll Tide!