Good afternoon all,

I am a prior enlisted submariner, and am considering using my four year degree to become a submarine officer.

Can anyone tell me what that pipeline is like compared to the enlisted one? I was an a-ganger on the Greeneville SSN-772, so I am familiar with the enisted pipeline in Groton, CT.

Any and all comments would be most greatly appreciated.

You mean the nuke pipeline? Or just the Sub School?

I'm actually wondering about the process of becoming a submarine officer in its entirety. I understand that there will be 12 weeks of OCS. Reading through the information about various schools has left me wondering what happens after OCS. Do I go to power school or sub school after OCS?
What should I expect from power school? How does duty station selection work? Will I spend enough time in any one place during school to bring my spouse along?
I would really like to get in touch with someone who has gone this route already. I still have the phone number for the Ustafish. Perhaps I should give the Duty Officer a call this Saturday or Sunday…

quote:

Originally posted by MechEng:
Do I go to power school or sub school after OCS?

Power school. Possibly Power prep if they think you need it, but order is power school in Charleston, Prototype in either Charleston or NY, then Sub school in Groton. I've heard from current prototype instructors that because of recent issues they started sending some of the Officers that were on hold after power school to Sub school to get it out of the way and then to prototype, but I'm not sure how long that was for.

for info about the pipeline, search for NUPOC and Nuke here and in the joining forums.

Do you know if you meet the requiremets?

quote:

Will I spend enough time in any one place during school to bring my spouse along?

Yes

quote:

I would really like to get in touch with someone who has gone this route already.

I've been working on the NUPOC route myself, my hubs just interviewed at NR to go back as a sub Officer last month, and he will go back to Power school next fall (we're both prior enlisted nukes. well, technically, he's still an enlisted nuke until he comissions next July) I can get him on here when he's done dealing with midshipmen who cant figure out that drinking and driving is a dumb thing to do.

In response to the requirements question...

I will need a waiver for my age, as I am turning 29 in two months. However, I am told that due to my prior service the waiver will be a non-issue.

I graduated cum laude witha BS in engineering technology. My GPA was 3.56... something.

Physically and mentally, I feel that I am in better standing now than during my enlisted tour (mainly due to the fact that in "real life" one cannot "imbibe" every single night of the week).

My only real concern is the calculus requirement. I am lacking one semester of calculus, and will need to talk to some professors and program directors to prove that of my 8 physics classes, at least two were calculus based (that should prove to be fairly easy since calc was a prereq for 6 of them).

PS - Midshipmen were not known for being the pride of the navy when i was last in either.

quote:

Originally posted by MechEng:
My only real concern is the calculus requirement. I am lacking one semester of calculus,

The calculus thing is non-waiverable. You will have to take a second semester. The Admiral (Donald) will not even entertain the idea of interviewing you until that point.

If you meet the requiremets, age waivers are relatively easy. (easier as a prior) Not garunteed though. Its up to the whims of NR

Other option is sub supp-O.

Being a "chop" isn't really an option. It always seemed to me like the chop was regarded as someone who was halfway between enlisted and commissioned.

I am talking to my officer recruiter now, to see what can be done about the second semester of calculus. If I have to take a second semester, so be it, but that delays my reentry until no earlier than next summer.

I have been hearing from quite a few people that "the navy is very different than what you remember". How much have things changed in the past eight years? I was on my way out as dungarees were being replaced by "slacks", if that provides you with a frame of reference. I wonder how much has really changed in the bubble head community?

I sincerely appreciate your comments thus far.

quote:

Physically and mentally, I feel that I am in better standing now than during my enlisted tour (mainly due to the fact that in "real life" one cannot "imbibe" every single night of the week).

I feel like I do a pretty good job from here

As to how the submarine community has changed, I think I was probably hitting the fleet as you were leaving. I know retention is low right now in the Sub Officer community, but it always has been. Deployments are frequent, but I'm sure you saw that in Groton when you were there. We actually had an A-Ganger turned nuke officer on my last boat, and I think he did fine with it, except he had a hard time resisting the machinery room style "throw-downs" he would often walk into...

I think the community is in better shape overall than it has been in a while, largely due to some changes that occured at Naval Reactors a few years back. But I've also been out of the fleet for a couple years now, and get most of my information from friends of mine who are still there. Hopefully someone from the Sub Officer community will slink in here and weigh in for you.


Best of luck.