In addition, you are expected to work toward qualification as combat information center watch officer, officer of the deck and Navy surface warfare officer. For years the men and women of the Surface Navy been homeported and deployed around the globe. To me, it is an extension of how I grew up thinking about tactics on the football field.
I get the same rush preparing for an Air Warfare or Ballistic Missile Defense scenario as I did for a big game; the difference is that now so much more is on the line. It lets me continue to hone those skills of warfighting while teaching and leading others. I was still an Ensign and had the deck as OOD. Our Strike Group Commander was aboard, having previously commanded the ship.
As we were approaching position as the center ship when engineering called up with a casualty. Some SWOs choose to take on additional responsibility and train to be nuclear engineers on aircraft carriers. If accepted into the program, they will follow a similar path to all other SWO's, except that their second sea tour will be a 24 month division officer tour aboard a nuclear powered aircraft carrier. During the first tour aboard a conventional surface ship, they earn their Surface Warfare Qualification.
Nuclear Power School is an academic environment where students are instructed in math, physics, chemistry and theory of reactor plant design and operation. After Nuclear Power School, they receive hands-on experience for six months at the controls of an actual nuclear reactor at one of the two Nuclear Power Training Units also known as Prototypes.
Upon completion of Prototype, they go on to the 24 month division officer's tour in the engineering plant of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. After the Division Officer tours, SWO's roll to shore duty, usually lasting two to three years, in-between their sea tours.
If you perform well in your sea tours, you can expect to be promoted in your following sea tours and command a ship's department. In other words, you will command all of the divisions that fall under a particular category, such as engineering, combat systems, or operations. You will serve two department head tours of 18 months each and then roll to shore duty again.
This tour lasts thirty-six months. Big Navy does this because of how many SWOs leave around the eight-year mark of their career, the report states. While noting that he does not know what current SWOs are enduring, retired SWO Bradley Martin —who spent two-thirds of his 30 years at sea — said that over-commissioning has gone on for a long time to ensure there are enough department heads down the career line. Some go-getter ensigns — the type of officer the Navy would want to keep — end up eyeing the exit because of the lack of meaningful work or purpose, she said, while some who are content to do nothing end up sticking around.
The lieutenant recalled the situation of one junior officer on another ship who also had no job. Junior officers also suffer from imposter syndrome, according to the midgrade SWO, who recalled his own early days. You spend so much time trying to cultivate value in yourself. A lot of junior officers never get to do the job they thought they were going to do, he added.
When does the rubber meet the road? It never does. Sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer Sterett raise the anchor chain in preparation for getting underway in The midgrade SWO attributes a lot of these problems to the diminished fleet size and not having enough ships to accommodate everyone and allow junior officers the chance to really learn.
Still, the SWO said he is hearing good things about reforms to basic and advanced division officer courses, as well as increased simulator training the Navy stood up following the collisions. The sea service has expanded the amount of classroom training for junior SWOs, while constructing new simulator-based training facilities and no longer assigning junior SWOs to ships in extended maintenance.
The midgrade SWO said he thought the Navy would be courting disaster if it started commissioning fewer junior SWOs, because the results would be horrendous if the same number quit down the line, leaving massive holes in the force. The recent GAO findings are not news for the Navy. The Navy could better capture the effects of these practices if it pulled data from the Surface Warfare Mariner Skills Logbook, which since has required SWOs to document their ship-driving and related experience in a handwritten logbook.
During a sea tour, Surface Warfare Officers may be in charge of any number of shipboard operations and activities and may work with or within the following forces:. Shore duty may involve a tour-of-duty at the Pentagon, a student assignment at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, or command and management positions at shore bases and stations across the globe.
As a Navy Officer, education and training is an integral and ongoing part of your career. You will likely have the opportunity to earn advanced degrees. Following three years of duty at sea, Surface Warfare Officers earn additional sea pay.
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