[Texas Red]

Originally Posted by 3catcircus

I highly advise going the officer route via the quickest parh, given the chance.

If you are going as strictly a WEPS, I'm thinking nowadays you'll have to do it by enlisting into a source rate, make chief (well, board-eligible E-6) and get the nod to be commissioned as a 626x Ordnance (Submarine) LDO on an SSBN. This'll take probably 7+ years to even get your foot in the door.

If you intend to serve on a fast attack, unless you want to be a 'chop, I think now it has to generally be as an unrestricted line officer - and every submarine ULO goes to nuclear power school.

Are ya good at calculus and physics? Can you draw a single line diagram of piping or circuitry and identify the functions of all the components? Are ya good at cramming info into your head at a rapid pace? Can you handle 20-25 hrs of study outside of 8 hrs of class Monday-Friday?

Get through power school and prototype and then its off to SOBC. Only then do you get your first assignment as a DivO. You'll then spend your first assignment qualifying all your watchstations culminating in OOD and getting your gold fish. The most important part of this education is learning from the chief or LPO who is the guy who is really running your division while protecting you from yourself...

After your first sea duty, you'll alternate sea and shore duty - going to advanced schools, serving as a Dept Head, the obligatory joint and staff assignments until you get assigned as a PCO. Pass, and you'll get your own boat.

A college buddy of mine was an enlisted nuke electrician's mate. Went to captain's mast and reduced from E-4 to E-3 while still in the training pipeline. Got through training and assigned to various boats, eventually making chief before being picked up for Nuclear Enlisted Commissioning Program. He's now the CO of a west coast SSN. His second sea duty assignment after commissioning (and going through nuke school all over again as an officer) was as the WEPS on an SSN.

If you *really* want to serve as a submarine officer, just go to college first - USNA, ROTC, OCS - doesn't matter. It's *far* easier to go that route than competing for a much smaller number of officer program slots as an enlisted.

In fact, the NUPOC program will *pay you* as an E-6 or E-7 while you are going to college. They only downside is if you don't make it through and commission, they send you to boot camp for assignment as a non-designated E-3...

First off, a little too much for me at the moment. I am still pretty young and not even close to finishing high school or even learning calculus and physics. What I do want to do is go to USNA or any other officer program you mentioned beforehand. I would definitely want to become an officer rather quickly since then I don't have to toil in pay that is barely above the minimum wage for four years in the lowest enlisted rates.

Thanks for explaining it though. I guess it isn't all that simple as I thought it to be, lol.

Originally Posted by ET2SN

OK, I think you may have some mis-conceptions.
If your unit has "career days", be a pain and try to get a submarine officer to attend.
Buy them lunch, do what you have to in order to get a one-to-one sit-down meeting. I'm not 100% certain (I left the Navy in 1993), but being an officer on a US sub means that you graduated from "Nuc School" (aka Prototype). Getting to Nuc school as an officer can be tricky. Off the top of my head, you'll want to have good grades and at least a BS in Mechanical Engineering with a heavy concentration in Physics and Thermodynamics. This is the tricky part, the Navy prefers to train their Nucs their own way. You don't have to have a BS/ME but you DO need an outstanding GPA. Understand that I'm not talking about "party on Thursday-to-Sunday" college. This is a very narrow pathway that looks a lot like a wire over a canyon.

Aside from being the Permanent Supply Officer, this is the only path I know of to getting gold Dolphins. Most of the junior (NUC trained) officers I knew didn't even want a shot at being the Captain, they wanted to be the ENG more than anything. There's some twisted logic behind this and it takes a long time to understand it.

Just a quick disclaimer. I enlisted about six months after I earned a BS/EE and AS/EET degrees. I enlisted mostly because the civilian industry went into a severe downturn and I needed to get the experience for when things got better.
I had asked about OCS when I enlisted and my recruiter said it was better (in his view) if I went enlisted first and let a CO nominate me for OCS. This turned out to be really good advice, by the time the skipper of my first boat asked me if I wanted to go, I already knew that I didn't and I was lucky there was another guy in the crew who wanted it more. It still took a lot of diplomacy to turn down "the old man" without having him go ballistic.

Service Academy vs ROTC/NROTC- The Service Academies don't train future lieutenants, they train future Admirals and Generals. This will make more sense later. If your goal is WEPS on a fast attack, there are easier ways of getting there than going through Annapolis. If your goal is getting your own personal flag and staff car, then you want "the big ring".
You should also understand the difference between Line Officer and Staff Officer. To you, it could make a lot of difference. To the Navy, it makes NO difference and they will assign you where they need you to be. This is known as "needs of the government" and its a double-edged blade. You can use it to your benefit but it can just as easily knock your legs out from under you.

Just to cut it short for now, there are other folks on this forum who have old uniforms and poopie suits hanging in their closet. You want their opinions as well. Just understand that a LOT of this comes down to being prepared plus being in the right place at the right time.

Originally Posted by ET2SN

BTW, this is a little early in the conversation but let me give you a little advice.

If your CO asks you, "Where would like to go in the military?". Think about this first but say "It doesn't matter. They could send me to Korea and I hate Mongolian Beef, Kimchi, and Garlic. Where ever I'm needed is what's important."


There's always going to be an element of sacrifice to military service. A lot of things can happen that are outside your influence. That was why I suggested that you keep an open mind for a while.

Great, thanks for explaining it to me. I definitely got a good idea of what lies ahead. And its screaming "WORK HARDER WHILE YOU CAN!!" lol.
I will keep my mind open for a while, there is probably something else that I will find some new interest in later.