Why go for continuity if you can keep it active?
§ 11.213 Sea service as a member of the Armed Forces of the United States and on vessels owned by the United States as qualifying experience.
(a) Sea service as a member of the Armed Forces of the United States will be accepted as qualifying experience for an original, raise of grade, or increase in scope of all officer endorsements. In most cases, military sea service will have been performed upon ocean waters; however, inland service, as may be the case on smaller vessels, will be credited in the same manner as conventional evaluations. The applicant must submit an official transcript of sea service as verification of the service claimed when the application is submitted. The applicant must also provide the Officer in Charge, Marine Inspection other necessary information as to tonnage, routes, horsepower, percentage of time underway, and assigned duties upon the vessels which he or she served. Such service will be evaluated by the OCMI and forwarded to the Commandant for a determination of its equivalence to sea service acquired on merchant vessels and the appropriate grade, class, and limit of officer endorsement for which the applicant is eligible. Normally, 60 percent of the total time on board is considered equivalent underway service; however, the periods of operation of each vessel may be evaluated separately. In order to be eligible for a master's or chief engineer's unlimited officer endorsement, the applicant must have acquired military service in the capacity of commanding officer or engineer officer, respectively.
(b) Service in deck ratings on military vessels such as seaman apprentice, seaman, boatswain's mate, quartermaster, or radarman are considered deck service for the purposes of this part. Service in other ratings may be considered if the applicant establishes that his or her duties required a watchstanding presence on or about the bridge of a vessel. Service in engineer ratings on military vessels such as fireman apprentice, fireman, engineman, machinists, mate, machinery technician or boiler tender are considered engineer service for the purposes of this part. There are also other ratings such as electrician, hull technician, or damage controlman which may be credited when the applicant establishes that his or her duties required watchstanding duties in an operating engine room.
(c) In addition to underway service, members of the Armed Forces may obtain creditable service for periods of assignment to vessels at times other than underway, such as in port, at anchor, or in training. Normally, a 25% factor is applied to these time periods. This experience can be equated with general shipboard familiarity, training, ship's business, and other related duties.
(d) Sea service obtained on submarines is creditable, as if it were surface vessel service, for deck and engineer officer endorsements under the provision of paragraph (a) of this section. For application to deck officer endorsements, submarine service may be creditable if at least 25 percent of all service submitted for the endorsement was obtained on surface vessels (e.g. If four years' total service were submitted for an original officer endorsement, at least one year must have been obtained on surface craft in order for the submarine service to be eligible for evaluation).
(e) Service gained in a civilian capacity as commanding officer, master, mate, engineer, or pilot, etc., of any vessel owned and operated by the United States, in any service, in which a license or officer endorsement as master, mate, engineer, or pilot was not required at the time of such service, is evaluated by the OCMI and forwarded to the National Maritime Center for a determination of equivalence.
