"Sailing the world"

DS is a NROTC applicant. At the local navy recruiting office, DS heard all about "sailing around the world". I 'd welcome any accurate, detailed comments about chances of getting desired branch, jobs after graduating - NROTC w/ mechanical engineering degree.
Also, varying sizes of the ship and length of time not seeing land .

Thank you

Well, Navy doesn't have "Branches" per se, but I know what you're asking.

Navy Option NROTC Communities into which a mid was commissioned in 2011:

Here is the data for 2011:

Pilot // 273
Naval Flight Officer // 108
Surface (Conventional) // 280
Surface (Nuclear) // 34
Submarines (8 women) // 143
SEAL // 22
EOD // 18
Restricted Line // 32
Medical Student // 18
Total Navy Option NROTC // 928

The chances of getting the Community the mid wants as first choice is actually pretty good, barring medical issues. The selection is based on a combination of the Order of Merit List, and "the needs of the Navy". Sometimes Submarines don't fill their billet mission on first try, and Brass meets with the smartest mids who didn't select Subs to see if they can get them to "volunteeer". Surprisingly, to me at least, the # of billets for Pilot + NFO was substantially larger than for Surface + Surface Nuc.

Roxymom said:

DS is a NROTC applicant. At the local navy recruiting office, DS heard all about "sailing around the world". I 'd welcome any accurate, detailed comments about chances of getting desired branch, jobs after graduating - NROTC w/ mechanical engineering degree.
Also, varying sizes of the ship and length of time not seeing land .

Thank you

Click to expand...

From this somewhat old article which I expect is still current....
http://hamptonroads.com/node/234321

Efforts will be made to keep deployments to six months, officials said, and if any cruise must last beyond seven months, the Navy's top admiral must be asked for permission.

Although the policy assures sailors as much time at home as on deployment, there could be exceptions. They could be ordered back to sea during a military emergency such as last year's crisis in Lebanon, or escalation of the war in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Click to expand...

Of course, just because they are on a cruise it doesn't mean they won't see land. Just that they won't see home.

I would expect you could google the specs on the size of different types of ships (eg. destroyer, missile cruiser, carrier, etc)

Thank you both- very helpful.

Re "around the world"; my brother retired as a Naval officer and spent his whole career in the Pacific, defined as West Coast U.S. to East Coast of Africa. Based on what he said, it may be the norm to stay on either the Atlantic or Pacific side, with shore/training assignments in between. Some ships are home-ported overseas, too: http://www.navy.mil/navydata/ships/lists/homeport.asp

My brother ended up taking the engineering path, and afterwards spent most of his time in shipyard assignments. But most will spend more time at sea, over a career, than he did.

Rmom,
Timing is everything in the Navy. I did an around the world cruise on a carrier. It was 6 months long and had 2 beer days. You get a beer day on the ship after 45 days without pulling into port. We saw three ports, Yokosuka (3 days) Hong Kong (3 days) Jebel Ali (3 visits pier side liberty only.) We cruised through the Med with out stopping. I made a ton of money because there was nowhere to spend it. My buddies on the East coast on cruise at the same time went heavily in debt. They had 14 different port visits with over half cruise their cruise spent in port. I flew twice as much, but would have traded the flight time.
Your career can take many paths. There are goods and others down all of the paths.
The one constant, there are very few who regret their time served. During my first fleet tour I spent 30 out 36 months away from home. That was an exception at the time, now more the norm. I would do it all over again in a heart beat.

BLINDROTC and Oldsalt-thank you so much for this detailed reality. Greatly appreciated.