Class of 2019 Service Assignment

NavyHoops said:
@OldRetSWO sounds a lot like my class! I think we have more who became doctors or dentists out of service than in. Not sure my class has any clergy, but my 3/C when I was a Plebe is now a Priest and a buddy of mine is a nun! The path grads take in and out of unfurls is an interesting one.
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When I was Navigator of USS Secondship, our ship's doctor was a USNA grad from the class before me (youngster when I was a plebe). Since the Corpsmen did most of the work (hat tip to DevilDoc), he was a bit bored on deployment so he asked the skipper and was granted permission to qualify OOD and pursue the full SWO quals. He'd had quite a bit of the basics at USNA but doing it on a big ship and doing real word celestial nav is a big change from USNA Naval Science courses. He turned out to be one of the best shiphandlers that I trained and had a pretty good "Seaman's Eye" for manuevering, etc.
Sadly, Docs are now barred (by Navy Medicine) from doing what he did.
 
OldRetSWO, as you probably know, that one chaplain who was Deputy Chaplain of the Navy / Chaplain of the Marine Corps, was a SWO before he left active duty Navy and came back as a Chaps. Don’t see many chaplains wearing a warfare device outside of FMF. CAPT Baker was an awesome USNA command chaplain.

Also for clarification, medically/physically qualified MIDN (for URL service selection) can choose some RL communities out of USNA, including the Information Warfare communities (intel, METOC/oceanography, Information professional, Cryptologic warfare).
 
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usnabgo08 said:
OldRetSWO, as you probably know, that one chaplain who was Deputy Chaplain of the Navy / Chaplain of the Marine Corps, was a SWO before he left active duty Navy and came back as a Chaps. Don’t see many chaplains wearing a warfare device outside of FMF. CAPT Baker was an awesome USNA command chaplain.
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Blues was a great fellow SWO and a treasured classmate. Although he and I have different religions, his personal touch when I was battling cancer was greatly appreciated and certainly a superb example of what a great chaplain can do to help. He currently works at USNA as part of the Leadership & Ethics team.
 
I believe that the ability to go Medical Corps right out of USNA was stopped around the Class of 1977. Someone decided that the role of the USN should not be to produce MDs. The program was reinstated for our class (1985). At that time, the selection process was not nearly as . . . formal/detailed/involved . . . as it is today but the basic requirements were the same (be accepted to medical school/be allowed by USNA to attend). The numbers were much lower (3-5 at the time). Now, the number has stabilized at 12 (more or less) and the entire selection process is more involved (which is probably a good thing).

As others have said, it is not uncommon for grads to become doctors, dentists, lawyers, members of the clergy, etc. after having completed their initial obligation, a full 20+ years in the military, or something in between. Most of the above would say that their time in the USN/USMC was incredibly well spent and only helped them achieve -- and be better -- in their ultimate career.
 
The command chaps at one of my commands was a prior enlisted Marine, serious chest candy, used Tuition Aid to get his BA at night, got out, used his GI Bill for divinity school, came back in as a chaplain. One of the very best of the many great chaplains I have been privileged to know. He had extraordinary emotional intelligence coupled with a warrior spirit. Of course, he aced the PRT, and would then do it multiple times alongside those who were struggling. I think he would do the run 6-7 times, pacing the stragglers.

The story here is people can have multiple career paths, no matter where and when they take that initial oath.
 
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