Life in Navy After USNA?

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jerlawofoak

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I was wondering how life is like after graduation from USNA.
Currently, the Naval Academy attracts me the most out of all the other Service Academies, however I'm not sure which branch of SERVICE I'm attracted to the most. I know I will enjoy Academy life at USNA, but I hear things about how ship life after graduation can either be great, average, or awful and I hear a lot of accounts from people in the Navy saying that they absolutely hate being on a ship for months.
However, a lot of the people saying this are enlisted Navy. Is it different for Navy officer life?
Because I have never lived on a ship, I'm not sure whether I will like it or not, as I have never experienced it. I've always liked the ocean and the water. I'm also VERY big on traveling and I heard that the Navy is a great branch for travel.
In terms of service selection, I'm looking most at going the Navy Aviation route, which I know is a longer commitment than other service selections. Therefore, I wanted to get a better idea of if this is really what I want to do, before I get myself into it.
I was wondering if I could get some input from aspiring Navy, current Navy, or former Navy officers so that I can get a more clear view of which Academy I want to go to start my future in.
 
If you go naval aviation, there's a chance you won't be on a carrier based platform...thats something to consider as well.
 
I'll comment on Sea Duty a bit. Officers will almost always have better berthing (sleeping) conditions than the enlisted - the most junior might sometimes end up in Enlisted berthing if Officer's Country is full but that is generally not for long. Officers tend to do much less of the really menial work like chipping paint, scrubbing bilges or helping in the galley (kitchen) but instead do do more executive/managerial stuff in addition to standing officer type watches or duties.
As for the hating Sea Duty part, I can relate that when one of my ships was on a long deployment with just one liberty port after over 3 months at sea and then another 3 months at sea, our morale was about the best I ever saw. We were doing our mission and the folks did not mind the very long hours for weeks on end without a port call too much as we were doing what we had all trained to do and were doing it well.
 
puzzled said:
If you go naval aviation, there's a chance you won't be on a carrier based platform...thats something to consider as well.
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Can you elaborate on this? Do you mean Amphibious Assault Ship or more of being stationed as a helicopter pilot (or fighter pilot) on a Naval Base?
 
jerlawofoak said:
I'm not sure which branch of SERVICE I'm attracted to the most. I know I will enjoy Academy life at USNA, but I hear things about how ship life after graduation can either be great, average, or awful and I hear a lot of accounts from people in the Navy saying that they absolutely hate being on a ship for months.
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I will comment on life as a Junior Officer in the Navy, regardless of surface, submarine, aviation (and in my case, land based P3 aviation).
Sometimes its great, but the fact is that as some point it may not be so great (or outright stinks). There is a reason it is called SERVICE and not a party. The same can be said of any career ...military or civilian. Life isn't a bowl of cherries -- its more like a box of chocolates , some are good , some bad ! (I really hate picking out a chocolate and biting into a cherry ...and have passed over some good chocolates because they are shaped like there is a cherry in them).

Seriously, I wouldn't trade my time in the Navy for anything else I've done in my life, and would say the same thing if I had gone SWO. You get a lot of responsibility at a young age; and get to work with some of the best people in America (both Officer and Enlisted). As Old Ret SWO noted, there is real sense of satisfaction in going out , working your tail off on a real world mission.

Finally, one of the nice things about USNA is that you will get to experience being on a ship, a submarine, an airplane and even the Marine Corp before you make a service selection. I've said it before, going to USNA gives you more opportunities than either Air Force or West Point -- Navy has its own Air Force and own Army , only better.
 
Another question: If someone wants to do computer science/data science/cyber/ops research related field at USNA or local university, will they have chance to apply what they learned at USNA/local university as SWO on ship? The reason I am asking is because I am not interested in aviation/nuke/sub/marine and that leaves me with being SWO community. This may change in next 4 years, but it is as of right now.
 
If there are any submariners on the forum, can you give some insight on the submarine community and deployment (living separated from the world for a long time)?
 
@jerlawofoak stated, “However, a lot of the people saying this are enlisted Navy. Is it different for Navy officer life?”

How many “enlisted Navy” do you know?
 
Can you elaborate on this? Do you mean Amphibious Assault Ship or more of being stationed as a helicopter pilot (or fighter pilot) on a Naval Base?
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If you're flying P8's for instance, it is a 737 based airplane and will not land on or operate from a ship. Same thing with the E6 Mercury, C130 and C40 aircraft.
 
usmagirl118 said:
Another question: If someone wants to do computer science/data science/cyber/ops research related field at USNA or local university, will they have chance to apply what they learned at USNA/local university as SWO on ship? The reason I am asking is because I am not interested in aviation/nuke/sub/marine and that leaves me with being SWO community. This may change in next 4 years, but it is as of right now.
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As a SWO, you are not going to do much of those things on a ship. That is the same for the vast majority of USMA grads who will go into the combat related branches. USNA just like USMA offers a limited number of grads to go into Cyber and things of that nature but the numbers who get it are small. You are however able to shift into fields of this type after a few years in the fleet or field.
 
OldRetSWO said:
As a SWO, you are not going to do much of those things on a ship. That is the same for the vast majority of USMA grads who will go into the combat related branches. USNA just like USMA offers a limited number of grads to go into Cyber and things of that nature but the numbers who get it are small. You are however able to shift into fields of this type after a few years in the fleet or field.
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Thank you. I guess when one shifts into these fields, they are starting over. Having not practiced it for couple of years, one would have to re-educate and re-learn.
 
usmagirl118 said:
Thank you. I guess when one shifts into these fields, they are starting over. Having not practiced it for couple of years, one would have to re-educate and re-learn.
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Maybe for some folks or specific areas but generally, most seem able to move back into areas that they'd previously mastered with a pretty quick restart. Many military aviators for example go back to school for advanced degrees and then move back into the cockpit without going back to flight school. Same thing for Surface Warfare Officers in the Navy.
 
It’s too far for in the future for me, but what about those who want to serve 5 years and then work in private sector? I am looking to work in IT related field in private sector. What’s have you seen the transformation to be from SWO to private sector in IT related fields.
 
usmagirl118 said:
It’s too far for in the future for me, but what about those who want to serve 5 years and then work in private sector? I am looking to work in IT related field in private sector. What’s have you seen the transformation to be from SWO to private sector in IT related fields.
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What I have seen is that after serving as a military officer, most companies will consider IT degreed folks for a more managerial or project leadership type role - instead of being the actual coder, you might have a team a coders working for you. While I do know of folks who had happy and fruitful careers "in the trenches" of various technical industries, the vast majority of former military officers move into project and program leadership positions.
 
My corporate career was in a field that, while not technical in nature, involved a specialized knowledge, terminology and expertise. We regularly recruited JMOs from the Army, Navy and Air Force. Most, though not all, were SA grads. What they lacked in the job-specific knowledge, they made up via outstanding leadership skills. Which is exactly why we hired them.

The particular field valued cross-functional leadership — of people and of money — in which that leader was often the least-experienced, least-tenured person on the team. Sound familiar? Essentially like a JMO! We knew we could train the veterans on the industry specifics — it was the leadership acumen we wanted walking in the door.
 
usmagirl118 said:
It’s too far for in the future for me, but what about those who want to serve 5 years and then work in private sector? I am looking to work in IT related field in private sector. What’s have you seen the transformation to be from SWO to private sector in IT related fields.
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The value of attending a Service Academy (or any college) isn't the specific information that you learned. A degree is just a piece of paper that says you accomplished the prescribed course of training.....but it is also the ticket to further learning and experience. We never stop learning.

My USNA degree is a BS in Political Science, and I took a lot of classes dealing with the Soviet Union- the USSR dissolved 6 years after graduation, and I don't think that I ever used the specific knowledge that I learned at USNA. However, from that specific knowledge, I have the underlying base of how people, political systems, and governments work. That, and the reading , writing, and communication skills I learned are invaluable as a lawyer.
 
My DD has an interest in corporate law and technology, she is hoping to continue her learning and application of her experience in big Navy / Army/ AF.
 
jerlawofoak said:
I know I will enjoy Academy life at USNA, but I hear things about how ship life after graduation can either be great, average, or awful and I hear a lot of accounts from people in the Navy saying that they absolutely hate being on a ship for months.
However, a lot of the people saying this are enlisted Navy. Is it different for Navy officer life?
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Like with so much in the military - the answer will be "it depends." It can depend on the schedule - there are the standard deployments (normally 6-7 months) and then those with exceptions, especially under COVID -- one Carrier Strike Group (CSG) (carrier and associated ships that deploy with her) just completed an 11-month away from family deployment with a few limited port visits and another CSG had no port visits for their 7-8 month deployment; two CSGs are (have) doing double pumps (deploy twice within a handful of months). Then there are the workup and certification events which occur for a handful of months prior to deployment. When you put all the pieces of a ship's operational schedule together -- there is a lot of time away from home/family and not just from a "deployment." Then there is what job one has (all job difficulties are not necessarily equal), watchstanding/duty, and your boss (some of them are not always good) that can have a direct impact. These issues are not just felt by enslited, but also officers. It is up to each individual how they view or confront these challenges that "get in the way." As said above, it is service/sacrifice and everything is going to be some sort of learning experience. I have learned so much from all of the "bad" experiences and hope that makes me more effective in the future.

Being on the ship itself isn't horrible, but COVID threw a curve ball - but hopefully this will just be a short term issue.
 
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