Naval Service Selection/Branching

sasmc

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Jan 30, 2023
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Please excuse me if I am incorrect with any terminology. New member here.

If one wishes to commission as a naval officer when does service selection/branching typically take place? Obviously after USNA but is it before or the same as Naval ROTC?

Is a mids GPA heavily factored into the selection process? If it is factored in is there any consideration for the difficulty of academics at USMMA due to the condensed academic schedule?
 
Which Naval community are you interested in? The answers to your questions depend on what you want to do in the Navy and what the Navy's needs are which may change from year to year. The difficulty of the curriculum at USMMA will have little bearing on selection.
 
You're good. If your preference is SWO pretty much all you have to do is graduate.

Not necessarily true. Totally dependent on the accessions environment. If other sources can satisfy accessions requirements then commissioning AD in any designator/community can get competitive quickly. Big Navy is short on enlisted sailors, but not as much on officers. To be frank, the odds of commissioning SWO out of KP are good, but if you want to go SWO from the get-go there is no reason to attend KP. Instead, look at USNA or an ROTC program.

To add to that a lot of the knowledge that you would get on the deck side is not applicable. As navigation is done by QM's and Etc. Heard this first hand from a classmate who was a deck major and SWO.
 
In the larger scheme, I bet you will change your mind a few times. But the first step is to find and enter your commissioning program. Sounds like you are planning to apply to USMMA, USNA and NROTC. That is a good start. You may want to add a few others. Start preparing today to make yourself the ideal candidate for these programs. Good luck on your journey!
 
Not necessarily true. Totally dependent on the accessions environment. If other sources can satisfy accessions requirements then commissioning AD in any designator/community can get competitive quickly. Big Navy is short on enlisted sailors, but not as much on officers. To be frank, the odds of commissioning SWO out of KP are good, but if you want to go SWO from the get-go there is no reason to attend KP. Instead, look at USNA or an ROTC program.

To add to that a lot of the knowledge that you would get on the deck side is not applicable. As navigation is done by QM's and Etc. Heard this first hand from a classmate who was a deck major and SWO.
One of my deckie classmates went active duty and spent his career as an engineer. . .go figure.
 
As navigation is done by QM's and Etc. Heard this first hand from a classmate who was a deck major and SWO.
False
While QMs and ETs may do the "Grunt work", the Ship's Navigator supervises and needs to know how/why things are done as they are.
Example - QMs may do updates and maintenance while the Officers are doing voyage planning, port research, etc as well as managing the enterprise. The OOD has the QM on the watch team to actually do the physical work during watches but needs to know what the QM is doing to properly supervise them.
 
False
While QMs and ETs may do the "Grunt work", the Ship's Navigator supervises and needs to know how/why things are done as they are.
Example - QMs may do updates and maintenance while the Officers are doing voyage planning, port research, etc as well as managing the enterprise. The OOD has the QM on the watch team to actually do the physical work during watches but needs to know what the QM is doing to properly supervise them.

Seriously? Are you a US Merchant Marine Academy deck program graduate currently in the fleet? What do you know about the deck program at KP??
 
Seriously? Are you a US Merchant Marine Academy deck program graduate currently in the fleet? What do you know about the deck program at KP??
No, are you a US Navy Surface Warfare Officer who served a Sea Tour as Shipboard Navigator across a wide range of operations and exercises?
.
US Navy ships do not go from Port to another port at most economical speed. Shipboard operations such as Amphibious Landings, running Liberty Boats in ports where the ship is anchored far from the fleet landing, transiting with and without a Battlegroup for little things like AntiPiraacy Patrol, Sanctions Enforcement, Mine Warfare and Anti Submarine Warfare all can present significant Navigation challenges that QMs might HELP with but the Navigator will have a lot on his professional plate.
 
Seriously? Are you a US Merchant Marine Academy deck program graduate currently in the fleet? What do you know about the deck program at KP??
Some interesting reading at Kings Point Midshipmen Teach Navy Celestial Navigation. I would also suspect that the author, Commander Justin Harts (USMMA '98) USN, Commanding Officer, USS Benfold (DDG 65) would support being a SWO as a reasonable goal.
 
Some interesting reading at Kings Point Midshipmen Teach Navy Celestial Navigation. I would also suspect that the author, Commander Justin Harts (USMMA '98) USN, Commanding Officer, USS Benfold (DDG 65) would support being a SWO as a reasonable goal.

So it makes sense that you should pursue that route because there were a few people who were successful at it? There are probably a few successful KP'ers in every field by chance. Anything is a reasonable goal, however, taking the KP path to get there might not be. In the case of being an AD Sailor, 90% do not know what KP is. And, many of the 10% who do would probably actually look down on it. Anyway, anybody can walk off the street these days with a college degree and commission through OCS. What's the point of going to KP to do the same thing?
 
So it makes sense that you should pursue that route because there were a few people who were successful at it? There are probably a few successful KP'ers in every field by chance. Anything is a reasonable goal, however, taking the KP path to get there might not be. In the case of being an AD Sailor, 90% do not know what KP is. And, many of the 10% who do would probably actually look down on it. Anyway, anybody can walk off the street these days with a college degree and commission through OCS. What's the point of going to KP to do the same thing?
You've gone from Navy officer/enlisted accession goals, to shipboard NAV and what you think a couple of enlisted ratings do, and now to what a wardroom might think about a KP grad and the difficulty of getting a slot at OCS.

And they're all broad, unfounded, mostly incorrect generalizations.
Not necessarily true. Totally dependent on the accessions environment. If other sources can satisfy accessions requirements then commissioning AD in any designator/community can get competitive quickly.
Let's just stop there and drop the rest. Everything depends on needs of the Navy, always.
 
The cool thing about KP as opposed to USNA or ROTC is that you aren't stuck with the Navy. You can go Army, Air Force, Space Force, Navy, Coast Guard, Civilian, etc.

KP has more opportunities after graduation than any other service academy or ROTC program. Additionally, you get 300+ days of experience at sea before you graduate so that you can see if a career at sea is what you really want.

Here is the service commitment verbatim from the CO 2026 Bearings Book:

1. Maintain a license as an officer in the Merchant Marine of the United States for at least 6 years following graduation.
2. Apply for an accept, if offered, a commission as an officer in a United States Armed Forces reserve component for at least 8 years or apply for an accept an Active Duty commission for at least five years.
3. Serve in the United States maritime industry for at least 5 years following graduation.
4. A combination of the aforementioned.

This is really what made it so easy for me to choose KP; plus Sea Year. I would 100% recommend doing an overnight visit of the academy prior to crossing it off of your list.

P.S. Anyone can go SWO from USMMA. If you want SWO, the Naval Science Dept. will make it happen no problem. Chances are, however, that you'll be dissuaded from SWO over the four years that you attend.
 
Not SWO, but another KP grad that has distinguished himself is Nathan Barton. Newly graduated from KP in I believe 2002, Nathan Barton stood on the bridge of a 500-foot research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico, piloting the ship close enough for scientists to tag whales. But he wanted to fly so he applied to naval flight school and was accepted. Nathan joined the Blue Angels as Left Wing pilot in 2013 and remained with them until November 2015. At least as of January 2023, online sources say Nathan is Commanding Officer Electronic Attack Squadron One Three Six (VAQ-136) operating out of NAS Whidbey Island, WA / USS CARL VINSON (CVN 70). He is responsible for the tactical employment and care of 214 Sailors and seven EA-18G aircraft and associated weapon systems.
 
Captain Harts definitely would. He has done great things and continues to make the Navy from his KP experience.
Captain Harts is a really nice guy, wicked smart, and a great mentor. A young lady I call my "pseudo daughter #2" was on the Benfold doing that celestial navigation with her classmates...he came to her graduation; probably to see all of them. She still keeps in touch with him as a mentor.

She's a navy pilot now.
 
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