Office of Legislative Affairs

iskekeirhtj

Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2022
Messages
48
Hey ya’ll,

Recently I’ve been interning on the Hill for my local congressman while waiting for PS. This internship has proved to be immensely interesting and rewarding.

I was wondering how are officers able to get selected for positions in legislative affairs? Is it a competitive process? And if so, what can I do during my years at USNA to make me a more viable candidate?


Thanks,

L
 
Hey ya’ll,

Recently I’ve been interning on the Hill for my local congressman while waiting for PS. This internship has proved to be immensely interesting and rewarding.

I was wondering how are officers able to get selected for positions in legislative affairs? Is it a competitive process? And if so, what can I do during my years at USNA to make me a more viable candidate?


Thanks,

L



Why not ask a staffer who does military affairs liaison on your Representative’s staff to call over to the Navy OLA office and see if you can visit, letting them know you are headed to USNA Class of 2027? The current flag officer there happens to be a USNA grad, and he will have a staff of senior officers from various commissioning sources on shore duty assignment there. You might be a bright spot in their day of slogging through legislation, listening to questions from a Plebe To Be. Most officers are happy to share their career path with someone just starting. You can read about the admiral’s on his bio page. Please understand with the ongoing debt ceiling issue, staffs are busier than usual. If you’re not invited over, don’t take it personally.

Be sure to comb through all the related web pages, including the Navy legislative fellow program.

Officers assigned to Navy OLA can come out of any warfare community, typically unrestricted line (Pro Know assignment: google Navy unrestricted line officers, restricted line officers and staff corps officers), top performers with deep Pentagon staff experience (OPNAV, Joint Staff, etc.), who have a deep interest and knowledge in this area, good minds, articulate communications skills. They may have majored in aero engineering or history or physics or political science. It doesn’t matter. Their career performance as leaders and their acumen in this area are what gets them chosen for a tour in OLA. That particular area of expertise takes critical thinking, analytical skills, communications skills, enough STEM-savvy to understand complicated technical legislation for military equipment and budget issues, etc.

Your first job at USNA: be a good plebe and get through plebe summer. Then, be a good mid, staying sat in all graded areas. Start your journey there with an open mind, actively listening to briefs about various majors, talking to upper class, and choosing what best fits you. Your major quite often has very little to do with what you might do in the Navy or your post-Navy career. There are many threads here on SAF about majors in the USNA forum. You will be getting a B.S. no matter what, with a solid STEM infusion and plenty of non-STEM coursework to round out other education. There may even be opportunities for an internship during one of the 3-week summer training elective blocks.

Then, you get to work in your officer warfare community and learn your craft there, and be a top performer as a JO. That opens doors to post-grad education, promotions, Pentagon assignments. With luck and perseverance and stellar performance every step of the way, if you still want a tour there, you may have a shot at it.

It’s all competitive. For positions like that, a package of suitable and available officers is put together by the Navy’s officer placement team and presented to the admiral in charge. Your career will happen one step at a time.

Enjoy what you are doing right now, soak up friends and family. Your life will be changing in a significant way soon, and for at least the next 9 years or so, you will only visit for short periods in your childhood home. Take a moment to reflect on that and gather your thoughts in readiness for coming change.

Let us know if you wangle a visit! When I worked on the Navy staff, the head of OLA was an admiral whose last tour had been USNA Commandant.
 
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Why not ask a staffer who does military affairs liaison on your Representative’s staff to call over to the Navy OLA office and see if you can visit, letting them know you are headed to USNA Class of 2027? The current flag officer there happens to be a USNA grad, and he will have a staff of senior officers from various commissioning sources on shore duty assignment there. You might be a bright spot in their day of slogging through legislation, listening to questions from a Plebe To Be. Most officers are happy to share their career path with someone just starting. You can read about the admiral’s on his bio page. Please understand with the ongoing debt ceiling issue, staffs are busier than usual. If you’re not invited over, don’t take it personally.

Be sure to comb through all the related web pages, including the Navy legislative fellow program.

Officers assigned to Navy OLA can come out of any warfare community, typically unrestricted line (Pro Know assignment: google Navy unrestricted line officers, restricted line officers and staff corps officers), top performers with deep Pentagon staff experience (OPNAV, Joint Staff, etc.), who have a deep interest and knowledge in this area, good minds, articulate communications skills. They may have majored in aero engineering or history or physics or political science. It doesn’t matter. Their career performance as leaders and their acumen in this area are what gets them chosen for a tour in OLA. That particular area of expertise takes critical thinking, analytical skills, communications skills, enough STEM-savvy to understand complicated technical legislation for military equipment and budget issues, etc.

Your first job at USNA: be a good plebe and get through plebe summer. Then, be a good mid, staying sat in all graded areas. Start your journey there with an open mind, actively listening to briefs about various majors, talking to upper class, and choosing what best fits you. Your major quite often has very little to do with what you might do in the Navy or your post-Navy career. There are many threads here on SAF about majors in the USNA forum. You will be getting a B.S. no matter what, with a solid STEM infusion and plenty of non-STEM coursework to round out other education. There may even be opportunities for an internship during one of the 3-week summer training elective blocks.

Then, you get to work in your officer warfare community and learn your craft there, and be a top performer as a JO. That opens doors to post-grad education, promotions, Pentagon assignments. With luck and perseverance and stellar performance every step of the way, if you still want a tour there, you may have a shot at it.

It’s all competitive. For positions like that, a package of suitable and available officers is put together by the Navy’s officer placement team and presented to the admiral in charge. Your career will happen one step at a time.

Enjoy what you are doing right now, soak up friends and family. Your life will be changing in a significant way soon, and for at least the next 9 years or so, you will only visit for short periods in your childhood home. Take a moment to reflect on that and gather your thoughts in readiness for coming change.

Let us know if you wangle a visit! When I worked on the Navy staff, the head of OLA was an admiral whose last tour had been USNA Commandant.
This is gold. You cannot buy this type of advice.
 
Why not ask a staffer who does military affairs liaison on your Representative’s staff to call over to the Navy OLA office and see if you can visit, letting them know you are headed to USNA Class of 2027? The current flag officer there happens to be a USNA grad, and he will have a staff of senior officers from various commissioning sources on shore duty assignment there. You might be a bright spot in their day of slogging through legislation, listening to questions from a Plebe To Be. Most officers are happy to share their career path with someone just starting. You can read about the admiral’s on his bio page. Please understand with the ongoing debt ceiling issue, staffs are busier than usual. If you’re not invited over, don’t take it personally.

Be sure to comb through all the related web pages, including the Navy legislative fellow program.

Officers assigned to Navy OLA can come out of any warfare community, typically unrestricted line (Pro Know assignment: google Navy unrestricted line officers, restricted line officers and staff corps officers), top performers with deep Pentagon staff experience (OPNAV, Joint Staff, etc.), who have a deep interest and knowledge in this area, good minds, articulate communications skills. They may have majored in aero engineering or history or physics or political science. It doesn’t matter. Their career performance as leaders and their acumen in this area are what gets them chosen for a tour in OLA. That particular area of expertise takes critical thinking, analytical skills, communications skills, enough STEM-savvy to understand complicated technical legislation for military equipment and budget issues, etc.

Your first job at USNA: be a good plebe and get through plebe summer. Then, be a good mid, staying sat in all graded areas. Start your journey there with an open mind, actively listening to briefs about various majors, talking to upper class, and choosing what best fits you. Your major quite often has very little to do with what you might do in the Navy or your post-Navy career. There are many threads here on SAF about majors in the USNA forum. You will be getting a B.S. no matter what, with a solid STEM infusion and plenty of non-STEM coursework to round out other education. There may even be opportunities for an internship during one of the 3-week summer training elective blocks.

Then, you get to work in your officer warfare community and learn your craft there, and be a top performer as a JO. That opens doors to post-grad education, promotions, Pentagon assignments. With luck and perseverance and stellar performance every step of the way, if you still want a tour there, you may have a shot at it.

It’s all competitive. For positions like that, a package of suitable and available officers is put together by the Navy’s officer placement team and presented to the admiral in charge. Your career will happen one step at a time.

Enjoy what you are doing right now, soak up friends and family. Your life will be changing in a significant way soon, and for at least the next 9 years or so, you will only visit for short periods in your childhood home. Take a moment to reflect on that and gather your thoughts in readiness for coming change.

Let us know if you wangle a visit! When I worked on the Navy staff, the head of OLA was an admiral whose last tour had been USNA Commandant.
Thank you so much for all of this. You are an incredible source of knowledge.

I’ll have a staffer call next week and I’ll post in this forum if I have any luck.
 
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