What does are the most common jobs swo's have and what has the most opportunity for advancement.

R

raptor-1026

New Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2020
Messages
5
I have been considering USNA as a college I want to join the navy as an officer and I don't want to be an aviator or submariner, if I join the navy I'll try to make a career out of it. I know navy needs come first.
 
The good news is nobody is forced into being a pilot. Not sure about Subs
 
Here is more info from USNA. No matter your commissioning source, all SWOs have the same opportunities and paths.

www.usna.edu

Surface Warfare

Surface Warfare page for Surface Warfare at USNA.edu. Updated Wed May 17 16:42:01 EDT 2023.
www.usna.edu
 
To my recollection, Ships are broken down into Departments and Divisions, and baby SWO's are Division Officers., responsible for leading your Division. The jobs vary , including Weapons, Operations, and Engineering. In addition to your assigned billet, you will stand watches -- deck or engineering.

Like anything else in the Navy, you start at lower levels of responsibility and through experience, performance, and sometimes just luck by being in the right place at the right time, get assigned to positions of higher responsibility, and perhaps ultimately command of the ship. There is no single path to command, but there are certainly some preferred paths or tickets to punch enroute. I will leave that to any SWO's to provide the details.
 
As you consider whether USNA and Navy are for you, pay special attention to your lack of desire to serve in aviation or subs. That's half -- two of four -- of the main warfare communities that USNA grads are expected to join. Are you comfortable attending a school in which you want to avoid half the service options?

It's normal for someone to say I want to be a Marine or a SWO, or I want to avoid subs or aviation. But avoiding one is easier than avoiding two. The needs of the Navy come first, and between that and your performance, you may find yourself in a community you were actively avoiding. Give it some thought.
 
MidCakePa said:
As you consider whether USNA and Navy are for you, pay special attention to your lack of desire to serve in aviation or subs. That's half -- two of four -- of the main warfare communities that USNA grads are expected to join. Are you comfortable attending a school in which you want to avoid half the service options?

It's normal for someone to say I want to be a Marine or a SWO, or I want to avoid subs or aviation. But avoiding one is easier than avoiding two. The needs of the Navy come first, and between that and your performance, you may find yourself in a community you were actively avoiding. Give it some thought.
Click to expand...
In general, subs and aviation are volunteers only, especially subs. Every so often when accession numbers for subs are too low, some mids will be "voluntold" that they were going for a nuke interview but its not very common as the added money and potential post-service job opportunities are incentive enough to garner at least most of what is needed.
 
Old Navy BGO said:
To my recollection, Ships are broken down into Departments and Divisions, and baby SWO's are Division Officers., responsible for leading your Division. The jobs vary , including Weapons, Operations, and Engineering. In addition to your assigned billet, you will stand watches -- deck or engineering.

Like anything else in the Navy, you start at lower levels of responsibility and through experience, performance, and sometimes just luck by being in the right place at the right time, get assigned to positions of higher responsibility, and perhaps ultimately command of the ship. There is no single path to command, but there are certainly some preferred paths or tickets to punch enroute. I will leave that to any SWO's to provide the details.
Click to expand...
I'm a SWO, it says so right in my username. I selected SWO at Service Selection on a Destroyer stationed in Norfolk VA. While at Surface Warfare school, the status of that ship was changed and I was up for assignment (needs of the Navy). I ended up being assigned to a Nuclear Powered Cruiser being built and stationed in Norfolk with the job of Ordnance (Missiles and Gunnery) Officer. Basically, I was in charge of just about all of the ship's kinetic weapons and had 22 Gunners Mates in my division along with all of the Ammunition for the 5 inch guns, the missiles as well as the Rifles, Pistols, Flares. etc that the ship carried. A very big job that I really loved. After we finished construction and joined the fleet, I qualified Surface Warfare and got to do a lot of shipboard operations including firing my weapons. At the end of that tour, I transferred to a second Division Officer tour as Navigator of a large Amphibious ship. My division was less people (10) but my personal responsibility was huge as I was responsible for safely getting the ship where it needed to be. I reported directly to the Executive Officer so was considered to be a Department Head within that ship organization. I was aboard 19 months during which time we deployed four times, Caribbean, Northern Europe, Mediterranean Sea (Beirut) and Gulf of Mexico (Honduras). Huge responsibility and a job that I would have stayed longer if I could as it is in the heart of the profession of going to sea. So much for my first 5 and a half years after graduation as a SWO.
 
MidCakePa said:
As you consider whether USNA and Navy are for you, pay special attention to your lack of desire to serve in aviation or subs. That's half -- two of four -- of the main warfare communities that USNA grads are expected to join. Are you comfortable attending a school in which you want to avoid half the service options?
Click to expand...

> I don't really think this is a fair criticism...there are many Midshipmen who have no interest in being an Aviator or Submariner. (In fact, I had many classmatee's whose sole interest was USMC). Aviation and Submarines communities account for about 40% of the Class, but there are usually plenty of people who want them . Not everyone is cut out to fly or serve in submarines, and there are plenty of other opportunities and ways to serve,

One thing to note is that OP didn't say he "wouldn't" serve in aviation or submarines.. I presume he would if "ordered". However, as OldRetSWO pointed out, these communities are historically volunteers. Sure, there have been nuke "drafts", where pressure has been used to "voluntold" people for Submarines,, but I can't imagine anyone "ordering" someone to go aviation or submarines.
 
MidCakePa said:
As you consider whether USNA and Navy are for you, pay special attention to your lack of desire to serve in aviation or subs. That's half -- two of four -- of the main warfare communities that USNA grads are expected to join. Are you comfortable attending a school in which you want to avoid half the service options?

It's normal for someone to say I want to be a Marine or a SWO, or I want to avoid subs or aviation. But avoiding one is easier than avoiding two. The needs of the Navy come first, and between that and your performance, you may find yourself in a community you were actively avoiding. Give it some thought.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm 6'4 so I don't see a sub as a very fitting environment its more about size than anything and aviation is a personal reason, but if I had to i'd suck it up and do it but I'd probably not last more than 10 years.
 
If SWO is your goal the chances of you getting SWO are extremely high. In fact I think it’s great if that is your desire, after all it is the Navy and ships are at its core (don’t tell the pilots). You can really focus your summer training and ECAs in areas that would help prepare you. I am sure OldRetSWO can attest to this more than I can, but the various ship communities have their own personalities. Amphibs vs Cruiser/Destroyers vs LCS. You can really focus on experiencing in the summer and talking to as many SWOs as you can to learn the missions, duty stations, personalities of each. Many Mids might think the Yard Patrol program at USNA isn’t ‘cool’ but there are great opportunities to really train, learn and operate these boats as a Mid.
 
Old Navy BGO said:
I don't really think this is a fair criticism.
Click to expand...

Please read carefully. It wasn’t close to being a criticism. It was counsel about how OP should consider an angle as they make their decision about whether USNA is right for them. It’s very open-ended advice.
 
NavyHoops said:
If SWO is your goal the chances of you getting SWO are extremely high. In fact I think it’s great if that is your desire, after all it is the Navy and ships are at its core (don’t tell the pilots). You can really focus your summer training and ECAs in areas that would help prepare you. I am sure OldRetSWO can attest to this more than I can, but the various ship communities have their own personalities. Amphibs vs Cruiser/Destroyers vs LCS. You can really focus on experiencing in the summer and talking to as many SWOs as you can to learn the missions, duty stations, personalities of each. Many Mids might think the Yard Patrol program at USNA isn’t ‘cool’ but there are great opportunities to really train, learn and operate these boats as a Mid.
Click to expand...
LOL on the YPs. I agree that there is a lot that can be learned on them but I literally stepped onto them only when required by the various Naval Science and training sessions. Of course, I did spend a lot of time on the water doing other things. . .
.
My son did one semester on YPs but then went to the dark side and spent most of his afternoons on the water doing other things.
 
Yeah we made plenty of fun of YPs, but I know they Mids who are qualified lead them now. Some great leadership opportunities while getting a little more time getting some experience. Believe it or not my YP
Cruise was one of my favorite summer trainings. We had a blast. Well until I was on one during a hurricane... nope.
 
NavyHoops said:
Yeah we made plenty of fun of YPs, but I know they Mids who are qualified lead them now. Some great leadership opportunities while getting a little more time getting some experience. Believe it or not my YP
Cruise was one of my favorite summer trainings. We had a blast. Well until I was on one during a hurricane... nope.
Click to expand...
Those cruises started with the class of "80". Prior to that, everyone had about a week cruise to Norfolk as par of 2nd Class summer during the ACTRAMID portion of the summer.
 
OldRetSWO said:
Prior to that, everyone had about a week cruise to Norfolk as par of 2nd Class summer during the ACTRAMID portion of the summer.
Click to expand...

ACTRAMID YPs was a good time and we learned a lot about how a ship operated (with manned bridge, engine room, CIC, etc). but I couldn't help but wonder how the thousands of sailors and yachtsmen could singlehandedly manage to get their boat up and down the Bay (often with beer in their hand), while it took a crew of 20 Midshipmen to man a YP ! :rolleyes:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top