Not bad if you are low on cash.
For enlisted, an “NEC” ( Navy Enlisted Classification - Wikipedia ) is entered into your service record, and is a standardized system that allows detailers to know what tasks you were trained in.
A “striker” (someone who wants to earn or switch to a different NEC) must submit a special request chit through his/her chain of command to get assigned to a different department/division on their ship to get some OJT.
An enlisted could learn electronics on their own time, (or through OJT), but would still need to go to the Navy schools and pass the course tests to actually earn that NEC in order to be assigned to billets that require those NEC’s. (There may be ways to “fast track” a basic course, or to take the final exam(s) in some of these “A” school technical courses. It would be on a case by case basis for specific NEC’s.)
For example, my “C” school was centered around a very specific Univac computer system, and therefore a striker would need to go through the entirety of that school to earn that NEC.
I assume some things (like doctor or lawyer) will accept the civilian professional certs and licenses, but for other things like radar technician, the Navy will want the service member to pass the Navy’s tests. (Note doctors and lawyers get to be officers, and are generally not enlisted.)
Sometimes. We used to call them IPOs (Instant Petty Officers). I worked with one man who had been a power lineman crew chief in the civilian world. He came into the Navy as a 2nd Class Electrician. His skills were good, but his military abilities were pretty much nil.
Jim’s Son, you may have been one of my students. I was an Instructor for Timing and Control at Governor’s Island in the early 80s.
When I was short at the Loran station I was stationed at, I called the detailer and asked him what sort of billets would be available for me coming off “Isolated Duty”. Isolated Duty is a 1 year tour unaccompanied by family. They generally try to give someone coming off ID what they want if they can. He told me Instructor duty at Govis was available and that’s what I put as #1 on my dream sheet and I got it.
U.S. sailors just might have that chance again: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/world/warily-eyeing-china-philippines-may-invite-us-back-to-subic-bay.html?_r=0
How’s it work for officers?
How does what work for officers?
I filled out my “Dream Sheet” in A school, I was an FTG (now consolidated with FTM’s to be FC) I requested a NonNuclear ship on the West coast…I got CGN38 USS Virginia out of Norfolk VA. CGN is a Nuclear guided missile cruiser.
Is what is being described (detailers and dream sheets) the same as the Seavey/Shorevey/Wavevey system from back in the '60s, or was that something different?
Those were surveys conducted to see who on shore was eligible for sea duty, and who on sea duty was eligible for shore duty. Sea and shore rotations depended on your enlisted rank. As an E-5, my normal rotation was two years shore and four years sea. As an E-7, it was three and three. But SEAVEY and SHOREVEY had nothing to do with specific billet assignments AFAIK.
I tried reading an old edition of All Hands (warning: PDF) that made it sound like the billeting process was part of the surveys too, but I admit getting bogged down.
From what I got out of it, your SEAVEY data card (ah, the height of mid-60s technology) roughly corresponds to the dream sheet, and it was forwarded to Washington and compiled into a printed book or list (Sea Survey) for the Enlisted Distribution Branch in BuPers to use in assigning sailors either to billets directly assigned by the Bureau or to “distributors” who assign them to major commands (e.g., CONUS); from there, the detailers then assigned to specific billets.
Does that sound remotely plausible, or am I misunderstanding?
The whole billeting business- do they fill out a dream sheet and talk to a detailer, or is there some other process officers use to get their assignments?
Yeah, could be. I was a lowly E-2 in 1967 and had no idea how things worked, although I do remember filling out something with assignment preferences.
Officers fill out a dream sheet of billets they would like and/or locations they would like to be stationed at. The detailers weight “needs of the Navy,” needs (or wants) of the Officer and if that next billet is career enhancing or not.
Sometimes you’d like a billet that may hurt your career and/or promotion possibilities, and the detailer will tell you that. Sometimes the detailer will want you to take a billet that you know isn’t career enhancing and you’ll try and fight that off. And some Officers won’t know the difference and will be get to a job that will kill their career.
It’s a giant balance between all of the factors above. You have more flexibility when one is more junior than one does when they are more senior.