Navy Surface Warfare Officer?

[Jester013]

If the question is what should you not do with your life, SWO is probably the best answer to that question... And they won't teach you how to drive a ship, they'll just teach you how to yell at everyone to get out of the way. "Learned THAT driving the Saratoga."

 

[swerdna]

If the question is what should you not do with your life, SWO is probably the best answer to that question... And they won't teach you how to drive a ship, they'll just teach you how to yell at everyone to get out of the way. "Learned THAT driving the Saratoga."

Good Captain Ron quote...but other than that just worthless and trollish advice.

 

[Jester013]

Good Captain Ron quote...but other than that just worthless and trollish advice.

"The USS Saratoga?"
Trollish yes. Apologies.

Some SWO's enjoy what they do. Some don't. I have the luxury to make assements from outside the community and I'm never impressed with the training SWO's recieve by the time I encounter them. It's not their fault, most are very intelligent and motivated, but the concepts are never laid down in depth by people that understand them (like yards is gunnery unit, everything else at sea should be done in nautical miles, and no other group of people use yards for anything. At all. If I hear an OOD use something like 16545 yards again I might loose it). The community is so focused on making rank that they don't care how an operation goes as long as they look like the guy who was on top...

If you like lauching missiles and the BIG GUNS GO BOOM thing go SWO. Some of my best friends went SWO and absolutely love what they do. I never for one day regret not going SWO, but that's me. I don't regret going into my warfare, but I do regret not trying to go flight. The best piece of advice I can give is look at what other communities have to offer, there is a lot of variety in today's Navy. I'll honestly say I was only exposed to two warfares before I commissioned, and I wish I had felt out other options. Maybe I'm a little biast because I keep having to tell senior SWO's "Sir, that is a bad idea." Then I continue to bang my head on a chart table after my advice is brushed off and have to hold in the "Told you so."

 

[Spekkio]

It's not their fault, most are very intelligent and motivated, but the concepts are never laid down in depth by people that understand them (like yards is gunnery unit, everything else at sea should be done in nautical miles, and no other group of people use yards for anything. At all. If I hear an OOD use something like 16545 yards again I might loose it).

Jeez, do you get upset that American road signs are in miles and speed limits are in mph when most of the rest of the world uses metric? The American Navy navigates ships using yards, and since a nm is a nice round 2,000 yards it is no more difficult than using the metric system. While it seems ridiculous that a contact would be called at 17,000 yards, it avoids the hassle of having to switch to yards when contacts and navigation hazards get closer and then making sure everyone remembers to make their reports in yards after spending hours/days reporting them in nm. Setting a tripwire to switch between nm and yards just creates one more thing for the watchteam to remember, and there's really no gain except for soothing ruffled feathers of those who have hangups about such things.

 

[CommodoreMid]

Jeez, do you get upset that American road signs are in miles and speed limits are in mph when most of the rest of the world uses metric? The American Navy navigates ships using yards, and since a nm is a nice round 2,000 yards it is no more difficult than using the metric system. While it seems ridiculous that a contact would be called at 17,000 yards, it avoids the hassle of having to switch to yards when contacts and navigation hazards get closer and then making sure everyone remembers to make their reports in yards after spending hours/days reporting them in nm. Setting a tripwire to switch between nm and yards just creates one more thing for the watchteam to remember, and there's really no gain except for soothing ruffled feathers of those who have hangups about such things.

2025 yds to be precise, but who's counting.

 

[Flash]

2025 yds to be precise, but who's counting.

You actually paid attention in nav class?!

 

[BigRed389]

(like yards is gunnery unit, everything else at sea should be done in nautical miles, and no other group of people use yards for anything. At all. If I hear an OOD use something like 16545 yards again I might loose it).

Who gives a flying fuck? The purpose of the SWO community is deliver ordnance, or to carry people or equipment that also delivers ordnance. Who gives a shit what gets used over internal comms as long as it gets the job done? And nobody would use something as ridiculously precise as 16545. If they actually do, yes, slap the shit out of them, because that's a stupidly unnecessary (and probably inaccurate) level of precision.

The community is so focused on making rank that they don't care how an operation goes as long as they look like the guy who was on top...

Literally a pointless, baseless statement. You've been on how many ships? What the fuck do you do?

Maybe I'm a little biast because I keep having to tell senior SWO's "Sir, that is a bad idea." Then I continue to bang my head on a chart table after my advice is brushed off and have to hold in the "Told you so."

Maybe you could learn how to express your position better. Or learn how to talk to their staff off line to make yourself heard. Literally anything other than just bitching about how your first approach didn't work.

 

[Jester013]

Yards are perfectly acceptable for internal comms, nut its when they're talking to foreign units that barely speak english that it becomes a major problem/compromises the safety of the vessel and causes mass amounts of confusion. It's a valid point. I understand what you're saying and I don't disagree, within the bridge team its fine, within the vessel its fine and with in the USN it is fine. But when you have guys and gals out here calling a unit outside the hull or formation, and it isn't flying the stars and stripes, it becomes a problem. Yes, they should be slapped for using 16545 yards. Yes, I've seen it on multiple occasions.

If I had a dollar for everytime I watched a shipmate throw another SWO under the bus in the wardroom instead of taking the kid under his wing and teaching him something from his mistakes because its going to help him in his FITREP, I could stop working for the Navy and retire already.

And the attitude who give's a flying fuck how its done is why surface vessels keep running into shit and not accomplishing the mission (cough guardian cough porter). It is the entire problem with the community, they can't step out of the box and say, "hey this shit isn't right" or "wow, we could do this a lot better/easier" Work smart. Naval Officers are generally incredibly intelligent people, we're not here because we are stupid. SWO's are good at putting ordanance on target, but that's not what they are doing 100% of the time or even 1% of the time.

 

[swerdna]

Yards are perfectly acceptable for internal comms, nut its when they're talking to foreign units that barely speak english that it becomes a major problem/compromises the safety of the vessel and causes mass amounts of confusion. It's a valid point. I understand what you're saying and I don't disagree, within the bridge team its fine, within the vessel its fine and with in the USN it is fine. But when you have guys and gals out here calling a unit outside the hull or formation, and it isn't flying the stars and stripes, it becomes a problem. Yes, they should be slapped for using 16545 yards. Yes, I've seen it on multiple occasions.

If I had a dollar for everytime I watched a shipmate throw another SWO under the bus in the wardroom instead of taking the kid under his wing and teaching him something from his mistakes because its going to help him in his FITREP, I could stop working for the Navy and retire already.

And the attitude who give's a flying fuck how its done is why surface vessels keep running into shit and not accomplishing the mission (cough guardian cough porter). It is the entire problem with the community, they can't step out of the box and say, "hey this shit isn't right" or "wow, we could do this a lot better/easier" Work smart. Naval Officers are generally incredibly intelligent people, we're not here because we are stupid. SWO's are good at putting ordanance on target, but that's not what they are doing 100% of the time or even 1% of the time.

What is it that you exactly do? You said you didn't go SWO, and your insistance on NM makes me think you're either USCG or Merchant Marine. I guess it doesn't matter, because you obviously have no idea about what we train for, or how we conduct things like lessons learned. Not to mention the fact that we do accomplish the mission hundreds of times each day - citing two examples of incidents is really a cheap shot.

If you're not in the community then you shouldn't be making vague and inaccurate statements, and certainly shouldn't be critizing what you clearly don't understand - especially on a thread which was started by some kid who has interest in joining it.

 

[BigRed389]

And the attitude who give's a flying fuck how its done is why surface vessels keep running into shit and not accomplishing the mission (cough guardian cough porter). It is the entire problem with the community, they can't step out of the box and say, "hey this shit isn't right" or "wow, we could do this a lot better/easier" Work smart.

1) Not one of those examples had anything to do with your one actual example of how the SWO community is fucked up.
2) I was trained to talk in NM when talking to merchant traffic. Sorry your command is so fucked up.
3) If you see a problem, fix it. Passive aggressive bitching doesn't help anything but your ego. "Work smart" is about as helpful as telling someone "just be smarter."

 

[Spekkio]

And the attitude who give's a flying fuck how its done is why surface vessels keep running into shit and not accomplishing the mission (cough guardian cough porter). It is the entire problem with the community, they can't step out of the box and say, "hey this shit isn't right" or "wow, we could do this a lot better/easier" Work smart. Naval Officers are generally incredibly intelligent people, we're not here because we are stupid. SWO's are good at putting ordanance on target, but that's not what they are doing 100% of the time or even 1% of the time.

Seriously? The attitude of who gives a fuck about what unit of range the community uses is what led to the Guardian grounding? Yea, if only they had been using km or nm instead of yards, that would have avoided the entire situation .

Every community in the Navy unfortunately has mishaps on occassion, and every community takes them very seriously. You should at least know that much.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

"The USS Saratoga?"
Trollish yes. Apologies.

Some SWO's enjoy what they do. Some don't. I have the luxury to make assements from outside the community and I'm never impressed with the training SWO's recieve by the time I encounter them. It's not their fault, most are very intelligent and motivated, but the concepts are never laid down in depth by people that understand them (like yards is gunnery unit, everything else at sea should be done in nautical miles, and no other group of people use yards for anything. At all. If I hear an OOD use something like 16545 yards again I might loose it). The community is so focused on making rank that they don't care how an operation goes as long as they look like the guy who was on top...

If you like lauching missiles and the BIG GUNS GO BOOM thing go SWO. Some of my best friends went SWO and absolutely love what they do. I never for one day regret not going SWO, but that's me. I don't regret going into my warfare, but I do regret not trying to go flight. The best piece of advice I can give is look at what other communities have to offer, there is a lot of variety in today's Navy. I'll honestly say I was only exposed to two warfares before I commissioned, and I wish I had felt out other options. Maybe I'm a little biast because I keep having to tell senior SWO's "Sir, that is a bad idea." Then I continue to bang my head on a chart table after my advice is brushed off and have to hold in the "Told you so."

You say a lot of words, but clearly aren't the brightest bulb in the box. Probably best you just stop.

 

[azguy]

So much stupid, so little time...

If I had a dollar for everytime I watched a shipmate throw another SWO under the bus in the wardroom instead of taking the kid under his wing and teaching him something from his mistakes because its going to help him in his FITREP, I could stop working for the Navy and retire already....

Look, there are assholes everywhere. Yep, we have our fair share, but the distinction is in amplitude, not frequency! Four years in the shipboard JOPA and I can count the backstabber incidents on one hand. Myth busted.

In fairness, if you were to bring up the "eat our young" stereotype, I won't argue that point. It happens. You have to have thick skin to be a SWO.

And the attitude who give's a flying fuck how its done is why surface vessels keep running into shit and not accomplishing the mission (cough guardian cough porter)....

This is ridiculous. All communities have had their share of epic fail. It's always tragic, but it's the cost of being in a military force that actually gets out and trains and deploys regularly.

SWO's are good at putting ordanance on target, but that's not what they are doing 100% of the time or even 1% of the time.

Ridiculous. Of all navy communities, the only two that could possibly rival (CRUDES) SWO for kinetic action are VFA and SSN. I have no idea what order those 3 are in terms of lbs dropped and missions conducted, pointy nose ships do a lot of it (comparatively). That said, keep it real, we are all spending WAY more time writing TPS reports and sitting through GMT than we are on strike missions.

 

[Duc'-guy25]

Ha yea they use yards and stuff like this does happen when dealing with SWOs...


But stuff like this happens too...
http://www.stripes.com/news/two-navy-supply-ships-collide-in-gulf-of-aden-no-injuries-1.315158

You adapt to it. My favorite form if adaptation is to keep a calculator handy and quickly reply to 16000 yards as 576000 inches... In an Australian accent... Keeps them on their toes. And I have to have some fun on watch to make the time pass...


If I had a dollar for every stupid person out on the water I'd own Ft Knox.

 

[JWL]

Surface Warfare seems like a rough gig according to this article.


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/27/...-gaps-spell-disaster-at-sea-sailors-warn.html