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2nd choice for service selection?

I

incubus852

Member
pilot
I'm not sure if this thread belongs here, but NROTC seemed the most relevant.

Anyways, I'm graduating from school and putting in my package for aviation. We have to write a letter indicating our first and second choices as far as the different unrestricted lines we have access to: Naval aviator, NFO, subs, SWO, SEALS or EOD.

I for sure want to be a pilot, but don't know what to put as my second choice. I don't want to be an NFO. I'd rather go subs or EOD.

Any suggestions?

I don't mean any disrespect to NFOs. My mentor was an E-2 NFO and I have great respect for him and the community. Just not my thing, no offense.
 
SteveG75

SteveG75

Retired and starting that second career
None
Why not NFO? Not good enough for you? We aren't second class citizens you know. :icon_rage
 
D

defiant85

Registered User
None
I was just commissioned and did service selection last year. From what I've been told, if you want to even put EOD or Seals on your list, it has to be your first choice or the board won't even look at it. For example, this year two guys from my unit applied for both Specwar and EOD and they were instructed to send up two service selection letters, one for each board. In either case they both picked up a Bud/s spot.

As far as putting SNA as number one and then subs or EOD for your backups, I wouldn't recommend it. The service selection process does not end with receiving your selection notice in December because there are a lot of changes that go on well into the Spring. This year, the Navy was in great need of NROTC SNA ascensions, and they offered pilot to 3 out of 5 SWO’s in my class, but not to any of those selected for nuke programs. I was selected SNFO, I didn’t even apply for SNA because of my eyesight, and I was asked three times by my LT and XO to give them my prescription so they could forward it up to NETC because the navy was “screaming” for physically qualified SNFOs to switch to pilot. In my class, everyone who wanted aviation (either SNA or SNFO) got their first choice with the initial service selection.

If I was in your position, and I wanted SNA as my first choice, I would put SNFO as my second choice. You probably will get pilot, but if you don’t it’ll be a lot easier to pick up a pilot slot having service selected SNFO rather than being locked into subs.
 
TheBubba

TheBubba

I Can Has Leadership!
None
incubus852 said:
I'm not sure if this thread belongs here, but NROTC seemed the most relevant.

Anyways, I'm graduating from school and putting in my package for aviation. We have to write a letter indicating our first and second choices as far as the different unrestricted lines we have access to: Naval aviator, NFO, subs, SWO, SEALS or EOD.

I for sure want to be a pilot, but don't know what to put as my second choice. I don't want to be an NFO. I'd rather go subs or EOD.

Any suggestions?

Dunno if it matters, I have a 3.2 in engineering with a high class rank.
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If you don't want to be a NFO, don't put it second. If you'd rather go Subs or EOD, put them 2nd and 3rd. Do a little research into each community and pick the one you'd best like if you don't get picked up for SNA.

As far as what defiant said about SNFO as a second choice and transferring to pilot later, its doable, but extremely hard. If you don't think you'd be happy as an NFO, then put it after EOD/Subs. If you put it down second and you get a SNFO slot, you may end up spending your career as an NFO. If you don't want to do that, then by all means put Subs or EOD as number 2.

In the end, its your career, time and life. Do something you think you'll be happy with if you can't get a SNA slot. For me, it was SNFO... for some of my friends, it was SWO or Intel or whatever.
 
SteveG75

SteveG75

Retired and starting that second career
None
Crowbar said:
I'd much rather see somebody pass on going NFO than give the world another shoulda woulda coulda been a pilot with a chip on his shoulder.
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I agree.

What these kids don't realize is that you are an officer first and aviator, NFO, SEAL, EOD, SWO, etc second. The challenge is in being a leader and taking care of your sailors, not in the technical skills to do your job.
 
xmid

xmid

Registered User
pilot
Contributor
You'd better take the PST if you are thinking of putting down EOD...
 
zippy

zippy

Freedom!
pilot
Contributor
incubus852 said:
I'm not sure if this thread belongs here, but NROTC seemed the most relevant.

Anyways, I'm graduating from school and putting in my package for aviation. We have to write a letter indicating our first and second choices as far as the different unrestricted lines we have access to: Naval aviator, NFO, subs, SWO, SEALS or EOD.

I for sure want to be a pilot, but don't know what to put as my second choice. I don't want to be an NFO. I'd rather go subs or EOD.

Any suggestions?

Dunno if it matters, I have a 3.2 in engineering with a high class rank.
Click to expand...

Yeah, people have started shitting on you for your comments... whatever. It's your life, you have to live it. I came to the same conclusion as you did when I was getting ready for service selection. I ended up picking 1) SNA, 2) swo, no third choice and then 4) intel as my restricted line choice. I lucked out. At the time, I didn't want anything to do with being an NFO. However, knowing what I do now, I would have put SNFO 2nd. Why? Simple... NFO's are still aviators, and still in a squadron. Most of my friends who went SWO and Sub hate life. Most of the FO's I know are happy. Other then the typical monkey v. rat shenanigans, FOs aren't treated any differently then pilots. We've all got wings, and we're all on the same team... just food for thought.
 
N

navy09

Registered User
None
incubus: I don't know for sure, but I think there are prerequisite requirements for selecting EOD and Nuke (PST, Nuke interview, etc). Probably worth asking your advisor about to see if those are even viable choices for you to select.

edit: ^^ This guy is commissioning, not a freshman.
 
I

incubus852

Member
pilot
I edited my message...I didn't mean any offense to FOs. But I'm not gonna BS when I'm looking for sound advice. Which I got, and thanks for that.

The GS at my unit has to put my actual choices into a system (OPTMIS??) by July 15th, but my package isn't due until 1 August, so I have some time to figure this stuff out. I'm a december grad so I didn't really get the facetime with my LT to talk about this stuff. Partly my fault.

But thanks for the advice, more please.
 
I

incubus852

Member
pilot
And if anyone knows whats going on right now with pilot selection, I've got a decent chance, right? I'm getting my degree in systems Engineering, 3.2 GPA, 6/7/7 on ASTB, top 5th of class.
 
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