OCS SNA slots closed until October???

[Bryan]

I just thought I'd share this with everyone as it is a complete surprise to me. I had a breif conversation with my recruiter today, asked abot the state of the NAPI program, gave her an update on my PRK progress, etc... and she informed me that pilot is closed until October.

She did mention that it was possible to become an SNA through direct accession which also surprised me.

I made sure to ask if the SNA community was closed nation-wide based on a comment that Dave Shutter made in a previous thread about each NRD having its own quota for each designator and she said that it was.

Has anyone else heard this or hopefully something to the contrary?

Bryan

 

[Gator]

As of two weeks ago I knew that all the SNA spots for OCS were full until July. I hope that this crap about being full up until October is wrong. If that is the case I will be lucky to start OCS this time next year. I'm going to see my recruiter to talk to him about this tomorrow morning and well pass on any additional info that I am able to come up with.

 

[AllenAzali]

My recruiter at Los Angeles MEPS said they were closed until July, when the new fiscal year rolls around.

 

[Bryan]

From what my recruiter says, NAPI is the program where you go down before OCS (can be like a year before or just a couple of weeks) and get a chance to get a flight physical, get flight time in a Navy trainer, tour NAS P-Cola, etc...

I think this is the same program as ACES (serach for previous messages by other posters). In fact I refered to it as that when I asked about it.

They try to send any BDCP folks down to it as soon as they get accepted b/c they don't want to start paying you money to finish your degree only to find out that you could be physically disqualified for pilot.

 

[Bryan]

Michael, I hate to have you **it your pants again, but perhaps I was not clear. I honestly don't know what the availibility of NAPI or ACES is nor do I really care that much either.

Okay, my bad, I thought direct accession was like what the JAGs, chaplins and docs, etc... do where they go somewhere else instead of OCS.

To re-iterate, I was told that SNA community
was closed for OCS applicants until October, so it might not be such a bad idea to talk to your processor again. I think I just might contact someone from another NRD and see what they seem to think OCS SNA slot availibility is like at the current moment.

Looks like one person already heard July, so I honestly don't know what is going on here.

 

[Bryan]

quote:
My recruiter at Los Angeles MEPS said they were closed until July, when the new fiscal year rolls around.




Doesn't a new fiscal year for the govt. begin in October? This would be consistent with what my recruiter is saying then.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

So let's see here. Pilot slots are filled, SWO slots are filled. Is the Navy just not hiring anymore? I know that we have more ensigns onboard my ship that even have real job assigned to them. So maybe we are just overbooked. Guess we need more ships and more planes to put guys in.

--Steve Wilkins

 

[Bryan]

I'm sure that's better than having a shortage of people and having planes sit unused and empty ships in dock

Bryan

 

[Gator]

Let's see if I can clear this up a little. This I got straight from my recruiter a few weeks ago and it was backed up by other sources. The Navy is over 100% in their recruiting efforts in almost every job for this fiscal year. The current wait for SNA to get into OCS is due to the flooding of the aviation pipeline because of all of the Academy and ROCT graduates in the upcoming months. In order to shorten the wait time for SNA between OCS and API the Navy has decided to only put so many potential SNA in each OCS class. As of right now this is being limited to around 15. All of these slots are already full up until July 6th (this was as of 2 weeks ago). I've had two friends OCS dates pushed back because of this (EOD Dave and Chuck D). I hope this helps.



Edited by - gator on 03/14/2002 22:42:16

 

[Bryan]

Ummm beer....

Not sure on that one, my personal thought at the time was "yeah, I'm gonna turn in the app at a time when the community is closed so it could get lost on someone's desk at BUPERS in TN" so I did not ask.

I seriously hope my recruiter is wrong though because I was hoping to submit my application in June, so don't change your plans based on something I heard from a recruiter (always take what they say w/ a grain of salt btw ) I would find out on your own to see if this is true for yourself-- like I said, I'm to the point where I may be calling other NRD's soon.

I could honestly care less about BDCP at this point and might prefer not to do it so I can squeeze in some good quality flight lessons before I head down to OCS. W/ BDCP you get the first availible class whether it has openings or not.



Edited by - bryan on 03/14/2002 22:36:52

 

[Bryan]

Thanks for the info Gator, but I don't see why they wouldn't consider accepting BDCP (or non-BDCP for that matter) folks whose OCS date will not be for well over a year from now.

 

[Chuck D]

From what I understand, right now no one is being accepted to BDCP, atleast out of the Jacksonville NRD. I applied for BDCP, but didn't get accepted because there was not enough money in the program right now. In order for billets to open up people in the program have to go to OCS. Anyone else run into this problem? I did get my SNA billet but no BDCP.

Charlie

Edited by - Chuck D on 03/14/2002 23:02:33

Edited by - Chuck D on 03/14/2002 23:03:05

 

[Gator]

Bryan,
I'm not sure about the Navy accepting applications for pilots and other jobs when they are currently over quota. It seems to be common sense that the Navy would still accept applications from those individuals you will not be ready to leave for OCS for awhile. However, there are aspects that we might not be aware of "The Big Picture." As far as BDCP goes it's a little different of a story. The funds for BDCP are allocated based on the budget for the fiscal year. So once the funds are gone, no one else will be approved. As far as accepting them for the upcoming fiscal year that would be difficult because the Navy does not know whether or not their budget will approved. Additionally, the day you swear in under BDCP is the day you start getting paid. The Navy can't pay you with money that they don't have yet. BDCP persons do get the first OCS date after graduation regardless of whether or not the class is full. The exception to this is the current situation with SNA slots for OCS. EOD Dave graduated with me in December and was medically cleared to leave for OCS in February, but the Navy pushed that date back until April. All because of the previously discussed problem. I will be medically cleared by next month, but won't be able to get out of here before July. Maybe even later. Unless I can get some strings pulled, which I'm goning to try and do. Sorry about being so long winded, but just trying clear things up. By the way the info about SNA and OCS slots came straight from the top NRD.

 

[gt0767a]

On that same note. The word from candidates down here that have to redesignate for some reason or another have been told by higher ups here (people who find you a designator) that _everything_ is full. The only thing that might be open is NFO, not sure about this.

Christine

Candio Rocks (20-02 is finishing week one and is doing well)

 

[spidrwmn]

So if all the spots are closed until October, does that mean one can't apply until then? Or just that one can't go to OCS until after Oct?

- spider