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Transfer from VTU

All this, plus...

it gets you to retirement (assuming the VTU CO says “sure, use VTU drills for this”) and it’s on your schedule.
You get to meet a lot of interesting young men and women who want to serve our country, you can chip away at the drill time a few hours at a time. I liked doing BGO work and funerals A LOT more than sitting at the NOSC wondering how it not be 1600 yet...
 
nodrop,

In the interest of clarity, it's probably an option.

The program allowing Blue and Gold officers to get retirement points DIRECTLY went away when the Navy IRR-ASP collapsed a few years ago. If you were participating as a BGO then you could stay in, but there's no way to directly get points now.

VTU: If you're in the VTU and a BGO, you could make a case to your VTU CO to say "hey, if I do my PRT and GMT, can I call my BGO stuff my VTU-drills?" I was in the VTU for six months under two COs. They were both great, but the first one wanted my butt in a NOSC seat at 0700 until 1600 every drill weekend. He left and the new CO was much more flexible (but at that point the nonsense of the NOSC....without getting paid, had sucked the life out of me and I punched out to the IRR-ASP).

It seems like you've got a pretty case if you're a BGO, and I recommend it, but I think your VTU CO could still say "no". My experience was 10 years ago, so weigh any current VTU bubbas info more heavily than mine.
 

bubblehead

Registered Member
Contributor
Your first VTU CO cough OIC cough --- VTU's do not have CO's. They have OIC's designated by NOSC CO --- was a tool.

You can do whatever the hell you want in the VTU so long as you maintain your readiness: GMT's, PFA, PHA, etc. The NOSC CO actually owns you and, by instruction, determines the best use of VTU personnel. You could have escalated your issue to the NOSC CO and I am certain it would have been resolved.
 

Hair Warrior

Well-Known Member
Contributor
What is preventing someone from drilling with the VTU as scheduled, then additionally, also doing nonpays for BGO stuff for extra points? Other than, ya know, the time investment of burning on both activities.
 
Nothing really, as long as you get the drills approved. in that respect you could volunteer for sea scouts or something too. For me the goal would be to get out of “normal” drilling, but to each his own.
 

squorch2

he will die without safety brief
pilot
I’ve worked out a deal with NOSC CO to telework (less PRT) and support all his sailor programs on call.

it works out for everyone, as I don’t have to go in, I get loads of non-pays for easily answered/addressed questions, sailor programs stay on track, etc etc
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
We had a couple of folks doing the VTU thing but affiliated with my unit, doing AT's and ADT's of their choosing and even knocking out PRT's with us too, which was much nicer than doing with the NOSC. Not sure of the full details on that but it seemed to be the way to go if you find a good unit, much easier than dealing with the NOSC directly and they got paid when they wanted to (we did a lot of exercises).
 

bubblehead

Registered Member
Contributor
We had a couple of folks doing the VTU thing but affiliated with my unit, doing AT's and ADT's of their choosing and even knocking out PRT's with us too, which was much nicer than doing with the NOSC. Not sure of the full details on that but it seemed to be the way to go if you find a good unit, much easier than dealing with the NOSC directly and they got paid when they wanted to (we did a lot of exercises).
This is done via an Additional Duty MOA (I have a template if anyone needs it). I have three people in my VTU drilling with a SELRES unit in this manner.

So long as you clear it with your NOSC CO (who, by instruction, managers the VTU), you can literally do whatever you want in the VTU which is why I love it. My NOSC CO delegated FITREP and EVALs to my VTU OIC which makes it easier on the NOSC CO as he is the reporting senior for VTU unless delegated.

My OIC (an O5 medical type) is a funeral honors hound. There is no way in hell he would be able to pull off 140 funerals per year as a SELRES. Same for me, I would never be able to support the folks I am supporting (with an approved telework package) if I were SELRES.

Free agency at its best.
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I was friends with one O-6 in the VTU and he told me it became progressively harder to get orders since no one wanted to pay for him.

The guys that did the VTU thing with us were already qual'd before they went to the VTU, they were known quantities and we always needed bodies for exercises so it is a person and unit-specific thing.
 

squorch2

he will die without safety brief
pilot
Part and parcel of having birds on your shoulders.

That scenario also tends to become self-reinforcing, as skills get more and more outdated and you struggle to bring value to your supported command.
 

bubblehead

Registered Member
Contributor
Do you do any orders each year to make some money or are you doing all non pays?

I was friends with one O-6 in the VTU and he told me it became progressively harder to get orders since no one wanted to pay for him.
I am mostly pro bono since I've been in the VTU.

I sit on Special Cases and ADSEP boards to help out the NOSC and they've offered to throw one day's ADT my way per board but I tell them I'll do non-pay drills instead. Our NOSC is small and has enough money issues and I gain more political capital doing it this way. I also do the NAVIFOR qual surges which are 1 week of ADT. I do these for pay because NAVIFOR N7 has money to spend and it helps me out from a community involvement perspective. I'm currently looking at doing paid ADOS (formerly, ADSW) with a SYSCOM.

There's no way a SELRES CO would support this stuff which is fine because now I am doing meaningful work aside from b.s., monthly "production" that no one is asking for.
 

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
A rough (very rough) rule of thumb for retirement points is that once you start drawing your retirement, every couple of points translates into a dollar a month for an O3 or O4 with 20.* That's with the old fashioned cliff retirement. Since you start drawing retirement pay at or just before age 60, and odds are you'll kick the bucket sometime in your eighties, that's around 250 months of retirement checks.

Just food for thought for what's it worth to you to go through the trouble of the paperwork for a couple of miserable points for nonpay drills.

(Reserve retirements vary anywhere from E5-E6 with 20, E9 with 30... O3 or O4 with 20, O5-O6 with 28-30, so as far as this being any kind of rule of thumb, well, double check the math and keep in mind financial concepts about money now or money later.)


*7200 points in 20 years would get you 50% of monthly base pay, which is 50% of about $7300 and $8500 for O3 and O4 respectively at the 16-18-20 years of service part of the pay table. Fewer points is proportionally less retirement pay.
 
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