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Life of Supply Officer

smell the glove

Registered User
"I am 5 months out of Athens and I have operational authority over 65 and administrative authority over 153 members."

And we're all oh so very proud of you. You've come along way since your Death Row days. I'm pretty sure we just sent an SK1 you're way (little Dominican guy). Got CAP'ed on his way outa here. If you could let him know that the Falls was terribly excited to be rid of his ass, it would be much appreciated.

I stand by my previous statements. Most first tour chops go to small boys. 75 people would be, like, a quarter of the whole damn crew, or try almost 3/4 of a submarine crew. There's at least 50+ subs out there. How many Seabee battalions were there again?

Hey kray........applesauce biatch
 

unfUSN

Registered User
Steve Wilkins said:
First off, you will not be able to get a SWO pin. Supply officers do have the opportunity to earn a warfare pin...actually, there are a couple you can earn. The first, is similiar to a SWO qual with the exception of certain watchstations you have to qualify (i.e. small boat officer, CIC Watch O, or OOD). Basically, you learn some SWO stuff, have a board, and get your pin. This is not to say you can't get those other quals. Actually, I recommend that you do. Get your OOD qual (which in turn, requires other quals as a prerequisite) and get in the watch rotation with the other SWO's. They'll love you for it! If you get on a carrier you will have the opportunity at two warfare pins. The first is the one I just described. The second is aviation related.

Bottom line, the opportunities are there. You just have to take advantage of them.

Supply guys can get a warfare pin... 3 of them actually... 1)SWSCO you can earn on a surface ship... 2) SEBEE... you get when you work with the SEABEEs... 3) Aviation Supply Wings... when you are a Supply guy with a Squadron. All 3 have different quals... but all 3 are warfare devices... Restricted-line... but still a warfare device. Most if not all Supply guys out there now are having to stand ALL the SWO watches... due to lower Officer manning on surface ships... things might have changed since I was out there... but I doubt it. Most, if not all, the Supply guys I graduated with got their OOD underway qual and stood the watch.

Payne, LTjg... E6 Nav... former Supply weenie
 

Steve Wilkins

Teaching pigs to dance, one pig at a time.
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
unfUSN said:
3) Aviation Supply Wings... when you are a Supply guy with a Squadron...Most if not all Supply guys out there now are having to stand ALL the SWO watches... due to lower Officer manning on surface ships... things might have changed since I was out there... but I doubt it. Most, if not all, the Supply guys I graduated with got their OOD underway qual and stood the watch.
You don't need to be a part of a squadron to get the Aviation Supply Wings. And it's doubtful that supply guys are standing all of the SWO watches. TAO and EOOW come to mind. Officer manning on ships is too high right now. Hence, why SWO billets for new accessions are in short supply.
 

Godspeed

His blood smells like cologne.
pilot
There are many different billets available to a suppo out of Athens, each entailing a different, "life.".. They range from aviation, to seabees, etc. You should be more specific as to what particular billet you are curious about. General information about supply officers can be found at www.navy.mil

Perhaps you can go check that out, and come back with a more directed question.
 

mrcoffee

Registered User
Amy,

I have two weeks to go down here in the Athens School of Business and Geedunk. If you have any questions I'd be happy to try to answer them.
 

metro

The future of the Supply Corps
Coffee, how about giving us Supply guys/girls here a little bit of insight on whatever you feel is appropriate? I know I'd be happy to hear it, and I'm sure 'speed won't mind either.
 

EngineGirl

Sleepy Head
Our suppo sits around and plays play station all day underway and yells at people. Oh he also gets to try all sorts of yummy food while we eat crap.
 

mrcoffee

Registered User
I wrote this a little while ago to answer someone else's questions. Hope it gives you a good overview of what goes on.

Basically, BQC works like this:

-It lasts about four and a half months, with class starting around 08 and ending at 1100, then starting back up again at 1300 and going until 1600. They can cut short your lunch or keep you longer if the discussion needs it, but that'll probably only happen a handfull of times. You take courses in Food Service, Supply Management, Disbursing (read: Navy Accounting), Retail Ops and Leadership Management (read: How to be a Division Officer). These are in turn broken up into modules, typically four or five to a course. At the end of each module there is an exam, each usually lasting about two to three hours. (no lie they really are that long, but everything is open book). There were failures in my class on some exams, but it is very very hard to fail out of Supply School, if not impossible. The instructors are very approachable and the idea is to train and prepare you for the fleet, not weed people out.

You start to think about your orders about halfway through. You will have something called an OLQ board (officer like qualities) where they yell questions at you for 20 minutes and then see how you handle it. That and your exam grades decide your class standing, which helps where you go. When the list does come out, everyone chooses their first choice by class standing. Somewhere on BuPers there is a rough list of when everyone rotates in the Supply Community, so you can probably guestimate what is available, even a year ahead.

As a new chop you will go to sea, or so we have been told by both the detailer and the OP Roadshow (a three hour powerpoint presentation on what your career should/could look like). Although it was talked about on another post, from talking to other instructors and from the Detailer roadshow there are no operational billets in aviation at the JO level that I was ever told about. Coming out of the BQC you will have the choice of a ship, a sub, or maybe SeaBees.

Once at sea, you will probably be assigned either as a disbursing officer or food service officer. They both have their own pluses and minuses. Disbo is the guy with all the accountability; you have to be dead on in your money counts and such or else. (Else being a one way ticket home.) Food Service is always in the spotlight, since everyone is going to pass through at least once. Disbo is more low key, everyone will know the FSO, which can be good or bad. On Subs and Sweeps there are only one Chop, so it will count as a department head tour for you. Its high responsibility but high reward; your DH ticket gets punched early, something that they will look for if you want to advance to O-4.

Any other Chops out there lurking can chime in if I screwed something up or to throw anything else in. Disclaimer: all this is coming from a (very) junior officer with just a foot in the door and should be taken with a grain or two of salt. Hope this helps!
 

JJH

New Member
Supply for long-term

It is my understanding that Supply falls under Staff Corps. How does this affect the possibilities of making Supply a career? I heard that restricted/unrestricted lines can one day run ships. What about Staff Corps? Where do they end up at in the long-term?

Thanks
 

BackOrdered

Well-Known Member
Contributor
It is my understanding that Supply falls under Staff Corps. How does this affect the possibilities of making Supply a career? I heard that restricted/unrestricted lines can one day run ships. What about Staff Corps? Where do they end up at in the long-term?

Thanks

It is my understanding that as a supply officer you will never be a CO. If you are looking to be a skipper one day, go SWO. However, in the long term in supply, you will get some HUGE responsibilities in terms of assets and simply getting the fleet what it needs to run. Someone else is sure to chime in but give this site a look over:

http://www.warchop.com
 

Thisguy

Pain-in-the-dick
It is my understanding that as a supply officer you will never be a CO.

That's not entirely true, as there are numerous shore command billets. For example, the Supply school in Athens has a CO.

I heard that restricted/unrestricted lines can one day run ships.

Restricted line is in the same boat as the Staff Corps, as in not eligible for command at-sea.

Basically, as a restricted line/Staff Corps you're working in a more specialized area than the unrestricted line folks. If you go Supply, your tours will be focused in the supply department (duh) in operational tours, while your shore tours will probably take you to billets for FISC or NAVSUP or something of the like.
 

BackOrdered

Well-Known Member
Contributor
That's not entirely true, as there are numerous shore command billets. For example, the Supply school in Athens has a CO.


Yeah ops! Forgot the shore guys.:eek:

If the topic creator wants to get a better understanding of the long run, reading the Command bios of the senior supply officers of shore installations helps. It really shows you what you are up against waaay down the road. It is also one of my favorite time killers.

https://www.navsup.navy.mil/portal/page?_pageid=477,264258,477_264279&_dad=p5star&_schema=P5STAR

The site also has links to other commands.
 

Oakley568

DI$BO
Great opportunities out there...I know a lot of O-6+ Supply guys out there in charge of a LOT of money and assets, and let's not get into the benefits of post-retirement job opportunities...haha. In short, Supply Corps is a great career oriented community
 
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