Intel or NFO? Insight/advice/opinions wanted...

[Sarah Ruth]

I would appreciate it a lot if any of the Intel and NFO people around here could please give me some insight on just what they do. I'm trying to make up my mind on which career to choose, and I'm sure it will help to have an idea of what each community is like. I've done quite a bit of research online, and read a lot on this board; so now I'm curious to find out what experienced people would have to say to me Speaking from experience, what are the pros/cons of each job?

Just a note about me, since I see from other posts that folks asking for advice share this info:
Age: 24
BA, History
ASTB score: 52 OAR, 6/6/6
I love to travel; sea duty would be no problem
Absolutely no flight experience, unless you count being a passenger on a commercial jet a few times

I've been recommended for NFO, and am still waiting for Intel board results. I know they could turn me down, but I want to plan ahead in case they don't and I have to pick between the two.

Some specific things I've wondered:
Is it a bad idea to go with NFO if you have no flight experience? Do they start you out in flight training as if you have no clue about the material or should you already know the basics (for example, have a private pilot's license or at least take lessons ahead of time)? Are you likely to "wash out" if you don't have prior experience?
Is it true that if you go with Intel you pretty much get stuck in DC for most of your career? Or do you have the option of traveling a lot if you want to? I've had a hard time pinning down exactly what I'd be doing in Intel (since the standard reply is usually "if I told you, I'd have to kill you") and it's hard to know if I'd like a job when I can't get specifics about it!

Thank you in advance!

 

[Thisguy]

Is it true that if you go with Intel you pretty much get stuck in DC for most of your career?

I'm not in either, but I'll tell you, no...that's not the case. Intel O's usually start out on a sea tour.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

Is it a bad idea to go with NFO if you have no flight experience? Do they start you out in flight training as if you have no clue about the material or should you already know the basics (for example, have a private pilot's license or at least take lessons ahead of time)? Are you likely to "wash out" if you don't have prior experience?

No experience, no problem. They'll teach you everything you need to know and more than you ever wanted to know.

Is it true that if you go with Intel you pretty much get stuck in DC for most of your career? Or do you have the option of traveling a lot if you want to? I've had a hard time pinning down exactly what I'd be doing in Intel (since the standard reply is usually "if I told you, I'd have to kill you") and it's hard to know if I'd like a job when I can't get specifics about it!

The nice thing about the Navy is that there are billets just about everywhere, expecially for Intel folks.

 

[TheBubba]

Is it a bad idea to go with NFO if you have no flight experience? Do they start you out in flight training as if you have no clue about the material or should you already know the basics (for example, have a private pilot's license or at least take lessons ahead of time)? Are you likely to "wash out" if you don't have prior experience?

You definitely don't need prior flight experience. All I knew about flying aircraft before I got to P-Cola was that if you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull it back, the houses get smaller... until they start to get bigger again.

But in all seriousness, I didn't have any sort of flight training before selecting NFO, and I'm doing just fine. I've also had buddies (both SNA's and SNFO's) with lots of flight time that washed out. The Navy teaches flight school from the very basics. They pretty much start at "The pointy end with the windows is the front." You'll learn all you need to know (and as some say, and more you don't) when you start the syllabus.

 

[FlyinSpy]

Speaking from experience, what are the pros/cons of each job?

Is it true that if you go with Intel you pretty much get stuck in DC for most of your career? Or do you have the option of traveling a lot if you want to? I've had a hard time pinning down exactly what I'd be doing in Intel (since the standard reply is usually "if I told you, I'd have to kill you") and it's hard to know if I'd like a job when I can't get specifics about it!

Can't speak to the NFO side of the question (although my favorite hobby is playing "ECMO Jr"), so I'll take a stab at the intel side:

Pros:

-Having a tap into a vast information pipeline; if you take the time and effort, you can get great global/operational/tactical SA with the assets at your disposal.

-Becoming a subject matter expert in a discipline. Again, if you take the time you can become the world expert in Kraplakistan military doctrine. Someday when we go to war with Kraplakistan, you will find yourself at the center of the storm. (Simultaneous con: Thanks to the Navy's "mile-wide, inch deep 'manager'" philosophy, as soon as you become expert in one discipline you'll be shifted into a completely different job/field.)

-See the world. (It's the Navy, duh.) If you deliberately seek out sea tours, you can rapidly break out of the pack.

-Play a small-but-sometimes-significant-role in what's going on in the world. You can find yourself in situations where your assessments and decisions can have significant downstream impacts. Sometimes in small ways (you as targeteer found something that others overlooked, and caused a strike/no-strike/re-strike decisions to be made), sometimes in bigger ways (you write an assessment that works its way up to the heavies, and they take action based on it). Of course, you can also impact things in significantly *negative* ways as well - "Chinese embassy? That's a warehouse, the Chinese embassy is three blocks over. I think. Well, I'm pretty sure it's a warehouse."

-DC: If you want to be in DC, you can do it. There are plenty of opportunities, just like in other specialties and warfare communities. If you want to avoid DC, you can also do that by wisely picking and choosing among assignments. If you have aspirations of being a Big Giant Intel Head someday, you will eventually end up in DC, probably more than a few times.

Cons:

I've posted on these before, but most of it deals with the manner in which the Navy trains and fields intel JOs. In the name of "learning the game", and I suppose they need to learn it somewhere, Big Navy feeds 1630 O-1s into the meat grinder of squadron life, where they are summarily rock-tumbled. Some roll with it, learn the business, and become real contributors; some just fade into the background of squadron life and wait out their tours, and some re-live the "bullies took my milk money" experience every day for 2-2.5 years.

Of course, not every new O-1 ends up in a squadron, but the response at the operational/tactical level is fairly universal.

-Since you are not an unrestricted line officer, you'll never command at sea. You can lead and manage, and you have a few command opportunities here and there, but nothing like the command potential of the URL. If this is important to you, you're in the wrong side of the business.

In my opinion, it breaks down to the old phrase "If you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter" - which is true both literally and figuratively. Take the baseball analogy: the scouts are an integral part of a major league organization, and can make the difference between a team winning and losing. Their input is valuable and solicited. But at the end of the day, it's the players and the managers that take to the field and "git-r-dun". If your personality is ok with being a "supporting cast" and an indirect contributor, then you'll be fine as an intel officer. If you want to be a player, though, the life of an intel officer may be less than satisfactory. Just my opinion, but one I think is fairly generalizable.

 

[Brett327]

Big Navy feeds 1630 O-1s into the meat grinder of squadron life, where they are summarily rock-tumbled. Some roll with it, learn the business, and become real contributors; some just fade into the background of squadron life and wait out their tours, and some re-live the "bullies took my milk money" experience every day for 2-2.5 years.

One of the best assessments of an Intel O's first tour I've yet encountered.

Brett

 

[Sarah Ruth]

Thank you!!

Wow, thank you so much for the input!

 

[chrispaul]

Great post by FlyinSpy! My only knowledge of Intel is the Intel officer assigned to my squadron, so I'm clueless as to career life after a squadron.

Being personally biased toward NFO, I'd prefer to be out seeing the world flying as opposed to being largely stuck on the carrier during deployment or (in my P-3 world) stuck at a deployment base while the flight crews travel to various dets around the region.

Besides, you can't blow stuff up in Intel, only see the pictures!