CEC officer

[username04]

I just informed that I got picked up for CEC officer, I've got some questions before I go into my final process (PTR & finger print, signing docs...)
1. As of now I don't know what I will be designate to be working on: Public work, Seabee man, or contruction managerment. Do I have to clear this up with my recruiter? Is he able to tell me what location I will be drilling after I join NR.
2. What are the chances will I be recalled or relocated? I have family and full time civilian job, but love to be in Navy
3. How long do I have to complete the 2 wks training since the day I sign the contract.
4. Will I be able to transfer to another field once I'm in CEC etc. AMDO

Thanks in advance.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

I just informed that I got picked up for CEC officer, I've got some questions before I go into my final process (PTR & finger print, signing docs...)
1. As of now I don't know what I will be designate to be working on: Public work, Seabee man, or contruction managerment. Do I have to clear this up with my recruiter? Is he able to tell me what location I will be drilling after I join NR.
2. What are the chances will I be recalled or relocated? I have family and full time civilian job, but love to be in Navy
3. How long do I have to complete the 2 wks training since the day I sign the contract.
4. Will I be able to transfer to another field once I'm in CEC etc. AMDO

Thanks in advance.

These are questions for your reserve center staff (Training Officer or XO) and possibly even the XO for the reserve unit you are being assigned to.

 

[floridaseabee]

Welcome!

1.The recruiter will be responsible for working with the detailer finding you a unit and your drilling location, and it won't always be the closet Reserve Center. I live near NAS Pensacola, but my drill location is Tallahassee. Your biggest chances are to be attached to an Reserve NMCB (Seabees).
2.Chances of being recalled are pretty good. The Reserve NMCBs are on a 3year-ish cycle right now. Mine went in '04 and we are on deck to go again this year.
3.I want to say that you have to complete the officer accession course (DCO) within ....2 years?? I dont remember, but it wont be an issue as this should be your first AT and you need to get that out of the way quickly.
4. I dont know about wanting to transfer out, but with the Seabees, you won't ever want to. Its very, very busy...but also very, very rewarding. It's also a bit early to think about leaving a community when you just got in.

 

[username04]

Thank for the reponse floridaseabee,
1.Do I have a choice whether I would go for seebees, public works or CM? If not, what are the drilling activities on seebee side as a cec?
2. You said you are on the deck to go again this year, I would assume you are being deployed to Iraq?? You've been deployed before?? where was it and for how long?
3. Finally, How is life wiht CEC in NR.
your input is greatly appreciated

 

[floridaseabee]

Thank for the reponse floridaseabee,
1.Do I have a choice whether I would go for seebees, public works or CM? If not, what are the drilling activities on seebee side as a cec?
2. You said you are on the deck to go again this year, I would assume you are being deployed to Iraq?? You've been deployed before?? where was it and for how long?
3. Finally, How is life wiht CEC in NR.
your input is greatly appreciated

1. Good question. My detailer took care of everything and assigned me. I would think that you wouldn't be able to choose, but I may be mistaken. To answer the 'what do we do as CEC'.... I can only speak for NMCB's...nothing else, so you may have to get this information from someone who is in a different unit. You will be assigned as the OIC of a Detachment at the Reserve Center you are based out of. You will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Det, to include Evaluations, reports, training, Liason with the Reserve Center. We serve two masters...One is the Reserve Center, and the other is the Commanding Officer of our Battalion. Both have sway over you, but the CO has MUCH more....so take care of his needs, but don't forget about the Reserce Center, as they can make your life a bit difficult as well. The Reserve Center only cares about the medical readiness, Navy-wide computer training (like Information Awareness, and Anti-Terrorism), and other equally annoying training that has to be done every year.
2. I can't discuss where we may be going, have gone, or if I am going, but our Battalion has been mob'd before. Rest assured that we do go to dangerous places.
3. Its extremely busy but at the same time, very rewarding. I enjoy doing this more than my normal day job, but it can eat up a lot of time. If you are married, ensure that you keep your spouse involved in what is going on and make her a part of it. While others may disagree with this, I have found that my wife was more tolerant of my time spent on the Navy when she was included on it. I can blow off some steam to her, let her know what is going on...or even have her help me with paperwork (so it gets done sooner).

We do a lot of field training that places us no where near the Holiday Inn, or Hooters, and will be eating MRE's.

The troops are top notch and I have met outstanding people. The Seabees in the Reserves can build circles around the Active Duty. This is because a number of these guys have been in this business for years and have tons of experience underneath them, and still be 'only' an PO2. Some even own their own companies that fall directly into their rate. We have weaknesses that the Active Duty people are stronger in...due to the simple fact that they are all located in the same area and are able to do this 5 days a week.

I am privileged to work alongside these fine people. Be ready to go to work right away in a job you know nothing about...and trust those who are there to help you.

Oh. If you are not already...get in shape for DCO school.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

The Reserve Center only cares about the medical readiness, Navy-wide computer training (like Information Awareness, and Anti-Terrorism), and other equally annoying training that has to be done every year.

You lack the fundamental big picture and don't fully understand the relationship between the reserve center and the reserve units that fall under its cog.

 

[wink]

2. What are the chances will I be recalled or relocated? I have family and full time civilian job, but love to be in Navy

4. Will I be able to transfer to another field once I'm in CEC etc. AMDO

You will not be recalled anytime soon. As a direct commission officer with no prior service you will not have the requisite number of days active duty required by law before you can be mobilized for sometime. You are also of no real use to the Navy until you complete DCO and any basic CEC course work. Check with your recruiter. If I recall you need over 30 days of active duty before you can be mobilized and shipped out.

The Navy Reserve will not relocate you. If you take a billet in another city it is your responsibility to get to drills. It is your choice. Most people simply drive or fly. How far away you want to take a billet depends on how much you can afford to spend on transportation. I took a job on the staff of CINCUSNAVEUR in London, England. Got there on my own for drill.

You will NOT be involuntarily transfered to another designator. BTW, AMDO is getting small very fast. Personally, I think CEC and in particular Seabees, is way cool.

 

[floridaseabee]

You lack the fundamental big picture and don't fully understand the relationship between the reserve center and the reserve units that fall under its cog.

What fundamental big picture do I lack? This question is not meant disrepectfully and is an attempt to open up this dialog further.

 

[floridaseabee]

You will not be recalled anytime soon. As a direct commission officer with no prior service you will not have the requisite number of days active duty required by law before you can be mobilized for sometime. You are also of no real use to the Navy until you complete DCO and any basic CEC course work. Check with your recruiter. If I recall you need over 30 days of active duty before you can be mobilized and shipped out.

The Navy Reserve will not relocate you. If you take a billet in another city it is your responsibility to get to drills. It is your choice. Most people simply drive or fly. How far away you want to take a billet depends on how much you can afford to spend on transportation. I took a job on the staff of CINCUSNAVEUR in London, England. Got there on my own for drill.

You will NOT be involuntarily transfered to another designator. BTW, AMDO is getting small very fast. Personally, I think CEC and in particular Seabees, is way cool.

All good gouge, Wink, and it is a good idea that you complete all your CEC work before you get deployed...but its not a hard prerequisite. As long as you have your 84 (i think its 84) days, and have DCO under your belt...they can/will grab you. You will want to bust your butt and complete things like CBOps before you go (as it will help you out immensely), and if you don't....you will just have to continue to be a sponge and learn as much as you can. How soon you may get recalled can also depend on the current cycle position of the Battalion that you may be attached to.

I'm not trying to trump you on anything, Wink...I'm just putting out what I have seen happen in my Battalion.

 

[wink]

All good gouge, Wink, and it is a good idea that you complete all your CEC work before you get deployed...but its not a hard prerequisite. As long as you have your 84 (i think its 84) days, and have DCO under your belt...they can/will grab you. You will want to bust your butt and complete things like CBOps before you go (as it will help you out immensely), and if you don't....you will just have to continue to be a sponge and learn as much as you can. How soon you may get recalled can also depend on the current cycle position of the Battalion that you may be attached to.

I'm not trying to trump you on anything, Wink...I'm just putting out what I have seen happen in my Battalion.

Understand, no worries. You have the most recent experience with mobs. Still, mobilization can not happen soon ( by my definition anyway) just because of the 84 day requirement. Help me out here, do drills count toward the 84 or are those active duty days, as I remember it? Even if you count drill and two weeks of AT it will take you over a year before you have met the basic legal requirement for mobilization and deployment.

 

[wink]

What fundamental big picture do I lack? This question is not meant disrespectfully and is an attempt to open up this dialog further.

Let me offer a bit more detail and personal experience (18 years reserve, still at it) to kick off your dialog. To begin with, the CEC, or at least the SEABEES, have a rather unique relationship with the reserves and active duty. It always seemed to me that the NMCBs had another layer of command on the active side they worked through and those folks had a lot of say in where and what the SEABEES did. I don't remember the details, but SEABEES simply do not have the same relationship with the reserve center, now the Navy Operational Support Center (NOSC) that other units have. It was not unusual for the Reserves to want something from the SEABEES only to have someone from the CEC side of the Navy say, "hands off".

The reserve center is, however, responsible for unit readiness and deployablity from the big Navy point of view. That is where the medical exams, PRT, GMT and other BS comes from. For that reason, like all good operators, they are seen as a pain to deal with and more of a detriment to mission then benefit. This is especial true if the unit drills at a location other then the reserve center. The function is vitally important to the Navy as a whole, sometimes for reasons that escape me, but are simply not oriented in any operational fashion, especially for a unit like SEABEES. That is why there is frequently a disconnect between the reserve center and any operational type unit. I was the OPS O for an operational unit for years. I truly believe I spent nearly as much time feeding the reserve center then I did working on my "real" job as a squadron Operations Officer. I literally had to cancel or reschedule vital training because of some seemingly minor reserve center requirement that had to be done right now. Those sort of incidents lead me to "fundamentally not understand the big picture" on many occasions.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

What fundamental big picture do I lack? This question is not meant disrepectfully and is an attempt to open up this dialog further.

The reserve center does not operate in a vacuum. It has to deal not only with the individual reserve units and individual people within those units, but also with the REDCOM (Readiness Command). The REDCOM is the Reserve Center CO's boss and is typically headed up by a Captain. The REDCOM in turn reports to CNRF (Commander Naval Reserve Forces), a Rear Admiral. Where do you think that the majority of the crazy stuff that comes up on drill weekend originates. Do you think the reserve center sits in the office all month brainstorming ways to jack with the reservists? Uhh, no. Do you seriously think the reserve center wants to track whether you've done your ATFP or Information Awareness training this year? The reserve center would rather the units take a proactive approach and track that stuff themselves.

We serve two masters...One is the Reserve Center, and the other is the Commanding Officer of our Battalion. Both have sway over you, but the CO has MUCH more....so take care of his needs, but don't forget about the Reserce Center, as they can make your life a bit difficult as well. The Reserve Center only cares about the medical readiness, Navy-wide computer training (like Information Awareness, and Anti-Terrorism), and other equally annoying training that has to be done every year.

Typically, in my experience, the reserve center is forced to baby sit (read: micromanage) reserve units in order to get the required things taken care of so that members can mobilize at a moments notice if needed. Yes, you hit on a big one--medical readines, which also includes dental readiness. Why it's so friggin hard for reserve units to ensure their people's physicals are current and yearly dental exams are taken care of is beyond me. Actually, I do know. The reserve units know that the reserve center will let them know when certain things need taken care of, so they don't bother to track these things themselves.

Let me ask you this. What do you think happens when medical and dental readiness fall below certain thresholds? The reserve center CO gets a personalized ass reaming usually by the REDCOM commander, and sometimes even by CNRF actual. It's not pleasant.

Now, let me ask you this. Why should we even care about medical or dental readiness? Well, because if the SELRES aren't medically or dentally ready, then they CAN NOT mobilize. If they can't mobilize, then what the hell are they even doing in the reserves?

I can go on and on....security clearances, government travel credit card, AT, etc, etc....all things that happen to slip the mind of reservists. I guarantee you though there is one thing every single one of them verify each month.....whether that pay was deposited into their account or not.

All of this is based on my personal experience as a reserve center XO as well as a reserve unit XO. I've seen both sides of the coin.

 

[floridaseabee]

Let me answer the easy one first.

Wink - Drills count...and so do ATP's, RMP's and ADT (of course). With the Seabees and the amount of training we do just to fulfill our requirements, you can come up on those 84 days more quickly. One thing he will have to keep in mind is that the Battalions like to do a 'common' AT. This is where the Battalion gets together for some field training or some other training. He will want to attend these just so he comes up to speed more quickly on how this work. He will still need to get his prerequesite schools out of the way and the Battalion leadership does understand this and wont raise much of a fuss if he doesnt go to the common AT. Note: The NOSC has to put in the correct MAS code in order for the person to be held from Mob'ing. Mine didn't and I was capable of being mob'd from day one.

Now. I hit a nerve with you, LEL, and will do my best to let you know, in more detail, where I come from and to do a better job of explaining my previous comments.

The Reserve Battalions are very unique to the Reserves as we are our own commissioned unit. We are not strictly there as a pool of bodies for an AD Battalion, even though we do augment them from time to time. We often deploy on our own, under our Battalion leadership. If you have not served in a Reserve Battalion, you cannot paste your past unit experiences into this. It just doesnt work. We do have our own FTS people, and our own structure. We do not fall under REDCOM. Our CO reports to the Regiment, and then the Regiment reports up to the Division. I did try my best to ensure that our unique training requirements from the Battalion were juggled with what the NOSC was wanting us to do. Its hard to do this when we are held to the same standard as the AD Battalions. We spend hours on the outside doing requirements for both the NOSC and our Battalion and we do care about a lot of the requirements that the NOSC does.

Example. I am the S6 (Comm O) for the Battalion and we are about to go on our on-deck Field Exercise. In order for me to legally issue Comm gear to our troops, they have to have clearances., in addition to other paperwork. I have to now track and look at clearances from 10 NOSC's in order ensure that I dont get locked up.

AT. We track this internally so we are able to see who is going where. This will ensure we know who is going to our FEX and who is going to school, who is going IRR, who is TNPQ, etc. Medical items and such also falls into place so we can track who we want to task for our MOB.

We do share some common requirements, but when it comes down to my CO saying that you need to do one thing....and the NOSC CO says I need to do another, or he gets a nasty gram from an O-6/Flag Officer... The one who writes my FITREP will get want he wants so he doesn't get a nasty gram from his CEC O-6/Flag Officer.

LEL, I feel we will 'agree to disagree' on this subject, but we both know that the drill weekend is a sprint to the finish and we never have enough time to do what we want to...so we have to prioritize. A lot of times, we just have to do the best we can and finish it up outside of the drill weekend. Our core work resides out of the Reserve Center...swinging hammers, shooting guns, and turning wrenches.

I was OIC of one of our detachments for over a year and am aware of the requirements that the NOSC has to fulfill. To assume that a ton of this 'slips the mind' of a Seabee unit is incorrect.

 

[Mets]

when you guys get mobilized, how long is it typically for? I know there are a few Seabees in Iraq and Afghanistan right now, do you know how long they serve over there before they are rotated out?

 

[floridaseabee]

Mobilizations typically run from 8-10 months...but im sure that is dependent upon a great many things. Some may run less, some may run more.