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Aviation Rescue Swimmer
- Thread starter lacasera
- Start date
He wouldn't go off to OCS with the intent to go to rescue swimmer school. That would be up to the boat to send him if they needed one. Even then the guy would not have a "MOS" for a rescue swimmer. He would just keep his designator. Sounds like this guy is going to boot camp and doesn't know it. LDO's would not go to OCS.
There are some officer RSS slots, but it's for Surface rescue swimmers. No officers go there as a "primary" job. Maybe he got follow-on orders post-OCS, pre-Boat...or he's just talking out of his ass.
RSS is one of the hardest schools, physically, in the Navy. The O's I've seen go were PT animals who had been at the boat for a while. One guy had been accepted for BUD/S and was just waiting to class up, for example. I can't see a ship just deciding to send a guy sight-unseen.
RSS is one of the hardest schools, physically, in the Navy. The O's I've seen go were PT animals who had been at the boat for a while. One guy had been accepted for BUD/S and was just waiting to class up, for example. I can't see a ship just deciding to send a guy sight-unseen.
Back in the day they told us it was second only to BUD/S in terms of physical difficulty. Going through it young (19) gave me only a slight edge.
I think that's a major difference between us and the AF. They have too many officers, too many BS jobs. Not saying that that job is unimportant, just that it would only be a collateral duty for a Naval officer.
Uh, no. Are you saying an AF officer with a "designator" (or MOS, or whatever the AF calls it) of CRO has a job that is the equivalent of a SWO's collateral duty as a ship's rescue swimmer? Do some research on what a CRO is. Comparing a job like CRO to any collateral duty of a USN officer is ridiculous.
The CROs get the same training as the enlisted, but don't expect to see them on the ground rescuing pilots. They "integrate" rescuers with aviation.
Eh, it's just AF philosophy. Every enlisted job has to have an officer equivalent.
Bottom line, your friend who said he was going to OCS to be a rescue swimmer officer is either really confused, actually going Air Force, or full of shit.
Bottom line, your friend who said he was going to OCS to be a rescue swimmer officer is either really confused, actually going Air Force, or full of shit.
If his airline tickets are to Chicago, he is really in for a surprise.
That will be the greatest "My recruiter screwed me." story of all time.
The best one that prior to that was a guy in my division who was told that he could be a nuke and a SEAL at the same time. He just had to go to nuke school, and then he could go to BUDS. Don't worry about BUDS not being in the contract, he will take care of it.
That will be the greatest "My recruiter screwed me." story of all time.
The best one that prior to that was a guy in my division who was told that he could be a nuke and a SEAL at the same time. He just had to go to nuke school, and then he could go to BUDS. Don't worry about BUDS not being in the contract, he will take care of it.
You really can't even blame the recruiter for that one.
Very rare.
It's also a collateral duty for enlisted as well, so the division that owns the swimmer will be giving him up a few times a week for him to go swim and keep his quals current.
We've had to let other ships "borrow" our swimmers on a number of occasions because they fucked up and either didn't give their guys time or didn't monitor the program's maintenance.
Point being, it's hard enough to convince CoC they need to send an enlisted sailor TAD for that long...usually only when you bring up the fact you won't get to go underway if you don't take care of this right now.
As much as bagging on the AF is fun, when you have 3-4 "jobs" on a ship, it's easy to appreciate the idea of dedicating a "pro" to each job instead of establishing collateral duties without a clear CoC.
I had a share of this fun during my time in Shoegatory, as I was 1st Lt and so somehow everything pertaining to getting away from or onto the pier eventually became My Problem. Instructions say "thou shalt have X qual'ed rescue swimmers" in order to get U/W or do small boat ops. Doesn't specify E or O, and if an officer does manage to scam a slot to RSS, it's because he's trying hard to get it. As mentioned, I had a JG on my boat who went and qual'ed, but he was a big triathelete, waiting to class up for BUD/S, etc., and he scammed a spot during our post-deployment yard period.
Usually captains want fairly experienced petty officers who're PT studs and smarter than the average bear to go to swimmer school (less chance of them dropping out and thus wasting a school slot). And those guys are also usually LPOs and other persons who are hard to spare for a months-long school.
The problem with the AF "full officer promotion path for every conceivable job under the sun" philosophy is that eventually you wind up with a bunch of O-3's and O-4's trying to "stand out" and creating busywork for everyone within reach. I've seen AF Captains doing jobs that the Navy would have made contractor years ago. Seriously, I'm surprised they don't have a Handing Out Basketballs at the Gym career track.