Becoming a SWO, what to look forward to

[swerdna]

What exactly is a strike officer?

I guess that when I think of a VBSS team, I think of high speed raids but it's probably more like a cordon and search of an area. Lol

Strike Officer is the guy responsible for CM Division and conducting Tomahawk exercises.

The part I think a lot of people miss about VBSS is that it has a ton of admin involved. Everyone has to be 2nd class swimmer qualified (within periodicity), weapons qualified, gone through SRF-B and A, VBSS school, etc. There's just a lot of paperwork and headaches involved. It's especially frustrating when you have everyone asking you (if you're VBSS Officer), "Can I be on the team?" and I mean everyone. The attrition rate of the school is very high, so you sometimes have to scramble to find replacements.

The missions themselves were mostly handing out oranges and Coke as a gesture of goodwill, or at least that's what we were doing in 2011.

 

[MR]

Can anyone comment on the current training pipeline. The old threads seem to be a little dated. One states SWOs is in Newport/San Diego. Do SWOs leave directly from RI to their homestation or directly to the schoolhouse?

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

Can anyone comment on the current training pipeline. The old threads seem to be a little dated. One states SWOs is in Newport/San Diego. Do SWOs leave directly from RI to their homestation or directly to the schoolhouse?

SWOS Basic is no longer in Newport, it's in Norfolk and San Diego depending on what coast you're on.

 

[MR]

Do you go directly to SWO or to your ship first?

 

[Bluecore]

Can anyone comment on the current training pipeline. The old threads seem to be a little dated. One states SWOs is in Newport/San Diego. Do SWOs leave directly from RI to their homestation or directly to the schoolhouse?

If your ultimate destination is east coast, you'll go to BDOC in Norfolk, west coast/7th fleet in San Diego.

Do you go directly to SWO or to your ship first?

Whatever makes the most sense. If you're going to be stationed in the US, you'll almost certainly go to your ultimate command first for TAD. I graduated OCS mid October and just now got in to BDOC, so unless you're super duper special you're gonna be waiting to class up for a bit. I know people from my OCS class whose ultimate is Yokosuka that were stashed in San Diego the entire time. That is, from October 16th until last Monday when our BDOC class convened, never having been to their ships. However, there is a guy in our class who went to Yokosuka for 6 months before classing up, and he said he is about 80% of the way to getting pinned already. YMMV, like most things in the Navy it seems.

I am stationed in San Diego and started BDOC this past Monday. I went to my ship TAD and was obviously able to start housing allowance and settle here. As I said, my cohorts that will be in Japan had very different experiences. The ones I know who went to Pearl Harbor also went to Hawaii first TAD.

Actual training pipeline for a regular old SWO 1160 is BDOC then ultimate duty station. Even then it can be different. For example, me. They're making me A-COMMO. The idea is that all small boys will divide CC division in to two DIVOS, one of which will be in charge of COMMs (the COMMO) and the A-COMMO overseeing network security. So I have another intermediate stop for a school at Corey Station before heading back to my ship. I will remain 1160 SWO but go to the same school that a SWO-IP would attend. I may try to lateral transfer after getting pinned because IP seems like it would be a sweet gig.

From what I understand, COMMO is trending towards a second tour job with a SWO-IP option as the preferred pick to fill the role.

 

[MR]

Thanks for the response. I really appreciate it. Had to use google quite a few times to interpret. Air Force Enlisted here. This will be an interesting transition. Thanks again.

 

[Matthew10]

If your ultimate destination is east coast, you'll go to BDOC in Norfolk, west coast/7th fleet in San Diego.



Whatever makes the most sense. If you're going to be stationed in the US, you'll almost certainly go to your ultimate command first for TAD. I graduated OCS mid October and just now got in to BDOC, so unless you're super duper special you're gonna be waiting to class up for a bit. I know people from my OCS class whose ultimate is Yokosuka that were stashed in San Diego the entire time. That is, from October 16th until last Monday when our BDOC class convened, never having been to their ships. However, there is a guy in our class who went to Yokosuka for 6 months before classing up, and he said he is about 80% of the way to getting pinned already. YMMV, like most things in the Navy it seems.

I am stationed in San Diego and started BDOC this past Monday. I went to my ship TAD and was obviously able to start housing allowance and settle here. As I said, my cohorts that will be in Japan had very different experiences. The ones I know who went to Pearl Harbor also went to Hawaii first TAD.

Actual training pipeline for a regular old SWO 1160 is BDOC then ultimate duty station. Even then it can be different. For example, me. They're making me A-COMMO. The idea is that all small boys will divide CC division in to two DIVOS, one of which will be in charge of COMMs (the COMMO) and the A-COMMO overseeing network security. So I have another intermediate stop for a school at Corey Station before heading back to my ship. I will remain 1160 SWO but go to the same school that a SWO-IP would attend. I may try to lateral transfer after getting pinned because IP seems like it would be a sweet gig.

From what I understand, COMMO is trending towards a second tour job with a SWO-IP option as the preferred pick to fill the role.

What did you do between October and the day your BDOC started?

 

[Bluecore]

My ship is currently in the industrial yards, so I pretty much just attended training sessions and worked on OOD in port qualifications. This is probably an exception to the norm. If your ship is on deployment they may make arrangements for you to meet them somewhere. If they're in port you'll be doing whatever their schedule is, going out to sea for days or a week at a time, etc.

 

[azguy]

My ship is currently in the industrial yards, so I pretty much just attended training sessions and worked on OOD in port qualifications. This is probably an exception to the norm. If your ship is on deployment they may make arrangements for you to meet them somewhere. If they're in port you'll be doing whatever their schedule is, going out to sea for days or a week at a time, etc.

That's good, BDOC is much more valuable if you've done a few months on your ship first.

 

[azguy]

The part I think a lot of people miss about VBSS is that it has a ton of admin involved. Everyone has to be 2nd class swimmer qualified (within periodicity), weapons qualified, gone through SRF-B and A, VBSS school, etc. There's just a lot of paperwork and headaches involved. It's especially frustrating when you have everyone asking you (if you're VBSS Officer), "Can I be on the team?" and I mean everyone. The attrition rate of the school is very high, so you sometimes have to scramble to find replacements.

The missions themselves were mostly handing out oranges and Coke as a gesture of goodwill, or at least that's what we were doing in 2011.

We are each a product of our own experience. While I did a ton of AAVs (approach and assist visits) too, we had a couple of very, very cool VBSS missions that totally and completely make up for all of the admin.

 

[Matthew10]

Do SWO's eventually have to get a top secret clearance or does it only require a secret clearance?

 

[azguy]

As a DIVO, it's billet based. Some jobs on the ship will require TS/SCI, most won't. Same goes for your follow on shore duty, some require it. All told, I think among my SWO peers (shore duty, 6 years in) 50-70% have TS. The rest get it when (or if) they go back to the ship to be department heads, as it's required for all department heads.

 

[Matthew10]

As a DIVO, it's billet based. Some jobs on the ship will require TS/SCI, most won't. Same goes for your follow on shore duty, some require it. All told, I think among my SWO peers (shore duty, 6 years in) 50-70% have TS. The rest get it when (or if) they go back to the ship to be department heads, as it's required for all department heads.

Ok awesome. I was just wondering if there was any chance in heck that I would be able to keep mine and renew it every 5 years or so.

 

[azguy]

Ok awesome. I was just wondering if there was any chance in heck that I would be able to keep mine and renew it every 5 years or so.

I mean, you may gap it as a DIVO. You could show up and be assigned engineering, no TS required for that. I see you're prior USAF. The Navy uses "Q Codes" to identify whether or not a given billet at a given command requires it or not. That is how we justify SSBIs and PRs- don't know if that's a Navy thing or a DOD thing.

 

[Matthew10]

I mean, you may gap it as a DIVO. You could show up and be assigned engineering, no TS required for that. I see you're prior USAF. The Navy uses "Q Codes" to identify whether or not a given billet at a given command requires it or not. That is how we justify SSBIs and PRs- don't know if that's a Navy thing or a DOD thing.

What is SSBI and PRs?