Hello!
There are no “typical” working hours for a Supply Office onboard any ship. I’m on a DDG so I can tell you that I have, generally, more crap to worry about then a Supply Office onboard a CVN. Onboard a big deck you can be anything from the Sales Officer (which is HUGE and a lot of responsibility!) or you can be the Wardroom Mess Treasurer (which is a fricken joke). It really depends on what billets pop, at what time, and with what ship.
If your ship is about to go thru SMC then you will be there from 0600 (our liberty expires at 0700 each day) till about 1600-1700. We also had INSURV two weeks before SMC so I like to refer to that brief stint in my Naval career as the “I’m getting the hell out of this in 4-years” phase. That phase has passed, however. Right now we are a week out from deployment so I am letting my people go by 1200 each day because the Navy is about to get 6 solid months of work out of us and there just simply isn’t anything for them to do.
Underway I spend odd hours in the HCO tower. Now depending on which SUPPO you have, these hours can be long or short. My SUPPO is great and will relieve me for a bathroom break here and there and the occasional “I’m about to fall asleep during green deck” moments (I’m being dramatic). I have normal working hours in Disbursing but since PAPADET has appeared a lot of the pay/travel issues of the past are now handled on the shore side. I refuse to help out on the Bridge and on the watch-bill underway because contrary to SWO ignorance, I am not and will never be a SWO. I will never command a ship, I will never “drop warheads on foreheads” or any of that other SWO crap. I deal with treasury checks, ship store items, Navy Cash and flight quarters--beyond that consider it outside of my preview and beyond my caring. I stand OOD in port and Duty Supply and that is my contribution to the greater whole while in port.
However, all of the above can be thrown right out the window if your command climate is radically different than mine. If your CO/XO wants you to get your OOD letter and puts you on the watch bill, then you will be on the watch bill and you will stand bridge watches. Fortunately I have a great CO/XO and a strong SUPPO so they support my “the only time I’m on the bridge is if I get lost” mentality.
Being a Supply Officer is what you want it to be. Sure I can be a bag of ass and go on liberty at 1200 every day, but it helps to show my people that I’m in the same boat as them and that I will not leave before they do. I can also work myself to death and stay until 1700 every day but that isn’t productive, cuts into my social life and is generally unhealthy. The trick is to find your niche within the command and to stick to what you, and your Chief if you have one, feels comfortable with.
I think I just heard the 1-MC announcement for liberty call—see ya!
There are no “typical” working hours for a Supply Office onboard any ship. I’m on a DDG so I can tell you that I have, generally, more crap to worry about then a Supply Office onboard a CVN. Onboard a big deck you can be anything from the Sales Officer (which is HUGE and a lot of responsibility!) or you can be the Wardroom Mess Treasurer (which is a fricken joke). It really depends on what billets pop, at what time, and with what ship.
If your ship is about to go thru SMC then you will be there from 0600 (our liberty expires at 0700 each day) till about 1600-1700. We also had INSURV two weeks before SMC so I like to refer to that brief stint in my Naval career as the “I’m getting the hell out of this in 4-years” phase. That phase has passed, however. Right now we are a week out from deployment so I am letting my people go by 1200 each day because the Navy is about to get 6 solid months of work out of us and there just simply isn’t anything for them to do.
Underway I spend odd hours in the HCO tower. Now depending on which SUPPO you have, these hours can be long or short. My SUPPO is great and will relieve me for a bathroom break here and there and the occasional “I’m about to fall asleep during green deck” moments (I’m being dramatic). I have normal working hours in Disbursing but since PAPADET has appeared a lot of the pay/travel issues of the past are now handled on the shore side. I refuse to help out on the Bridge and on the watch-bill underway because contrary to SWO ignorance, I am not and will never be a SWO. I will never command a ship, I will never “drop warheads on foreheads” or any of that other SWO crap. I deal with treasury checks, ship store items, Navy Cash and flight quarters--beyond that consider it outside of my preview and beyond my caring. I stand OOD in port and Duty Supply and that is my contribution to the greater whole while in port.
However, all of the above can be thrown right out the window if your command climate is radically different than mine. If your CO/XO wants you to get your OOD letter and puts you on the watch bill, then you will be on the watch bill and you will stand bridge watches. Fortunately I have a great CO/XO and a strong SUPPO so they support my “the only time I’m on the bridge is if I get lost” mentality.
Being a Supply Officer is what you want it to be. Sure I can be a bag of ass and go on liberty at 1200 every day, but it helps to show my people that I’m in the same boat as them and that I will not leave before they do. I can also work myself to death and stay until 1700 every day but that isn’t productive, cuts into my social life and is generally unhealthy. The trick is to find your niche within the command and to stick to what you, and your Chief if you have one, feels comfortable with.
I think I just heard the 1-MC announcement for liberty call—see ya!
