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Coastal Riverine Squadron

rpat1987

Surf n Turf
Does anybody know about the CRS?

If so, how do you get into it and how does it look career wise for a SWO?
 

BigRed389

Registered User
None
Does anybody know about the CRS?

If so, how do you get into it and how does it look career wise for a SWO?

I was in its predecessor (RIVRON) before it merged with MSRON.
Now each AD CRS is a hybrid of both. 3 companies do harbor security and escort vessels pulling in and out of port overseas. One does the Riverine mission, which nowadays is mostly partnership exercises in SE Asia or somewhere down in SOUTHCOM (eg Colombia).

Getting in mostly relies on your knocking out your Engineering qual during your Division Officer tours. If you do it during your 1st tour, you can actually go CRS for your 2nd tour. If you do it during your 2nd tour, you can do it in lieu of your shore tour. Well actually, if you don't get it at all, I guess you could still do it for a shore tour, but not getting that qual isn't a good idea if you're thinking career at all.

Career wise, if you do it as a JO, nobody really cares, but if there were other things you might want to do during that window of opportunity, realize you can't go back and do those later.
Some do it during/around Department Head tours...now that isn't considered a good career move.
 

Too_Tall34

New Member
Generally speaking, how competitive is a slot for CRS amongst JO's?
It seems like a great opportunity for a junior officer to gain small unit leadership experience after one or two DIVO tours aboard larger ships.
 

azguy

Well-Known Member
None
If you do it during your 1st tour, you can actually go CRS for your 2nd tour.

One recent correction, BigRed. They are transitioning all SWO CRS jobs (at least Divo and DH) to shore duty. This is because - for better or worse - the SWO community doesn't value CRS; and they want Divos and DHs in useful community jobs on gray ships. Not saying I totally agree with that position (I mostly do), but that's the latest party line. This decision was made by PERS-41 before the Farsi Island incident, but it has to be partially informed by the cultural issues exposed therein.

OP - I'll echo a few things BigRed pointed out:
-You literally can't go wrong with whatever Divo shore job you pick.
-Going to CRS as a DH, on the other hand, is a negative career move.
-Definitely get EOOW soonest; there are many reasons for this, being more competitive on your slate is just one.
 

Uncle Fester

Robot Pimp
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I would think the Farsi Island fiasco would spur some thinking toward creating a SWCO community - either as a specialty track for SWOs or as a separate NSW community.
 

Hair Warrior

Well-Known Member
Contributor
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...-get-rid-of-its-nearly-brand-new-patrol-boats

Resurrecting an existing thread rather than create a new one. The Navy aims to get rid of its nearly new Mark VI patrol boats. The stated reason is that no missile tubes = no usefulness in a peer fight vs. Russia/China.

It just seems a little short-sighted to get rid of them. How do we know for sure we won't find a good use for them in a peer fight?
 

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...-get-rid-of-its-nearly-brand-new-patrol-boats

Resurrecting an existing thread rather than create a new one. The Navy aims to get rid of its nearly new Mark VI patrol boats. The stated reason is that no missile tubes = no usefulness in a peer fight vs. Russia/China.

It just seems a little short-sighted to get rid of them. How do we know for sure we won't find a good use for them in a peer fight?
Big Navy loves to decimate anything not immediately aligned to the current view of strategy - its amazing. 20 years of patrol boat / coastal / littoral expertise now no longer in favor so let's kill it. Harkens back to Helo CSAR being destroyed in 70-80's.

It's amazing how the Navy rejects anything that has to do with real world kinetic combat.
 

Hair Warrior

Well-Known Member
Contributor
Big Navy loves to decimate anything not immediately aligned to the current view of strategy - its amazing. 20 years of patrol boat / coastal / littoral expertise now no longer in favor so let's kill it. Harkens back to Helo CSAR being destroyed in 70-80's.
Sad. And put me in the category of saying we might need them against China/Russia.

There are shallow waters, small islands, and narrow straits all over the SCS, Philippines, Danish Straits, Dardanelles, and Norwegian coastline.

Heck, there are all those things on the U.S. coastline too. We think we're untouchable in our home waters? (Spoiler alert: in World War II, we weren't.)
 

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
Big Navy loves to decimate anything not immediately aligned to the current view of strategy - its amazing. 20 years of patrol boat / coastal / littoral expertise now no longer in favor so let's kill it. Harkens back to Helo CSAR being destroyed in 70-80's.

It's amazing how the Navy rejects anything that has to do with real world kinetic combat.
ASW is another area that suffers big swings.
 

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
This strikes me as being very short sighted. Sure, modern military strategy is (wrongly) based on supporting a specific budget (mo' money fo' mo' ships) rather than a militarily strategic goal (how to beat China in WWIII) but the lack of geographic and historic understanding here is tragic. In WWII P.T. boats failed to be particularly effective in their primary mission, but were quite effective in their use in reconnaissance, search and rescue, and best of all harassing enemy supply lines. The Japanese hated them because they pulled significant combat power away from the primary strike fleets. On the other side of the world German "E-Boats" were credited with sinking over 100 merchant ships, 12 destroyers, 11 minesweepers, 8 landing ships, a submarine and a host of smaller craft.

As @Hair Warrior noted, the primary fighting ground in a near peer war with China is almost perfect for small boat action and the PLAN has, I think, nearly 200 small attack craft. But...all that said...WWII PT boats were considered a stop gap measure while the blue water fleet was built to full strength even though the navy didn't let them go once the big fleet was ready. They were, in fact, too valuable. It seesm to me that the better route would be to slap a few launchers on it.
 

taxi1

Well-Known Member
pilot
They should keep them around and work on making them optionally manned. They can just putter around tracking and trailing in the South China Sea.
 

Hair Warrior

Well-Known Member
Contributor
It seesm to me that the better route would be to slap a few launchers on it.
Yep. Any watercraft can have a launcher on it if the launcher is man-portable. Stinger. SMAW. Javelin. Whatever you fancy that day.
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