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DCOIC Gouge for those about to commission as a DCO

Hair Warrior

Well-Known Member
Contributor
No idea. I plan on skipping IWBC altogether. Also, I think reserve DIVOLC is two days on a DWE, similar to RILC. But don’t worry about either of those until you are a LTJG - also there will be more clarity by then. Focus on DCOIC and your Intel PQS because those can actually get you ad-sep’d if you don’t do them on time.
 

USNAVY

Active Member
RNIOBC phase one is 4.5 weeks in IWTC-VB. RNIOBC phase two is 2 weeks in IWTC-VB. DCOIC must be completed before RNIOBC phase one. Both RNIOBC courses must be completed prior to sitting for your 3I1 Intel PQS board, which means completing both within 36 mo. of commissioning (without a waiver to extend to 48 mo.). RNIOBC phase one is potentially waiverable if you earned a Navy EIDWS pin, but those waivers are not given lightly. RNIOBC phase two is not waiverable. Active duty NIOBC is still an option as a 6 mo. long ADT but I’m not sure why you’d want to.
Is the capstone in San Diego, CA?
 

Goodfou

Well-Known Member
I will disagree on the ODS vs DCOIC. Our senior chief told us he preferred instructing DCO over ODS because we joined for different reasons. Many at ODS are there for the free med school or other free degree, and they often have less work experience than DCO officers. Also, it would have been way harder on my family and my civ job to do both ODS and a long, in-person IWC training in the same year. Lastly, my experience at DCOIC taught me that prior service vs non prior service was not a predictor of who was a good teammate/good leader at DCOIC.

Ask that same Senior Chief which program does a better job preparing Officers for the Fleet and that answer will be different. DCOIC is nothing more than GMT indoc plus a sprinkling of uniform/PT regs. There is near zero time to develop basic military leadership skills. If I had to guess, the prior service bubbas were pulling back to let the non-priors-like you- be forced to stand out in front.

If someone really wants to serve as a commissioned officer, they will find the time to complete a four week basic officer training.

Trust me, the enlisted can spot non-prior DCOs and these officers get walked over by many of them because of the lack of legitimate officer training. If you think your civilian technical skills/ advanced degrees alone qualify you to lead and be an example to Sailors you are sadly mistaken.

In my opinion, Doctors and chaplains are the exception. But even the one ones in my class thought DCOIC was not long enough to prepare them to wear the uniform.

Furthermore, wearing this uniform should not be seen as an “inconvenience.” Somehow, I think we would still get plenty of well qualified applicants if we added a couple extra weeks to initial training. Many of which (applicants) would be the same ones we currently attract. Maybe we might even get better Officers out of the deal which matters way more than a temporary inconvenience...give me a break...What do you think this is? Something to pad your civilian resume?
 

Hair Warrior

Well-Known Member
Contributor
To briefly address your comments:

- Actually, this particular senior chief disliked both DCOIC and ODS. He thought both courses should be “candidate schools” instead of “indoctrination course” and “development school.” i.e. Everyone shows up as an E-5 candidate, and OTCN decides if you earn your commission or not. I don’t disagree with him in principle but the logistics and timing would be tough.

- I know what you mean about prior enlisted pulling back at DCOIC so that non priors could step up. There is an element of that in general at DCOIC, but it doesn’t apply to me - it was more nuanced than that, and also my DCOIC class was a shit show for a couple reasons, so let’s omit it from the sample size.

- I agree it’s an honor to wear the uniform. I’m not opposed to ADT time, but what’s the right ratio of generic naval officer training to designator-specific functional training? For Intel, it’s roughly a 1:6 ratio in the first 36 months (for every day learning about being an officer, six days are spent learning intel). That seems appropriate, having recently gone through all of it. If you told me to spend another week in uniform starting tomorrow, I hope you’d be teaching me intel skills I can actually use, not just more generic training on being a naval officer.

Sending us to ODS without changing the Intel training would shift that ratio to 1:1, roughly. OCS would shift it further, to 2:1. Changing to OCS plus AD NIOBC, well now we’re the exact same pipeline as 1830 Ensigns, spending an entire year in uniform before we get out to the fleet. Keep in mind that’s potentially using up a year of time for a reservist (with a family and a civ job) to solely do the man/train/equip piece of the Navy, without any support or effort going toward operational CCMDs. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, and that’s what our URL pipelines look like, but it changes your reserve officer applicant pool and force composition because now different people are applying and they’re applying for different reasons. It also is very expensive and totally changes (skews) the ratio of Navy’s investment of time and money in developing a new reservist, compared to, Navy’s recouping that investment by mobilizing the reservist in support of CCMD requirements.

Put simply, reservists would have to mob even more to make the juice worth the squeeze for the Navy bean counters. And right now, the number of DCO officers who end up in the IRR (or out of the Navy altogether) without ever doing a mob is probably higher than the Navy would like it to be.
 
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bryanteagle6

Well-Known Member
Where did you get this exert from ? Link?

From my recruiter. It is the page within a longer document that I don't have NAVIFORESREGNORTHINST 1130.1A

That being said - maybe just NAV info reserve region North has these specific standards?!
 

Chance_EDO

Still a Pollywog, not yet a Shellback
Hey guys,

It looks like the training to be an officer is much busier than I was told.
Can someone give me any idea what the commitment serving in the Reserves would be like?

I work 2 jobs (totalling 80+ hours a week).
I also stated doing 10 gym sessions a week (15-20 hours a week).
I hope to be starting an Master’s degree in Electrical/ Computer Engineering in 2019 (estimated to be 20-30 hours a week).

I appreciate your patience. This is the first time serving for me so I would be grateful for your insights.
 
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FormerRecruitingGuru

Making Recruiting Great Again
Hey guys,

It looks like the training to be an officer is much longer than I was told.
Can someone give me an honest idea or insight on how much time serving as an Officer would take?

Currently, I work a full time job (40 hours), plus run a full time business (another 40 hours) and am now squeezing in 10 gym sessions a week with a trainer (to meet the strength, cardio and swim requirements).

I’m thinking of also doing an Master’s degree in Electrical/ Computer Engineering (enrolling in an accelerated program) - starting in the Spring.

I appreciate your patience. This is the first time serving for me so I would be grateful for your insights.

Read and heed HairWarrior’s post.
 
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