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If you really want to fly Navy and are due to graduate at 27, take summer/winter courses and try to graduate a semester or two early. That's really your only option to get to OCS before 27. Also, punctuation is your friend for making posts that people can read and comprehend.

It is unlikely that anyone is going to let a couple of Ensigns walk on and conduct weapon qualifications. First, there's training requirements that you must meet before you even step onto the range that no one will have conducted with you. But beyond that, range space is often at a premium and...

What do you mean by 'get in trouble?' If you mean something minor like leaving your gear locker unlocked, you might get a 'hurricane' followed by some RPT and maybe some punishment like having to pile all the furniture in the unoccupied room and the only thing you have is a rack. If you mean...

No, I wasn't trolling you. The 'average' varies by class, so no one can answer your question. If you're in a class of speed demons they will still push you to go faster, but it won't be the same type of harrassment you get for barely finishing the run at a 12+ min/mi pace, which would have been...

http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4508174/ryan-zinke CDR Zinke is a retired SEAL who is running for a House seat in MT. This was an interesting speech and I think that his observations about handcuffing of commanders and CPOs through policy translates to other areas of the Navy as well. He also...

Fast enough that you're not last.

If the results of this effort had full 'in house' support, you just mandate that the survey get issued with the next command climate survey. You'd get near 100% AD participation, and no one would have to have any arguments over statistics.

All I was pointing out is that the standard deviation is associated with the estimate of the mean and says nothing about bias. Therefore, one cannot point at a 1.4% or whatever-it-is error and say 'see, these results are iron clad. That doesn't mean that they are garbage, either. They tell a...

I think that you're confusing the CLT with the inspection paradox; the former being the sample size needed to account for a reasonable standard error and the latter being the method of obtaining a sample that provides an unbiased estimate. You usually can't quantify bias. So while the Navy's...

I may be a little off on my history, but aren't you guys talking about the way officer promotions used to work in the country's early days, with a more famous example being Patton who was pointed at and made general when they created the 2nd Armor division? The military was much smaller then...

The PT at OCS isn't particularly rigorous on paper, BUT... Most people who showed up when I attended did not work out vigorously everyday, and even the ones that did didn't do the same freaking exercise for 30 minutes everyday. When you go into an environment where you not only increase your...

In my class they gave all of the class leadership positions to priors early on. Then they generally found a reason to 'fire' many of them and replace them with non-priors as training progressed to spread the wealth. None were CPOs or SNCOs though, so YMMV. Personally, I think as long as you...

I think that you should focus your motivational statement on you instead of your ancestors, even if they served in the American military.

It's not given because Permissive TAD Authorization for Residence Hunting, aka 'house hunting leave' for those who wish to use the proper key-words for Googling the official policy, is given from the departing command and not the receiving command for execution of PCS orders.

I think it's more a matter of laziness (or maybe 'constrained resources') for not wanting to do whatever security tests they do for every update of IE until it absolutely has to be done.

Didn't have to have laundry done in the laundry bag. Did hand wash it on the floor of the shower stall half-naked crammed between several other dudes while the DI yelled "SCRUB" and we had to yell "HARDER". Then later on they made everyone throw their PT gear into the wash together; it wasn't...

If you were INCONUS and this was relatively recently, I think someone at your command misinterpreted the FPCON measures in effect.

I said 'as much as possible' because 'six months of living expenses' for a junior enlisted servicemember is $0. Everything they need to live is automatically deducted. They generally have no idea what that magic number ought to be. Hence, setting up a vehicle to put away almost every dollar they...

I believe I addressed that in the very next paragraph after the one that you quoted.

Well... 1) CDs aren't liquid until the terms are up, and there really isn't much sense in putting money into shorter term CDs rather than just keeping it liquid in a saving's account. If you're worried about inflation over the mid-term, you'd be better off investing into a Barclay's index fund...

It's what we should strongly advise that they do, after they pay off debt and before the dependapotomii can spend it.

JoJo, you win the world's longest signature award.

Yep

Not really. Unless you happen to be stationed where your local teams are, you won't be able to catch your team(s) on cable most of the time. And if you are stationed where local teams are, you still get quite a few games on broadcast networks. The only time you're really SOL is if you're a...

Range procedures are fairly detailed and strict to maintain safety. You'll probably get someone giving you commands over a microphone and the only time someone will yell is if you don't follow simple directions with a loaded firearm.

On the flip side, because cable service is so inter-twined with the FCC, they can't adapt to what customers want if they even wanted to. You know why you have 500 useless channels of crap? Because in order for them to get the mainstream channels that people actually want, they have to make...

I was commenting on doing the pistol qualification at OCS if they are run similar to the fleet, not maintaining proficiency with a firearm in general. I wish the Navy did more to maintain pistol proficiency, but range schedules, money for ammo, and the fact that it's not mission-critical for...

They have a NEX on the base in case you forget. But a better idea, if you know you're changing seasons, is to leave a pair of winter clothes in your trunk and wear the summer clothes upon check-in, so you don't run around in a winter jacket and sweater in the middle of August.

Eh, it's good fun and all but the qual will expire (6 mo) before anyone other than potentially SWOs get to use it. Kind of a waste of money... that is, unless, the DIs actually teach you proper shooting technique instead of just handing you a pistol, grilling you on safety, and then letting you...

Well, I also think there's a significant level of "We have the most important job ever and you can't afford to cut us" mantra in these organizations that muddies the water when people talk about making cuts to them. This isn't limited to DoD organizations, but state and federal agencies as a...

I don't think it's a nefarious plot. I probably misunderstood the paper, but the author made it sound like this was not an accident, as in the supposedly designator blind board didn't turn around at the end and say 'oops, we picked 50% 13xx and 90% other URL.'

In fairness to that teacher, 'natural born citizen' isn't defined in the Constitution and there is no law strictly defining what it means. It's generally taken to mean a person who is a citizen at birth, but the only law I could find that actually contained the phrase 'natural born citizen' was...

There's a fine line here. While it could be more clear cut if phrases like "under God" were eliminated from the Pledge of Allegience, there is a distinct difference between a generic mention of "God" and quoting a religious text. It's also worth noting that 'separation of church and state'...

The white paper posted earlier explains it somewhat. Apparently aviation is over-manned in each grade with every other designator at a shortage. Probably would have been nice if PERS disclosed that information before they decided to drastically reduce selection in a community so people could...

But they have a Roth option that's capped at $17.5k, which gives you tax-free growth on your invenstments.

The simplest solution is what BigRed posted: Screen aviators DH and add that FITREP bullet to their profiles before the statutory board for O-4. Wouldn't require Congressional approval or a huge change of the way business is conducted. However, that would still screw some people over when you're...

This is why candidates got haircuts. It has nothing to do with making people look gross or undignified, and everything to do with making everyone look the same in the most efficient manner possible. You're not John, Paul, Jane, or Sarah, you're a candidate. You wear the same uniform and have...

I think that it's impossible to compare the best between the two communities on an O-4 board; it's like trying to compare LeBron James to Tiger Woods. The career paths and the 'heavy lifting' jobs are entirely different for each community, and if time served as a DH and a recommendation for XO...

I could make the same argument about mustaches. They gonna stop making everyone shave at OCS? "Sir, this officer candidate believes he should be treated like a special snowflake so that he doesn't show up to his next command looking like a pre-pubescent rapist!"

You're not understanding. I'm going to be ordered to SOAC. It's beyond my control. The part of my career that I had an inkling of control over -- my shore duty preferences -- have virtually no bearing on my selection rate for O-4 unless I worked on an Adm staff. I don't have to volunteer to be a...

The amount of EPs and MPs a CO can give for any particular grade is dictated by instruction, so the theory of aviator COs giving out EPs like candy doesn't hold water. This. Is the board saying that having a "XO at sea" written into block 40 or 'command qualified' in the writeup is more...

Absurd. Some candidates, male and female, benefit from learning that your haircut is inconsequential and you are not a special snowflake. It's an important part of the training. So women are spared the scissors because of who knows why (hurt feelings? looks too boyish?), while men still have to...

Bingo, but it would take an act of Congress to change statute. The amount of commissioned officers in each grade is set by them; the amount of DHs/XOs needed to fill O-4 billets in each designator is not.

Meanwhile on the sub side of the house, they were shortening DH tours to as low as 24 mo (nominal 36 mo) for those who have met the checks in the box for deployment + command quals just as I left the boat to make room for a surplus of DHs.

I think that you're missing something: The Navy is not part of the draw-down plans, at least as far as I'm aware of. In fact, the Navy is 19 ships short of its goal of 306 as of 2013. Even if your theory were correct and the tougher numbers were due to a sudden influx of JOs in the 2000s, it...

The pros of USAA: -Top-notch customer service. They are a phone call away with minimal hold times (usually instant). -Easy to navigate website. -If you have a smartphone, you never need a physical bank. -Reimburses you for ATM fees anywhere in the globe. -Cheapest way to convert cash to other...

Go for it. Petition SECNAV/Congress to make some senior aviation DIVO job an O-4 billet and presto.

It's also worth noting that at least 1/3 of 1120's going up for the board for O-4 already served 2-3 years as a spot promoted O-4 as an Eng. Those guys are practically auto-selects, provided they didn't get relieved for cause.

Eh, I wouldn't call a submariner who did a divo tour in Groton, subschool tour, and a DH tour out of Groton or Kbay a 'leader of diverse organizations.' All he's seen is the corner of the Navy that is the submarine force; a cross-section of the Navy that is disproportionately white and has few...

I would, too. We don't have all the information, that's the point. We know a doc was there and administering CPR, so I would like to think that he was doing what he felt was medically proper to take care of the patient. For better or worse, I don't think the VA is going to let the doc who was...