If it makes you feel any better, there were Intel applicants at the August 2025 IWC board who submitted their packets in the Fall of 2024 and had largely the same experience. The IWC board in August 2024 did pretty much the exact same thing – picking up a relatively large number of folks for Intel (compared to boards past), then cancelling draws for civilian Intel applicants at subsequent IWC boards for about a year. From what it sounds like your recruiters are saying, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s a trend continuing into 2026 (as the old saying goes – once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, and thrice is a pattern…...or enemy action. Dealer’s choice).
As much as that sucks, I'd also point out that a fair number of Intel selects who posted in the August 2025 IWC Board thread received projected ship dates ranging between March and September of 2026 (which means they haven’t even left for OCS yet). All this is to say, if you're a civilian and Intel is really what you want, you can bank on the process not moving quickly. That said, if you're not imminently about to age out of eligibility, I'd still argue that waiting to get the designator you want is better (for you and the Navy in the long run) than locking yourself into something tolerable just because it's available sooner.
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