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Cryptologic Warfare Officer Initial Duty Stations

Mteague92

New Member
I have been accepted to OCS for CW Officer and was curious about the initial duty stations out of OCS? What are they? What is the likelihood of each? Any info would be appreciated. I am coming over from the Air Force so the Navy will be new to me.

Thanks
 

FormerRecruitingGuru

Making Recruiting Great Again
Lots of information at your disposal:



This might also come off as a jerk question, but why did you apply for a program in which you have no idea or understanding of what it does? Would you apply for a civilian job without doing research and knowing what it does?
 

Mteague92

New Member
Lots of information at your disposal:



This might also come off as a jerk question, but why did you apply for a program in which you have no idea or understanding of what it does? Would you apply for a civilian job without doing research and knowing what it does?
I know what the job is/does..just didnt know the likelihood of the duty stations
 

CWO_change

Well-Known Member
Keep in mind that while there are still four main locations that you're likely to end up especially as a new accession, there is some variety in what you might do.

You may end up at an agency job, doing a cyber gig somewhere (which is becoming increasingly an option for new accessions), or potentially get sent to the FIOC (Fleet Information Operations Center) as either a deployer (direct support) or as a permanent watch stander. If you're interested in going direct support and getting your tactical tour out of the way early, I'd make that known to your detailer sooner rather than later. Note, if you wanted to do direct support subsurface, you would not have the option to go to all of the big four locations, and the same applies to surface (and air sometimes).

Texas is the smallest of the big four I think in terms of overall billets, so the likelihood of you going there would probably correspond with that. Hawaii and Maryland are the biggest, so I think there's a good chance you'd end up at either one of those two sites. Keep in mind that where the others report to one O6 for administrative purposes, Maryland is now split up into 7 smaller commands (1x ISIC and 6x subordinate commands).

When I was at OCS in 2015, I communicated with the detailer that Hawaii was my top choice based on what I knew about weather, location, and housing allowance rates :D You'll definitely get the opportunity to communicate with the detailer about preferences at some point, so I'd research that carefully (I'm always happy to discuss more, too) prior to attending OCS.
 

South86

New Member
Late to the party but like everyone else has stated the typical path out of OCS is going to be at a place you can finish your basic qual and pin before moving on to your tactical tour or during your tactical tour if you get a dirsup billet. They are moving the surface dirsup billets from GA/HI and moving them to Norfolk/San Diego so those are now options for surface dirsup. Which wouldn’t be bad to get your sea tour knocked out first and then have a chance at NPS as a JG vice LT. Would keep your LT fitreps competitive. There has been talk about adding a new accession to big deck ships as the EWO under the IWO (LT/LCDR 1810) which I think is a good idea and all communities are onboard so the pin process is more beneficial in my mind than doing it at a NIOC. I went to CWOBC last year (6810 LDO) and my class was probably 30/70 split for DIRSUP/Shore for the first tour guys. If you have any questions about the community feel free to reach out. I was a CTRC now 6810.
 

CWO_change

Well-Known Member
Late to the party but like everyone else has stated the typical path out of OCS is going to be at a place you can finish your basic qual and pin before moving on to your tactical tour or during your tactical tour if you get a dirsup billet. They are moving the surface dirsup billets from GA/HI and moving them to Norfolk/San Diego so those are now options for surface dirsup. Which wouldn’t be bad to get your sea tour knocked out first and then have a chance at NPS as a JG vice LT. Would keep your LT fitreps competitive. There has been talk about adding a new accession to big deck ships as the EWO under the IWO (LT/LCDR 1810) which I think is a good idea and all communities are onboard so the pin process is more beneficial in my mind than doing it at a NIOC. I went to CWOBC last year (6810 LDO) and my class was probably 30/70 split for DIRSUP/Shore for the first tour guys. If you have any questions about the community feel free to reach out. I was a CTRC now 6810.
Are they moving all of DIRSUP surface from Hawaii? Or just the big deck support? I was tracking that there would still be a small DIRSUP shop there for some DDG and support, but that was about a year ago.
 

South86

New Member
Everything over to SD besides the sub shop. They have started moving the billets already. In the next year or two there will be no more small boys without ships company all are being upgraded.
 

CWO_change

Well-Known Member
Everything over to SD besides the sub shop. They have started moving the billets already. In the next year or two there will be no more small boys without ships company all are being upgraded.

That's good news for those who want to get out to San Diego. I'm missing Hawaii, though, so am glad to return there this fall :)

Hawaii still seems to have quite a few billets. I'm trying to find more information out on the new IWC Pacific Fleet command they just stood up in terms of billet availability.
 

theroyz71

New Member
ENS son just got redesignated CW. Talked to his detailer today. Looking at school in the spring. He's trying to decide what duty station to put at the top of his wish list. They are leaning towards either MD or GA followed by TX and then HI.
 
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CWO_change

Well-Known Member
ENS son just got redesignated CW. Talked to his detailer today. Looking at school in the spring. He's trying to decide what duty station to put at the top of his wish list. They are leaning towards either MD or GA followed by TX and then HI.
Congrats to your son. If possible, I’d have him consider looking into the sub shop at MD, assuming that they are still taking new JOs (I know there’s a push to make that job a second tour billet). It would allow him to get his tactical tour over with at his first duty station and open up more doors going forward.

But MD has a whole host of jobs available. More and more new ENSs have been getting sent to cyber teams out there, too, if that interests him.
 

CWO_change

Well-Known Member
That's good news for those who want to get out to San Diego. I'm missing Hawaii, though, so am glad to return there this fall :)

Hawaii still seems to have quite a few billets. I'm trying to find more information out on the new IWC Pacific Fleet command they just stood up in terms of billet availability.

To follow up on this post, I’ve been told that the move to SD has been put on hold essentially indefinitely as flags determine whether another such pilot program involving NIOC GA is successful.
 

theroyz71

New Member
Congrats to your son. If possible, I’d have him consider looking into the sub shop at MD, assuming that they are still taking new JOs (I know there’s a push to make that job a second tour billet). It would allow him to get his tactical tour over with at his first duty station and open up more doors going forward.

But MD has a whole host of jobs available. More and more new ENSs have been getting sent to cyber teams out there, too, if that interests him.

Thank you CWO_change. I will mention it to him though if it meant being assigned to a sub, it probably would not be his first choice.

Sorry, this is all new to me. I was a 3523 in the Marine Corps. What are cyber teams?
 

CWO_change

Well-Known Member
Thank you CWO_change. I will mention it to him though if it meant being assigned to a sub, it probably would not be his first choice.

Sorry, this is all new to me. I was a 3523 in the Marine Corps. What are cyber teams?

Sorry, yes sub refers to submarines. And fair enough! Although he’ll have to consider what he would like to do as a tactical tour as that time will likely be there before he knows it. If he has enough time on his contract left after his first tour—and assuming that he’s not med down—the detailer will almost certainly try to send him to a surface ship. Apart from subs and surface platforms, there are other ways to get tactical tour credit as a CW officer, but the bill are in surface billets followed by sub direct support billets. Note, as a CW direct support officer, your son would not be permanently assigned to the boat and would only deploy for part of the deployment.

Moving on, the Navy has defensive cyber teams and offensive cyber teams, as well as teams that support other teams. If your son was assigned to one of those as an ENS, he’d probably be an operations officer or mission lead.
 
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