• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

Nuke pipeline vs. NFO/Pilot pipeline

TrunkMonkey

Spy Navy
Trust me, I'm grateful every day for the chance to continue serving, and I love the job I have now. I didn't mean to come off as bitter or not understanding why things happened the way they did. Just joking, and trying to let the OP know that there will be no post-flight school nuke school opportunities.
 

joboy_2.0

professional undergraduate
Contributor
I was just a bit suspicious with the super sweet deal the the NUPOC guys get, that puts even the BDCPers to shame. That's when I really thought about living on a sub...:eek:
 

wink

War Hoover NFO.
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Trust me, I'm grateful every day for the chance to continue serving, and I love the job I have now. I didn't mean to come off as bitter or not understanding why things happened the way they did. Just joking, and trying to let the OP know that there will be no post-flight school nuke school opportunities.


No worries. I understand. Although guys do sometimes redesignate from SNA to NFO it is fairly rare these days. And even then, it is only if the guy is simply lacking some advanced monkey skills. He still has to be able to keep up with the plane and make sound tactical and safety judgments.
 

Steve Wilkins

Teaching pigs to dance, one pig at a time.
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Just joking, and trying to let the OP know that there will be no post-flight school nuke school opportunities.
The OP (original poster) should understand that post-flight school nuke opportunities come and go. If they need nukes, you're qualified, and you want to be a nuke, it is always a safe bet to go ahead and apply for redesignation.
 

EM1

Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit
I think they're letting people lat transfer to other communities, but I doubt that Nuke officer would be one of them, mainly because of the screening process. You need to be invited to the interview in DC, then go through the technical interviews, then sit in front of the 4-star that's in charge of the Nuclear program.

Having sat in the 4-star's chair, I can tell you that the interviews are nothing to sweat, especially if you have a good record of prior nuclear experience to back you up. In my power school class we had a LT who failed out of his flight school, and was no worse off than anyone else. One thing that hurt him though was making O4 without a dept head tour under your belt is almost impossible in the submarine community, just something to think about, in your case you may be able to squeeze in 20 before your HYT. Also, I can tell you that you are probably more capable academically than you may realize by making it through the pipeline, enlisted or EOOW. The only difference in curriculum is on the third floor, they derive the equations. Just keep in mind that as an EOOW student, you don't actually operate anything, given that, your enlisted experience should put you at an advantage. If you fail out, given the state of the nuclear officer community, I don't think it would be a stretch to send you back to a submarine.
 

Sarpedon

ET2(SS/DV)
Having sat in the 4-star's chair, I can tell you that the interviews are nothing to sweat, especially if you have a good record of prior nuclear experience to back you up. In my power school class we had a LT who failed out of his flight school, and was no worse off than anyone else. One thing that hurt him though was making O4 without a dept head tour under your belt is almost impossible in the submarine community, just something to think about, in your case you may be able to squeeze in 20 before your HYT. Also, I can tell you that you are probably more capable academically than you may realize by making it through the pipeline, enlisted or EOOW. The only difference in curriculum is on the third floor, they derive the equations. Just keep in mind that as an EOOW student, you don't actually operate anything, given that, your enlisted experience should put you at an advantage. If you fail out, given the state of the nuclear officer community, I don't think it would be a stretch to send you back to a submarine.

Thanks for the good info, EM1. Though that brings up another topic that I know very little about: High Year Tenure. How does that work? If it's what I think it is, it's what says that a first class can't go past 20 years, a chief can't go past something like 22 or 24, and a senior chief can't go past 26 (I think). I have no idea what the numbers are like on the officer side.

Thanks again everyone
ET3/SS "Sarpedon"
 

EM1

Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit
Thanks for the good info, EM1. Though that brings up another topic that I know very little about: High Year Tenure. How does that work? If it's what I think it is, it's what says that a first class can't go past 20 years, a chief can't go past something like 22 or 24, and a senior chief can't go past 26 (I think). I have no idea what the numbers are like on the officer side.

Thanks again everyone
ET3/SS "Sarpedon"

Its a little more complicated on the officer side from what I understand. The way I've heard it, promotion to O3 is all but automatic (all fully qualified will get promoted, they did away with the board in 03 I think). For O4 it gets a little trickier as O4 through O6 are known as "Control Grades" and as such, their numbers are set by law. When you get commissioned, you will be assigned a "lineal number" and every year the officer communities will announce the senior in zone and junior in zone eligible for promotion. By looking at the navadmin, you can determine if you are below zone (being looked at for early promotion), in zone (at a point where you should get promoted) or above zone (been passed over before when you were in zone). Generally you will get two looks "below zone" before you are in zone, but a lot of that depends on the community and the numbers in the control grades. The long and short of it is that if you get passed over in zone, and subsequently above zone, you will probably get asked to resign in most cases, and at least in the submarine community, if you don't have a dept head tour in by your above zone look, getting promoted probably won't happen. As the numbers change annually, its hard to get a feel for exactly how much time you will have in before you get your above zone look, I've been told a good rule of thumb is that you can probably get away with doing about ten years on the dark side without making LCDR, before they will make you resign. Using myself as an example, I'll have 11 years in when I get commissioned (8 in now plus 3 years of school), which means that I'll need 9 more to get to 20, therefore 9 < 10, therefore I hopefully won't get forced out if I fail to make O4. Hope all this helps, if you want more specifics, I'd bet someone in your wardroom could help you more, JOs usually seem more than happy to try and explain their overly complicated advancement system. Might even kill a whole midwatch doing it :)
 

scoober78

(HCDAW)
pilot
Contributor
In a sub? That would be pretty neat trick.

DSC01680.JPG


They say they work....I was always sceptical....If you get it...you get it.;)
http://webzoom.freewebs.com/henry0077/DSC01680.JPG
 

EM1

Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit
We always say that they're for parents and congressmen. Nothing beats climbing into the hatch with an inspection team member, and playing with a bunch of valves you can't see through the fog on the cheap plastic window. We would have failed our TRE, if we hadn't heard they were making people do that. Good thing we got a three month work up to practice escaping every after watch:) I still don't think I would try using them. You gotta be in some dire straits, and if you are, why the $##$@ are you trying to leave? I guess they have to make somebody feel better...
 

EM1

Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit
Sorry to resurect this one, I was trying to figure out how to add a signature and accidentally put a post up here.
 

et1nuke

Active Member
pilot
Contributor
In a sub? That would be pretty neat trick.
That's what escape trunks and steinke hoods are for right.....you guys have no idea what I'm talking about nevermind.

Oh just read the last page and noticed the date as well....I guess Scoober knows. I never felt so safe as when I inventoried a locker full of rotten mildewed hoods.
 
I was just a bit suspicious with the super sweet deal the the NUPOC guys get, that puts even the BDCPers to shame. That's when I really thought about living on a sub...:eek:
Yeah, you were wiser than I was.... I remember my recruiter giving me names of prior nukes to talk to, and me ignoring their chants of "it's like having a final exam, every day of the week", in favor of my recruiter's "they're the best of the best!". This thread's a bit old already, but my advice is to pick the designator you *want*, and worry about the other stuff later.
 

Sarpedon

ET2(SS/DV)
haha, well, since it's been resurrected... I decided not to pursue the aviation program. I did my 6 years as a sub nuke ET, and now I'm going to college on the Post 9/11 GI Bill. Thanks for all the input! Hopefully future nukes see this and can make the right decision for them.
 
Top