Just curious, not there yet,
Can someone please explain to me what the timeline looks like towards the end of your initial contract. Right now I'm looking at a 24-36 month Shore Tour followed by a 12-24 month Disassociated Sea Tour currently at the 4 year mark on the contract.
Questions to direct conversation:
-Where do the board (O-4 and ADHSB) looks fit in timeline wise?
-When at the latest would you 2FOS and then when would you be released from service? Mostly concerned with, coming from this angle, do you have to essentially serve more time to get to the point of 2FOS and subsequent severance pay?
Bonus Question:
-If you make O-4 are you guaranteed 20 or are there situations where the navy simply lets you go at 14-16yos? If you don't make commander you can attempt the Full Time Instructor route as an O-4. Where does that fit in with the board/career timing?
Again, not there yet. Keeping options open and pushing for O-4 until it comes time to make the decision. Just trying to figure out when that time is.
(Warning, all this is very Helo specific, kind of long, and meandering)
There's a lot of moving pieces to what you're talking about. For LCDR, somewhere in your shore tour you need to start looking at the zone messages for boards. The "Bubba List" is also a tool the Helicopter detailers put out to front offices that has all the Helo pilots on it based off lineal number and
projected board zones. You can ask your CO/XO to see it, and if they don't have it, they should be able to ask the detailer for it. It isn't set in stone until the official Big Navy zone message comes out saying "people from this number to this number" are eligible for the LCDR statutory board. In the message it's phrased as Junior and Senior Most In Zone. You can then plot your lineal number (see your Officer Service Record on BOL) to see if you're in that range. You get a "freebie" Below Zone look, then your In Zone, then Above Zone. If you Fail to Select (FOS) both your In and Above Zone looks, you will be a "FOSx2" or "Two Time FOS" and separated from the Navy, with exceptions (Continuation or Sanctuary).
Specifics are in the MILPERSMAN, but after FOSx2, the separation detailer now owns you and you have to get out in six months. Continuation as a LT is now possible, it's a newer thing, details here:
https://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/boards/officercontinuation/Pages/default.aspx . You can decline continuation and still get the severance. Last I checked it was on the order of 75-80k, 10% of 12xmonthly base pay per year of service. Average LT getting kicked out is 11ish years. Life as a continued LT would probably consist of the same garbage jobs a non-DH select LCDR gets. Sea staff or ships company, then shore duty something. A few random flying gigs like station SAR and C-12s in there, but VERY small numbers.
Most folks will hit their In Zone O-4 board shortly after rolling back to their disassociated sea tour. The detailers will try to not write shore orders that don't let you get your high water FITREP before the In Zone look. Some people have odd-ball timing in their shore tour for various reasons, if you're in that situation, you need to communicate with your front office so they know. That might involve an early FITREP and roll to back sea duty. If, for various reasons, you get shore orders with <= 11 months from your PRD to MSR, you can elect to stay on shore duty and separate form there. 12 or more, you are obligated to take sea duty orders. The detailers are smart people and usually make sure people have enough time on their contracts to obligate them to sea duty, which people generally don't want to do and a lot of people leave before completing due to DH select, resignation, or forced separation.
O-4 statutory boards are in May, results come out in the Fall around September (used to be earlier in summer). If you screen for LCDR, you're eligible for the following spring's Aviation Department Head board. Successful screen for Operational DH will get your orders cut to go back to the FRS, or, if still current (i.e. you were a Super JO/CAG Staff with a current NATOPS check), straight to a squadron. Nonscreen you're first DH board, you wait another year and get looked at for OP-T DH (CNATRA squadrons, TACRON, some other stuff). You may get "stashed" somewhere if you've completed your 24month sea duty and are waiting on a board to happen, but I've heard of people being retained on the boat for "needs of the Navy". Worst case, you could theoretically FOSx1 for LCDR, picked up on above zone look, non select for OP DH, select for OP-T, and spend 4ish years in limbo. I've met one of those unicorns.
With your "bonus question", generally if you make LCDR but not DH, the Navy will hang on to you. Even if you fail to select for CDR, which you most definitely will without a OP DH FITREP, the Navy needs mid level officer bodies and has a policy of keeping them via Continuation. Full Time Instructor is a new thing and there's no telling it will still be a program in the ~9 years it takes you finish a production shore tour, sea tour, and department head tour. Also, if you took the Department Head Bonus after making LCDR, but fail to make DH, you still are under the contract and cannot resign. Expect sea/shore rotations until retirement, like talked about above.
In general, you need to take a hard, honest look at how strong your record is and what you want to do with your career as you approach your shore tour and beyond. This may sound pessimistic, but for every 3-4 helo junior officers we make, 1 makes DH and those are the people you work for in the fleet. Are you a hot runner with a top EP going to the FRS/WWS, lower EP going to CNATRA, or MP going to non-production? It's all well and good to say "The Navy is a good paycheck and retirement at 20 is lucrative, worst case I get paid well and get that sweet severance money at the end". That's kind of short sighted. You can't support a family on an O-4 retirement alone, there's going to be another career, and this job takes a toll on family life. Can you look your significant other in the face and ask them to move three more times for a known dead end career? Maybe you love this life, redesigination is in your future, oddball fun overseas shore duty, etc, but a lot is "LCDR Staff/Office Job in Norfolk/San Diego"
I'm a serious skeptic of people today (Post 2014 "O4 Bloodbath") who say they "need" that severance money to start somewhere else. I won't presume to know everyone's financial situation, but if you know your record is average you probably are working an exit plan. On your shore tour; pay off debt, save some money, don't buy a BMW and a minivan, minimize commitments going to sea duty, submit your resignation and start the next part of your life on your terms instead of selling 18 months of it on another ships company deployment waiting to get FOSed a second time. There's nothing wrong with serving honorably for 10-11 years and choosing to go your own way. And what happens if your record is
just good enough to get picked up that second look, what then? They called your bluff.
