Destroyer Squadron, Amphibious Squadron. It's a Commodore's staff with oversight of 3-8 ships.
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Really stupid questions about life as a SWO and anything else not aviation related [mod dog wuz hərə]
- Thread starter Wiley
- Start date
Destroyer Squadron, Amphibious Squadron. It's a Commodore's staff with oversight of 3-8 ships.
You wait for it on a mail buoy. The big kind though, not the little ones that are only meant for a couple bags of mail.
prestonaz
Active Member
They give me the headlight, hook, and floaties before or after graduation?
You just get a whistle. That way when the mail buoy watch on the ship whistles you can whistle back to guide them in. Jeez, they don't teach you kids anything these days ?
Serious answer. Whether you're USNA/ROTC/OSC you can ask you officer advisors to do some digging to look up ship schedules. If you're kind of savvy you can google the ship and make an informed guess as to when they deploy next.
If you select a ship on deployment, these days, there's a good chance they'll be back by the time you finish BDOC. If they are deployed once you finish BDOC you'll fly out to theater and meet them. Happens all the time for Os and Es alike.
Aluroon
SWO
This was 3+ years ago mind you, but when we did ship selection at OCS all we got was a list of ship names, home ports, and ship class. We were given three or four days to figure out who went were. We asked about schedules and got nothing from our class O's. Maybe yours will be better.
If you do get any info I strongly recommend you aim for a ship with a deployment scheduled within 6 months of your graduation.
My first ship was deployed when I commissioned so I checked into the DESRON and waited around Mayport for about a month until they put me on a flight to go meet her in Cape Verde. It's also likely that you'll be sent through training pipelines as your detailers, the ship's TRAINO, the ship's CO/XO, and DESRON staff will all be talking and will use your time waiting around to get certain schools knocked out like LEGALO, shipboard firefighting, repair party locker leader, etc. If you're lucky, you'll be able to get your OC spray done in port so you can go home and drink a few beers while waiting for the pain to stop.
Cape Verde.... it would have been awesome to meet the ship in Val Verde. You could go on the MWR tour and see where Bennett got stuck in the chest with steam pipe back in 1985, or General Ramon Esperanza's prison cell where he awaiting extradition to his fateful flight to Dulles Airport on Christmas Eve in 1990. You get to pull up to the same pier where the USS Georgetown moored in 1988...
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SovereignoftheSeas
Guest
When standing watch duty on a ship, how does going to the bathroom work? Are there times when you have to hold it to complete a watch?
Aluroon
SWO
Varies by watch and ship. Notionally you just hold it throughout the watch / go before it. Some ships are more strict on this and some more flexible. Some require you get a relief for every watch, others less so. Most pilothouses have a head up there.
Also depends on timing. I definitely stepped off the bridge a few times as OOD to use the head for 2 minutes on night watches with nothing going on. Less so during sea and anchor.
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SovereignoftheSeas
Guest
Great to know, thank you!
Acsantosus
Well-Known Member
I’m a Fire Control Technician (FT1). I was selected back in NOV. for SWO (super excited for the opportunity) I have picked the brains of a few friends who left the enlisted Submarine community and became officers in many different communities. As an FT I’m proficient in LAN administration. I’m heavy in TLAM/ADCAP employment, Surface and Submerged Contact management (qualified), and I’m Chief of the watch COW qualified. Already being qualified in Submarines, I guess my question is how hard is it really to get your SWO pin? I have read a lot of post from past SWOs who make it seem difficult. But given my background and experience it doesn’t seem all that hard. Am I underestimating this? Looking for real insight.
With your background, the technical aspects will probably be at a lower level of detail than you are used to from getting Dolphins. Getting sucked into applying sub community standards to all the systems on a DDG or CG (most complex platform) could either burn you out or slow your progress to a crawl.
It’s a “curriculum” with a lot of hoops to jump through along the way and requires relatively senior level officer may onboard involvement in management of that curriculum. I would also say that you may find it difficult or frustrating that you may not have as much ease as you’d expect “fast tracking” yourself to a Qual. For example, if your ship is stuck in the yard without an opportunity to get underway time, you’re going to be marking time for a while until your ship gets out of that maintenance availability.
Don’t sit on your laurels, be willing to learn new ways to do things (even if they seem stupider), focus on your Divisional responsibilities and learning the new things relevant to ship driving and the new warfare areas, and you’ll be fine.
It's just putting the work in. I got my surface OOD letter (not SWO pin, but OOD is a good chunk of that PQS) as a winged aviator. It wasn't hard, it was just time and playing the game.