Shore tour options, Masters degrees, and their effects on careers...

[Fred]

Agreed about the NOB. Long stretches of NOB went over very poorly at the selection board I witnessed. Plus, depending on how you get your masters (ie, did you pay for it or the navy??) and your detailer, you could find yourself in a "payback" tour that might quickly having you wondering if it was worth it in the first place.

How long ago was the board, and what was it for?

 

[nfo2b]

Couple more questions:
Define NOB (Not OBserved, same as NOB on enlisted evals?) and "'payback' tour."
Oh, and I never intended to imply that anything other than a technical masters is easy--I know better. Just some methods of obtaining them are easier (and most often more convenient) than others.
Regardless, thanks all for the great feedback. I still really strongly desire a technical MS, but it looks like I'll be playing this one by ear.
Thanks again!

 

[Rg9]

From what I've heard (correct me if I'm wrong), a NOB tour immediately out of college (as an O-1 doing grad school) is not a big deal. It actually helps you on promotion boards, since you have both a masters AND consistent fitreps since you started your job (i.e., flight school), whereas your peers have either no masters, or a chunk of NOB time in the middle of their career to date. Obviously, the *best* way is to do something while in a fitrep job, but it's pretty hard to do a masters in MechE while simultaneously learning to land on carriers.

 

[Physicx]

Can your disassociated tour be navy postgrad school,exchange program,or Rotc instructor?

 

[Jedj]

I havent done a shore tour yet, but my impression is that if you are tacair, or, correct me if im wrong Brett, a prowler guy, then anything that takes you out of your community is less desirable. thats why RAG or swfti is a good career move. that way you maintain your tactical proficiency and remain in your community. I dont know if that applies to helo, or prop guys, im not very smart on their communities. and if you're a paddles then you have some different options for a shore tour that keep you some what tactical. Personally, there's no way a would pass up a rag or swifti billet to go to school. just my opinion.

 

[Brett327]

I havent done a shore tour yet, but my impression is that if you are tacair, or, correct me if im wrong Brett, a prowler guy, then anything that takes you out of your community is less desirable. thats why RAG or swfti is a good career move. that way you maintain your tactical proficiency and remain in your community. I dont know if that applies to helo, or prop guys, im not very smart on their communities. and if you're a paddles then you have some different options for a shore tour that keep you some what tactical. Personally, there's no way a would pass up a rag or swifti billet to go to school. just my opinion.

Yeah, pretty much. Things like the RAG, NSAWC, VX, or Weps Schools are going to be your best choices. ROTC, VTs and PEP tours - not so much.

Brett

 

[Kolja]

payback tour = you just got a good deal (ie, the navy just paid for your masters) - now you get to go be a shooter or suck up some staff job etc

The board I worked on was Feb 2003 for active duty line O-5. A masters could help, but not as much as a long NOB would hurt.

 

[virtu050]

are foreign exchange tours NOB?

 

[Brett327]

are foreign exchange tours NOB?

I'm pretty sure. Zab?

Brett

 

[DimndDave14]

Hey I thought instead of starting a whole new thread I would just ask a question relative to this thread. What is the skivy when it comes to Marine Aviators with a Masters Degree and advancement. Does it matter what type of degree or what University or College etc . . ?

 

[TurnandBurn55]

I was under the impression a ROTC tour was a "see ya, I'm out..." tour... whereas a VT tour "hey, I still want in... just couldn't get a RAG instructor slot for whatever reason"

Is it really that two-tiered?

 

[skidkid]

The biggest factor in any of this discusion is the individual. a waterwalker can go to flight school and still proceed. A marginal guy can hit all the career wickets and still get passed over. There are jobs that will make you more competitive but the old adage bllom where you are planted is most important. As for Masters it is a neautral for the most part

 

[Kolja]

I was under the impression a ROTC tour was a "see ya, I'm out..." tour... whereas a VT tour "hey, I still want in... just couldn't get a RAG instructor slot for whatever reason"

Is it really that two-tiered?

While there are always exceptions, they both tend to be "see ya" tours. Though if you were in VTs and wanted to stay in you could do well for yourself.

 

[zab1001]

"virtu050 : are foreign exchange tours NOB? "

I'm pretty sure. Zab?

Brett

Yeah, unfortunately. There's no way the mil is gonna give a guy a deal this good (language training, flying, extra $$$, "on-your-own" type billet) without some kind of BOHICA.

But let's face it, I'm not exactly "a straight shooter with middle management written all over".

Side note: VTs aren't the kiss of death by any means. Just depends on what's available for your year group as far as advancement. Add to that the fact that some of those guys doing the RAG thing figure out in that tour that they want out (seen it happen quite a bit), which just opens another slot for the next set of orders.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

Wow. This is nothing like the SWO community. We are ENCOURAGED to get our masters degree on our shore tour. We even have some pretty good deals to get it. For example, there is Naval Postgraduate School (fleet guys know this is NPS), an 18/12 program, the GEV program, and then tuition assistance of course. Yea, NPS is an NOB for us, but we (SWO's) tend to go to NPS as a post divo shore tour. Our post divo shore tour is not as important when it comes to screening for XO or Command as our DH tours and post DH tours are. The 18/12 program is not available everywhere. They tend to offer this where it is somewhat difficult to get good officers to go. The program itself is where you do your job at the command assigned for 18 months while attending school part time for your masters. Then after your 18 months is up, you attend school full time for 12 months. This is typically used in conjunction with GEV (though GEV can be use anywhere so long as it gets approved). Here's some good info on GEV straight from the source:
https://www.navycollege.navy.mil/gev/
https://www.navycollege.navy.mil/gev/faqs.html

GEV is not just for SWO's btw.

Bottom line for SWO's is that if we commit to the navy, the navy will commit to us. This is not an exageration.