Another question about becoming an officer via the Nuclear Training Pipeline.

[rotnmc2]

Hello all.  First-time poster/lurker with a somewhat confusing question which may have been answered already, although I had no luck with the "search" function.

I was given a pamphlet for the Navy Nuclear program which has a diagram covering all the steps one must goes through to complete the training and was wondering how the "Officer Training Pipeline" step after Power School worked exactly (in terms of who it is for)? 

For example:

Person (A) has no degree and is in the Nuke program.
Person (B) has a degree and is in the Nuke program.

Can both of them take this route or is it only meant for Person (A) via STA-21?  Yes, I realize that Person (B) should have applied for OCS if they wanted to become an officer from the start but for the sake of this question we will ignore that.

Also, is there a catch to this?  Why would the Navy want nukes (undermanned) to go officer?  The only reason I can think of is that the Navy included it in the pipeline so people without degrees who are thinking about joining the Navy (and eventually want to become officers) will see this have some hope in becoming an officer, therefore giving them a reason to join.  Am I missing something here?

Another question I have is how many Nukes apply and get accepted when they take this route? 

Thank you in advance.

[JsonD13]

Both of yours scenarios work, via person B doing a different commissisoning program than STA-21.


A nuke is not considered a nuke until fully qualified (aka. after a year and a half of training), so students do have a better chance of getting picked up for these type of programs.

Nuke Officers are also needed through these programs, and enlisted nukes are a good procurement, especially since they have some experience/training related to the job.

You can apply for something else, but usually your chances of getting it are lower.

For actual data, go to www.npc.navy.mil look under the references tab, then go to NAVADMIN's.  Search for a message like Seaman to Admiral results.  You can see the past few years through this to get a trend.  Keep in mind there are non-nukes who get selected in these programs too.  There is no set number of people who get accepted each year, as the selection rate varies with manning requirements.

Jason

[NukeNTO]

For the "Officer training pipeline" after power school you go to Prototype (NPTU) for 6 months.  It's more of a hands on training environment vs the academic environment at power school.  You're basically learning how to qualify and stand watch. 

Both officer/enlisted nukes go thru prototype.  I'm not entirely sure that I understand your question, so if this doesn't help at all please clarify what you want to know and I'll be glad to help.