I'm still on the fence about volunteering for subs after speaking with a few of the chiefs up here at NY prototype. I've heard that advancement to E-6 is a little quicker on subs, (apparently 80 percent vs roughly 65 percent for surface) but I've always heard that it's faster to pick up chief on a surface ship. I was wondering if anyone could elaborate on the factors affecting these statistics. Can you qualify EWS faster on surface? Or do you spend more time as a second class, so by the time you put on first class you can start in EWS qualifications? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
First, instead of going by 'I heard' (famous last words in the Navy), why not use Google? The advantage of being in the military is that all this stuff is open-source:
http://www.navy.mil/ah_online/documents/Active%20PAO%20Cycle%20223.pdfEM1 sub advancement opportunity: 83%
EM1 surf advancement opportunity: 32%
EM2 sub advancement rate: 25%
EM2 surf advancement rate: 8%
The main reason for the discrepancy is that people in the sub community tend to leave a lot more often than people in the surface community. This creates more openings for E-6 and thus more advancement opportunities. At the E-5 level, there are so many STAR reenlistments that advancement via the normal pathway is very difficult.
The punchline: If you are thinking of making E-6, I hope that serving 8 years of AD is in your plans because it's going to be tough to make E-5 otherwise.
Having said that, your decision tree is a little screwed up. You stand a better chance of being promoted if you do are doing a job that you enjoy more, as well as the job that affords you more time to study for the advancement exam. You should not choose a community based on your opportunity to make Chief. If you separate, your chances of making Chief are 0%.
To your other questions, it's difficult for people to give you an accurate comparison of surf vs. sub because few people have served on both platforms. I can only tell you what I've heard second hand about carrier life, and it's probably out-dated because most people I talk to were serving during the height of the surge in OIF and OEF, which meant deployment, fix-er-up in 4-6 months working round the clock, deployment. According to them, carriers do 8-10 month deployments instead of 6. According to high ranking officers, carriers are moving permanently from a 32 to 28 month deployment/maintenance cycle with a surge period before/after to increase time on station.
What I can tell you is that you should consider things like:
"Can I take leave to go to my cousin's wedding when we are in-port, or is my CO going to deny it because the watchbill can't support it?"
"Do I enjoy having my own rack and locker space?"
"Do I mind sleeping in someone else's funk?"
"Do I want to spend my entire in-port time on deployment fixing a deep fat fryer when everyone else is out having a pint with the Scotts?"
"Do I like being constantly tired from 14% oxygen?"
"Do I like having 'working hours' with taps and reveille?"
"Do I want to be on a vessel with several different mess areas, or one with a tiny mess area that can't fit everyone?"
"Do I want to be on a ship that has to share mess/recreation/training space, or one that has separate spaces for all 3?"
