Officer vs. Enlisted

[e.smittee]

I have been doing my research, and I cannot seem to find anything else to answer my questions.  I am 17, a senior in high school.  I hold a 4.2 GPA and have a couple of 30s on ACT.  I want to get a degree in Mechanical Engineering right after high school.  Nuclear MM really intrigues me- I love problem solving and working hands-on.  I have heard that officers don't really do much actual stuff, just manage from some office.  Basically, I want to know if I should join NROTC or just enlist after I finish college.  As an officer, can I really do anything engineering/mechanical related, or can I only find that sort of thing in an enlisted job?
Thanks

[Red Gold]

Join NROTC and get a commission, otherwise you'll always be saying coulda-shoulda.

[spekkio]

I think you need to look a little harder into this site. Specifically, if you look at the job that a MM does and the job a mechanical engineer does, the two are not remotely the same and being an MM isn't going to make you any better or worse at being an engineer. It will, however, place you in a non-engineering profession for 6 years after graduating, which can make job hunting on the back end a little more challenging than someone who is fresh out of college when you find yourself preparing for technical interviews on material you haven't studied in 6-8 years.


If you want to do actual engineering for the Navy, then NUPOC - naval reactors option or Engineering Duty Officer is the way to go. NROTC only commissions unrestricted line officers (warfare jobs), so the only way to do engineering in the Navy if you went into NROTC would be to lateral transfer into EDO after your JO tour if you went SWO. Lateral transfers are not guaranteed to be successful. If you went subs then by instruction you can't lat transfer until after a DH tour, although there is a non-zero probability that you can lat transfer to EDO after a JO tour.

[ipregen]

Consider your long term goals when making these early life decisions. You do not need to go to college to be a machinist mate, on the other hand it could help you pay for college after enlistment. As a shipboard machinist mate in the engine room you will stand watch in various progressions of responsibility. An officer on a nuke ship you will rotate through different divisions and qualify to stand watch in the engine room as engineering officer of the watch. If you come out of the Nuclear Navy as an officer you will most likely have a better range of opportunities in any job market. While in the navy you will also have a more comfortable lifestyle in sleeping accommodations and a different kind of eating menu. Officers probably never eat chicken fried steak or sh*t on a shingle.

[HeavyD]

You'd be surprised what they serve in the wardroom.

[e.smittee]

I think you need to look a little harder into this site. Specifically, if you look at the job that a MM does and the job a mechanical engineer does, the two are not remotely the same and being an MM isn't going to make you any better or worse at being an engineer. It will, however, place you in a non-engineering profession for 6 years after graduating, which can make job hunting on the back end a little more challenging than someone who is fresh out of college when you find yourself preparing for technical interviews on material you haven't studied in 6-8 years.


If you want to do actual engineering for the Navy, then NUPOC - naval reactors option or Engineering Duty Officer is the way to go. NROTC only commissions unrestricted line officers (warfare jobs), so the only way to do engineering in the Navy if you went into NROTC would be to lateral transfer into EDO after your JO tour if you went SWO. Lateral transfers are not guaranteed to be successful. If you went subs then by instruction you can't lat transfer until after a DH tour, although there is a non-zero probability that you can lat transfer to EDO after a JO tour.

Is there any way to become an EDO without first joining as SWO?

[spekkio]

Go sub EDO option and transfer after your DH tour (~11 years of commissioned service) vice a SWO EDO option who transfers in after a JO tour (approximately 2-3 years of commissioned service).

Most restricted line jobs (EDO, public affairs, human resources, etc.) are comprised of former unrestricted line officers (warfare designators), mostly SWOs, who take an 'off ramp' somewhere along their career to lateral transfer into that designation. Each year a message comes out that details the year groups and quotas they're looking for, but the rub is that your parent community has to be willing to release you. For SWOs this is usually not that big of a deal, but it can be very challenging for a 'due course'* sub officer to get released by the community in the vast majority of cases. Plus there is the fact that the Navy spent a lot of time and money to train you in the operation of naval nuclear propulsion plants, and they want their ROI, which means keeping you in the community until you either leave the Navy or prove that you are not competent enough to move to the next career milestone.

Now if you talk to enough people, you'll *hear* or maybe even meet someone who was able to lateral transfer from subs into a line community after a JO tour, but this opportunity is very rare and usually there are mitigating circumstances.

The bright side is that there are "EDO Option" accessions, meaning you have a guaranteed opportunity to lateral transfer into EDO after you earn a warfare pin before you commission.

http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/officer/Detailing/rlstaffcorps/engineering/Pages/EDAccessions.aspx


Also, this will give you an outline to discuss with a recruiter if you are interested in EDO option, although I will caution you that unless you are speaking to an EDO then no one really knows what your job in any of these spots would be:


http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/officer/Detailing/rlstaffcorps/engineering/Documents/Sample%20ED%20Career%20Paths%20(updated%2007APR14).pdf

*Due course = someone who has competitive evaluations and is screened for the next career milestone.

[ComradeRed1308]

If you want to go the enlisted route, it definitely makes much more sense to enlist right after high school and then do college rather than vice versa.  The degree won't help a ton as an MM, and you can use your GI Bill to pay for college afterwards.  As a submarine officer, you are not as hands on physically manipulating things as the enlisted, but you're working right alongside them.  There are no offices on a submarine to manage anyone from.  Also, we ate the same food that was out in crew's mess, (sometimes less if our pantry watch was lazy, which he usually was.) I can't speak for the surface guys, but from what I heard they are usually a little more hands off.   Being nuke enlisted or a nuke officer isn't really engineering in a true sense (despite the fact that the military uses the word a lot) but is operations of an engine room.  If you do go the officer route, there will be a wide variety of well paying operations and technical management jobs for you.  If you're dead set on sticking with professional engineering, you will most likely be staring down entry level jobs.  (But you will be very competitive for them)

[klj3827]

Quick correction to an above post, you can pick up NR Engineer from ROTC.

[hamsamich]

If you do go nuc MM you can get involved with the evaporator on subs.  Very intriguing. But then again I was a Mm/elt.  Steam traps were intriguing to me.

[ComradeRed1308]

They don't have evaporators on subs anymore, they moved to reverse osmosis units.

[hamsamich]

Well what a shame for ERUL, so all 688s don't run evaps anymore?

[Marlin]

   The steam driven evaporator on the 637s was in ERLL with an electrical auxiliary still was in ERUL The 688s almost got a number of these smaller auxiliary units as the maintenance records showed them to be reliable. We never ran the aux unit except for planned maintenance where they were a pain in the tail to run so they never had to have maintenance. My favorite piece of equipment was the LiBr AC unit ran great if not messed with too much.