Getting declined for Sub.

[smoothtoaster]

It is my understanding that, in general, if you volunteer for sub duty you get it. But it is also my understanding that you don't ever get what you ask for in the Navy. Are there many instances (sp?) where someone who volunteers for sub duty gets put on a surface ship?

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smoothtoaster

[Wirebiter]

And even though you volunteer, you can't "unvolunteer".  The only way to leave submarine service after you have volunteered and been excepted is by medical (ie.. asthma, allergies...etc) or by making E-9 and progressing up to become a command master chief on a surface ship.  I've seen both.

[taterhead]

And even though you volunteer, you can't "unvolunteer". 

I think you mean after you actually go to your first sub, right?

I volunteered for subs in A school, but by the time I made it to prototype knew that subs weren't for me.  I was told to put it on my dream sheet, so requested all carriers and I wrote in big-ass letters NO LONGER DESIRE SUBMARINE DUTY.

Seemed to work just fine.

[Wirebiter]

I think you mean after you actually go to your first sub, right?

I'm not sure when the point of no return is, but there is a form that you sign to volunteer for sub duty.  I found it rifling through my service record one day.  It may be the one you can sign in A school, but if you read the fine print, it clearly states that you cannot volunterily remove yourself from submarine duty.  I would imagine, IMO, that this can be changed for any nuke prior to getting orders to their first sea command, if somone made a big enough deal about it.  Even though you can volunteer for sub duty and are entitled to recieve subpay from very early on in the pipeline, you will not recieve that pay until you actually step foot onboard a sub (MTS doesn't count).  I remember a nice large back pay chack shorlty after getting to my first boat.   Other than that, I'm all tapped out about sub vol's info.
   

[Fermi2]

Has this changed? In the mid 80s when I was a SPU I received sub pay.
Do they offer to SPUs today?

Mike

[shayne]

I too was a sub volunteer through the training pipeline.  However, I put all crusiers on my dream sheet, carriers as alternates on the west coast and ended up on a cruiser.  Certainly the needs of the Navy will override your dream sheet, but it is a possible way out. 

I seem to remember SPUs getting sub backpay from day one (a-school) after they got orders to a sub near the end of the SPU tour.  I could be wrong though.

[visserjr]

I recieved back sub pay the second day I was on my 1st boat. It was back dated until the day I graduated A school. It was mostly spent on beer though.

[smoothtoaster]

Is there any actual criteria for getting on a sub? do things like gpa make a difference? or is it just based on recomendations?

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smoothtoaster

[shayne]

I never was a detailer, and I almost wish a nuclear detailer would find this site to answer some of these questions.

After you show up to prototype you will fill out a dream sheet.  I believe the dream sheet is sent to the detailers that work out all the numbers.  They look at the fleet numbers and try to fill them with dream sheets.  They don't know you and chances are that you will not be able to talk to them until after your first sea tour is complete.  If you want some special operations ship or new construction they may contact you if you are a candidate but most of the time they contact the prototype command you are at to get more information about you from your staff. 

Some cases students started to hear about their next command around week 22 or so, but most didn't know what their next command was until graduation week.  (Prototype was 26 weeks and the program was working on making it 24 weeks when I was separating in 2001)  Graduation day is when you will earn your NEC, either 335x for subs or 338x for surface and get your orders to your next command.

[Firehouse359]

Ok as the former CCC of NPTU Ballston Spa (and former detailers assistant), here's how it works:

At NY, the students would fill out dream sheets their 1 or 7th week of training (depends on when you got there, we changed the times up.  ELTs were a little different).  I would take these things and condense the sob stories on why students needed to go to San Diego (joking, I actually added a few words when needed to help get you what you wanted).  Around the 18th week, NR would send out quotas detailing percentages per rate for subs and surface.  We called these the "splits". 

We would then take the dream sheets and count out what we already had as volunteers and what was needed.  If we had excess subs, then we "force converted" you to surface.  We would first look for "volunteeers".  These were namely the folks that said "No longer desire subs".  Next we took those that wanted homeport more than sub.  After that we kinda rolled the dice.  We took some upper half kids and some lower half kids and mde them surface (this was determined by your merit code).  The higher the better would help us and the detailers get you what you wanted.

Note Merit code:  4 points for NFAS, 4pts for NPS and 2 points for NNPTU.

Flip side:  Short on subs, we would pull service records for the class and look for everyone that had vol'd and put together a list.  This list would be sent over to Medical for screening.  Anyone that passed and did not say they wanted subs on the dream sheets, suddenly found themselves re-vol'd.

BTW, these splits are why orders were typically late from the detailers.  Sometimes NR would wait until week 22 to send them to us.

Cheers and hope this helps.

Vinnie B