The Deckplates

A lot has happened since I last wrote here. I still get some hits a day, which is nice, but I must keep this alive.

I have finished my tour in the Middle East, and to say the least, I would go back in a heartbeat. I wouldn’t go back for the same job, because it was simple and it’s not something I do on a continuous basis in the Navy, nor does it provide any real experience in the outside world. Needless to say my job out there wasn’t very demanding.

Also, while I was out there, I have been selected for orders to Norfolk, VA. As much of an effort I put into getting my current San Diego orders, my time here didn’t last very long and soon I will be heading to the other side of the country. I had no intention to leave California, but with my luck in the Navy, no orders for San Diego were in my cycle for selection. Of course now that I am selected for orders, San Diego just so happens to flood the orders list and I can’t do anything but watch while everyone else gets what they want. Don’t get me wrong, Virginia will be a new experience for me, but I would rather choose when to have those experiences. Once again, the Navy is going to pay hundreds of dollars to send me across the country which could be better spent on training and equipment, especially training!

The next question that I have been pondering is what to do next with my career in the Navy. Just the other day, I was visiting a former Chief of my division and, just like me, was in the same boat of what to do next. I obviously have a few options on the table, the first and foremost is staying in 20 years as enlisted. The problem I see with that is the career path I have been pushed in. I’ve done just about 4 years of “sea time” and nothing to really show of it. Usually by this time, an IT2 would have completed not just the basic requirements like on the job qualifications, but also collateral qualifications such as Work Center Supervisor (WCS), or part of a training team. I have yet been given the opportunity to do either, which I hoped going to my current command in San Diego would have let me to accomplish. Unfortunately, my IA orders pretty closed the doors on both jobs. Now I am going on to shore duty, with the opportunity for advancement starting as early as next year. Should I advance while I am at shore duty, my next sea tour would put me in an LPO position and without having done the WCS job, how am I expected to provide guidance when a junior Sailor asks me a question related to 3-M? The only thing I can possibly see myself doing is being both the WCS and LPO, which obviously wouldn’t be an easy task, but definitely something I could very well do. It’s just troubling that it would come to this, but would increase my chances to becoming a Chief.

Then there is the Officer route, which no one would say is a bad idea. It’s just what route would I go to become an officer, Officer Candidate School (OCS) or Limited Duty Officer (LDO). Either way I decide to go, should I choose to become an Officer, in order to be effective, and I say this in the utmost least disrespectful way, I could not be a Chief. I could not make the rank of E-7, and then become an Officer, not because I think being a Chief is bad, but being an enlisted member that is below E-7 has a better opportunity to feel more for a division than someone who was once a Chief. The mentality between a Chief, and someone E-6 and below is extremely different, and in my experience, I’ve had a better work relationship with the LDOs and OCS Officers that were given their gold bars without having made Chief. Maybe I am the only one who feels this way, and I can very well assure myself I am one in a very few who do, but that has been my impression since I’ve been in, which year number 5 will be completed in a few months.

Then, the obvious option would be to just get out after shore duty, which for some people is the right decision, not because they just aren’t good enough to stay in, but that they can serve a better purpose elsewhere.  The Navy isn’t cut out for everyone, and I am back and forth on the subject as to whether I actually contribute to the Navy’s mission, which I am still unclear as to what that is.  Either way, should I choose to get out, I would have to make every effort to set myself up for success so that when I transition out I have a laid out plan as to what I am going to do.  I do know what I want to do when I get out, which is become a teacher, hopefully at the high school I graduated from, but things change and with the experience I’ve gained within the Navy, I could very well get a job with the DoN and work at something like SPAWAR, which has definitely crossed my mind a few times.

So those are some of the options that have been pondering my mind as of late, and still unsure as to what to do.  Any experiences and thoughts on this would definitely help, but I understand it’s my actions that can make any of those things happen.