Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Wokrider
Dec 4, 2012
My main goal is Marine Force Recon when I hit A school, I tried to get FMTB on my contract but apparently they don't do that anymore?

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Sir Lucius
Aug 3, 2003

Octopode posted:

In news not involving shenanigans, the Chief list is out:

http://projects.militarytimes.com/chief-advancements/index.php

Cool, I'm ready for the 1st class power vacuum this is going to cause in my rate. Also people on that list who deserve it is nice to see.

TheQuietWilds
Sep 8, 2009

Wokrider posted:

My main goal is Marine Force Recon when I hit A school, I tried to get FMTB on my contract but apparently they don't do that anymore?

When I was there, everybody who asked for FMTB received orders there. This may have changed due to the end of Iraq and the drawdown of Afghanistan, but especially if you identify yourself as a BRC candidate to your instructor and pass the PST, unless there's some sort of sudden urgent need for blue side schmucks to man hospitals or ships, it seems very unlikely that you would get turned down for a chance to try. The bar to get orders to special warfare schools is really low as long as you have good color vision and no medical problems. Getting through the schools is another story.

Laranzu
Jan 18, 2002

Sir Lucius posted:

Cool, I'm ready for the 1st class power vacuum this is going to cause in my rate. Also people on that list who deserve it is nice to see.

This bodes p. good as I can't take the first class test until March due to still being in training.

Wokrider
Dec 4, 2012

TheQuietWilds posted:

When I was there, everybody who asked for FMTB received orders there. This may have changed due to the end of Iraq and the drawdown of Afghanistan, but especially if you identify yourself as a BRC candidate to your instructor and pass the PST, unless there's some sort of sudden urgent need for blue side schmucks to man hospitals or ships, it seems very unlikely that you would get turned down for a chance to try. The bar to get orders to special warfare schools is really low as long as you have good color vision and no medical problems. Getting through the schools is another story.

Yeah that's pretty much what my recruiter said: they are short on guys willing to get shot at.
Thanks for the info.

Pandasmores
May 8, 2009

Wokrider posted:

My main goal is Marine Force Recon when I hit A school, I tried to get FMTB on my contract but apparently they don't do that anymore?

You can test into Recon and Diver along with Air Crew or w/e it is when you get to A School. If it's still the same as when I went to it, you'll need to find the DIVEMO Chief, usually he's the most narcissistic looking Chief because he hears sea stories from the other ones and laughs. You have to maintain a good GPA, and if it's still ran the way they ran it when I was in A School you should be able to take tests at your own pace. You work out with the other prospects and after everything you get your orders, sometimes straight to Recon, sometimes they send dudes to FMTB first and then Recon. Talking to a dude that was Recon, he said it was kinda sad because it was like you were second string. They'd get briefed on an op, get everything ready to go, and then the SEALs would sweep in to take over.

I have friends that got through portions of both pipelines, one of which almost made it through Dive school and later went for Recon but rang the bell(being anaemic sucks balls and actually disqualifies you, but they can find out in training if they pass out a lot doing some of the dive exercises).

Word of advice: Follow the workouts people that already SEALs or w/e the gently caress it is you want to do tell you to do, don't listen to a drop out because something they're doing is likely why they didn't move forward. Some dudes fail because of character flaws, so if you happen to go out to the school and fail out, ending up at Lemoore/29 Palms, don't take it personally. Adjust yourself and charge at whatever you want.

Stultus Maximus
Dec 21, 2009

USPOL May

SPACE HOMOS posted:

CHENG must have been in a drought to want to sleep with a fat headed guy who had facial paralysis.

"Don't stick your dick in crazy unless you are even more crazy"

theAcidQueen
Nov 3, 2009

She'll tear, YOUR SOUL, apart!
Thank you Great Lakes, for wasting 2 hours of my day forcing me to watch "Carrier" with an auditorium full of Booters, and having the gall to tell me "This is how the REAL fleet works"

I cannot believe i'm stuck in this branch for 2 more years; anybody currently deployed in San Diego have advice for how best to pass the next couple years?

SPACE HOMOS
Jan 12, 2005

TrialbyStone posted:

Thank you Great Lakes, for wasting 2 hours of my day forcing me to watch "Carrier" with an auditorium full of Booters, and having the gall to tell me "This is how the REAL fleet works"

I cannot believe i'm stuck in this branch for 2 more years; anybody currently deployed in San Diego have advice for how best to pass the next couple years?

Uh San Diego is a great place to be and I highly recommend getting a milk shake at Hodads. Also don't listen to anyone who says Old Town has the best mexican food, look for that in Chula Vista.

Pandasmores
May 8, 2009

TrialbyStone posted:

Thank you Great Lakes, for wasting 2 hours of my day forcing me to watch "Carrier" with an auditorium full of Booters, and having the gall to tell me "This is how the REAL fleet works"

I cannot believe i'm stuck in this branch for 2 more years; anybody currently deployed in San Diego have advice for how best to pass the next couple years?

As someone that will likely never deploy with my 2 years left, all I have to say is save up money for when you get out and try to set up as much for yourself as possible. Also, booze and easy women.

SPACE HOMOS
Jan 12, 2005

Pandasmores posted:

As someone that will likely never deploy with my 2 years left, all I have to say is save up money for when you get out and try to set up as much for yourself as possible. Also, booze and easy women.

I saved just my last year and it worked okay, but I had no plan. You can do a lot and see a lot without spending your paycheck. Don't be a schmuck and buy a bunch of useless poo poo or piss away your money. In foreign ports sure its cool to get a beer at the bar, in home port just stock up from the package store.

Also is he going to be on a ship or some shore command?

Snowdens Secret
Dec 29, 2008
Someone got you a obnoxiously racist av.

Boon posted:

There's some sensational reporting in there that makes me want to punch Mr. David Larter in the dick (and then get rung up on SAPR charges). But still, :stare:

Seriously, it sounds like they were without an XO for only three weeks and they keep calling an O-4 DH a 'junior officer'. But no, THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Also they break out a laundry list of poo poo like the quals being hosed and then make it sound like it was squadron's fault in the first place. The most serious thing seems to be that they didn't have the captain on the bridge for the unrep? Is this really that bad?

Also my CO shared his head with at least one other officer the entire time I was on board and no one thought that was weird

theAcidQueen
Nov 3, 2009

She'll tear, YOUR SOUL, apart!

SPACE HOMOS posted:

Also is he going to be on a ship or some shore command?

I'm heading to a ship. I figure best case scenario I find myself a relatively inexpensive apartment out around base, *maybe* lease a car, and just continue living within my means as I've
been doing pretty much since I first decided this was the end. I plan on stopping my TSP deduction as well, because I fail to find a point in keeping it going if i'll be separating within 2 years time anyhow.

Thankfully if the Navy has taught me one thing it's how to live within my means.

SPACE HOMOS
Jan 12, 2005

TrialbyStone posted:

I'm heading to a ship. I figure best case scenario I find myself a relatively inexpensive apartment out around base, *maybe* lease a car, and just continue living within my means as I've
been doing pretty much since I first decided this was the end. I plan on stopping my TSP deduction as well, because I fail to find a point in keeping it going if i'll be separating within 2 years time anyhow.

Thankfully if the Navy has taught me one thing it's how to live within my means.

If you are going to be on a ship don't lease a car. If you really need one buy a used POS that works well enough for cheap. Or buy a decent bicycle and use that plus the rail system. San Diego is sort of spread out but I don't know if its worth paying for a car there if its only two years.

Edit: A lot of people like to travel up to Big Bear for camping/hiking if thats your thing.

SPACE HOMOS fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Aug 7, 2014

US Berder Patrol
Jul 11, 2006

oorah

TrialbyStone posted:

I plan on stopping my TSP deduction as well

Don't do this. Move the money into whatever Index funds in it that you like, and boom you have a mutual fund with super low admin costs, that is Roth tax-advantaged, and is deducted from your paycheck before you get to blow that money on dumb poo poo.

US Berder Patrol
Jul 11, 2006

oorah

SPACE HOMOS posted:

Edit: A lot of people like to travel up to Big Bear for camping/hiking if thats your thing.

I really like Joshua Tree in the winter months

Boon
Jun 21, 2005

by R. Guyovich

DownByTheWooter posted:

Don't do this. Move the money into whatever Index funds in it that you like, and boom you have a mutual fund with super low admin costs, that is Roth tax-advantaged, and is deducted from your paycheck before you get to blow that money on dumb poo poo.

I can't quote this enough. Vanguard Admiralty S&P shares are basically the best private company mutual funds you can get. Their admin cost is still like 4 times that of the TSP.

Fart Sandwiches
Apr 4, 2006

i never asked for this
I pulled the few thousand i had in tsp and paid for some new floors for my house. The reason I don't give a poo poo is I save 750 a month right into savings and another 1000 into my work 401k. People were like, ooooooh don't do that, you are getting raped on taxes, but it was money that I could use at the time and the paperwork to withdraw it was a lot easier than the paperwork to transfer to my 401k.

Basically my laziness got me some floors.

Snowdens Secret
Dec 29, 2008
Someone got you a obnoxiously racist av.

Fart Sandwiches posted:

ooooooh don't do that, you are getting raped on taxes

Sir Lucius
Aug 3, 2003
Counterpoint: spend your money while you're young and can enjoy it. Chances are you're just going to die in a car accident anyways.

Schlabbalabba
May 10, 2004

I'm a semen, I mean Seaman, I haven't been a semen for 20 years.
Haaaaay guys. Just marooned on a beach at Camp LeJune for the night. Tell me an old fireside sea story...

Commoners
Apr 25, 2007

Sometimes you reach a stalemate. Sometimes you get magic horses.
One time someone defeated an interlock on a feruno to keep it from spinning and hit me in the head with it.

That's my story.

poopkitty
Oct 16, 2013

WE ARE ALL ONE

Commoners posted:

One time someone defeated an interlock on a feruno to keep it from spinning and hit me in the head with it.

That's my story.

But did you die?

Commoners
Apr 25, 2007

Sometimes you reach a stalemate. Sometimes you get magic horses.
No I just bled everywhere, got a bandaid, and then kept working.

e: I died on the inside long ago.

vulturesrow
Sep 25, 2011

Always gotta pay it forward.

Schlabbalabba posted:

Haaaaay guys. Just marooned on a beach at Camp LeJune for the night. Tell me an old fireside sea story...

I got really drunk one night in Jax the day before we pulled out for COMPTUEX and went swimming naked as a jaybird after last call. The next day 9/11 happened. Makes you think.

Seqenenra
Oct 11, 2005
Secret

TrialbyStone posted:

I plan on stopping my TSP deduction as well, because I fail to find a point in keeping it going if i'll be separating within 2 years time anyhow.


Don't do that. You don't know what's going to happen in two years and there is a good chance you'll reenlist even though you're saying no way to that idea right now. If you EAOS, you will have to stop contributions at that point unless you go USCS, but until then you really should take advantage of what the TSP offers you in terms of your future retirement. If you aren't making maximum contributions to it and contributing to some kind of IRA as well, you are doing it wrong.

Boon
Jun 21, 2005

by R. Guyovich
You can also roll your TSP into another retirement account eventually, if you want.

To put this into perspective for you, I'm going to do some simple math. Let's say you contribute only $5,500 a year to retirement savings (the max amount allowed to a Roth IRA account this past year in 'our' age group). Those two years of investment ($11,000) alone will be worth somewhere between $11,500 and $12,705 depending how you invest it (vehicle/time) and historical S&P averages. Median returns would give you a much higher number. That's not the important part though. Let's take the $11,500 figure. Over 25 years of average growth with no further contribution you're looking at ~$125,000.

That means that by not maintaining those two years of investment, you're missing out on ~$113,500 that you would otherwise have "for free" 25 years from now. Is it worth it?

Boon fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Aug 7, 2014

ManMythLegend
Aug 18, 2003

I don't believe in anything, I'm just here for the violence.

Snowdens Secret posted:

Seriously, it sounds like they were without an XO for only three weeks and they keep calling an O-4 DH a 'junior officer'. But no, THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Also they break out a laundry list of poo poo like the quals being hosed and then make it sound like it was squadron's fault in the first place. The most serious thing seems to be that they didn't have the captain on the bridge for the unrep? Is this really that bad?

Also my CO shared his head with at least one other officer the entire time I was on board and no one thought that was weird

They were without an XO for closer to 3 months. Also the article is terrible and focused on the frat and general weirdness of the situation, but there were a lot of other issues. Most notably watch bills went out the window and everything became ad hoc. Also major programs and most maintenance went to poo poo as well.

Also the CO not being on the bridge for an UNREP is a huge deal. However, in addition to that, he wasn't up there for sea and anchor details pulling in and our of port either which is a huger deal. Here in Command School I have a secondhand story that it was so bad that one time the TRAINO came up on the bridge semi-randomly when they were getting ready to pull into port (in Thailand I think) and found he was the only officer up there so he just took OOD and the CONN with the pilot and some blue shirts filling in the rest of the positions kind of haphazardly.

The whole thing was a dumpster fire.

Also technically O4's are JO's, though in practice most people do not consider them part of JOPA.

Seqenenra
Oct 11, 2005
Secret
To quote a civilian friend that has no clue about the military "Sounds like those guys (the wardroom) tried to make the best of poo poo sandwich. And succeeded." Also "
Destiny Savage is a stripper name."

Not sure which is a better quote.

Stultus Maximus
Dec 21, 2009

USPOL May

ManMythLegend posted:

They were without an XO for closer to 3 months. Also the article is terrible and focused on the frat and general weirdness of the situation, but there were a lot of other issues. Most notably watch bills went out the window and everything became ad hoc. Also major programs and most maintenance went to poo poo as well.

Also the CO not being on the bridge for an UNREP is a huge deal. However, in addition to that, he wasn't up there for sea and anchor details pulling in and our of port either which is a huger deal. Here in Command School I have a secondhand story that it was so bad that one time the TRAINO came up on the bridge semi-randomly when they were getting ready to pull into port (in Thailand I think) and found he was the only officer up there so he just took OOD and the CONN with the pilot and some blue shirts filling in the rest of the positions kind of haphazardly.

The whole thing was a dumpster fire.

Also technically O4's are JO's, though in practice most people do not consider them part of JOPA.

I could have sworn I read somewhere that in the Navy O4s are neither junior nor senior officers, unlike every other service which has O1-3 junior (company grade) and O4-6 senior (field grade). LCDRs are just stuck in the middle.

Nick Soapdish
Apr 27, 2008


ManMythLegend posted:

Also technically O4's are JO's, though in practice most people do not consider them part of JOPA.

I got along really well with our N2, who was an O4, as the senior E and know if I wanted to tweak him to throw that out there and he would usually bit on it.

ManMythLegend
Aug 18, 2003

I don't believe in anything, I'm just here for the violence.

Stultus Maximus posted:

I could have sworn I read somewhere that in the Navy O4s are neither junior nor senior officers, unlike every other service which has O1-3 junior (company grade) and O4-6 senior (field grade). LCDRs are just stuck in the middle.

This could be right. I have no idea where to even start looking for an official definition of a JO for the Navy.

It doesn't really matter though because the only distinctions that matter are: Flags>>>A select group of important O6's>>>>>>>>>>>everyone else

Fart Sandwiches
Apr 4, 2006

i never asked for this
The only thing you need to know about the navy is that at some point in your officer career you are part of the JO jungle.

Fart Sandwiches
Apr 4, 2006

i never asked for this
NOT GAY

ManMythLegend
Aug 18, 2003

I don't believe in anything, I'm just here for the violence.

Fart Sandwiches posted:

The only thing you need to know about the navy is that at some point in your officer career you are part of the JO jungle.

In over 10 years in the Navy (God have mercy) I've spent less then a week in the jungle. So I guess that's partially true.

I've actually spent more time in berthing then in the jungle. By a large margin actually.


Whatever you say sailor.

Octopode
Sep 2, 2009

No. I work here. I manage operations for this and integration for this, while making sure that their stuff keeps working in here.
Bad sea story time: the Jungle on my first ship, in addition to being an unsanitary abomination, was on the topmost level of an LSD. Said LSD, being in typical condition, had most of its weatherdecks rusted to poo poo and very poorly painted over/patched. They were basically cheesecloth. Because of this, whenever it rained sufficiently hard, a significant amount of leakage occurred through the overhead, meaning we got to enjoy a fine waterfall and subsequent river, along with the sort of rancid humidity one generally only finds in an actual jungle.

The day I moved out of there and into an actual stateroom may have been the best day of that entire tour.

Snowdens Secret
Dec 29, 2008
Someone got you a obnoxiously racist av.

ManMythLegend posted:

This could be right. I have no idea where to even start looking for an official definition of a JO for the Navy.

I always thought JO was first sea tour. It seems odd to me to call a department head a JO. Norm on a submarine is an O-4 XO that doesn't make O-5 until after they leave, and department heads that show up O-3 and leave O-4. E: Then again, first tour on a sub means you've had at least two division officer spots including an engineering one, and are qual'ed surfaced and submerged OOD etc, dunno if it's that rigorous on a skimmer.

I still can't wrap my head around how whatever overlooking command just forgot they had a ship without an XO, and, yeah, regardless of what mess the upper officer ranks were in, stuff like watchbills and maintenance falling apart sounds like a goat locker problem, not an O-gang one.

Snowdens Secret fucked around with this message at 04:58 on Aug 7, 2014

Crab Dad
Dec 28, 2002

behold i have tempered and refined thee, but not as silver; as CRAB


Why is it called the goat locker? I understand what it is but not why "goat".

Sir Lucius
Aug 3, 2003
Goat is the Navy mascot. Like marines are devildogs. Basically, to be a chief you have to love the navy so much that you think the mascot is cool.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Snowdens Secret
Dec 29, 2008
Someone got you a obnoxiously racist av.

quote:

In early sailing years, livestock would travel on ships, providing the crew the fresh milk, meats, and eggs. as well as serving as ships mascots. One pet, a goat named El Cid (meaning Chief) was the mascot aboard the USS New York. When its crew attended the fourth Navy-Army football game in 1893, they took El Cid to the game, which resulted in the West Pointers losing. El Cid (The Chief) was offered shore duty at Annapolis and became the Navy's mascot. This is believed to be the source of the old Navy term, Goat Locker.

  • Locked thread