I am a 2nd year college student and i am thinking of joining the US Navy. If i join now i will be recruited as an Enlisted sailer - but if i continue in college and enrolle in a type of NROTC i could join the US. Navy as an Officer with a better pay and could earn a more advance career. What is the main difference between a Enlisted and a Officer?
Sincerely,
DMAX07 - http://dontforgettotakeyourvitamins.com/maldonado
2006-09-28 18:39:55 · 19 answers · asked by D-city42 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Military
You've heard of RHIP? Stands for rank has its privileges. I'm a "military brat." My dad was an officer, but not in the Navy. On board ship to Guam, the Navy had the upper-most levels of the ship, the Air Force officers were mid-level on the ship, so we had a porthole and air. The poor Army enlisteds were below-deck and below the waterline, but all of us had cockroaches to play with. Aside from pay and retirement, officers have better housing, their "club" is usually nicer or more tricked out, and there are a lot of other incentives and things officers get that enlisteds don't. But......
You have to have leadership abilities, be able to problem solve quickly and take command, keeping cool in a crisis. Otherwise, it's better and less stressful to take orders than to give them. Also, an officer knows, at least a good one, that s/he is nothing without the enlisteds. They are a team - inter-dependent on each other to meet the objective and get the job done.
Having just read some of the other responses, I have to edit my response. Not all officers are banana slugs; that's too much of a generalization. My dad was a pilot, back before auto-pilot was invented, so he did work, and there were no enlisteds in that cockpit watching those altimeters, fuel guages, and dials, to make sure the plane stayed in the air. Also, he was the one who calculated when to let a piece of ordnance be released, not someone else, so it would hit its target, and he was pretty good at it. There was a co-pilot and a navigator, who sometimes got them lost or misidentified something on the ground, and a bunch of other crew members, many of whom were enlisteds, and they did their jobs very well, too. They liked my dad, because he relied on them, and they knew he respected them. So, please don't say officers only give orders and don't care, and enlisteds do all the work - t'ain't true!
2006-09-28 19:01:25 · answer #1 · answered by sterling roses 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Officer In The Navy
2016-12-13 03:31:31 · answer #2 · answered by fiddler 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
A Naval Officer does have more responsibilities and demands but with out the Enlisted they are nothing. Starting out as a O-1 is like starting out as a E-1 but with more benefits. No matter what you chose, you still start from the bottom and get fed from the bottom either in Officers Quarters or Enlisted. The difference is what you make of it. If you want to learn to kiss ass, be a yes sir/ma'am and still look good, then Officer is for you. But if you don't then go enlisted. There are good Officers and bad just like the Enlisted so it is a matter of choice. As stated earlier here there are lot of Enlisted with degree's but still choose to be enlisted. Enlisted teach the Navy and Officers advise the Navy.
2006-09-29 20:40:38 · answer #3 · answered by wheelsbb61 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
To be an officer, you have to have a degree and go through an officer program (sometimes this can occur simultaneously, such as in ROTC). The main difference is that the enlisted sailors DO the work, the officers tell the enlisted TO DO the work. Officers are the military equivalent of corporate executives. They carry the responsiblity and the accountability, but they also make significantly more money than the enlisted sailors. If you choose to make a career out of the military, officer is the better paid option. It's also cleaner and carries more prestige. Again, the enlisted actually DO the work...any and all of it. The hardest that officers work is late night paperwork.
2006-09-28 18:53:19 · answer #4 · answered by Trid 6 · 4⤊ 1⤋
After reading through all the answer here, in my opinion, sterling roses gave the best reply here.
I'm in the Air Force but speaking from my own experience, there are all kinds of people in the services, both good and the not-so-good ones.
Fortunately, most belong to the first category, for both the commissioned officers and the enlisted personnel. I personally have a work ethic of slugging it out with my ground crew (heck, I eat with them most of the time). I make it a point to do all the important and critical stuffs myself (flight plannings, fuel calculations, optimal mission loadout etc).
Sure, I could always get others to do those things for me but I don't. In the end, its up to the individual's attitude to work. My policy is that, once my crew and I are at the hanger, rank don't come into play. I expect them to give it straight to me what they think is right or wrong, basically no BS. That is also why I have a very good relationship (both on and off base) with my ground crew (they run the service, not the Officers, get that fact right).
But as an Officer, you have more responsibilities. Anything that goes wrong, you generally get the blame first. Then again, you get credit if things are going great...
Expect crap hours as an enlisted personnel. I've never work on a ship before so you need to hear that from our Navy / Coast Guard brothers and sisters, but its best to assume its just as bad as it gets.
But don't gloat over them if you do make it as an Officer, you are in fact more exposed to the blame game if crap hits you. Don't expect yourself to be at the O-club all the time, because you won't be. If you screw something up, sometimes someone pays for your mistakes with their lives, so as they say, best to get your s*** together.
Good luck.
2006-09-28 22:08:30 · answer #5 · answered by CuriousE 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you don't know I would really get some, no a lot, of info about the navy before joining. Let me just say that things have changed their are some present and future ring knockers that think that the difference between Officer and enlisted is at least two steps of evolution.
2006-09-28 19:10:17 · answer #6 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Stick around and do the Officer thing. The biggest advantage I can tell you right now (I was enlisted for 6 years), if you go to a ship as an enlisted guy you sleep with 95 guys in a big a** compartment with 3 toilets and 4 showers. If you are an officer you sleep in a room with two other guys and have three toilets and two showers to share with 15 other people.
Also, when it comes to meal time, you get to sit in what we call the wardroom where the lowly enlisted punks bring you your meals and refill your glasses of crappy beverages. If you go in as enlisted, you get to stand in line and get your plastic tray filled and get your own drinks.
It's up to you man, but I'd wait.
2006-09-28 21:48:45 · answer #7 · answered by navytec 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Officers are managers. Enlisted are hands on types. If you have Leadership qualities and don't mind a butt ton of useless paperwork, Go Officer. if you like getting your hands dirty and really working with the equipment, go enlisted.
PLENTY of enlisted folks have degrees, including Masters and Doctorates, so there is nothing wrong with preferring that path.
2006-09-29 05:23:34 · answer #8 · answered by Mrsjvb 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
an officer gets paid more but has more responsibility than an enlisted person
2006-09-28 19:22:32 · answer #9 · answered by us navy sailor 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
sailor, you cant even spell it, i dont see how you could be in college, geeze an officer has graduated from college before he goes into the service, you dont have to do as nasty a jobs, you dress better, you get more pay, you have more responsibility as an officer, enlisted, you get the grunt jobs and less pay, and have to work longer to work up the ranks, and you will never be an officer no matter what you do unless you finish college first.
2006-09-28 18:50:25 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 3⤋