Considering the Navy. 82 on ASVAB. Looking at DC or QM. Have Bachelors. Enlisted or Officer?

Question

My vision is crap but after basic i am considering lasik. My ?s are along the lines of what can i expect in these positions? How much crap work goes along with the territory? In your opinion what is the worst part about RTC? and why? How difficult will it be for me to recieve a commission via the enlisted route? What are potential jobs after 5 yr enlistment with these positions? any other tidbits unrelated to these ?s would be stellar!!! Thanks a ton ya'll

Answer 1

FIrst of all, unless you want to spend at least 1/2 your enlistment on the ocean, I wouldnt join the Navy. It's the worst service for relationships because they are almost always long distance.

QM or quartermasters, is like an office supply room. All you do is hand out gear and supplies to people, paperwork and inventory. Makes for a boring 5 years, but fairly easy duty.

If you have a Bachelors, I wouldnt even consider enlisted.
GO FOR OFFICER. The salary/pay, quarters(rooms/lodging) are so much better and you don't have to put up with all the little hassles like formations and cleaning the barracks in your spare time. It is a lot harder to work your way up from enlisted to officer so I would enlist as an officer. You already have the degree so why settle for less. If the navy wont give it to you, try another branch.
The army will always give you a commission with a 4 year degree.

And as an officer you are more likely to get jobs in management when you get out.

Answer 2

Not even a question.

Enlisted to officer route many years in the making.

Remember every enlistment is an 8 yr or more enlistment if we are still at war.

An officer with a degree in basket-weaving and 1 day on the job gets better pay, treatment, respect, etc., than an E-6 with 10 years in.

If you have a degree, you will probably not have much in common with 99% of the Damage Control-men or Quartermasters.

DC - Maintenance and repair of damage control equipment.
During casualties first line of defense. Fighting fires flooding etc.
Engineering division.

QM - Navigation Guys. Mostly paperwork job. Chart the ship's course, etc.

If you have a choice, then there is no choice. Officer is the only way to go.

RTC - Just be ready to learn attention to detail and do what you are told no biggie.

Job Prospects - Depend Entirely on rating if enlisted. Some transfer more easily to civilian market than others.

20% of our Nation's homeless are veterans, so that has to say something.

Officer - people management skills translate very easily into the corporate world.

Tid Bits - Subs are better pay all around and usually faster advancement for enlisted, but very high stress.

Your specific command makes all the difference. Some are much more high stress than others, and the changes can come very quickly sometimes, depending on who is replaced.

One idiot above you in the chain of command can make life miserable for a very long time.

If an officer talks disrespectfully to an enlisted, he may get talked to if it goes over the line. If an enlisted disrespects an officer he goes to captain's mast and is punished under the UCMJ.

Enlisted will be in 2 or 3 section duty while in port at home or abroad, Officers may be 5,7, or 9.

As a DC or QM your E-1 to E-4 advancement will be directly controlled by your enlisted chain of command. Pulling recommendation for advancement is not difficult. Upsetting one of these individuals would not be difficult especially since you have the advantage of a degree and you will likely be older than quite a few of them.

They have been in while you were going to school, your degree will not likely impress them. "Why didn't you go in as an officer?" will likely be a common question.

I never had any guys working for me with degrees, but I know many "Nub" officers *upset* me along the way. Four years of school in a classroom was not worth four years of "on-the-job" to me, but the UCMJ says differently.

As a junior enlisted all the crap work goes along with it. This applies especially to engineering. Engineers will put in longer, harder hours than any other department on board, and receive probably the least respect.

Until you have some experience and complete at least some basic shipboard qualifications, you are basically useless to the command except for menial labor. Chipping and painting and cleaning.

As a senior enlisted, I was assigned to update a reporting system that had been neglected for many years. Under my direct control the system was brought back from a 10% reporting rate to a 99% reporting rate in less than 6 months.

It was such a spectacular success that the officer in charge of the program at the squadron office called my Commanding Officer to congratulate him and personally called the Admiral to inform him.

As a result of all this, I got a Squadron Letter of Appreciation, my Chief got a Navy Achievement Letter, and my Division Officer got a Navy Commendation and promoted.

My Chief and Division Officer never had any involvement, other than getting one person in each division assigned to me. They knew only what I had briefed them on, but got most of the credit.

Who had the wrong job?

My perspective is this:

The only persons that should go in as enlisted are those that prefer to have someone making the decisions for you. If you have the personal initiative and the desire to have some input without having to make E-7 first, then officer would definitely be my suggestion.

Answer 3

Bad vision can greatly hinder your chance at certain job like SEAL and being a pilot. And no, a quartermaster in the Navy plots the ships course, not hand out stuff like someone else said. Talk a recruiter about your eyes and see what's available to you. And don't get lasik. Last time I heard you could get DQ'd for that. And the officers do have better living conditions, but it's questionable if it's worth all the BS that comes with the territory.

Answer 4

I concur with mslider2, if you already have the degree, go officer. You get better pay, better living condition, a little more respect and it looks a hell of a lot better on your resume when you get out. That being said, I am not sure the ASVAB is relevant to officer training. You already have a degree, so they consider you intelligent. Having a degree somehow proves aptitude. 82 IS a good score though. But it is only ONE score. When I took the ASVAB, it had FIVE scores for differnt areas.

Answer 5

i'm in the navy but don't know much about officer options or about being a DC or a quartermaster. but i can tell you about RTC. its all a mind game, point blank, if you can march, fold clothes, take being yelled at constantly and well...march and fold more clothes, you'll be fine, but it sucks, but once you get out of P-Days you'll be good to go, good luck, and with that degree, i would definitley say go officer, the enlisted life isn't that awesome.

Answer 6

Go Officer, better career options and pay, later on back in civi land (if you get out) your career options will be better and pay will be "very nice"!!