Officer life aboard a U.S. Navy ship?

Question

How similar is life as a Surface Warfare Officer to enlisted. Do they both have about the same free time and what about living conditions? Also, purely out of curiousity, what kind of uniform would a SWO normally wear while deployed? I heard that a new blue and gray digital camo was being tested to use for all ranks, but I was wondering if this was true. Any information would be extremely apprieciated! Thanks!!!

Answer 1

I can only attest to aircraft carriers, as they are the only ships I was stationed aboard during my 21 year career in the Navy.

Commissioned Officers are berthed in staterooms, junior officers (considered to be Ensigns through full Lieutenants or O-1 through 0-3) are usually 2 or 3 to a stateroom without their own head (bathroom). Senior officers (Lieutenant Commander through Captain) are usually no more than 2 per stateroom (which had their own head facilities) for Lieutenant Commander and single man staterooms for full Commanders and Captains. Of course, the Executive Officer (usually a Commander or Captain on an aircraft carrier) has his or her own stateroom and office quarters, and the Captain (Commanding Officer which is almost always a Captain on an aircraft carrier) has basically two staterooms (the Captains at-sea cabin which is located directly off of the bridge and is usually where the Captain sleeps while the ship is underway) and the Captains in-port cabin, usually located on the O-3 level around frames 98 to 120 amidships. This is the cabin that you always see in the movies and is very ornate and comfortable for the Captain.

Offciers are given better living conditions due to the very nature of their rank and because there are a fraction of them compared to the number of enlisted personnel. A comissioned officer in the Navy generally holds much more responsibility than an enlisted person. Ensigns, Lt(jg)'s and LT's are usually division level officers (although some full Lieutenants have been known to be Department Heads), LCDR's, CDR's and CAPT's are Department level officers (the Weapons Officer is generally a CDR (Commander), while the chief engineer can be a CAPT (Captain), as can the AIR BOSS, the senior Medical Officer, etc. It is not uncommon for an aircraft carrier to have up to five or six individuals all with the rank of "Captain O-6", ...but there is only 1 commanding officer.

Enlisted people E-1 through E-6 are generally berthed in a mass "berthing area" which can be as few as 5 "racks" to as many as 300, depending upon the need of the department. Deck department usually berthed all of their enlisted people in one massive berthing. Supply department was very well known for doing this as well. While in Weapons Department, while we did have a mass berthing known as "Weapons Overflow berthing" located on the 3rd deck aft, we were generally berthed by division which meant our berthing areas were smaller and gernerally cleaner and better kept. In my division (called "W" Division), we all had extremely high level security clearances and were only allowed to be berthed exclusively with our rating (Weapons Technicians or WT's). Our berthing consisted of 30 racks for all E-1 through E-6 and seniority dictated who got the rack closest to the deck (the racks were stacked three high).

Enlisted personnel E-7 (Chief Petty Officer) thorugh E-9 (Master Chief Petty Officer) are berthed in one of two seperate Chief's Berthings, either forward or aft on the third deck amidships. While the Chief's enjoyed slightly better conditions than the E-1 through E-6 personnel, they basically had the same set up. A "coffin" locker with space below and a larger stand-up locker adjacent to their rack.

As far as messing facilities, the officers ate in the officers mess, located on the O-3 level. Senior officers were sometimes given the privilege of eating with the captain in the captain's mess, and even sometimes in the Flag (Admiral's) mess.

Chief's E-7 through E-9 ate in the Chief's Mess, which was generally accepted as the absolute best mess on the ship. Why? Because the Chiefs paid for their own food to be brought aboard which gave them much better quality than in the enlisted mess or even the officer's mess. My Chiefs aboard ship always saif their mess was probably equal to the Flag mess for the Admiral.

Enlisted E-1 through E-6 dined in the Enlisted Messes (there were two, one forward and one aft). E-1 through E-4 were "condemned" to the general mess while E-5 and E-6's could eat in the "Acey-Doucey Lounge". E-6 (Petty Officer First Classes) were the only blue shirts to enjoy "head of the line privileges".

That pretty much sums up the living spaces and differences between officer and enlisted aboard an aircraft carrier. Of course, keep in mind that the smaller a ship gets, the less living space there is, ...which means the berthing arrangements could be vastly different on a Frigate than on a Carrier. I never served aboard a sinking sewer pipe (submarine - just kidding you submariners out there, ...we surface pukes still love you guys!) so I can't illuminate the differences there. Keep in mind, though, that a submarine is a vastly different environment than her surface ship cousins.

Answer 2

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RE:
Officer life aboard a U.S. Navy ship?
How similar is life as a Surface Warfare Officer to enlisted. Do they both have about the same free time and what about living conditions? Also, purely out of curiousity, what kind of uniform would a SWO normally wear while deployed? I heard that a new blue and gray digital camo was being tested to...

Answer 3

A commisioned Naval officer has all the responsibility and ultimate supervisory ability. Naval officers do no manual labor and keep their uniforms clean and pristine while all the enlisted are looking like coal miners (especially the snipes).

After six years duty an officer can resign anytime he wants. Enlisted cannot resign at all but must eat dirt until their contract is up.

Naval officers must pay for their own food and uniforms. Enlisted get fed for free and free uniforms (but if an enlisted man gets anything less than an honorable discharge they must return every article of clothing that was issued to them or else pay for the missing items).

Any commissioned officer in any branch of the service is on a direct chain of command all the way up to the President. Enlisted men enjoy no such status.

When a Naval Officer messes up and gets kicked out of the Navy, they are given a desk job or easy duty somewhere until their paperwork is done, then they are gently and quietly ushered out of the Navy. But when an enlisted earns his honorable discharge they send him down to Eisenhower Hall in Norfolk Virginia and treat him like a convict until the paper work is finished, then you are given your green card and kicked off base.

Answer 4

As I understand it, the officers' quarters house three men in the space the enlisted quarters house 120. I really don't feel like I need to say much more than that. I've been out for a while, so I don't know if they're still going to the digital cammies. We still wore jerseys when I was on cruise.

Answer 5

Night and day difference between officer and enlisted aboard ship.
Officer- sleeps in his own stateroom
Enlisted- sleeps with up to 40 other guys.

Officer-supervises
Enlisted-does all the work

Answer 6

Like living in a prison cell with bunkbeds and a lot of tiny chores to complete with time deadlines. No real personal time. The neurotics who snap and can't handle it were all weeded out in boot camp, so the other sailors are these unflappable young men who are poker faced yet strangely reckless and unreadable. So you wind up working hard and sleeping little and making each other LAUGH.

Answer 7

SWO life SUCKS of you don't have the SWO pin. all JO's MUST Get their SWO pin within 2 years of reporting aboard. their sole purpose in life is to get Qual'd. you will rotate about every six months to the various depatrments so that you can learn the ropes.

you may have LESS free time than most Junior enlisted. Cuz after they go home you still have work to do.


typically 3 or 4 man staterooms. That double as everybody's office. same amount of storage space as Enlisted Berthing.