Hey there, I just have a question about naval deployments.
As an NWO, how many deployments do you get a year? My dad was a stoker and joined in 2003, so he was not home very often. Is it still like that? Will I be home less than half a year, generally? As you climb in rank, do you get less or more deployments? One of my friends is a MarTech and he only got deployed for 2 weeks in three years, but I think he is an anomaly...
Are deployments hard? Not talking about workups but I mean generally day-to-day...
I'm just a tiny bit worried that I'll be gone for eight months, and then come home for a month, and then go for another eight months. If that were to happen one time, I guess it would be okay, but I think if it were to happen repeatedly my finacé would be a little peeved.
(to be honest, I don't even know what an NWO does apart from being officer of the watch and commanding the ship when there's a problem)
Are you currently an NWO under training, or are you only looking to apply as an NWO?
I'll answer the easiest question first. You will never deploy for 8 months and then one month later re-deploy for another month. It never happens, and it's not even
allowed to happen (wartime exceptions, obviously). There are different types of "deployments". When people in the Navy talk about a "deployment", they are talking about deploying on a named operation, such as OP REASURRANCE or OP ARTEMIS. We call this "Force Employment" or "FE". These deployments are typically 6 months, but on the rare occasion they are 7 months. Longer deployments than that generally don't happen anymore. When you get back from one of these long deployments, the Navy isn't actually
allowed to re-deploy you for at least a year. Some people have
tried to re-deploy 6 months later, but it requires the sailor/officer to sign a waiver, and even then the Navy doesn't like authorizing it. There are other named operations that are shorter, such as OP NANOOK and OP CARIBBE (1-2 months). The rule about not redeploying after these does not apply.
That being said, there are a ton of other "sails" that are much shorter and are used to achieve what we call "Forge Generation" or "FG". These sails exist to train sailors/aircrew, prepare crews for eventual deployment, or support other "activities" that are happening. These can include things such as sea trials (where you go out for a week and test equipment that was recently repaired, or measure your ships magnetic signature, etc), 2-3 day sails supporting things like a CANSOFCOM maritime boarding exercise, 2 week and 4 week long "work ups" programs (prep for deployment), week long Air work-ups (integrating a helicopter with the ship), week long sails in support of training courses (such as going to sea for the SAC (shipborne air controller) course, or Fleet Navigating Officer course), participating in mutli-week long Task Group exercises, such as Ex Cutlas Fury off Halifax or Ex Joint Warrior off Scotland, etc, etc. These sails usually take place in the year leading up to your deployment. So, in a typical 2-year posting for an NWO aboard ship, you will spend a year "working up" the ship doing FG sails that will see you sailing for probably ~3-ish months spread out over that year, with the longest single stint being your 4 week final work-ups sails (it's actually closer to 3 weeks now... cut backs...). Then you will deploy for 6 months. When you get back, you will have (likely) over a month of vacation to take. When your vacation is over, you might stay with the ship, but most officers get posted off the ship after the deployment. If you stay with the ship, you'll likely do a few weeks here and there of FG sailing, but you will certainly be posted off before the next deployment.
Not all ships do formal 6 months deployments. You could get posted to a ship that isn't schedule to actually conduct a named operation, in which case your 2-3 year posting aboard will be nothing but a bunch of that FG sailing, but in any year it will never be more than 6 months, and it will likely be less than that.
Deployment are
not hard. They are A BLAST. If you have a family at home, it's harder, but if you are young, you will relish it, and make some of the best friends you've ever made. It can be a grind, and "ground hog" day certainly sets in during long patrols, but ship's usually only spend about two weeks at sea between port-visits, and those port-visits are often the highlight of the deployment. You are gone for 6 months, but you aren't SAILING for 6 months. You are doing "patrols" of between 5 and 15 days, and in between those patrols you are spending 2-4 days (sometimes more) visiting port cities around the world.
The real thing that can really make the day-to-day hard (and this does happen), is your chain of command. The three people as an junior NWO who have the greatest effect on whether your life sucks or not are the NavO (your direct boss), the XO (who is in charge of all the officers, the "Wardroom"), and the Captain. If the NavO is an asshole, your life might be hard. If the XO runs the Wardroom like a tyrant, all the officers lives will be hard. As a bridge watchkeeper, your main job during the day is to drive the ship and make reports to the Captain, so if the Captain is an asshole, your life might be hard, at least for the 4-8 hours a day you are on the bridge. I've experienced unpleasant XOs and unpleasant COs, once both at the same time, but I've been lucky enough not to have had any hard-ass or dick-head NavOs (though I've heard plenty of stories of such).
Oh and as for your question "As you climb in rank, do you get less or more deployments?", all I can say is that rank is not in anyway correlated to how much you will deploy. As a Sub-Lieutenant, your job is a bridge watchkeeper, and you could be posted to a Frigate that is deploying, or you could be posted to a Frigate/AOPS that is just doing "continental ops" and never gone for more than a month. As a junior Lieutenant, you will become a "Director" level officer, and you could be posted to a Frigate that is deploying, or you could be posted to a Frigate/AOPS that is just doing "continental ops" and never gone for more than a month. As a senior Lieutenant, your job will be as an "ORO" (Operations Room Officer), and you could be posted to a Frigate that is deploying, or you could be posted to a Frigate/AOPS that is just doing "continental ops" and never gone for more than a month. As a Lieutenant-Commander, you will be an XO, and you could be posted to a Frigate that is deploying, or you could be posted to a Frigate/AOPS that is just doing "continental ops" and never gone for more than a month... see where I'm going with this?
Let me know if you have any questions about what an NWO does at each rank level.
