Ask A Spook! Cryptologic Questions

[friedsteak]

Shipping out soon as a CTR.


As a junior CT going surface, what's the likelihood I'll go on small decks vs a carrier?

I'm on the fence about subs, if I don't volunteer will this negatively impact my career?

Is Aircrew closed to first enlistment CTs?

How competitive is TIO?

At the time of reenlistment, do you get to choose your next command? Say a sailor has been DIRSUP for X many years and now they want to be stationed at an NIOC, is it likely the Navy will accommodate them? I want duty at an NIOC at some point in my future career so I can better transition into a three letter agency after service, but I want to travel and experience the Navy's many platforms beforehand.

[FlyNavy]

Originally Posted by friedsteak

Shipping out soon as a CTR.

Congrats! It's an awesome rate with tons of opportunities to do cool sh!t!

Originally Posted by friedsteak

As a junior CT going surface, what's the likelihood I'll go on small decks vs a carrier?

Something that specific is really needs of the Navy at the time you're up for orders. But there are more small boys than big decks, so if that's what you're looking for then it shouldn't be that hard.

Originally Posted by friedsteak

I'm on the fence about subs, if I don't volunteer will this negatively impact my career?

CT's only go on subs as part of DIRSUP (direct support). They're their own community in their own right and not being part of that won't affect you negatively at all. DIRSUP shops are part of NIOC's, so you would be there and deploy out as needed to do your mission work.

Originally Posted by friedsteak

Is Aircrew closed to first enlistment CTs?

Aircrew is totally open if there's spots available and you can hack it.

Originally Posted by friedsteak

How competitive is TIO?

Highly. Think less "competitive" though and more "selective". To be eligible for TIO you need to have at least 1 tour as a CT before hand, so this is closed to first tour Sailors. Once you're eligible, you would submit a package and a TIO recruiter would be in contact with you. You would need to meet SpecWar physical standards and they also comb through your entire life (it gets down pretty personal). Even if you meet all that criteria, you have to be someone they want in the teams. If they don't feel like you're the kind of guy they want with them while they're getting shot at, then you aren't gonna get in no matter how qualified you are.

Originally Posted by friedsteak

At the time of reenlistment, do you get to choose your next command? Say a sailor has been DIRSUP for X many years and now they want to be stationed at an NIOC, is it likely the Navy will accommodate them? I want duty at an NIOC at some point in my future career so I can better transition into a three letter agency after service, but I want to travel and experience the Navy's many platforms beforehand.

DIRSUP shops work out of NIOC's, so you would be killing 2 birds with one stone. At a NIOC you'll also be working closely with three letter agencies, so you'll have plenty of time to network and get a feel for everything. If you have some longevity in your Navy career as a CT, you're definitely going to end up at a NIOC at some point.

In regards to orders; when your first contract is up, that's when you contact the detailer (guy who sends you orders) and you negotiate with him based on what's available, what you're qualified to do, and what you wanna do career wise.

/r
CTT1

[FlyNavy]

CT's as a whole are the technical side of intelligence (hence the SIGINT aspect). Where IS's think about the big picture, we're down in the weeds looking at actual signals, 1's and 0's, you name it. So just in general, focus on your technical skills first before going off and doing high-speed stuff like TIO, Aircrew, and DIRSUP. If you're weak as a CT in tech skills then you aren't worth much lol

/r
CTT1

[jzhaun]

DIRSUP shops work out of NIOC's, so you would be killing 2 birds with one stone. At a NIOC you'll also be working closely with three letter agencies, so you'll have plenty of time to network and get a feel for everything. If you have some longevity in your Navy career as a CT, you're definitely going to end up at a NIOC at some point.

Mileage may vary here. Where I work, the DIRSUP guys are a completely separate facility and don't interact with the rest of us very often. I doubt most of them have been able to network much.

[friedsteak]

Thanks for your reply. I won't wrap my head around it too much, since it won't be up to me but it sounds like an NIOC gives a wider range of job knowledge? Being a good sailor is definitely higher on my priority list than traveling.

[FlyNavy]

Originally Posted by friedsteak

Thanks for your reply. I won't wrap my head around it too much, since it won't be up to me but it sounds like an NIOC gives a wider range of job knowledge? Being a good sailor is definitely higher on my priority list than traveling.

Being at sea (or in the air) is the best way to learn. The more time you spend ashore the more your skills will languish. Unless youre one of those weird linguist folks ;)

[jzhaun]

Originally Posted by CTT1(SW)Griffin

Being at sea (or in the air) is the best way to learn. The more time you spend ashore the more your skills will languish. Unless youre one of those weird linguist folks ;)

Yep, the reverse is true for us. Dirsuppers on long deployments have a much harder time maintaining their languages since many of our resources are only available on shore. I will find a way to deploy at some point though. It's going to happen.

[futuresailorCTN]

I signed a few weeks ago for CTN in the reserve. Would anyone happen to have some insight into what the job entails for reservists? I understand that most of what you do as a reservist is really just training, but are there ever any opportunities to support active duty CT's, federal agencies, etc. on drill weekends? Also, are there ever any opportunities for reserve CTN's to volunteer for deployments or is that mostly handled entirely by the active CT community? I've heard of some Army cyber guys doing this so I'm just wondering for the future.

Okay, one more question (maybe ); What kind of benefit does the reserve have on civilian job marketability? I'm about 3/4 through my comsci degree and I'm hoping to combine that with my reserve experience to eventually land some sort of federal cybersecurity position. Not to say that this is the only reason I'm joining the reserve, I'm just thinking long term.

If any of this has already been answered, just tell me because I'm sure I could have missed it. Thanks everyone!

[FlyNavy]

Got this question in my inbox:

Do CTT's travel a lot?

Is A and C school extremely hard?

Do they do a lot of maintenance or "fixing" with the technology or do they mostly operate it?

Are you likely to be able to get a good first duty station being a CTT? (Italy, Hawaii, or anywhere overseas?)

Does the CTT rate have a large amount of people in it?

=============================================
Travel: I went to 30 countries on 3 continents onboard my first ship. Now that can vary; I was on a small boy that could get into more ports and was also an independent deployer, whereas a Carrier couldn't do that much. But it all depends on the ship and deployment schedule. In a nutshell though, we have the capability to travel a ton.

School: A-school for us is at Corry Station in Pensacola, FL...THE BEST DAMN A-SCHOOL LOCATION IN THE NAVY. You'll start with Entry Level ELINT (known simply as ELE). The hardest part about the class for most people is memorizing things, but practice makes perfect and rarely does someone fail enough to drop. C-school if you're a tech consists of a few more months learning to fix the gear. If you're going to a ship, you'll also go through Shipboard Operations (Shipboard Ops) to learn to operate the AN/SLQ-32 (pronounced Slick-32). Overall, if you qualified for the job then mentally you should be fine.

Maintenance: There is a specific NEC for the school to repair the gear (If your contract is for 6 years, this is you). But what separates us from other rates is that we also operate our equipment. 4 year guys are strictly operators, but you're gonna be helping with the maintenance anyway so don't stress. Your watch station will be in the Combat Information Center (CIC, aka "Combat") manning the SLQ-32. CTT's are responsible for all Electronic Warfare duties onboard as well as Anti-Ship Missile Defense (ASMD). If the ship gets shot at with a missile, it's our job to stop that sh!t; and you have seconds to respond so you better know your sh!t or people die. That dovetails nicely with doing maintenance on the gear as well as operating it, because you get a chance to become a technical expert with your equipment.

Duty Stations: This totally depends on what's going on for the detailer at the specific time you're up for orders. As a first tour Sailor, you really don't get much say in where you go. When it comes time to re-enlist, that's when you get options. As a whole though, CTT's can go basically anywhere in the world. I landed in Florida, but 2 guys went to Japan, 1 to Washington state, 3 to Cali, and a couple to Norfolk. Just depends on the needs of the Navy when you're applying for orders.

Rate size: We're larger than some of the other CT rates, but compared to the rest of the Navy it's a small community. Stay in long enough and you'll start knowing people all over the place. I love our rate and I love the people in it. We all see pretty like minded and like what we do.

/r
CTT1