How often at sea?

[asailorswife]

Well... I don't know a single IT that has shore only... There's a LOT of software/hardware you'll have on ships... yeah. You'll be on a ship, but there's plenty of shore opportunity too.. Just note that you'll be on a ship.

I should add.. on Tim's ship alone, the IT's have an entire department.. I want to say there's like 80 some odd ITs in a command of 600.

[cire]

Originally Posted by asailorswife

Well... I don't know a single IT that has shore only... There's a LOT of software/hardware you'll have on ships... yeah. You'll be on a ship, but there's plenty of shore opportunity too.. Just note that you'll be on a ship.

I should add.. on Tim's ship alone, the IT's have an entire department.. I want to say there's like 80 some odd ITs in a command of 600.

I was on a DDG - we had only something like 150 sailors, but 800 Marines on deployment. Our IT department had MAYBE 15 IT's total.. half were network side and half were radio side. The radio side is a lot more important than the computer side - especially on a ship.

I was in for just about 6 years, and I only spent 3 months on a ship. However that will probably not happen to anyone else.

[kforbs126]

Originally Posted by cire

I was on a DDG - we had only something like 150 sailors, but 800 Marines on deployment. Our IT department had MAYBE 15 IT's total.. half were network side and half were radio side. The radio side is a lot more important than the computer side - especially on a ship.

I was in for just about 6 years, and I only spent 3 months on a ship. However that will probably not happen to anyone else.

How did you fit 800 Marines on a destroyer? I'm on a destroyer and there is no way you can fit that many max is 350 total crew.

[cire]

Originally Posted by kforbs126

How did you fit 800 Marines on a destroyer? I'm on a destroyer and there is no way you can fit that many max is 350 total crew.

LOL I think I was tired. I didn't mean DDG. I meant LPD! I was on the USS Ogden LPD5 and the numbers were an estimate from my bad memory

I was supposed to precomm the USS Chung Hoon out of Hawaii which IS a DDG.. but I hurt my ankle and lost the orders. I heard precomming sucks but it would have been nice to have stayed on the island

I just looked it up for the Ogden it was..
24 officers, 396 enlisted (plus 900 U.S. Marines and others)
I really don't remember there being close to 400 Navy on the ship. once the Marines left, it was pretty empty. Our main purpose was carrying the Marines around. Pretty packed when they were on board, but at night when we had duty we would sneak down and grab a bunch of MRE's to eat up in Radio.. while playing Halo. lol

[asailorswife]

So say you had 15 ITs in a command of 150.. (The numbers you found are probably the max, you could have had a lot less).. That's still 10%. 80 ITs in a command of 600 (there are actually 2 big commands, and a small platoon of Marines on board as well) is still not too far over 10%. My Aunt is a retired IT (originally a radioman). She was on sea for most of her career.

[Coppertop]

Like what was said here, you'll see a ship if you stay in for a career. Without a doubt. The tricky part with ITs is that because we have more shore billets than other rates, overseas shore duty counts as sea duty for rotational purposes. So you could do shore in Japan and then shore stateside.

As for where you'll go for your first command, I just got out of A-school a few months ago and I'd say its about 50/50 sea or shore. Just depending on where they need you. However if you get shore first, its two years there then sea duty. If you have sea duty first its three years sea, then three years shore. So thanks to the sea/shore rotation if you want shore, its better to do your sea duty first.

Or you could just get really bizarre order like mine where you get sea duty orders to a landlocked state in the heartland. With ITs you never know, we have some special opportunities.

[cire]

Originally Posted by asailorswife

So say you had 15 ITs in a command of 150.. (The numbers you found are probably the max, you could have had a lot less).. That's still 10%. 80 ITs in a command of 600 (there are actually 2 big commands, and a small platoon of Marines on board as well) is still not too far over 10%. My Aunt is a retired IT (originally a radioman). She was on sea for most of her career.

Nice. I went to boot camp a couple years after the RM/DP merge, we definitely had a few IT's who were DP's who had absolutely no idea what they were doing in their new rating lol

[Gar]

Just wondering cire, why did you decide to get out after 6 years? I'm guessing you got offered a nice job