Joined DEP yesterday

[NIU_Huskie]

Hello everyone! I'm officially in DEP and signed all my paperwork and gave my oath yesterday in NRD Chicago. I'm 23 and have a BA in Political Science with minors in History and Journalism from Northern Illinois University. My rate will be CTT (Cryptologic Technician - Technical) and signed up for six years. I have to finish some paperwork to get my loan repayment program and will enter in as E-3. Unfortunately, my ship date is not until March 2010.

I plan to submit my OCS package while i'm enlisted. I've always been a leader and i strive to become a Navy officer.

For all those worrying about the ASVAB, i'd say don't let it stress you out so much. I didn't study at all and i scored an 85. Only job i didn't qualify for was nuke and i was just a few points off from that. I could take an additional test to see if i qualify but i am not interested in nuke anyway.

If you are interested in the Navy i'd recommend not putting it off. It seems to be common place that anyone signing up right now most likely won't ship off until 2010.

[MacSteve]

damn dude. why didnt you go officer right off the back?

CTT, kewl! your A school will be in good ol' pensacola Corry Station.

[NIU_Huskie]

damn dude. why didnt you go officer right off the back?

CTT, kewl! your A school will be in good ol' pensacola Corry Station.

I had started the process of application to OCS but then as i learned more i felt like OCS wouldn't get me into the Navy fast enough. I've heard many people don't get accepted the first time and i don't want to put my Navy career on hold. So i started looking into the enlisted side of it more and found a good recruiter that took care of me. I'm probably going to ask my recruiter to send in a DAR in a couple months so that if a spot opens up sooner i can take that seat. I don't want to wait 10 months but i also don't want to ship off in the next couple months. I want to go in the next four or five months. I may or may not finish my OCS package before i leave. I'm still deciding since i still have a way to go on it.

[kingma]

sweet man, that sounds like what I'm going to do. I'm willing to wait til 2010 since I dont graduate with my BA until then. Can you tell me how your recruiter described LRP? How do you feel about taking a job that isn't what you went to school for? I'm struggling with that. Thanks.

[sweetmtn]

Welcome to the boards! You will have plenty of time to learn much while you wait!

[NIU_Huskie]

sweet man, that sounds like what I'm going to do. I'm willing to wait til 2010 since I dont graduate with my BA until then. Can you tell me how your recruiter described LRP? How do you feel about taking a job that isn't what you went to school for? I'm struggling with that. Thanks.

I was told that LRP pays for any federal loans you used to pay for college. So if you used federal subsidized loans and/or the perkins loan then they will pay all of it back. I think they pay back up to around $60-65k. They do not start paying it back until you go to boot camp and are actually in the Navy. The loans are paid over the course of three years. So if you have $30k in student loans then they pay $10k of it each year.

LRP is a great benifit for those who have a degree and student loans because I was told that unless you become a Navy Seal or go into the nuke program then you do not get any signing bonuses for any other job.

My rate, CTT, has no signing bonus. So I just consider my LRP as my $25,000 signing bonus.

The great thing about the LRP is that it has nothing to do the the GI Bill. So if you want to go to college after the Navy then you can use the GI Bill to pay for it.

There is also the Navy tuition assistance program where the Navy will pay all your tuition if you want to get a degree while being on active duty.

As for your second question, I have no problem doing a job that is outside of my major for college. In fact, I only did Political Science because I had always planned on going to law school. But I decided law school wasn't for me and started looking into Navy OCS when I saw I could put my degree to use in a much more exciting way.

I hope this helps.

[kingma]

Very cool man! Thanks.

[MacSteve]

Honestly, i still would have waited for the OCS package. your going to have to go through bootcamp, and officer bootcamp now. that blows.

check out the seamen to admiral program.

[NIU_Huskie]

Honestly, i still would have waited for the OCS package. your going to have to go through bootcamp, and officer bootcamp now. that blows.

check out the seamen to admiral program.

I can still submit my OCS package before I ship out. I have 10 months to do it. That's why I originally joined DEP.

[Retired Navy Chief]

The best officers in the Navy ... or rather ... the best LEADERS in the Navy were prior enlisted ....... in my opinion.

Good luck to you in all you do.

Cheers,
PISTOL

[NIU_Huskie]

The best officers in the Navy ... or rather ... the best LEADERS in the Navy were prior enlisted ....... in my opinion.

Good luck to you in all you do.

Cheers,
PISTOL

That was my thinking too. That i would make a better leader and officer because i could relate to the enlisted sailors i lead because i used to be in their shoes.

I also thought that having prior military service and getting recommendations from my superiors in the Navy would make for a better OCS package than using college professors.

[kingma]

So are you getting $8000 for your degree, in addition to LRP? Do you have to do 6 years to get LRP?

[MacSteve]

The best officers in the Navy ... or rather ... the best LEADERS in the Navy were prior enlisted ....... in my opinion.

Good luck to you in all you do.

Cheers,
PISTOL

even being a navy newbie I agree with this.

But I still think he should have gone officer first.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[NIU_Huskie]

So are you getting $8000 for your degree, in addition to LRP? Do you have to do 6 years to get LRP?

I'm confused by your wording. I have $25,000 in student loans. The Navy will basically pay it off in my first three years split evenly. So they'll pay off just over $8,300 each year. No, i didn't have to do six years to get LRP. My rate requires a six-year commitment. I'm thinking of switching to CTR or dropping the AEF (Advanced Electronics Field) portion of CTT though so i only have a four-year commitment instead.

[kingma]

Isn't there an enlistment bonus of $8000 for a Bachelor's Degree?

[MacSteve]

he did the LRP. Im not sure since I didnt need/dont have it.. but I think that takes the place of a bonus.

[NIU_Huskie]

Isn't there an enlistment bonus of $8000 for a Bachelor's Degree?

You can only do one or the other. If you take the LRP then you forgo any signing bonus. I'd much rather have my $25,000 in student loans paid off than get a$8,000 bonus. Also, the Navy is only giving out bonuses for people who are doing Navy Seals or the nuke program. In this economy with so many people joining because of the job market the Navy doesn't need to give bonuses to entice people to join. The Navy can be more selective in who they bring.

[MacSteve]

You can only do one or the other. If you take the LRP then you forgo any signing bonus. I'd much rather have my $25,000 in student loans paid off than get a$8,000 bonus. Also, the Navy is only giving out bonuses for people who are doing Navy Seals or the nuke program. In this economy with so many people joining because of the job market the Navy doesn't need to give bonuses to entice people to join. The Navy can be more selective in who they bring.

yep.
they are also right now only giving re-enlistment bonus's to people of those jobs. and CTI's. damn CTI's.

but yea hopefully by the time it comes for me to make the decision of staying in or getting out, the bonus's are back for IT's.

[kingma]

Yeah, I wouldn't be going in until mid 2010, hopefully enlistments will slow down before then.

[NIU_Huskie]

yep.
they are also right now only giving re-enlistment bonus's to people of those jobs. and CTI's. damn CTI's.

but yea hopefully by the time it comes for me to make the decision of staying in or getting out, the bonus's are back for IT's.

I can see why they would give CTI's bonuses. You have to take an additional test just to get into the rate and i heard only 30% of people who take the test pass. Then you have to go to schooling to learn a second language. They say learning a language fluently is a tough thing to do once you get older but kids pick it up a lot easier.

I also know the Navy is slowing down recruiting because of so many people trying to get in. My MEPS was delayed twice because of this. In the middle of April my recruiter told me i had to wait until May to go to MEPS because his chief told him they weren't bringing in any more recruits for the month. We had it all lined up to go to MEPS on May 1st but then it was delayed again because they closed down MEPS that Friday because they were trying to slow down new recruits. I was told that the Navy is supposed to be at 330,000 people but they're at 333,000. I read an article a few weeks ago saying they're forcing people out of the Navy who haven't made E-6 by 14 years.

[MacSteve]

thats true the navy is overmanned. they are offering some cool oppurtunities for peeps to get out early and still keep some of the perks.

[Retired Navy Chief]

It's worth the wait ...

Cheers,
PISTOL