<p>How competitive are the diving officer slots from USNA?? I know that only about 8 men were assigned to special operations last year. But, how many actually wanted to be divers. I am now looking into the profession and have always wanted to go to USNA. Thanks a lot for the help.</p>
<p>They are about as difficult to get as SEAL billets, if not more so. They tend to go quickly during Service Selection night.</p>
<p>As for how many actually wanted to be divers, that's anyone's guess. You'd have to ask them.</p>
<p>OK thanks, and I meant how many Midshipmen wanted to be divers, not the guys that got the billets.</p>
<p>Oh! LOL. Sorry. :o</p>
<p>SEALs and Spec Ops were always quiet niche selections back in my day. You just didn't hear about them too much. Nowadays, with the increased recruitment and use of SEALs, I imagine the situation is very different, and I also imagine that translates a bit to SpecOps.</p>
<p>Bottom line is if you go to USNA with SpecOps in mind, you better be ready to score some serious OOM points.</p>
<p>That's ok. Thanks for the info. What does OOM stand for??</p>
<p>^^^^^
Order of Merit (OOM) = Class Rank</p>
<p>Oh Ok, thanks.</p>
<p>CrazY - You wanna be a navy diver? Check out this link-</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpSoo6n8fBE%5B/url%5D">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpSoo6n8fBE</a> </p>
<p>As the mother of two (hard hats that is!) I can tell you that they love their jobs and the opportunities in navy diving are endless and varied beyond belief. This past year has brought many changes to the SpecOp community, including Diver now being its own rating. Perhaps GA or Z can elaborate on what these changes mean for those wishing to be officers in this field. Speaking with my sons (16 years active duty combined) neither have heard of an academy graduate being a dive officer. Also, the highest rank a salvage officer can achieve is commander. </p>
<p>As far as training is concerned, in SpecOps officers go through the same classes/torture at the same time with their enlisted conterparts. Unfortunately, although the dive officer is in charge, their actual bottom time is little to none. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Perhaps GA or Z can elaborate on what these changes mean for those wishing to be officers in this field.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I regret that a) I've been out of the loop too long, and b) I was not exposed to the SpecOps community while I was in, so any answer beyond what I've offered would be pure speculation. I'd rather not feed the rumor mill, so I'm going to remain pretty silent on this one.</p>
<p>Sorry. :(</p>
<p>Hi Utah Mom. I think it is great they made it a rating. When I was in all you got was a little blue patch with an embroided (?) hard hat on it to sew on your jumper. Cool. Any news??</p>
<p>BTW, Navy Diver now being a rating has ZERO impact on officers, since ratings don't apply to them.</p>
<p>Concerning bottom time, I reckon it's the same as the SEALs: If you REALLY want to dive, jump, shoot, scoot, etc., then enlist and do BUDS. SEAL officers end up flying a desk too soon. :(</p>
<p>utahmom...that video is sooooooo COOL!!!!!!!!!!
:-)</p>
<p>My dad just retired after 27 years in the Navy as Enlisted, he was a deep sea diver (and the "normal" diving also), eod, seabees, helicopter/jet mechanic, and some other things over the years, and from what he has said about Officers...is basically there are very few, and most of the Officer positions are filled by SEAL Officers who want to do something different in the SpecOp community (from his experience). So if you wanted to be an Officer in EOD/Diver, you would have a better chance (from what I understand) going SEAL, then after you do your few years and want to do something else, you can switch over to EOD or Diver. They are basically the top picks, so they usually have more leeway when it comes to getting into other fields.</p>
<p>Hope that is helpful to you.</p>
<p>If you seriously want to get motivated, go see Men of Honor.</p>
<p>The scene in the hearing room ROCKS!</p>
<p>"Godda** it cookie! I WANT MY TWELVE!"</p>
<p>"AT EASE!"</p>
<p>:D</p>
<p>"Men of Honor" Yep, it's a GREAT movie, especially for someone interested in diving.</p>
<p>My dad is in that movie =] along with his diving buddies.</p>
<p>He says Cuba Gooding Jr. is a pretty nice guy in real life, he had to suit him up for all of the scenes, and did some of the diving in the movie. </p>
<p>In the part when the guy in the deep sea diving suit falls off the elevator thing on the side of the ship earlier in the movie, that guy was a SEAL who got paid quite a nice chunk of money for doing that stunt, as it's very dangerous. So no special effects there, he actually fell off on purpose. My dad and the other older guys passed as it was too risky for the money as you could die or end up really hurt.</p>
<p>Just thought I'd throw that tidbit out since someone brought it up...good movie anyhow =P</p>
<p>OK thanks everyone for the information!!</p>
<p>After seeing Men of Honor when I was a little kid I wanted to join the Navy! Ever since then it's been one of my favorite movies.</p>
<p>It is a good movie. Unlike [ahem] Annapolis.</p>
<p>very true,</p>