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From: ron@hpfcso.fc.hp.com (Ron Miller)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Questions about rank
Message-ID: <1990Oct24.150357.15317@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 24 Oct 90 15:03:57 GMT
References: <1990Oct15.034011.13332@cbnews.att.com>
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From: ron@hpfcso.fc.hp.com (Ron Miller)

> Tom Harvey: 
> The OOD must be an officer while underway.  I can assure you that on
> smaller ships senior eenlisteds do indeed serve as OOD.  Typically E-6
> and above are in port OOD qualified.  When the USS Farragut (DDG-37) was
> in drydock in ~1977, I was a qualified OOD as an E-5. (I guess we
> were in no danger of sinking)  This sort of stuff is typical in the 
> "skeleton" crew standown situation.
> 

It apparently depends on a number of things. This certainly was never
true on my submarine. (not a small ship???) While the officers were in 
3 section duty inport, the CPOs were in 5 or 6 section duty. Qualify for 
inport DO??? They'd laugh if you tried (for good reason :-) And, frankly, 
CPOs deserve a break and *should* be in an easier rotation.

The closest I ever saw to having a CPO become a Duty Officer was
during preparations for an emergency reactor startup due to a
combination of unusual circumstances that required it without getting
the on-call Duty Engineering Officer or anyone else's help. 
(diesel down, loss shorepower, nobody answering their phone.....)

I expect that on a nuclear powered ship, in-port DO has to be 
a nuclear qualified officer unless there is a nuke on the watchbill
available and present to startup the reactor in a "go-to-sea-NOW" scenario. 
(Supply officers didn't stand inport DO because they aren't "line"
officers eligible to command.)

Our ratio was about 15 officers to 140 enlisted with about 10 CPOs.
(if I remember the size of "the goat locker" correctly)
We never had as many as 1 CPO per division........ (sigh)


Ron Miller
ex-Lt  USS CINCINNATTI (SSN-693) "One Ship, One Crew - The Black & Blue"
1979-1983