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Looking around the internet I have seen some sites that imply that a degreed or especially a licensed engineer who became a naval officer would be an officer for the seabees with pretty much the same assurance of this as a doctor joining knowing that they would be a doctor in the military. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
Looking around the internet I have seen some sites that imply that a degreed or especially a licensed engineer who became a naval officer would be an officer for the seabees with pretty much the same assurance of this as a doctor joining knowing that they would be a doctor in the military. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
The U.S. Military Medical Programs typically accept Medical Doctors and Commission them as Officers and they are assigned as military medical doctors.
I seriously doubt a civilian licensed engineer who enters the U.S. Navy will automatically become a Commissioned Naval Officer and will automatically be assigned to the SEABEES.
Additionally "with pretty much the same assurance of this as a doctor joining knowing that they would be a doctor in the military"? I would not believe that either.
Thanks! That's why I asked. It seemed possible (outside civil guys most engineers are not licensed or on a path that will ever get them licensed, and excluding civil engineers itthere are probably more doctors than licensed engineers in the US) but not likely. I would trust a disinterested third party more than a recuiter or navy website though so I thought I would ask here.
If the Navy is like the Army, you don't need an engineering degree. I know plenty of Army engineer officers who don't have engineer degrees. In fact, I work with two of them. One majored in English and one in History.
Yeah the army lets you be an engineer after a two week class. Probably why they have to hire civilians either through USACE or the general public to do the design or redesign of buildings on their bases back in the US. Air Force is the same way. The seabee officers I have met could've called themselves engineers back in the real world without being laughed out of the room, but that could've been pure luck. I guess that is part and parcel of my question.
@OP: You seem to be full of misinformation today. An engineering degree will give you a shot at OCS and the CEC officer's basic course, successful completion of which does not mean that you will be assigned to a seabee unit.
The army's engineer officer basic course in almost five months long. How did you arrive at your "two week" comment? Your comment that combat engineers don't design buildings leads me to believe you don't have any idea what engineer officers actually do.
@OP: You seem to be full of misinformation today. An engineering degree will give you a shot at OCS and the CEC officer's basic course, successful completion of which does not mean that you will be assigned to a seabee unit.
The army's engineer officer basic course in almost five months long. How did you arrive at your "two week" comment? Your comment that combat engineers don't design buildings leads me to believe you don't have any idea what engineer officers actually do.
Heard that from a CW4 and soldiers I worked with who were combat engineers amongst others. The fact that I have been hired in the past to do the design on remodeling and new buildings on army and air force facilities led me to believe they were not licensed.
Heard that from a CW4 and soldiers I worked with who were combat engineers amongst others. The fact that I have been hired in the past to do the design on remodeling and new buildings on army and air force facilities led me to believe they were not licensed.
An Army engineering officer is an engineer in the same sense that a network engineer is in the IT world: not a licensed engineer, it's just a term of use. You qualify to be an Army engineering officer through the Basic course. The Basic course != an engineering degree.
Some Army engineers are combat engineers (think demolition, mobility, countermobility), and some are construction engineers. In my experience, not a lot of construction engineers make the jump to PE designation/licensing.
They *can* design and put up (fairly simple) structures, but the structures are not intended to be permanent. If they are intended to be permanent, fully licensed engineers do the design. Typically those are civilian hires.
And rereading my above statement let me clarify that the company I worked for at the time was hired to do the work, and while I was not a licensed engineer at the time the supervising engineer was.
Which is your greater concern - a guaranteed specialty (engineering) or assignment to a specific type of unit (construction battalion or Seabees)? With an engineering degree, I think the Navy does have ways to obtain a direct commission as a restricted line officer. With those programs, you would at least know what you'd be doing.
However, Navy engineers work in all kinds of places. They are on submarines working on nuclear reactors and on shore bases riding desks as program managers. The Seabees are but one of the possibilities.
While some of them may be licensed (PE's), it's not going to be required as the licensing boards are at the state level and the Navy is federal. Plus, most base construction type jobs are going to be contracted out to civilian firms that do have PE's on staff, as you've experienced.
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