Active Duty Navy in Overseas Assignment

[Flying_Dutchman]

Good Morning from the UK everyone,

 

First off I would like to thank all of you for contributing incredibly valuable information to this board. It is easily the best resource for WOFT applicants that I have found.

After searching through the forums, I still have a few questions pertaining to the WOFT. I'm an active duty E-5 in the US Navy, going on year 5, and am currently on my second tour in the UK. I am married with no children and I am shooting to apply for the May 2015 WOFT board. I am curious if anyone has any insight into how the process will go if I am selected while stationed overseas in a sister service. Will I attend BCT, then PCS to Ft. Rucker from the UK? Will my wife remain in the UK while I am in BCT, and will she have to do the move by herself in between BCT and WOCS? Lastly, if I am selected, does my overseas status and the fact that I am in the Navy influence the time frame between selection and the report NLT date for BCT?

 

Again, thank you all for the awesome information. Any feedback is appreciated.

 

-Dutch

[BM1]

First step would be to contact a recruiter to get a DD0368 started. If your shooting for the May board your not to early to begin, and a recruiter will not do anything without the DD0368 in hand. Stress to your command too that it will take a long time, and that you wont be gone tomorrow. The first DD0368 they gave me expired in 60 days, the second one in 6 months.

 

The only place I know of sailors in the UK lends me to believe that PERS or your command may not approve a DD0368 without serious persuasion.

[Flying_Dutchman]

First step would be to contact a recruiter to get a DD0368 started. If your shooting for the May board your not to early to begin, and a recruiter will not do anything without the DD0368 in hand. Stress to your command too that it will take a long time, and that you wont be gone tomorrow. The first DD0368 they gave me expired in 60 days, the second one in 6 months.

 

The only place I know of sailors in the UK lends me to believe that PERS or your command may not approve a DD0368 without serious persuasion.

Thanks for the reply, BM1. Luckily, my Command is pretty aware of my intentions and has been nothing but supportive. Is it required to work through a recruiter? The impression I got from my CCC is that the DD0368 is taken care of in house.

[BM1]

As far as I can tell, there is no difference between reserves (Currently a drilling reservist) and active duty.

1. You must have the DD0368 initiated by an Army recruiter.

2. Command may vary, reserve center had me run a special request chit just to prove I notified my current unit.

3. Also had to sign a page 13 stating I would keep them up to date on any changes, and would give my uniforms back if I'm selected. (No problem there!)

4. It routed up through the CO of the reserve center and then back to personnel who sends it up to PERS.

(Some branches can approve it in house, but PERS gets the final say for the Navy as far as I can tell. From what Ive been able to find out, its really just a check to make sure there are no potential bonuses to be repaid for ending your contract early, so if your command is supportive, PERS should really just rubber stamp it and give you an expiration date)

5. It's required to come back from PERS within 10 days with a response of yay or nay.

 

There is a box on the DD0368 for approved or disapproved, this is done by PERS and not by your unit.

Your unit shouldnt be signing off on anything other than a Page 13 and Special request chit. I included the DD0368 signed by me and the recruiter, and sure enough every step of the way someone was signing the DD0368 off as if they were the final approving authority (Block 6). So it goes without saying make lots of copies and expect someone to mess it up because they do not see them often. The final approving authority will be someone from PERS that you'll never see.

 

Expect no one to know just how to do this perfectly. They just don't deal with them enough.

 

Note: For the recruiter side of it, after meeting with him initially I filled the DD0368 out, sent it to him, he digitally signed it, sent it back to me and I walked it the rest of the way from department to department. Once it was signed by PERS and returned to manpower, I emailed it back to the recruiter.

 

Get on this now, if you haven't talked to a recruiter yet, your probably looking at a 1 month turn around anyways, it definitely set me back, which once you run into two or three setbacks like that your suddenly about 6 months behind schedule due to missing submission deadlines.

 

According to my recruiter, without the DD0368 he couldn't schedule anything (SIFT MEPS ect.)