Navy Reserve Intelligence

[NavyIntO]

Hello everyone,

I'm a grade 11 student in Nova Scotia who happens to be strongly interested in becoming a Naval Officer of some kind or another. The two Naval Officer careers that interest me the most are MARS and INT. With that said, I'm more of literary person than a mathematical person. Basically, I'm no good at math, and MARS (or so I hear) is strongly mathematical. Therefore, I’m not entirely sure if I’m quite cut out to be a MARS Officer. However, I simply love the sea, and, due to the fact that I plan to go to university, I still want to be an officer in the Navy. So, my question is (I searched the forums but couldn't find any information pertinent to my question) do Navy Intelligence Officers go to sea at all, and if so, how often? Thanks in advance for any responses. 

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

  If you want to go to sea as bad as your post seems to indicate you may want to reconsider whether or not you want to be an officer or not. A MARS officer does not spend as much time at sea as a hard sea trade NCM. Most MARS types do 2-3 years on a ship and are rotated ashore for various courses. MOst NCMs will do 3-5 years, do usually 2 years ashore and then go back to sea. There are exceptions but few and far between.
  As for sailing as an IntO, I have sailed with a few Int OPs but never with an IntO. If they do sail it is not a very common occurence at least from my experience.

 

[FSTO]

Intel Officers will sail as part of the Commodore's staff. But a majority of their time will be ashore.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Intel Officers will sail as part of the Commodore's staff. But a majority of their time will be ashore.

Hmm, I thought that might be the case at one time but the last time I sailed 280 (2009) they had a MARS officer in that position.

 

[ModlrMike]

Intelligence is a purple trade. The only specific Naval Int is in NAVRES. Don't get too fixated on staying with the Navy if you enroll as an IntO.

 

[NavyIntO]

So, once in a blue moon an Intelligence Officer sails as part of the Commodore's staff? I see. How about Naval Reserve Intelligence Officers? Define "restricted to the navy". Do they go out to sea?

 

[Snakedoc]

So, once in a blue moon an Intelligence Officer sails as part of the Commodore's staff? I see. How about Naval Reserve Intelligence Officers? Define "restricted to the navy". Do they go out to sea?

Again they do and I've known them to go to sea but it is much more rare and only as part of the Commodore's staff in a formation.  IntO's are 'support officers' and not 'line officers' per se so they would probably go to sea just as often as a JAG officer would go to sea (i.e. not very often).

 

[Retired AF Guy]

Intelligence is a purple trade. The only specific Naval Int is in NAVRES. Don't get too fixated on staying with the Navy if you enroll as an IntO.

In 2004 - 05 I was an instructor at CFSMI here in Kingston. At that time the Int Ops/Officers courses were divided into two phases: Phase I was where the students learned all about the basic tenets of intelligence. In Phase II they were split into army, air force and navy classes and taught the specifics according to their elements (e.g.) air force -  aircraft recognition, aircraft design, air EW, airborne weapon systems, etc.

Now I retired in '05, so I'm not sure if they are still doing this or whether they went back to the old system.

 

[FSTO]

So, once in a blue moon an Intelligence Officer sails as part of the Commodore's staff? I see. How about Naval Reserve Intelligence Officers? Define "restricted to the navy". Do they go out to sea?

Reserve Naval Intelligence Officers used to be the Naval Control of Shipping Officers (NCS). Basically they were charged with the organizing and controlling convoy operations during wartime, (I am sure oldgateboatdriver could give a more informed synopsis of the trade). They have evolved into their current form where they still do convoy work, they are heavily involved in the operations off Somalia, but they are now tasked with intelligence analysis and briefing. While I was in ALG during OP APOLLO we had a reserve Naval Intel officer on staff.

 

[NavyIntO]

Interesting. What exactly did the NAVRES Intelligence Officer do whilst engaged in OP APOLLO? Did he/she prefom typical intelligence duties, or did he/she preform NCAGS duties? I'm assuming the officer was on a destroyer?

 

[FSTO]

Interesting. What exactly did the NAVRES Intelligence Officer do whilst engaged in OP APOLLO? Did he/she prefom typical intelligence duties, or did he/she preform NCAGS duties? I'm assuming the officer was on a destroyer?

Intel briefing for the Commodore.
ALG is HMCS ALGONQUIN, a DDH (Destroyer).

 

[Johngalt24]

Did not want to make a new thread for this so I'll pose my question here:

Just wrote the CFAT, did well (assuming as everything was open), except intO. As intO only hires internally, and it was my number one choice, I decided to go MARS which was my second choice.

How difficult is it to make the switch from MARS to intO after my 4 years? 

I really only want intO as I wish to go SCOR support staff (or jtf2). 

And my second question, can MARS officers join boarding party?

 

[Pelorus]

How difficult is it to make the switch from MARS to intO after my 4 years? 

I really only want intO as I wish to go SCOR support staff (or jtf2). 

MARS officers, like any other trade, are permitted to transfer into another trade.  However, like all other trades, that is dependent on whether MARS is allowing people out, Int is letting people in, and whether your individual application is accepted at that time.  It is near impossible to speculate on what the great spreadsheet in the sky will have as far as numbers go by the time you're in that position, so you should really only accept MARS if that's something you can see yourself doing for a long time.

And my second question, can MARS officers join boarding party?

Yes.  There are typically two officers positions in the boarding party.  The Deck Officer is the primary, and another officer (usually MARS as well) fulfills other duties.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

All trades are open for OT out, but there is a cap on the numbers based on the trade health; 2% of the TES for green trades, 1% for amber/yellow and 0.5% for red trades.

For the non-CAF poster, TES is basically the number of people in a trade who are trained/employable.  Called the Trained Effective Strength.  Trade health numbers are likely obvious; red is not the better of the 3.

So if a trade is red with a TES of 200, that means the OT outcap number is 1 (1 person can OT out of that trade).

 

[kratz]

Why is the discussion of Naval Int O being held under the MARS topic?

MARS ensure ship's movements,
while Naval Int O is a separate MOS advising command.

 

[George Wallace]

Why is the discussion of Naval Int O being held under the MARS topic?

MARS ensure ship's movements,
while Naval Int O is a separate MOS advising command.

Probably because it is NAVY and there is no Sub Forum in the Navy Forum for Naval Intelligence Officer.  Perhaps you would like it moved to Army?    >



We will have to find a proper place for it.  Until then, Wait OUT.

 

[Lumber]

Why is the discussion of Naval Int O being held under the MARS topic?

MARS ensure ship's movements,
while Naval Int O is a separate MOS advising command.

Probably because it is NAVY and there is no Sub Forum in the Navy Forum for Naval Intelligence Officer.  Perhaps you would like it moved to Army?    >

We will have to find a proper place for it.  Until then, Wait OUT.

Maybe because the Navy IntO work for MARS?  >

 

[FSTO]

Some of the most well rounded Int O's I worked with within the Navy were former MARS officers. Most of them had completed a director tour as a AWWD or UWWD. They knew how to brief Command, they knew what they are talking about and they knew the "So What?" factor. Too many of the poor sods that we get now have never been on a Navy base let alone been at sea. I have also watch these folks get absolutely eviscerated by command because they didn't know the "So What" and in the end its the Combat officer or the Commodore's COS who has to clean up the puddle of flesh that was the Int O.
IMO, the RCN should have its own Intel sub section within the MARS MOS. But I also understand there is a bit of a power struggle in Ottawa within the Intel world and everyone above the rank of Lt(N)/Capt have been "forced" to change their uniform to green.

 

[Ostrozac]

But I also understand there is a bit of a power struggle in Ottawa within the Intel world and everyone above the rank of Lt(N)/Capt have been "forced" to change their uniform to green.

Not quite everyone, and not all to green, many also switched from Navy Blue to Sky Blue. As I understand it, the percentage of Int Officer Navy DEU was becoming far out of whack of the desired ratio -- one factor that led to this was a very successful Int Navy Reserve that consistently fed officer CT's into the Regular Force, an Army Reserve that was slightly smaller in terms of producing officer CT's by comparison, and an Int Air Force reserve that wasn't really producing any CT's.

 

[Privateer]

I'm curious to hear how often a Navy-DEU IntO is posted to an "Army" base?  For example, Shilo, Petawawa, Gagetown...?  Is the IntO occupation really purple, or do Navy-DEU IntOs get posted to "Navy" facilities?  (The quotes are used in acknowledgment of the fact that these are actually CF facilities.)