Fleet Support Officer Fleet Training (FSOFT): should a sea tour be a requirement?

Abstract

This thesis proposes a Fleet Support Officer Fleet Training (FSOFT) program that would allow Fleet Support Officers (FSOs) to attend Surface Warfare Officer School in Newport, RI, be assigned a Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) division officer tour, as an initial assignment, and then obtain a warfare pin. Following the SWO division officer tour, the FSO would resume a career in the FSO community. The feasibility of such a program and the impacts on both the SWO and FSO communities are discussed. This program would provide FSOs with the necessary background and training to make them better support officers, more fully preparing them for their careers in the Navy. It would provide FSOs with fleet experience that would give them a greater appreciation of the Navy's mission. It would also give them a better understanding of the support required of the Fleet in the FSO core competencies of Space and Electronic Warfare (SEW), Manpower Systems Analysis (MSA), and Logistics. The program would also give FSOs the essential skills in standing watches and managing administrative duties of a division officer, and would better prepare them to fill lieutenant commander (LCDR) and above, at-sea billets in the FSO community