1. FTS 1117 SWO Career Path
Surface Warfare Officers complete surface qualifications during their initial sea tours. Successful junior officers are screened for assignment as a department head following their shore assignment. Upon selection for LCDR, officers are screened for XO. Beginning in FYO7, officers will be screened for XO/CO fleet up. At the same time as XO/CO screening, some officers will be selected as Special Mission (SM) XO, SM XO/CO fleet up and SM CO. These SM tours are extremely challenging operational tours that need highly qualified officers. They are slated just as their XO/CO counterparts. Officers completing Commander Command tours are subsequently screened for Surface Major Command. Officers have historically been limited by opportunity, not capability.
As timing permits, all FTS Officers will be assigned Reserve Management tours during shore tours. FTS who do not screen for an afloat milestone will focus strictly on Reserve Management. Typical first shore duty may include assignment as Navy Operational Support Center CO, XO, or Training Officer. There are some assignments to major staffs and to other operational activities such as NCWG and afloat staffs. Further assignments are at the Reserve Component Commands, OPNAV and Reserve Force Staffs and Operational Support Officers on other major staffs.
Since FTS SWOs are often in a 1 of 1 category, selection boards should look for soft breakouts on the back of afloat fitreps. Additionally, graduate education as well as Joint Education and experience are important discriminators for FTS officers to compete with their Active Component (AC) counterparts in Administrative Screening Boards. Finally, Operational Support Officer jobs at major fleet and HQ staffs provide Reserve expertise in the N1 and N3 arenas and often FTS are used in AC jobs shaping the future of the RC. 6