MARS officer question

[NILEZZZ]

Currently i am interested in becoming a MARS officer and just had a few questions regarding family life, deplyoment and just what the job consists of on a day to day basis.

1) what is family life like? if you are married , on average how much time do you get to spend with your spouse in the run of a year?( I know it depends on your posting but just looking for some replies from someone with some experience with this)

2)how often are you deployed?( again i know it depends). how long does a deployment usually last? and over a career how often will you have to do 6 month tours and do you have a choice in the matter?

3)when you are living at home and not at sea what can you expect to be doing day to day?

Thanks for your time and any answers will help, i have done some searching and haven't found much information on these questions. ;D

 

[FSTO]

Click on this thread:
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/20295.0.html

It should answer most of your questions.

 

[NILEZZZ]

I have read this thread and i find it answers alot of the questions i have about the training aspect but i still don't know anything about my questions. Any other help would be appreciated PLEASE! ;D

 

[SeaRoom]

Postings alternate between shore and sea throughout most of your early career (first 12 or so years.) A posting will be 1 to 3 years on average.

The first year and half are spent training:

-First couple months in St. Jean (no family.)

-Then to Esquimalt, BC (family can follow you here at mil expense) for a year.

-Quebec City for a month (no family in Quebec, but you will already have been posted to a ship at this point, so your family will be moved to Halifax, or will stay in BC) 

-Then to Halifax for a couple months (no family if you are posted to Esq.)

Then you're finally in your ship for about three years (Halifax or Esquimalt.) You will most likely be posted to a High Readinessship(this name has change, but it's simply a ship that is manned, trained, and equipped to fill op duties, like Gulf and NATO deployments) In a ship like this, you'll be at sea about 8 months of the year, sometimes for up to 6 months at once. During long deployments, the navy will pay to send you to your next of kin, or have them fly out to you during a leave period. Long deployments will usual have a rest period somewhere in the middle. The navy has been very busy since 9/11 - one friend did three and a half six months tours in a four year spawn.

If your ship goes to sea, you go with it. No choice.

After your first sea posting you'll alternate between sea and shore units every 1-3 years for 10 or so years, until you are of a high enough rank that there are too few sea-going positions at your level to go to sea as often.

When not at sea (whether as part of a shore unit or in a ship alongside home port) - life can be very easy. A ship alongside in home port could be working 0730 -1500 Monday to Thursday, and only to 1130 on Friday. A shore establishment, 0800-1600 Monday to Friday, with some offices taking Friday afternoon off. Friday afternoons off, or "sliders" are kind of unofficial, but widely practiced, and help make up for the long hours and days when at sea.

Alongside on a ship - You'll be do administration, conducting/participating in training, planning future ops and exercises. Basically as little as possible.

In a shore unit - You'll be staffing (admin, planning, doc generation, training development, tactics development, course instructor, etc.) in some sort of position that helps support the fleet, or the CF in general in a joint ops office.

While being away often is hard on a family, and good thing about the navy is that it is unlikely that your family will have to move every few years as most postings are either in Halifax or Esquimalt, and personnel are generally kept on one coast (this is not always true, but is generally.) The exception being Ottawa, but that won't come for a number of years.

Good Luck.

 

[30 for 30]

Thanks for the detailed information, SeaRoom. As you are an officer at a CFRC, would you know how many Reg F MARS positions remain open to fill this year vs. Armour Officer positions? Perhaps it's a long shot, but I thought I'd ask. Thanks for any assistance with this.

 

[NILEZZZ]

Thanks alot for your help SeaRoom that is exactly what i was looking for. I really needed some answers as going in to the navy as an officer is a big commitment but i think it will be worth it. Just finished passing in all the stuff for my application so hopefully ill get some good news soon. thanks again

 

[SeaRoom]

Not sure what the current numbers are for selected applicants but the SIP forcasts for this year (SIP = the national number of enrolled applicants that Recruiting is aiming for):

DEO

MARS  55
ARMD  15

ROTP (junior = prep year, St. Jean / senior = no prep year)

MARS 21 jr / 13 sr
ARMD 9 jr / 6 sr

Not sure if you've already started the process, but the next ARMD board sits now (6-10 June), and the next NOAB is in October. You can still make the NOAB if you have yet to submit the application. Of course it's too late for ROTP for this year.

Not sure about ARMD, but my experience with NOAB was that even though only half of the NOAB candidates were selected, it wasn't a very competitive crowd. Of course with MARS, you continue to lose people after enrollment. I think there was 50 on my NOAB, and 12 made it to the fleet.

 

[30 for 30]

SeaRoom, thank you very much for your time and info.

I assume there will be one more ARMD board this year? I'm DEO with security clearance almost finished (so I'm told), so I'm hoping there will be an end of year ARMD board in addition to the Oct MARS board. I would love to do both jobs, but I obviously have to settle on a first choice very soon. If there isn't another ARMD board this year I will stay with MARS.

Cheers, RNW

 

[andpro]

There are a lot of different jobs for MARS officers, do they have to do all of them before they progress to being the ships captain, or do they stay with the same job most of there career?

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

There are a lot of different jobs for MARS officers, do they have to do all of them before they progress to being the ships captain, or do they stay with the same job most of there career?

Andpro most COs that I know have done a couple of stints in the Ops Room in a variety of positions and most come from either a Navigation and Deck Officer back ground as well. Don't forget the Captains of a CPF and AORs(seems to alternate every couple of years between Commander and Captain(N), depending on the flavour of the year) are Commanders and a CO of a 280 is a Captain (Navy). That would be a lot of time in one job don't you think?

 

[andpro]

Do you get the choice as to what job you do or are you placed in a certain job?

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Well its never good to turn down a course without good reason...

 

[andpro]

Ya I guess being the whiny new MARS officer would not get you very far. :crybaby:

 

[NCRCrow]

LCDR's get choices........NDHQ or the ship

you will do a tour in Ottawa sometime in your emerging MARS career.