[quote=Kyle G;15403] I am looking to get my 3rd mates license (as a first step).
Kyle
I admire your goal of becoming a 3rd Mate however you have a long road ahead of you before approaching the "step" to 3rd Mate. I am an 0-3,SWO, OOD (Cruisers, LHA's, etc.) with about the same sea time as you and if I'm
lucky I'll be starting as an AB Unlimited. Anyway, with all the school I need, done piece meal when not at sea my goal is to make 3/M in 12-18 months. If I was rich (which I certainly am not) I could go to school straight through and be 3/M in 9 months or so but I have to go to sea to get my classes paid for.
It will take you considerably longer because of the sea time you'll need. You should be credited with 60% of your entire hitch on the Porter. That comes to roughly 684 days. Your time on the Ferry will count as well.You need 1,080 for AB or 3/M. As a SWO/OOD I'm treated a lot nicer as far as sea time goes. I get day for day for my time as JOOD and two days for everyday as OOD so I have way more than 1,080 right out of the gate.
Now the only caveat to all this great info I just threw up all over you is that it applies to Oceans Unlimited which is where I'm headed. It might not take as long to become a Mate on smaller vessels not sailing on Oceans. I'm new to this too and I found licensing on smaller vessels way more confusing than the big ships. So hopefully someone else can help out there.
Without delay you need to get three things from the Navy; 1. Sea Service Transcripts 2. History of Assignments (page 5) 3. Service Record on CD-Rom. Send me a pm for info on that.
There are other options to 3/M such as attending a Maritime Academy (Hopefully you have the GI BILL.) I would seriously look into SIU's Apprentice Program, a big short-cut to AB. I echo the advice of "rzwllm" get the book The New Hawespipe by Lambert.
Good Luck and hang in there,