Should Navy BUDS who ring the bell be given the option to transfer into Marines or Army instead of being placed on a ship?

The majorety of BUD/S canddets today come from Boot camp they have no other Navy Rating as in the past. This all cahnged in 2006, when they created SO rating, and if you ask me is some of thier problems today.

They don’t have primary ratings any more. They go to BUDS directly from boot camp and they will be rated as SO when training is complete.

PO2 Skip Kirkwood - Not exactly, you can still cross rate and drop a packge, most go through Boot Camp, more than in the past, yes and because of SO rating, but you still cross rate.

LCDR Joshua Gillespie - respectfully, my background is irrelevant. Particularly as I don’t make my background an issue, or use my background as some sort of legitimacy for any opinion. I don’t need the details of your background. Good information speaks for itself. A person can either speak intelligently on a subject or not. The ability to do so is often rooted in experience. (On a side note, it’s funny/sad how quickly rallypointers jump on ‘he’s anonymous!’ when presented with an opposing or unpopular point of view. But that’s a whole other conversation).

The paperwork and cost of uniform/gear reissue during service transfer alone would make this idea prohibitive and unnecessary. Then the cost of of retraining, sending these new soldiers to AIT, etc. And not to mention, they’d be castoffs from another service due to quitting. A real morale booster for everyone.

I might be just an anonymous NCO, but this hypothetical idea has far more negatives than positives. If you disagree, please explain. Additionally, wouldn’t a far simpler plan be to just send them to another MOS school in the Navy? If not, please explain.

Best of luck

SGT-With equal respect, background is extremely important. If you are a former SEAL yourself, who later chose to serve in the Army, then your opinion has a direct context, and may provide reasons for others lacking that experience to change their views. My experience (as a "quitter", by the way) informs me that sometimes, the system wins at the expense of the individual. I agree with you, and most everyone here that just as I couldn't go from Navy flight training, straight into the Air Force...neither should BUD/S candidates who DOR go straight into another service, let alone, their combat arms. There's a process, it has a reason, and it should be adhered to for the good of the service over that individual.

Where I disagree, is in considering these people "castoffs", or in anyway presuming that their experience at BUD/S is a water-tight indicator of their overall character and worth in a less "elite" combat capacity. My inability to do higher math comfortably at a couple hundred knots didn't inhibit me from succeeding in other duties. It did however cost me enormously, both professionally, and personally...I feel disproportionately.

"Quitting" certainly isn't a perpetual mindset with me, and I'd dare say that I would have had considerably more success if I had been allowed to return to flight training as an older officer-but that's not how the system works, or should work. We grow, we learn, and sometimes, life gives us the opportunity to prove it...I feel that I found mine while serving alongside another service. Because of that, I have a difficult time agreeing with those suggesting one's ability and character comes down to a single "pass/fail" moment, or that they should be somehow "branded" simply because the needs of the Military don't normally include affording second chances.

LCDR Joshua Gillespie - “Where I disagree, is in considering these people "castoffs", or in anyway presuming that their experience at BUD/S is a water-tight indicator of their overall character and worth in a less "elite" combat capacity. My inability to do higher math comfortably at a couple hundred knots didn't inhibit me from succeeding in other duties. It did however cost me enormously, both professionally, and personally...I feel disproportionately. “

Understood. However, these ‘castoffs’ don’t exists. It’s a hypothetical situation. In this scenario, they’d only be castoffs if they started transferring services. Which led me to ask the below questions that weren’t answered. I’ll repeat them. (Additionally, please note, Ive never stated that folks who quit BUD/S couldn’t have productive, valuable careers. I simply don’t see the point of allowing them to automatically transfer to a new service, directly after, and solely due to, a school failure).

“..but this hypothetical idea has far more negatives than positives. If you disagree, please explain. Additionally, wouldn’t a far simpler plan be to just send them to another MOS school in the Navy? If not, please explain.”

SGT, as I've already stated, I agree with you (and apparently just about everyone else) regarding the original question posed by the OP...so I'm not sure what questions you would like me to answer.

Here's my original reply from earlier in the thread:

"No, I don't think they should. Don't get me wrong...I have the utmost respect for anyone who has given it a shot. As far as I'm concerned, it takes a hell of a man just to show up there. That being said, I don't think anyone's leaving their first or second month at BUD/S with combat skills equal to that of a Marine or Solider in a combat MOS. If they want to try again, I believe that is sometimes an option (after a year?)...and baring that, if they want to enlist in the Army or Marine Corps after EAOS (or can transfer via "Blue to Green") and attend either of those services basic training, I presume they'd have good chances of succeeding should they gain entry into a combat arms MOS."