Recently it has been the practice to give split-tours to many graduates of the Surface Warfare Officer School (SWOs) Department Head Course. Those selected are sent first to a destroyer-type ship and then either to a service force or amphibious warfare ship to further expand the officer's experience and capability as a surface warfare specialist. This practice is a progressive and welcome approach to the surface community. There exists the potential for one further expansion that has thus far been ignored.
One of the major aspects of surface warfare deals with the subsurface threat. Antisubmarine warfare is of prime concern and interest to any surface officer. One of the great hindrances to effective ASW among surface units is a lack of understanding as to "what makes the submariner tick." Therefore, I propose split-touring certain more senior (lieutenant/lieutenant commander) SWOs Department Head Course graduates to tours as department heads in submarines.
At the present time, not all officer billets in nuclear submarines can be filled by nuclear-qualified officers since there simply aren't enough to go around. Hence, it is current practice to place conventional submarine officers in the billet of weapons officer (and sometimes other billets) on board fleet ballistic missile submarines. For the time being, there is still a large enough "diesel boat" community in existence to fill these billets. However, the days of the conventional submarine are numbered and that source of officers will eventually be nonexistent. In the not too distant future, the path for non-nuclear qualified officers in submarines will end at the department head level since only nuclear-qualified officers can serve as commanding and executive officers of nuclear submarines. The officer entering the submarine program, but not becoming nuclear qualified, would find himself at the lieutenant commander level in his career with nowhere to go in submarines.
According to the submarine placement: desk in Washington, D.C., he would have three options at that point: (1) to go surface, (2) to become nuclear qualified, or (3) to change his designator to engineering duty officer (EDO). All three choices, in most cases, would be unsatisfactory. To surface at the lieutenant commander level would be potentially disastrous for the submariner because he would be competing with officers having a good ten years of experience on the surface. To expect him to become nuclear qualified is not realistic because an officer in the submarine community who has not gone nuclear by the time he is a lieutenant commander has probably not done so for reasons that are not going to change at that point. EDO is fine for those who want it, but the officer who has spent ten years "in the line" is not likely to want to convert "midstream" to the engineering community.
By sending surface officers "below" for one tour as a weapons officer in an FBM submarine, the 1120 community benefits by filling its billets without putting officers in positions where they have no futures. The surface community, on the other hand, has the advantage of giving some of its officers a greater insight into the world of submarines. These officers would attain a great deal of understanding for how the submariner thinks, what his parameters and limitations are, and what are his tactics and strategy. They would be given the unique opportunity t o see both sides of the picture and, thus, would be undoubtedly more prepared for ASW in their surface roles. These officers could also be considered as potential candidates for postgraduate education in the ASW curriculum now being offered at Monterey and could achieve an ASW subspecialty. The only real obstacle to this proposal seems to be the current requirement that submarine department heads must be submarine qualified. But laws can be changed.
The argument might be offered that a surface officer in a submarine community might find himself "short-changed" in the fitness report area when competing with submariners in their own realm. However, a similar situation exists when the black-shoe serves on board an aircraft carrier and no serious problems seem to have arisen there. Ability is recognized no matter what the breast insignia.