Engineering duty officer

An Engineering Duty Officer is a Restricted Line Officer in the United States Navy, involved with the design, acquisition, construction, repair, maintenance, conversion, overhaul, or disposal of ships, submarines, aircraft carriers, and the systems on those platforms (weapons, command and control, communications, computers, etc.). As of April 2010, there are approximately 750 Engineering Duty Officers on Active duty in the United States Navy, representing approximately 1.5 percent of its Active duty Commissioned officers.

Purpose

The Engineering Duty Officer Community Leadership [1] has stated that the Purpose of the Engineering Duty Officer Community is "to provide experienced Naval Engineers known for bringing effective technical and business solutions in support of Naval Power 21 [2]; respected for integrity, adaptability, and agility. Engineering Duty Officers ensure that our Naval and Joint Forces operate and fight with the most capable platforms possible. We are involved with the design, acquisition, construction, repair, maintenance, conversion, overhaul, and disposal of ships, submarines, aircraft carriers and the systems on those platforms (weapons, command and control, communications, computers, etc.). Engineering Duty Officers are unique to the Navy because we all start our career as URL officers. First, we learn how to operate ships or submarines. Next, all EDs obtain technical/engineering Master's degrees. Then, we combine that operational experience and technical knowledge to become the technical business leaders for the Navy."[3]

Insignia

As line officers of the Navy, Engineering Duty Officers wear an inverted gold star above their rank stripes on both their dress blue uniforms and on their shoulder boards. In virtually all respects, their uniforms are indistinguishable from their URL counterparts. The two predominant sources of new Engineering Duty Officers are by Lateral Transfer from another designator or by choosing to exercise an Engineering Duty Option granted upon commissioning.[4] A requirement for Lateral Transfer, or for exercising an Engineering Duty Option, is the completion of either Submarine Warfare or Surface Warfare qualification. Therefore, the vast majority of Engineering Duty Officers wear either the same Submarine Warfare or Surface Warfare insignia as their URL counterparts.

A small number of Engineering Duty Officers not previously qualified as Submarine Warfare Officers volunteer for the Engineering Duty Dolphin Program, and by successfully completing it, earn their Submarine Engineering Duty insignia. The Submarine Engineering Duty insignia is the only United States Navy insignia which is unique to Engineering Duty Officers.

Notable Engineering Duty Officers

• Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, USN, "Father of the Nuclear Navy."
• Rear Admiral Wayne E. Meyer, USN, "Father of Aegis."
• Rear Admiral Benjamin F. Isherwood, USN, Civil War era Engineer-in-Chief of the Navy and founder of the Navy's Bureau of Steam Engineering.
• Rear Admiral George W. Melville, USN, pioneering advocate of warship steam propulsion and Engineer in Chief of the Navy.
• Rear Admiral David W. Taylor, USN, Chief Constructor of the Navy during World War I, and builder of the United States' first experimental warship towing tank.
• Rear Admiral Henry A. Schade, USN, designer of the Midway-class aircraft carrier, and later a Director of the Naval Research Laboratory.
• Rear Admiral Kathleen K. Paige, USN, first Ballistic Missile Defense System Technical Director at the United States Missile Defense Agency.
• Captain Willard F. "Bill" Searle Jr., USN, former Navy Supervisor of Salvage, and coordinator of the USS Scorpion (SSN-589) search effort and of the search for a lost nuclear warhead (B28 nuclear bomb) near Palomares, Spain in 1966.

External links

• Navy Personnel Command: Engineering Duty Officer Community
• Navy Personnel Command: Engineering Duty Officer Community Leadership
• Navy Knowledge Online (NKO) (accessible by U.S. Navy personnel only)