Somehow I missed the October NOOCS Volume I changes (Volume II is going on a year now with no changes):
Added 2300 and 2301 subspecialties for Naval Strategy. You can get these from the Naval War College or NPS curriculums.
Added CHC milestone AQDs (543, 544, 545, 546, 547, 548, 549)
Added Asia Pacific Hands AQDs (BR0, BR1, BR2, BR3, BR4)
Added FAO milestone AQDs (FM3, FM4)
Added Maritime Operational Planners Course AQD (JPM)
Revised a lot of AQDs in acquisition and EOD to have more specific language.
My thoughts:
1. More communities are moving towards AQDs for milestones and key billets. This makes it really easy to distinguish those that took the hard jobs from those that didn't. However, this is going to lead to "king making" billets, where if you didn't get a particular code you may be screwed for promotion. In the future, be sure to ask your detailer/officer community manager exactly what your billet gives you in terms of AQDs.
2. Asia-Pacific Hands has AQDs. AFPAK hands only ever had one, and most participants believe that program in general was a failure. It looks like people learned from the mistakes at AFPAK Hands when at least administratively designing the program.
3. MOPC has an AQD. Good. Any poor sap that makes it through that course deserves some recognition.
4. Naval Strategy subspecialties are a start, but are they going to be required? Paid more? Used as intended? The Navy needs to get serious about subspecialties and employ people with that specialty in a place where they can use their knowledge.
You can see all the changes here:
http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/reference/noc/NOOCSVol1/Pages/default.aspx
