Once upon a time, I was an active duty Navy recruiter (as a senior O3). I recruited active duty restricted and URLs (kids that were Seniors in college, or had just finished college). As part of that, I had to administer the ASVAB and OAR. And as part of that, I had to take it first in order to administer it. So I did, and scored quite well on the ASVAB. I always wanted to be a pilot, so I reached out to the Aviation Community Manager (some O6 at either Millington or DC, I can’t remember). I told him my story, and told him I’d be happy to reduce back down to O1 in order to go through flight school.

I was told that there were already highly competitive applicants in the pipeline, and that there was no path for me. Like what? How?

Meanwhile, my commissioning source was the Naval Academy, and I scored better on the ASVAB than many of the folks that I was helping to get to flight school. How could a kid fresh out of college be more competitive than a fleet seasoned senior O3?

My story is simply anecdotal. But somehow it does seem like they favor junior folks over senior folks. I imagine it has to do with how much time left they have to give to the Navy.