....and I can only do it in Armyspeak.

Hell, at this point, I'd settle for the Queen's English, or perhaps losely translated American, even, but.....Huh??????

I only wish I knew what you were thinking as you posted that...

Me, too.

Proud member of the "Rough Republican Attack Machine."

"....reading an OER is always a tad tricky...."

A Naval officer's fitrep is the key to his promotability, and all numerical grades are expected to be in the 3.2 - 3.6 range to avoid specific comment. Anything lower than a 3.2 would be considered negative, and require justifying remarks - likewise anything above a 3.6 would require the same. Early promotion is a reward of superior performance, and members of the nuclear field, whether officer or enlisted, are in general promoted much faster than members of other communities. If they were not, there would be a severe shortage of men in these fields because of their very nature, and the requirements possessed by those seeking admission to them.

To keep them filled then, what is commonly called grade inflation occurs. (You didn't really think that was restricted to only high schools and colleges, did you?) For an officer, any mark in any category of less than a 4.0 is the kiss of death come early promotion time. As mentioned before, all those 4.0 marks require justification, and so an entire meaningless lingo of stock phrases arose over the years. Succinctly, in the cases mentioned by the OP, the translations are roughly:

"...assisting in the design and development of nuclear propulsion plants for naval vessels ..." <=> handled paperwork for Naval Reactors Branch of the AEC. The timeframe in question shows he was waiting for his classes at one of the Naval Nuclear Power Schools to start, and was sent to a holding area in the interim. Since at this time he knew nothing, he would have been a glorified errand boy, doing little more than making future contacts. Even errand boys 'assist' in the real work done, hence the words in the write-up. You'll notice the absence of real detail, such as 'developed the algorithm for programming the rod withdrawal sequence...' Such lack of specific detail is a clear sign of a justification for the sake of the grade.

"...he was under instruction to become an engineering officer for a nuclear power plant...." <=> He was attending one of two portions of the Nuclear Power Training...either the theory phase, six months long, or the practical phase, also six months long. In other words, he was going to school. Again, please note there were no specific details to demonstrate his actual ability, for example, "...graduated first in his class, the first Electrician's Mate to do so since the inception of the program..."

"...assisted in setting up on-the-job training for the enlisted men..." <=> Helped write the duty rotation for the enlisted watchstanders. Please note also that no mention is made of the fact that the vast (90+%) of the instructors during the second phase of training are actually enlisted men, who know the systems far better than any trainee - enlisted or officer.

"...wish I knew what you were thinking..."

I was thinking of all the fine officers who served under me, whose fitreps I spent hours working on to provide specific, exemplary details so they would be competative, and the very, very few whose fitreps left my desk with generic comments as demonstrated in Carter's file. The only reason some of them received even that, was because of the pervading attitude that "he made it this far, so there must be some good in him." As far as I am concerned, his early fitreps indicate exactly what kind of president he became, marginal - at best.

V/R

Clyde

"...the aspirants to tyranny are either the...men of the state, who in democracies are demagogues,... or those who hold great offices, and have a long tenure.." - Aristotle, Politics, c350BC

Harvest:

Did I see you down in a young girl's town

With your mother in her own campaign

She was almost there at the top of the stair

when I flushed her down the drain

♣ a seal