Seeing nobody is willing to help you a little, probably to busy on another thread throwing someone off a cliff. LOL!!!
The search option can be tricky on these forums. I searched and searched for training mate questions and couldn’t find what I was looking for. There is a guy on here whose screen name is jdcavo. type his name in username and search through his posts. What he says is pretty much golden.
Now for some more advice. Take the bull by the horns yourself. As much as it is a pain in the arse, call the local REC or head to it and get the answer you are looking for. I’ve made a couple of trips to my local REC which is a 2 1/2 trip one way from my house. Reason being is I just can’t understand what people are saying if I don’t understand what we are talking about to begin with. Meaning I don’t use words that is used that they understand in there work. Example is a doctor will come up with a 15 letter word for something and can explain to me all day long about it and I will have no clue what he is talking about over the phone. I can go in and see them and understand I have a sore throat.
Again, I’m speaking from the REC in Mandeville but they have always been helpful. We have 6 officers on our boat. All six went about getting there lic. in a different manner sorta. Example, one is retired USN, one came up from a cook, one came up from fishing, one worked on rigs in a past life, one came up from the deck, one came from tug boats. In all situations they may have done the same classes (Radar, BRM, etc… etc…) Sea time counted and test they can sit for may have been all different. ( IE… one started out as 500t mate, one 1600t mate, one 3rd mate one went from 200t master to 1600t master or whatever. ) That is the reason for my statement " THERE ARE MORE THINGS IN PLAY"
Now you can play this two ways. Send your package in and hope that everything is ok and it is sent up the chain for evaluation. They find something and give you 90 days to send it to them. Or spend a day of your off time and go to the REC and make sure you have your ducks more in a row. So many times I have seen OS’s try to get into a AB class from company because it’s free instead of paying for the class. They are losing money hand over fist because of this. Spend the $800 and get it over with and get your pay raise. Your still doing the same job for less money by waiting on that free class. 2 weeks of work as a AB will pay for the class. In the mean time you are waiting 3 months for that FREE class. In the mean time you could have made about 5K more if you would have just paid for the class yourself. I hear the I don’t have the money excuse all the time from them even though they are driving a new car. Heck, get a sign. loan for 1k and pay it off with your pay raise, don’t spend it on more material things.
So to give you a short answer it sounds like you have everything you need. Just get your paperwork correct and send it in and get evaluated. Take what you have to an REC and have them look over it. If everything is there pack it up and send it in that day. Your stress will be less because someone that works with these things has looked over your package and given you a thumbs up. Not one of us knows your background and haven’t seen your paperwork. Here is a problem with your post though. You say you have 2 years sea time but never said on what. So my response is all based on ASSUMING that it is on a boat that is sailing NC and is over 200t. If it is on a tug up in the GL then most likely everything I have posted is useless.
Nothing wrong with asking questions don’t get me wrong. Sometimes it’s just hard to give correct answers when it’s not in front of you. The old saying is always prevalent " More then one way to skin a cat" when it comes to lic.
I was where you are just two years ago and haven’t forgotten how I was treated when trying to move up. I was only looking for guidance or someone to point me in the direction I needed to head. Some helped, some would just through down a CFR and say look it up. What has worked the best for me is, know what and where I want to head and see if it is possible for me to do it. I’ve jumped through more hoops then I’ve had to but I covered all my bases doing it even if it did take more of my free time then needed.
Just one more thing that you will find out. Help and advice will come out of the wood works from all those folks you asked AFTER you get your lic. In other words, the folks that wouldn’t help you will be first is line telling you how the easiest and fastest way you should have done it.
Hope you understand what I’m trying to say.
Good luck and you can always PM me if you have questions and I’ll try to answer from my experiences.
Again, here is the way I see it. You are talking about a 40K year pay raise. To me, that’s just me, it’s easier to spend $200 and talk to someone face to face and feel comfortable in my package then to stress over it and even worse it be wrong. I actually paid someone to do my 1st two packages to the USCG. I’ve done it myself for my last 2. Still learning on that. I will post about the latest debacle after I get it cleared up. I took bad advice and found out different after calling NMC. Damn it would have saved me so much time to pick up that phone and $150 to boot.
(Rule changes always bring speculation and various interpretations.)