Junior Officer of the Deck (JOOD)

The principal assistant to the officer of the deck (OOD) on a warship’s bridge underway, sharing the navigation, contact-management, and ship-handling watch and training toward eventual qualification as OOD. The JOOD monitors radar and AIS contacts, supervises the helm and lee helm, keeps the deck log, and cons the ship under the OOD’s direction. The position is a structured qualification step in a junior officer’s progression from conning officer to OOD to command-at-sea; it carries delegated but supervised authority over the watch.