Your only opportunity to get on a ship is through DIRSUP Surface orders. When I went through DLI, the only orders we were allowed to volunteer for were DIRSUP Sub orders, but you may have more say as a fleet returnee.
However, even if you're DIRSUP, you may be farmed-out to a local shop as there are usually only a limited number of opportunities for a bunch of E4-E6 linguists. If this happens to you, as it did me, just make sure you make yourself heard and keep bugging your home division as you could get lost in the shuffle. I was literally forgotten while working a shore mission. After 2 years I showed up to let them know I was ready to deploy if they had a spot and they thought I was coming to volunteer from another division.
I was on a Med tour for about 6 months and our crew left out of Norfolk with the ship. This is rare as most are flown out and flown back for short stints.
I was an Arabic linguist, though. As the others stated, it is probably going to be different depending on your language.
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