Quote:
Originally Posted by oldpotatoe
Not trying to argue and maybe different eras and communities but to be successful in the USN fighter community(in the 70s and 80s, early 90s), it was essential you not only stayed in your warfare specialty, but stayed same coast. I was ‘hurt’ by being Med squadron as nugget but then 6 years out of the ‘community’, 3 years USAF exchange then 3 years onboard USS Midway-Maru homeported in Japan. I was essentially ‘homeless’ as I transitioned to F-14s for my department head tour(VF-31), but nobody knew who I was. Those guys who did a fleet flying tour, then say TraCom, then deployed staff...lots of those guys got ‘lost’ too. They were lucky to get a timely department head tour but if they stayed on staffs too long, they may have made O-5 but no command...w/o a command, it’s rare to make O-6 and never flag....at least in USN fighter community. I was lucky to get special mission XO/CO(VF-126) but no bonus command for guys like me.
Thanks for your service!!
|
Operations Department had P3 pilots doing their sea tours. Part of the path was to qualify OOD on a carrier and I always felt lucky to get them on my bridge team to train. They didn't like ship driving but understood if they ever wanted to be an Operations Officer or break out against their peers for promotion, they needed that OOD letter. Squadron XO/CO's would come up and I'd let them drive to see if carrier CO/XO was something they wanted.
I used to teach nuclear power and I would get assigned to a Commander who was completing their nuclear training before heading to a carrier for their XO tour. All carriers are nuclear and the CO and XO have to be carrier aviators and graduates of nuclear power school. I was a personal instructor so they could complete their training quickly. IME, the fighter pilots (Tomcats, prior Crusaders) had a harder time with the nuclear training. Maybe it was their previous training pipeline. When I was on the TR, the CO flew (Hornets) a few times a week and even flew a strike over Afghanistan in late 2001.