Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzzy2964
I gotta agree with Big Bill. Military officers often spend more time outside of their warfare specialty than in it. That certainly was the case for me. In a 21 year career as a Navy pilot... I was also a program analyst, a comptroller, a recruiter and spent time getting a Masters degree. I was behind a desk more often than in the cockpit. This is the reality of being a US military officer. Professional Maritime Officers are going to have more at sea experience than US Navy Surface Warfare Officers. Commercial Airline Pilots are going to have more flight hours and experience than US Military Pilots. The career track of a US military officer is often decided on what you accomplished outside of your warfare specialty. So, leaving your warfare specialty is vital if you want to promote.
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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!!