Aviator progression in the Navy

[Renegade One]

What is there to do as SWO?

A former Squadron CO's perspective:
1. As the SWO, you are probably the "senior LT", and (take a deep breath here...) you ARE the senior person who "stands watches"...live with it. (OMG...you would have thought the sky had fallen...previous "policy" was that the SWO was "off the watch bill".) How else would you know what's going on?
2. Your job IS to set the standard and to make sure the Watchbill is "fair and balanced". You can figure out the "points scale" for weekends, holidays, yadda yadda yadda, however you want...whatever you can sell to the Ready Room is fine by me. Got other issues? Ask the XO (first) or the Chaplain (always an option).
3. A disciplined "Snivel Log" is your friend, but don't let your JO bubbas "work you". Married guys don't get extra credit for the number of dependents they can claim on their taxes. Their job is to work "swaps" to their best advantage. Don't make their job YOUR job. Yes, it IS your job to track and be a part of the "approval process" for "swaps". It all should work out in the end.
4. Be flexible...there will always be operationally-required "hip-shot" deltas based on currency (night CQ comes to mind....but there are probably others), or special circumstances unbeknownst to you, my Padawan. Figure out how to normalize it the next couple of months.
5. Please remember that my " Squadron Duty Officer" is the FACE and the VOICE of this command to outsiders...and I probably have more than a passing interest in those in MY chain of command, but everyone who dials the number or pushes the button is an Outsider to start. Telephone, Squawk Box, in-person strolling into the Ready Room, [whatever exists today...on-line chat rooms or whatever...], how the SDOs (and you) conduct themselves and represent THIS command says a lot about how I am doing MY job. Comport yourself as an officer and gentleman until you know that the rules of the situation will allow for your rapier-like wit ["Ready Seven...Joe's Meat Market...What's Your Beef?" is appropriate in only very limited circumstances...].
6. Live with the fact that the XO and I have probably "excused" Warrant Officers and LDOs from the SDO bill. Any one of them have already stood more "watches" in their lifetimes than you will in your Navy/Marine career. And they're busy doing other stuff on this command's behalf.
7. Once your proposed Watchbill is approved and published...it's now a command Order. Treat it as such.

SWO isn't a bad gig...says you've earned some bones and are trusted to run a significant portion of the operation. If you figure out how to do this well (hell,...it isn't rocket science), it will be "one less thing" for you to have to worry about on that great and glorious day when the gods of Naval Aviation reach down and anoint YOU as a selected Commanding Officer.

I hope y'all are sorta working for that every day anyway...

 

[MasterBates]

So, looking back, was burning the bridge and leaving HSL worth it? Not trying to be sarcastic, but it seems your transition experience didn't go well.

I wasn't coming back to HSL as a DH on AD for sure. So yes, it kept me flying, and I got to do some pretty interesting stuff well beyond what your normal helo bubba does.

Luck and timing.. I went E-2s over CODs because my ID card got pulled out of a hat last. I'd probably be a LCDR and maybe a DH now if I had gone VRC. They just have a better track record of taking care of transitions than VAW does. I went in, did my best, got qualed as fast as I can, (I was always waiting on them, they were never waiting on me) and did everything I could to stack the deck in my favor. Just didn't work out due to the luck of the draw and timing. Got pulled up a year group, and got standard FNG FITREP based off my time in squadron vice job I was doing, which was all timing/luck with the particular squadron and CO there.

I'd do it again.

 

[squorch2]

words and such

I get all that, and understand that most of it is just balancing the watchbill along with keeping JOs in check, so... yeah. Not saying that standing watch isn't a big deal, but that being SWO shouldn't be a ridiculous time-suck.

 

[MasterBates]

5-10 hours a week on average time suck for me.

 

[Pags]

I get all that, and understand that most of it is just balancing the watchbill along with keeping JOs in check, so... yeah. Not saying that standing watch isn't a big deal, but that being SWO shouldn't be a ridiculous time-suck.

If all you have to do is make the watch bill and counsel the occasional ding-dong, the it's easy. If your timing sucks and you're the man when the XO says To rewrite the instruction, then the suck factor can increase. The nice thing about SWO is that it makes you hate everyone equally, because someone is a,ways trying to skate out of watch and you're always getting called in front of the XO because of something someone did.

 

[squorch2]

The sticking point is probably the 50 (!) page instruction in the first place.

 

[Renegade One]

Hmm. Okay...thanks. Always good to get "re-normalized" on today's Navy.

I get all that, and understand that most of it is just balancing the watchbill along with keeping JOs in check, so... yeah. Not saying that standing watch isn't a big deal, but that being SWO shouldn't be a ridiculous time-suck.

I agree...SWO shouldn't be a ridiculous time-suck. If it is, you may be doing it wrong.

 

[scoober78]

A former Squadron CO's perspective:
6. Live with the fact that the XO and I have probably "excused" Warrant Officers and LDOs from the SDO bill. Any one of them have already stood more "watches" in their lifetimes than you will in your Navy/Marine career. And they're busy doing other stuff on this command's behalf.

Sir, with all due respect...(see what I did there? Lol)

This has been a huge red ass At both my first sea tour and my first shore tour. I would guarantee that most aviation Warrants and LDO's haven't stood more duty or watch than I have...or than many of my fellow JOs. Besides if this criteria really has anything to do with whether we're standing watch, then why did nobody ask? That's a red herring...

Busy doing what exactly on the command's behalf? Most Warrants and LDOs (at least on the VP/VQ side) don't deploy, they don't have collateral duties...Yes, they have demanding ground jobs, but after your first or perhaps second year in the squadron, so does everyone else...and a flight schedule. Frankly, what I saw was a lot of 0730-1630 clock punching, at which point they would go home and/or babysit the Chiefs who "oh by the way" didn't stand watch either.

I don't want to come across as having an axe to grind, but this was a huge shock to me coming from the submarine community. The "privileged position" that aviation grants Chiefs/Warrants/LDO's is at best unique. At worst, it's contrary to good order and discipline. I have seen on multiple occasions for example, Chiefs housed one to a room while JOs doubled up. It didnt happen to me, but it's out there...figure that one out.

 

[MasterBates]

That was my beef as well. The reason I was given was they stood watch when Enlisted. So what about prior enlisted pilots with more years of service?

I had more,years on than two of our LDOs. Become an Officer, expect to be at the bottom of a new totem pole.

Sent from my PH44100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[exNavyOffRec]

That was my beef as well. The reason I was given was they stood watch when Enlisted. So what about prior enlisted pilots with more years of service?

I had more,years on than two of our LDOs. Become an Officer, expect to be at the bottom of a new totem pole.

Sent from my PH44100 using Tapatalk 2

Is this an aviation thing? Every surface CWO/LDO I have worked with stood watch, and often unless they were a CWO4 was shafted on the watchbill, I stood watch with a CWO3 that was on 5x15's with me.

 

[MasterBates]

Fairly standard.

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[Gatordev]

Is this an aviation thing? Every surface CWO/LDO I have worked with stood watch, and often unless they were a CWO4 was shafted on the watchbill, I stood watch with a CWO3 that was on 5x15's with me.

Fairly standard.

I think it's a community and more importantly, a squadron thing. At my first squadron, the Warrant and the LDO stood watch. Usually on a weekend because they had enough to do that running a flight schedule wasn't the best use of their time.

At my last squadron, everyone in khaki (except the CO/XO) stood watch. Chiefs or O-4s, it didn't matter. Why? Because we just didn't have the manpower. And guess what, everything still ran fine, people still got out of jail, and flights still happened. It's amazing what happens when all that's asked of someone is to do their job.

 

[robav8r]

It's amazing what happens when all that's asked of someone is to do their job.

Don't you dare try and inject common sense into the Navy now, don't you do it !!!!!!

 

[MIDNJAC]

Seems like maybe a community thing. My wardroom is half the size of two-seat VFA/VAQ or helo, and a lot smaller than prop bubbas so my guess is that we just don't have enough people to give the warrant/LDOs the luxury of not taking some duty.

 

[Renegade One]

Sir, with all due respect...(see what I did there? Lol)

Scoob: I'm not LOL, but thanks for the due respect at the start. As to "red herrings":

Where do you thing we get Aviation Warrant Officers and LDOs...WalMart? Would be nice if they were available for two to the penny, but they're not. Of the literally hundreds of thousands of talented and motivated people who enter the Navy via Great Lakes, they are the ones who have, for many reasons, "bubbled to the top" of their career cauldron. They are "technical specialists" who have excelled in their niche...and are assigned to your command to "lead that niche"...because that niche is vitally important (think running the AO shop...), and because no pilot or NFO will, in a full career, spend enough time in that niche to understand it well enough to be a leader in that arena.

On the day they all get commissioned...yes, they're ALL commissioned (the Navy doesn't do W-1s anymore)...they all pretty much have...what?...10-15 years of sea service in their background? Do you really think they should just have their experience calendar rolled back to zero because they are "junior to the lowest Ensign"? You have much to learn, young Padawan.

As for the (apparently) many of you who were also prior enlisted (and therefore feel you've "done your time"), but now have Wings of Gold on your chest and your name on a chair in the Ready Room...suck it up. You DID "zero your shit log" and get to start over as a shitty little JO...in the GREATEST F*CKING JOB in the world. If you can't take a joke...you shouldn't have joined.

I "roger up" to community differences...and differences 'tween thee and me. I didn't, nor could I have, serve everywhere, nor have done everything. My original note above is, admittedly, a reflection of the time and the squadrons in which I served. It was meant to be part of the discussion. Thanks to all for continuing the discussion...means only that I didn't totally waste my time.