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  1. Uncle Fester

    SWO to Medical or Medical to SWO?

    Not to be a buzzkill, but I think you're getting a bit ahead of yourself here. Being dismissed from ROTC and suspended from school isn't exactly going to make your OCS or HPSP package stand out - at least, not in a good way. You were kind of vague about the circumstances but I'm having trouble...
  2. Uncle Fester

    Ship Photo of the Day

    Little of that, bit of Transcom's mission of moving supplies the "final mile" up to operating forces. They got into the mission during WWII, creating harbors and piers where they weren't before (and that's been an Army Engineer mission since Bobby Lee was an Engineer) and doing near-shore and...
  3. Uncle Fester

    What are you reading?

    In the middle of this new title right now: America’s First Aircraft Carrier: USS Langley and the Dawn of US Naval Aviation. Turns out there’s quite a lot more to the story of Langley than typically gets presented in histories. Usually all you get is something like ”Langley was the first US...
  4. Uncle Fester

    Ship Photo of the Day

    Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS) is a huge mission set for the Army loggies and TRANSCOM guys. I’m sure there are some Navy and Marine guys in the game over there now but it’s always been a mainly Army mission.
  5. Uncle Fester

    Naval Aviations "One" Problem...

    For the Navy, I know lack of career flexibility is one reason very frequently given for dudes deciding to punch at MSR. Just about everyone I’ve ever heard speak about it - up to and including well into Flag Country - agrees that the very rigid career progression model for Line officers is...
  6. Uncle Fester

    Netflix recommendations?

    It’s worth considering that BoB was atypical story that E/506th managed to be just about everywhere between D-Day and VE Day, and didn’t suffer a catastrophic level of casualties, so you could have a core cast of characters and stick with them through the entire story arc. I don't think they...
  7. Uncle Fester

    Stupid Questions about Naval Aviation (Part 3)

    FWIW, some of the Commonwealth air arms that typically fly with Observers (WSO/NFO types) in their left seat as a COTAC-equivalent can and do flex to dual-piloted crews when it's deemed appropriate for the mission. Doesn't seem like it needs to be a one-size-fits-all solution.
  8. Uncle Fester

    The Great, Constantly Changing Picture Gallery, Troisième partie: la vengeance!

    The late, great Rosemary Mariner became Skipper of VAQ-34 in 1990, the first woman to command a Navy squadron.
  9. Uncle Fester

    The Great, Constantly Changing Picture Gallery, Troisième partie: la vengeance!

    On that theme, the TA-7/EA-7s of VAQ-34 (West coast EA/EW Adversaries) from back in the day:
  10. Uncle Fester

    NEWS AF Civ, Army ex-O-5 gets caught in the honey pot

    Air Force employee accused of sharing classified information on foreign dating website Next time you find yourself on NKO churning through the pain of Unauthorized Disclosure, Cyber Awareness, or INFOSEC annual training, and find yourself wondering, What kind of moron would do any of this...
  11. Uncle Fester

    Netflix recommendations?

    Give me a fucking break. Next I suppose they’ll be complaining that they cast too many Asians.
  12. Uncle Fester

    The Great, Constantly Changing Picture Gallery, Troisième partie: la vengeance!

    Holy crap. Never would have imagined the interior was so roomy. Makes you wonder what was there in the production birds? Hard to believe it was just empty fuselage.
  13. Uncle Fester

    Netflix recommendations?

    The remake miniseries of Shōgun dropped on FX yesterday. Just finished the second episode and damn, it’s gorgeous. Makes the politics interesting and streamlines the novel’s plot without losing anything. Peep it.
  14. Uncle Fester

    Hot new helicopter/rotorcraft news

    Wish more people (including quite a few GO/FOs) realized this.
  15. Uncle Fester

    METOC (or OCEANO or whatever)

    Yep, NOAA and the CG are her first choices. Trying to broaden opportunities and also maybe cover the “pay for college” thing if possible.
  16. Uncle Fester

    METOC (or OCEANO or whatever)

    Shipmates - As I mentioned a while back, Fester 2.0 is now in high school and has become very interested in NOAA or the CG as a career path. Specifically she’s interested in Oceanography or related applied hard sciences. I suggested to her she might look into METOC (or is it “OCEANO” now?) by...
  17. Uncle Fester

    AVO

    The AVO program is very new and I don’t think there’s a critical mass of successful applicants out there yet. I don’t think you can go too wrong following the same advice line officer candidates for aviation have been getting - search the OCS threads. Good luck, a lot of us are curious to see...
  18. Uncle Fester

    BZ to the Ace

    …and how many have you got? Probably about the same as me, and less than this devil dog.
  19. Uncle Fester

    BZ to the Ace

    A kill's a kill.
  20. Uncle Fester

    Hot new helicopter/rotorcraft news

    If you're willing to give up all the bandwidth you need for everything else...sure. Still wouldn't really improve SA all that much.
  21. Uncle Fester

    Hot new helicopter/rotorcraft news

    I don't know much about ASW, but the sheer lack of SA you have flying around a UAS is hard to grasp until you've had to do it. I could buy UAS as a bouy truck wingman for a -60 or something, maybe, and I think NGC was shopping that idea around for Fire Scout at one point.
  22. Uncle Fester

    FNAEB outcomes

    Dude...I'm not going to tell you a FNAEB is something awesome, but you're carrying this like you're going to have an "F" branded on your forehead for the rest of your career. I get it, this is still raw for you and it sucks. But I've also known dudes who this has happened to and they managed to...
  23. Uncle Fester

    FNAEB outcomes

    If they're offering you a chance to retread, then in a weird way it's a vote of confidence from your CoC. I don't disagree with @Brett327 that usually it isn't just the stick-and-rudder stuff that's the problem...but, sometimes, it is. If the folks who know the most about your performance and...
  24. Uncle Fester

    Europe under extreme duress

    The vast majority of the money being appropriated in the Ukraine foreign aid bills and related actions stays in the US. That money is going to the US DIB (or whatever we’re supposed to call it now) to replace what’s being taken out of war stocks and sent forward. Most of the rest is going to...
  25. Uncle Fester

    Europe under extreme duress

    SIPR and higher. Not sure where you're working these days, but in the big building adjacent to Arlington almost everyone is deeply interested in what's going on along the Dnipro line and figuring out what happens next.
  26. Uncle Fester

    Shoemaker Scholarship to get masters at NPS prior to Pensacola?

    You don’t go to TOPGUN on your shore tour, that’s during your first sea tour (if at all). And I somehow doubt a shortened first shore would be the case, since that would give you a six month shore tour. That's barely enough time to even get through the FITU and get an instructor qual. I can...
  27. Uncle Fester

    Shoemaker Scholarship to get masters at NPS prior to Pensacola?

    Sounds like a fantastic opportunity. Monterey's a great time, NPS is a great school, and being given free (paid!) graduate work while you're still used to the formal collegiate classroom environment is all to the good. Plus you'll get some time to interact with more experienced Fleet guys (and...
  28. Uncle Fester

    Hot new helicopter/rotorcraft news

    Could the MH-139/AW-139 maybe be a contender? At least it's a DoD POR now.
  29. Uncle Fester

    C130 Selection

    Probably. Some self-appointed Lead Ensign read that article and started some rumors. The EC-130 revival is a long, log way from fruition, if it happens at all. Definitely not anywhere close to taking Cat 1 nuggets "soon."
  30. Uncle Fester

    C130 Selection

    I can't imagine why they'd be taking any Navy Cat 1s to go Herks. Like @Flash said, the C-130 VRs are all Reserve squadrons. The exception he refers to was a RIF mitigation measure, trying to avoid cutting well-performing studs due to budget woes. Don't listen to ENSINT. Unless and until...
  31. Uncle Fester

    Hot new helicopter/rotorcraft news

    So…how many Armed Reconnaissance programs has the Army cancelled now? Are we in the double digits yet?
  32. Uncle Fester

    Pensacola Recommendations

    Bazillion threads about this already, shipmate. Search around a bit. Enjoy the Guff Coast.
  33. Uncle Fester

    NEWS Is the pivot to China a bunch of bullshit?

    Falklands, yep. Chavez provoking Colombia and Maduro stirring up shit by claiming to annex 2/3 of Guyana right now. South Africa’s “Bush War” in the 70s and 80s. The Kims have so reliably threatened to go on a “war footing” every time they have some kind of internal crisis that a lot of outside...
  34. Uncle Fester

    NEWS Is the pivot to China a bunch of bullshit?

    Starting a war with the US? No. Picking a fight with the PI over SCS islands or blockading Taiwan? Maybe. The biggest question for Xi is how the US would react to a kinetic fight against one or the other. A non-kinetic but strongly aggressive move that forces us to react somehow should tell them...
  35. Uncle Fester

    NEWS Is the pivot to China a bunch of bullshit?

    It's also part of Autocrat 101 to start a war - or at least generate a crisis - when you're facing a lot of internal problems to which you don't have solutions. I would point out first that you don't make your name in academia by agreeing with the general consensus. Make big predictions like...
  36. Uncle Fester

    CMV-22B Osprey Rollout

    Cost, and time. There was just no other COD replacement option out there that was going to get new airplanes actually delivering ass, trash, and pony in less than ten years. Big Navy kept kicking that can down the road until the choice was either V-22 or punt with yet another C-2 SLEP. And the...
  37. Uncle Fester

    Operation Deep Freeze

    I worked for two guys who’d flown with the Penguins as JOs - one pilot who wound up flying E-2s and an NFO who went VQ. The latter was my commodore out in Bahrain; he had done loadmaster duties in addition to Nav’ing, and even as an O-6 he could still rattle off the specs and requirements for...
  38. Uncle Fester

    What is a typical mission in 2024?

    These days? They’re hitting targets in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq. Dudes off the Ike are in the thick of it.
  39. Uncle Fester

    Netflix recommendations?

    Another interesting show dropping soon on Apple, hadn’t heard about it until it popped up in an article about Masters of the Air. Manhunt, based on the book of the same name, about the pursuit of John Wilkes Booth after Lincoln’s assassination. Anthony Boyle (Crosby the airsick nav) is playing...
  40. Uncle Fester

    Career Progression via TPS

    @rottweiler The reason you’re having trouble finding useful info is isn’t much anyone could tell you now that would be of any use. The kind of stuff you’re asking about changes all the time and it’s nearly impossible to predict what it’ll be six months from now, let alone by the time someone in...
  41. Uncle Fester

    Netflix recommendations?

    Was he? I couldn't swear one way or another but back when the show first came out I just remember going, oh was that guy in the jeep that guy that does Weekend Update? Yeah, I think the factual errors and omissions are mostly on Ambrose. Unfortunately over the last few years some dirt has come...
  42. Uncle Fester

    USN (Current) SNA switching to SNFO possible?

    Well, you at least have the virtue of novelty. Usually it’s the other way ‘round - student Trunk Monkeys with a case of “I was supposed to be a pilot.” I’m sure you’d find plenty of them willing to swap billets with you (though I’m not sure stucon would give a shit if you did). If it’s advice...
  43. Uncle Fester

    Netflix recommendations?

    I re-watched episodes 1 & 2 last night before the new ep drops tomorrow. On re-watch it’s a little easier to follow who’s who. Other than Buck, Bucky, and Crosby the Airsick Nav, I still couldn’t tell you any of the characters’ names, though. On the other hand, so many secondary/background...
  44. Uncle Fester

    Can Whiting/Corpus determine selection.

    Selection is across the force for both Navy and Marines. Primary locale has no impact at all on pipeline.
  45. Uncle Fester

    The Great, Constantly Changing Picture Gallery, Troisième partie: la vengeance!

    I thought the distinction happened during WWII when the Navy abandoned the RAF-style triads and adopted four-aircraft divisions but I’m honestly not positive either. TBH, most of what I learned about pre-war Navy markings was from reference books when I was really into model-building. Had more...
  46. Uncle Fester

    Prior E to Navy Aviation via OCS - Questions

    Oh sure. I was thinking more about while he’s in OCS and the pipeline and she’s going through the years of school, internship, residency, etc. I know very little about how the process for new MC docs works, admittedly, but I’d imagine they spend most of their time at WRNMMC, Portsmouth, or...
  47. Uncle Fester

    The Great, Constantly Changing Picture Gallery, Troisième partie: la vengeance!

    The color scheme for the pre-war years looks clownish but was actually pretty logical, and good for identifying who was who in the zoo in an era when plane-to-plane comms could be iffy or nonexistent. Squadrons were divided up into six three-aircraft sections. Each section had an assigned...
  48. Uncle Fester

    Prior E to Navy Aviation via OCS - Questions

    There are a few threads on here about mil-mil colocation, and I'm sure you've had some exposure to it during your E time. Basically, co-lo for officers, especially JOs in training tracks, can be a nightmare. If your Mr Man gets picked up for OCS, be prepared to resign yourself to being a...
  49. Uncle Fester

    Netflix recommendations?

    I was curious about that too, so I dug around and found this:
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