My wife and I are both SNA's in Primary, separated by 3-4 months in the overall pipeline. I want to select maritime and she wants to select rotary, but both of us are flexible and open to any platform. We've read the new 2016 instruction regarding collocation but a couple points are still unclear to us: when does the navy start trying to collocate us (if I get P8s and she gets rotary are we guaranteed Jacksonville for our first duty station)? Do we immediately begin a sea/shore duty split or do we both have to fulfill a sea tour first? And does a marriage status have any effect on platform selection out of primary or advanced?
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
Dual Pilot Collocation
- Thread starter TedTalks
- Start date
From what I’ve seen recently, co-location does play in selections, but in the sense they know sending one/both of you P8 or Helos is all they need to do. From there, co-location in Jax is pretty straightforward for your sea tour.
After that, all bets are off career wise. They can keep you together, but that may involve jobs that hurt one of your career chances later on. I’ve seen couples both take orders to ROTC, Naval Academy, or station SAR to stay together because one or both didn’t have the performcne to get a production tour for their shore tour.
Make your co-location info known during selections in both Primary and Advanced, it should work out okay, assuming you like Notheast Florida.
After that, all bets are off career wise. They can keep you together, but that may involve jobs that hurt one of your career chances later on. I’ve seen couples both take orders to ROTC, Naval Academy, or station SAR to stay together because one or both didn’t have the performcne to get a production tour for their shore tour.
Make your co-location info known during selections in both Primary and Advanced, it should work out okay, assuming you like Notheast Florida.
Thanks for the quick response. So if I end up selecting P8s first, she could inform the squadron/detailers about the situation and would have an increased likelihood of selecting P8s as well?
Speaking as someone who did the co-lo thing - same designator, same community - for about eight years, there's nothing 'guaranteed', really. It comes down to Stucon (TRACOM and FRS) and detailers being willing to play ball. Instruction also says that it doesn't guarantee you co-lo out of training.
In my experience, I asked for an East Coast squadron out of the FRS though I was slated for West, in order to be co-lo'ed with the erstwhile Mrs Fester. The Stucon guys grumbled, but they made it happen. If you do wind up with a Helo/VP split, then you're counting on the indulgences of two different FRSes. Basically: hope for the best, but don't count on it.
Getting y'all orders together really comes into play when you start looking at shore duty. Though the Navy does generally make every practicable effort to keep you within the same commuting area, there will have to be a sacrifice by someone, somewhere, either in terms of living together or one of you not taking those hot-runner orders that keeps you in the game. That you're so close in career timing will also make it impossible to maintain that sea duty/shore duty split and both remain competitive. If one of you is willing to jump on the career grenade, however, I've seen the Navy pull some amazing orders out of their ass to honor co-lo. Even an E-2 FO assigned to Fallon SAR because his wife was an instructor at the weapons school there.
I would say, they'll take it into consideration, but I would not go so far as to say it increases the likelihood of anything. And other than living together through the VTs and FRS - which I grant you ain't nothing - being in the same community can actually make getting co-lo'ed more difficult down the road.
In my experience, I asked for an East Coast squadron out of the FRS though I was slated for West, in order to be co-lo'ed with the erstwhile Mrs Fester. The Stucon guys grumbled, but they made it happen. If you do wind up with a Helo/VP split, then you're counting on the indulgences of two different FRSes. Basically: hope for the best, but don't count on it.
Getting y'all orders together really comes into play when you start looking at shore duty. Though the Navy does generally make every practicable effort to keep you within the same commuting area, there will have to be a sacrifice by someone, somewhere, either in terms of living together or one of you not taking those hot-runner orders that keeps you in the game. That you're so close in career timing will also make it impossible to maintain that sea duty/shore duty split and both remain competitive. If one of you is willing to jump on the career grenade, however, I've seen the Navy pull some amazing orders out of their ass to honor co-lo. Even an E-2 FO assigned to Fallon SAR because his wife was an instructor at the weapons school there.
I would say, they'll take it into consideration, but I would not go so far as to say it increases the likelihood of anything. And other than living together through the VTs and FRS - which I grant you ain't nothing - being in the same community can actually make getting co-lo'ed more difficult down the road.
No. They won’t Houdini a P8 spot for her if ones doesn’t exist. They’ll just send her helos and make the helo placement folks deal with it. Hopefully those folks can get her HSM East (likely, but not guaranteed).
...or both. I knew married 1310's (same community) that wound up at career neutral (at best) shore tour orders (100+ miles from coastline) because that was the only thing that got them co-lo. No idea what they're doing now, but I'd say it definitely put both behind the curve for O-4. Sure, it's possible you both are shit hot, AND get the billet you need career-wise, for the remainder of time you both seek to stay in. But, if I were betting, I'd bet that's unlikely.
Probably, you're looking at one of you sacrificing career opportunity for the other to stay competitive/in the game. The Navy isn't forever, so that may be the best play for you as a couple, so no big deal, but you should be realistic about what the challenges in managing dual-mil aviation careers. Anecdotally, that's how it went (or worse) for the 6-8 dual mil aviation couples I've known.
Of the dual mil aviation couples I’ve known, only one couple stayed on AD and in the career game, but they both disappeared into the Pax River/AEDO world. All the rest, inevitably one or the other got out, or sort of resigned themselves to being the ‘following’ spouse - still on AD but not on a hot-runner track any more, or did a full-time-Reserve-bum thing, or whatever.
Sometimes you can be ‘technically’ co-lo’ed but it’s meaningless. I knew a VP+HSL couple who managed to stay co-loed through their FRS and Fleet tours in Jax, VT/HT IP tours in Pensacola, and their disassocs in Norfolk, one a Shooter and the other on a Desron staff (different CSG). So they could share a house, but other than P’cola, were on the road or at sea so much that they never saw each other.
Bottom line is that you can make a go of it for a while, but unless the stars just amazingly align, inevitably you’ll hit a point where you just can’t both get ‘good’ orders to the same place at the same time, and then choices have to be made.
good points about the nuance between co-lo and "actually home at the same time." Just about every dual-mil couple I've known has ended up on different deployment rotations resulting in close to double the time apart. Which makes it a very hard lifestyle from the git go let alone if kids enter the equation. Having young kids at home while both of you are on disassociated sea orders or on a DH tour would require a TON of outside help. Or you end up putting your career ahead of having kids which could put you in to a position of not thinking about having kids until your mid to late 30s which puts you in to the age range when baby making gets hard and the pregnancies are considered high risk by default.
None of this is to say that it's impossible, it's just that it will be VERY hard and there will be a lot of hard decisions that you'll have to make along the way.
If you wanna be guaranteed colo through ur first shore tour... head to the ROCK baby. Fortress Whidbey.
For some insane reason, they even let CVW staffers homestead here for their sea tours. So theoretically you could stay in the PNW more or less uninterrupted through Skipper, depending on your timing.
For some insane reason, they even let CVW staffers homestead here for their sea tours. So theoretically you could stay in the PNW more or less uninterrupted through Skipper, depending on your timing.
Caveat: Only Lemoore Air Wings, and currently only 3 of those Air Wings (if I've done my math correctly) let their staffers work remotely from Whidbey. There is no guarantee that you will get one of those spots since timing for CAG EWO/Paddles can be pretty crucial and the billets can be very competitive (Paddles especially). I was pulled 5 months early from my PRD to fill CAG staff job.
You're almost 100% guaranteed to have to move post-DH tour, if you stay in that long; but yes, I'm looking at 12-13 years in Whidbey (FRS Stud-DH Tour) before I will have to PCS somewhere else.
On the other hand: dual mil, no kids, sea duty, tax free...you make a shitload of bank. Pretty epic vacations when you do manage to both be home at the same time.