O Club at NASP

Brett is well on his way to changing the guard...

As for post 9/11...they do allow quite a few civ. women there for OCS Dining-ins.

[threadjack & if you don't like it, suck it and click that little arrow in the upper left side of your screen]
The best OClub I've seen in the Navy so far is NAS Oceana - followed, very closely by the I-Bar, NAS North Island. The latter is awesome...I've once lost in Ship, Captain & Crew so badly, I left with a $200 bar tab...and that takes a $hitton of beer.

edit: Tradition is to go in and touch the plane/helo that you fly hanging above the bar...it brings good luck.

Couldn't agree with you more about the I-Bar. I still have eight I-Bar tokens from my senior cruise with VS-41. First night at NASNI, our lieutenant takes us there and we start playing Ship, Captain, Crew and whatever the other game it was that they play there. I think I lost five times in a row and called it a night. The very last night we're there, I start playing for the h*ll of it and, of course, I couldn't lose. Still one of my favorite bars.

It sounds like Oceana is trying to keep (or get back to ???) the days when the O' Club - wherever we were - was a central focus in our off duty socializing and relaxing hours.

Back-in-the-day .... we would pack 150-200 people into the O'Club on any given Friday or Saturday night. Add a band, dancing, lots of "alcohol bonding", a $3000 (a lot of money then) Klondike game in the corner, and we were off to the races. It was part of our life style, we liked it, and you guys will never get to experience it ... and sometimes I think that's too bad.

I'm doing my part to rebuild the tradition. The last few Fridays have had such highlights as the CO of a certain NAS encouraging a table of O-1's and their lady friends to belly-up to the bar while the AF guys tried desperately to play crud on a $10,000 billiards table (unfortunately, it LITERALLY took them 20 minutes to explain the rules to some younger guys...F-in AF, you gotta take a damn EP test to play a drinking game.) Meanwhile, some old lady was trying her damndest to get it on with some VT studs as the VT-86 crew played quarters with an assortment of Skippers, XO's and OPSO's. All in all, it's coming along nicely.

Are you kidding me!?!?! I played Klondike in the games folder when I was 13 and Windows 3.1 was introduced!!!! It was awesome. Plus the Cubi Club has great club sandwiches...and an ice cold diet coke...right from the tap.

Oh my...that was exciting...I feel like I'm poking at a bee's nest.

*Sigh* ..... Sometimes ... I weep for the future of Naval Aviation.

AKA : my studs.

Went to the O'Club at NAS Oceana every Tues. Thurs. Fri. and Sat. for 1/c Cruise. It was freakin' awesome. They had Free food and $1 draft Yuengling - beat that! Since we were on cruise we got to walk back to the Q to our rooms so we didn't have to worry about any DUI nazis or anything like that (like at Moondog's if you remember Chunksjr....)

[threadjack]
for the uninitiated, what is Ships, Captain, and Crew and how do you play?
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Dice game

Somewhat convoluted rules

It's easier to learn when you plunk some money down on the table. Especially if you lose ...

And lose, and lose, and lose...it was a rough night.

@WEGT
HELL YEAH Moondogs...and Hole in the Wall...ahhh...the good 'ole days.

The GITMO O' CLUB was legendary .... it even looked like it was "good". And ... no DWI problem there. No place to go.

A friend of my uncle was a SWO type in Pensacola from '87 to '89. He was the type of guy who (apparently) never met an average looking girl. In his stories, they were always "the hottest girl you have ever seen." And he was always ready to one-up any story. "You think that's crazy, well this one time ..."

Anyway, getting back to the point, he claimed the pensacola O-club was always filled with hot chicks looking to hook up with young aviators, and always willing to hear the sea stories from the older ones. The way he talked, it was the friendly neighborhood hangout that could put most frats to shame. Kind of like the X-rated version of "Cheers." Also, there were endless elaborate rituals - most involving drinking, buying drinks, getting molested by the occasional fat chick, or making fun of SWOs. As a SWO, he was naturally looking at things from the outside.

I'm sure there is a core of truth to all this, but it is hard to separate it out. Myself and a few Ensigns from my API class had the opportunity to drink at the rescued Cubi Point O-club (in the museum) with a bunch of Commanders who had just screened for squadron CO billets. It was a good time, and we did learn a new way to play dice. Of course there was a lot of talk about the "good old days" and the attempt to make everything more PC, and hence less fun.

From my perspective, it looks like some of the camaraderie has gone out of Naval Aviation, and there doesn't seem to be as much of a chance to relax and have a good time. I have always been a devotee of the "work hard, play hard" philosophy. Now with "recreational ORM," political correctness briefs, and fewer O-clubs, it seems like the Navy is trying to tell me to work hard, then go home. I still have some hope that things will improve when I get out of the training commands. I hope it doesn't sound like I joined the Navy to party. I joined the Navy to do something good for my Country and for myself, and I intend to be the best pilot that I know. I don't see how this precludes partying, however.

Maybe this is too much elaboration. After all, I am just a "dewey-eyed young skull full of cottage cheese" trying to find his way in the Navy.

Wow, there were a ton of posts on this topic while I was writing mine. I think a lot of them captured what I was trying to say.

As far as the "destruction of aviator culture" comment, that may have been a little overly dramatic, but all I ever hear about is how much fun pilots "used to have." There is certainly no feeling of tradition about pilot training today.

Hell, at my college, I used to get the "follow in their footsteps" speech at least once every few months. Now all I get is the "don't do anything stupid" speech every other week. At least I had a good time in college. I am still having a good time, but I always feel like someone is trying to kill the fun. I was playing a pickup game of football, and I found myself thinking "I hope I don't twist an ankle or something, I'm sure I'll catch hell for not having turned in an ORM chit."

There's your first mistake ... listening to a Black-shoe's stories. Actually ... good answer. Thanks, I appreciate it (really).

There's always a lot of exaggeration in "this is the way it was" stories ... but I can state without hesitation or reservation (my opinion) that a lot of the "camraderie" has gone out of Naval Aviation and a lot of the fun has been sucked out as well -- to add insult to injury. It started happening to a certain degree in the early 80's and, of course, greatly accelerated post-Tailhook fiasco and continued with the advent of 8 years of the Clinton PC military-civilian bureacracies that seem to stay with us like cancers.

But the mood, temperments, and attitudes were different back-in-the-day, as well. Lots of jesting, joking, poking fun at everyone and anyone --- race, religion, habits, looks, ..... virtually nothing was "off limits" --- except for your personal lives. We weren't as concerned with everyone else's "feelings" and the irony is that not very many people got their "feelings" hurt. At least not something that you could not grow out of quickly ...

And yet .. most of us would stand up and take a hit for another guy, anytime, anyplace.

One thing I've noticed over the years that -- for me -- has almost become a caricature of the "difference" between "us --- the way it was guys ... " and you boys:

Back-in-the-day ... you would drive by the BOQ in the early evening and the parking lot was empty of it's normal complement of Corvettes, GTO's, Chevettes, all the other muscle-cars, 2-seat European sports cars, et'al .... 'cause they were all parked over at the Club. Drive by the BOQ these days ... and most of the energy-efficient, boring , gender-neutral cars are safely parked in their stalls, illuminated by the glow of dozens of computer screens showing up in each window of the 'Q.

Sometimes I think that's sad.

We could use a good infusion of this into the modern Navy. Hell, American society in general could use some. Apparently the right to not be offended got snuck into the Bill of Rights while we weren't looking.

Now we are all on Airwarriors.

Sooo....shouldn't that be like Fallon's today? Anyone (jet/tactical) have any comments about that place?

~D

And considering there's an ATM across the street and the BOQ is directly behind it, it's no wonder the club is open late, the food is good, and the beer is cheap. When the air wing's there, it's 99.9% standing room only (just as a good O'club should be).

For those who think it's all dead, the whole O'Club thing is only dead if you let it be so. Oceana is a prime example. The fighter guys there refused to let it go away, even post-Tailhook, post VA (although moving all of VF there helped). Point Mugu evidently used to have a decent club, but winter storms tore it off into the ocean in the late 90's (think Malibu storms from the news, then think 15 mins north of Malibu). There's now a (small) club at the BOQ. Used to be it wasn't open much at all - usually by special request only. After the squadrons (VAW, VX-30, VX-9 Det, etc.) banded together to patronize it more on the "special request" days, it amazingly started being open more regularly (and more than just the hour or two that was typical of the "request" days). Breezy Point at Norfolk is another example. It's on the air station side, but it had lost a lot of the social aspect ("available for catering, special events..." - bullsh!t). Again, the squadrons started asking for it more, and amazingly it started being open more (and later). No idea how it is now, but Friday afternoons were pretty good a few years ago.

The bottom line is this - it's YOUR MWR. MWR doesn't have to mean only internet cafes and other crap like that (it's a relative term - no offense to any who might infer, but in case you do - I don't care) to make life better for the enlisted troopers living on base in the barracks. MWR is there to support us too. Hell, 2/3 of MWR is Morale and Recreation. If you want more from your club, you need to pony up and patronize it and demand that you receive the same support from the system (and get your spouses and sig others out there too). Otherwise, I hope you enjoy just going home after flying all day. It's not like we're getting paid to have fun...

Some of the best times i've had are when all officers have no place to go except the base club. i.e O-club Bahrain, El Centro and even all hands club at Camp Wilson.
Talk all the shop you want, everyone is wearing the same thing, and you hear the best stories. not to mention cheap suds.
Best thing is, as long as you keep the CO drinking all night long you have no excuse in the morning.