Can you still get your SWO pin when you do your Disassociated tour?
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Disassociated Sea-Tour
- Thread starter 1rotorhead
- Start date
MasterBates
Well-Known Member
So the navy can get even with you for having the audacity to have a shore tour...
How come we have to go drive a boat but I have never seen a SWO come fly my helo for a qual?
I like MasterBates answer, but the purpose essentially is to get VP aviators real "sea time" experience with the carrier Navy. Considered essential knowledge for Command. Most lucky guys I know get ANAV or COMCARGRU Staff job, the unluckly ones get "shooter" jobs. One of those dues you gotta pay.
pdx
HSM Pilot
It's to broaden your horizons a little and earn some cred with the rest of the Navy. Maybe it's not very important for a JO or even a DH, but if you are going to be a CO/XO of a squadron, it helps to have a little knowledge of how the other side lives. If you happen to make it higher (say CAG, commander of an aircraft carrier, commander of a major shore installation) it is pretty important to have that knowledge and credibility.
Personally, I think they should also make SWOs do an "aviation tour" or something like it. There have got to be some squadron billets they could fill. They could wear a bag for a year, and maybe learn to stop being such a$$holes.
I keed Steve, I keed. Maybe this isn't safe.
MasterBates
Well-Known Member
SWTI for HS/HSL guys. Not sure if HSC has them.
Seahawk Weapons Tactics Instructor.
In HSL-Land, you go to the squadrons shore duty UIC. No deployments, but a lot of AUTEC dets and workups..
Seahawk Weapons Tactics Instructor.
In HSL-Land, you go to the squadrons shore duty UIC. No deployments, but a lot of AUTEC dets and workups..
MasterBates
Well-Known Member
So, if the purpose is to get VP sea time, why do I have to do one?
Same reason I had to put a really heavy pack on my back and practice walking in the rain. The Navy is still in esence about driving boats around making sure that noone else can drive their boats around unless they are nice to us just as the Marine Corps is in essence about about walking through the mud in order to stick a bayonet in someone we dont like.
SWTI is a qual. Even so being in a SWTI qual billet (WTU, Fallon) is not a disassociated sea tour on the HS side. The best HS disassociated sea tour is CAG staff. It's one of the few (if not the only) one where you can keep flying.
Except that a SWTI tour isn't really a disassociated sea tour, it's a Super JO tour in lieu of a dis. assoc. sea tour. Hence why they're harder to get.
@Skid:
Well put. And not only what you said, but they need the bodies, as well, and they need to be aviators of some kind. Interestingly, I've heard from some people that shooter tours can be better than a staff tour. Sure it's hot, loud, and long hours, but I could see the benefits. Khakis and being a butt boy would suck pretty quick.
The stud gets it right over some of the saltier, more bitter guys.
It's not about VP guys going to sea, or punishment for aviators, people, and it's not about driving boats either. Breadth of experience. Having spent time on on a CAG or CSSG admiral's staff gets you in tune with the bigger picture, making you a better aviator, DH and CO. In my experience, one of the biggest differences between a JO who "gets it" and one who doesn't, is an ability to see and appreciate the bigger picture issues which drive policy and the things we do.
Brett
Neither of my skippers did a disassociated seat tour, and I know for a fact there are CAG's who didn't. Seems like a wast of money to send pilots to do the job. Think about it: In the first 10 years of your career, a typical pilot will only spend 3 years flying in the fleet. Not a lot of value for the money spent training us.