TACAMO E-6 Lifestyle?

[Kaitydid]

Hi,

I've already searched the site for info on what life will be like for a TACAMO pilot and family but most of the threads are pretty old and I am sure things have changed since then. Are there any E-6 pilots out there that can give me a brief run down? Any insight is appreciated!

-What is the rag like? How long is it?
-What is the lifestyle like?
-How much time are you gone vs home?
-What is the overall morale?
-How is OKC and the surroundng area?
-Any advice/suggestions?

 

[e6bflyer]

The RAG is death by CBT, about 60 sim events, and 10-12 flight events, some of which are combined. It is roughly 6 months long and is taught by contractors with the exception of the flight events and a few sims.

It is easily the most gentlemanly sea duty in the Navy. When home, unless you are in a few select jobs, you will be minimally tasked. The flights are boring but long, the plane is a beast to fly, but has a lot of creature comforts.

The average JO is gone about 150 days a year. YMMV. The deployments are about 3 weeks in length.

Morale largely depends on the makeup of the ready room and front office, you will always have those that bit h about everything.

OKC is cheap living and the people are awesome, but lets face it, it is OKC. Lots of big city stuff to do and a small city feel, but the people here vastly outnumber the trees.

Advice depends on your status. Have you already selected? What is your background? Are you married?

Like any place, it can be super awesome and it can suck balls. It all depends on you, your expectations, and your goals.

 

[Renegade One]

Hi,
-Any advice/suggestions?

Yes. Fill out something…anything ...on your Profile Page. Until then…you are a cipher..at least to me.

What's your interest?
Why do you care about any of that?
Are you a SNA faced with a community choice/direction?

Really…seriously…"What is the overall morale?" ???
….
Taking some time, I dug into your "Previous Posts" and now understand that you're a SNA Spouse….so I lined out some stuff above. I gather your hubby is facing some decisions which obviously will affect you. He's probably thinking, at least partially, on a somewhat different plain of thought…aircraft, quals, career options, post-Navy options…yadda yadda yadda.

I'll leave it to those experienced with the TACAMO community and lifestyle and the OKC living experience to respond directly. But can I just say that I hope that... wherever you guys go…you will try to be a positive contributor to the unit morale thingie. It will be what it is when you arrive…maybe you can make it even better in 30-36 months…or whatever.

 

[zippy]

Hi,

I've already searched the site for info on what life will be like for a TACAMO pilot and family but most of the threads are pretty old and I am sure things have changed since then. Are there any E-6 pilots out there that can give me a brief run down? Any insight is appreciated!

-What is the rag like? How long is it?
-What is the lifestyle like?
-How much time are you gone vs home?
-What is the overall morale?
-How is OKC and the surroundng area?
-Any advice/suggestions?

If you're a spouse, don't count on any military community, inside of aviation or outside of it to be easy on family life. Your husband should be selecting his pipeline/platform based on his mission and community interests and not how you or he expect it will be easy for your home life, and you should be supporting him. If he ends up selecting a community based on your perceptions of ease of family life and he ends up disliking things, he's going to begin to resent you and your relationship for taking him there.

 

[Yardstick]

I just finished the frs, so I dont know much about fleet life. The frs was pretty chill. I finished in about 4 months. Some guys took longer. It just depends on tanker scheduling for the flights, as they tend to cancel a lot. You'll have about 40 events in the sim with the civilian contractors. Each day you'll knock out a bunch of cbt's, then get in the sim with the instructors and play around. Really hands on training. Then you'll go to the navy side, and have 8 sims in the level d trainer. After that, you'll go to the plane and have 4 bounce events and 4 a/r events. It really is a good time. As far as OKC goes, I love it. I live downtown, and it seems like a lot of single guys do as well. There's always something going on, and as with every duty station, it's what you make of it.

 

[ARAMP1]

IMHO, those guys lost the best gig going. Seeing that 737 hot rod they used to fly around pulling Gs, in the break, etc was pretty BA. Too bad they don't get to do that anymore.

 

[jollygreen07]

I've just finished my JO tour (check out tomorrow).

e6bflyer, zippy, and Yardstick hit the nail on the head. Here's my 2 cents:

I got married very early on in this tour, and while we don't go out on a boat for 6 months at a time, it can still be very hard on family life. You are gone about half of your tour, and it's hard to plan for anything, especially early on before becoming qualified. For example: on one of my first trips as a new 3P I had just returned home. The phone rang the next day and I was gone again for two more weeks. I'm not complaining, I knew what the job required, but it's hard to explain that to a new spouse who hasn't quite gotten the whole picture yet. The impression I had given my wife before I moved her out here was that I was going to be home something like 2 months and gone one month. That was wrong. It's sea duty (yes, I know it's in Oklahoma) and unfortunately service comes before self and family. e6b's estimate of 150 days gone in a JO sea tour is a very accurate, but like anything YMMV.

I really enjoyed my time here, and flying the aircraft (actually flying, not droning around on autopilot) was very fun and challenging. We do not land on a boat, but the aircraft is flown using cables and pulleys and aerodynamic balance bays. What does that mean? Well, it means that you have to actually stay ahead of the airplane. It's a beast to fly, especially in high crosswind landing situations and while air refueling. It's a helluva good time once you get the hang of it.

The mission is as close to Groundhog Day as it gets, but as an officer you'll be faced with plenty of leadership opportunities on the road leading a crew of 13 highly trained and motivated people. There are very few places that will allow an O-3 to be completely in charge of a $340 million dollar asset and its crew, TACAMO is one of them. We work with the AF a lot, and I still don't think that the AF O-5s and O-6s that we deal with are completely comfortable with that. Pretty funny, really.

Feel free to PM me with any specific questions you may have. I'll have plenty of time on my hands after tomorrow. Good luck!

 

[wlawr005]

IMHO, those guys lost the best gig going. Seeing that 737 hot rod they used to fly around pulling Gs, in the break, etc was pretty BA. Too bad they don't get to do that anymore.

Didn't know they had 737s there...

 

[jollygreen07]

Yeah, we used to have a 737 as a RAG bounce bird. Same cockpit as the E-6B. It was apparently a blast to fly. I wouldn't know, as they did away with it a couple of CAT I classes ahead of me. Wahwah.

 

[Kaitydid]

Surely, I am just misinterpreting some of the responses as having sexist undertones.

First, yes I am an SNA spouse.
Nonetheless, I am intimately familiar with the the support needed and challenges faced by an active duty service member as I have been one myself. I am not some fly-on-the-wall, stay-at-home wife, however, my husband is a grown man and makes his own decisions.

He has already been selected for TACAMO so I am not here searching for information to "change his mind". Conversely, I am looking for some insight for both of us as we have not had any prior contact with this community and would like some information on what to expect.

I don't need any comments or advice on how to be a supportive spouse. I am just looking for a small glimpse into the community my husband is about to enter so I can best prepare my family.

Thanks!

 

[wlawr005]

Surely, I am just misinterpreting some of the responses as having sexist undertones.

First, yes I am an SNA spouse.
Nonetheless, I am intimately familiar with the the support needed and challenges faced by an active duty service member as I have been one myself. I am not some fly-on-the-wall, stay-at-home wife, however, my husband is a grown man and makes his own decisions.

He has already been selected for TACAMO so I am not here searching for information to "change his mind". Conversely, I am looking for some insight for both of us as we have not had any prior contact with this community and would like some information on what to expect.

I don't need any comments or advice on how to be a supportive spouse. I am just looking for a small glimpse into the community my husband is about to enter so I can best prepare my family.

Thanks!

Damn...this is a much better place to use this.

 

[e6bflyer]

Didn't know they had 737s there...

We actually had two at one point. The 600 was a blast...the 200 was fun, but being /A in an RNAV world is tough.
It was an awesome deal, but the good deal police obviously caught on.

 

[robav8r]

-What is the rag like? How long is it?
-What is the lifestyle like?
-How much time are you gone vs home?
-What is the overall morale?
-How is OKC and the surroundng area?
-Any advice/suggestions?

Surely, I am just misinterpreting some of the responses as having sexist undertones.

First, yes I am an SNA spouse.

I don't need any comments or advice on how . . . . . .

Easy there Francis, there wasn't any sexist anything, just folks trying to help give you what they thought you wanted.

 

[jollygreen07]

Surely, I am just misinterpreting some of the responses as having sexist undertones.

First, yes I am an SNA spouse.
Nonetheless, I am intimately familiar with the the support needed and challenges faced by an active duty service member as I have been one myself. I am not some fly-on-the-wall, stay-at-home wife, however, my husband is a grown man and makes his own decisions.

He has already been selected for TACAMO so I am not here searching for information to "change his mind". Conversely, I am looking for some insight for both of us as we have not had any prior contact with this community and would like some information on what to expect.

I don't need any comments or advice on how to be a supportive spouse. I am just looking for a small glimpse into the community my husband is about to enter so I can best prepare my family.

Thanks!

Yeah, um... What?

I have no idea how you came to that conclusion based on anything written in this thread. Personally, based on what you wrote at the beginning of the thread I thought I was talking to a SNA.

No one is trying to tell you how to run your family. We are trying to give you a glimpse into our lives, and our experiences in a community that will dictate every facet of your lives once you report here. You could have just said thanks. That would have been plenty.

 

[jtmedli]

We actually had two at one point. The 600 was a blast...the 200 was fun, but being /A in an RNAV world is tough.
It was an awesome deal, but the good deal police obviously caught on.

Welcome to the helo world. I miss the baller GPS in the T-6. Good thing we never go above 500'.