Terminology Questions

[A4sForever]

There is pretty much ALWAYS an Admiral on board these days. The only time he wasn't there was for CQ.

The "Big 3" were often together on site TV to shake their collective fingers at us before port calls to tell us to stay out of trouble.

Yeah ... in point of fact, the Admiral was seldom on board ... it was the exception rather than the rule ... it was just the way it worked back then. I don't think we had as many FLAGs lookin' for something to do ...

And THREE HEAVIES tellin' you baby-boys to "stay out of trouble" when entering a liberty port ... ??? Ahhhhhhhhh ... the "Nanny Navy" ... ???

I weep ... and I'm glad I'm OUT.

 

[Bevo16]

I'm surprised too. Looks "top-heavy" to me.

Perhaps too many heavies for too few billets.

I don't know. I have heard horror stories from some buddies who have had nut jobs in their chain of commands, but I have been lucky enough so far to have good leadership. It is my experience that having having "heavies" with gold wings is always good in a "black shoe" environment. The shoes never had any doubt who they worked for.

 

[HooverPilot]

Don't forget the Flag CSO, RO & Chief Medical Officer are also O-6's too. We had a monster flock of them on the GW this last trip around South America. At least 4 more put it on during the trip. WAAAAYYY too many...

 

[navy09]

Isn't the plethora of O-6s due to the Composite Warfare structure? I don't really know much about it, just what was told to me while I was half asleep in Naval Science...

 

[Catmando]

The worst squadron atmosphere I ever witnessed was when I checked into an elite stand-up squadron, well over-populated with almost all, go-getter 0-4s. All these guys were former #1, pack-plus performers at their previous commands, and all "water-walkers."

Unfortunately when combined together, they walked all over each other to gain the few prime DH billets and fitreps. It was ugly. And despite the great wealth of talent, the squadron severely suffered from the infighting. Fortunately, they all rotated shortly after my arrival.

My best squadron ever was heavily populated (30 officers) with JOs, only 3 LCDRs, and with great leadership from the DH and CO/XO level. We excelled as a unit. Plus there was only one 0-6 on the ship – the Captain, as it should be. (Except for an occasional Admiral visit, but he rarely interfered on our level.)

Obviously my worst squadron had too many conflicting chiefs, no Indians, and an "I will stab you in the back to get my next set of orders" attitude. My best and stratified squadron worked as a team, successfully.

Thus, I firmly believe in the normal, organizational "pyramid", rather than "top-heavy" ones.

 

[gotta_fly]

I was underway on the Truman for a middy cruise senior year and there was a 4 star (ADM Donald), two 1 stars, and 7+ captains. Due to a launch incident (inadvertent hook drop) I had a relaxing evening observing in Air Ops turn into a very top-heavy experience from which there was no escape.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Isn't the plethora of O-6s due to the Composite Warfare structure? I don't really know much about it, just what was told to me while I was half asleep in Naval Science...

That, and for a lot of communities, the Big Boat is the only way an O-6 can go to sea. You can't swing a dead cat on the Boat without hitting a silver bird or two. Captain, XO, Nav, Reactor Officer (head Nuke), CAG, DCAG, Medical, Dental, Admiral's COS, DESRON Commodore, plus maybe the Boss, CHENG, and a visiting Cruiser Captain or two.

"Weapons Tight" means that you can fire on anything positively ID'ed as Hostile. "Weapons Free" means you can shoot anything that's not positively ID'ed Friendly. It seems like a fine distinction, but it makes a big difference in meeting ROE for a shot. A "Hostile" declaration essentially means "I've done the ROE, or someone else has told me he's bad guy, and we can kill him".

 

[stalk]

No shit??? How does that "fly" w/ the CO of the ship being an O-6 ???

I know it "works" ... it's just that it may have worked "easier" when the CAG was an O-5 ...

I lived the O-5 CAG to O-6 CAG transition through the 80's (CAG 5, 8 and back to 5). There were a few iterations along the way but the final product, which is the current model, is a plus for the airwing. This is an over simplification but the CVN CO owns the air station, CAG owns the planes, the Desron owns the small boys and the two star owns them all. CAG is no longer working as a CV department head. The relationship with the ship became more like that with a shore based NAS though there are some obvious exceptions.

 

[zipmartin]

My best squadron ever was heavily populated (30 officers) with JOs, only 3 LCDRs, and with great leadership from the DH and CO/XO level. We excelled as a unit.

Same type of experience for me (20 total officers). I finished the RAG and joined my squadron, already on cruise, as an ENSIGN. We were very junior and by the next cruise, I was the SWO as a frocked O-3. We were tight, worked great together and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Our department heads, one who was a frocked O-4 when he joined us, pretty much let us run with it, providing just the right amount of guidance and correction when needed. Doesn't happen that way anymore. Like a friend once said, "You know, I miss the Navy I joined. But I don't miss the Navy I left."

 

[burningfeathers]

I thought Weapons Postures were numbered, and Weapons Control Orders were Tight, etc... It's been a while though.

Anyhoo:

Weapons Hold: Engage only in Self Defense
Weapons Tight: Engage targets that are positively identified as hostile
Weapons Free: Engage targets that are not positively identified as friendly

Just out of curiousity, what do the warning colors mean? Such as in the video of the famous F-14's v. Lybians encounter (my favorite pick me up on a crappy day) in which you hear the Boss broadcast "Warning Yellow, weapons hold."

http://shock.military.com/Shock/videos.do?displayContent=153137

 

[JustAGuy]

I lived the O-5 CAG to O-6 CAG transition through the 80's (CAG 5, 8 and back to 5). There were a few iterations along the way but the final product, which is the current model, is a plus for the airwing. This is an over simplification but the CVN CO owns the air station, CAG owns the planes, the Desron owns the small boys and the two star owns them all. CAG is no longer working as a CV department head. The relationship with the ship became more like that with a shore based NAS though there are some obvious exceptions.

I didn't live through the transition, but this was 100% accurate on my last boat/CAG. The skipper of the ship wouldn't tell CAG what to do with the squadrons, and the CAG wouldn't tell the skipper what to do with his departments.

 

[ghost]

Just out of curiousity, what do the warning colors mean?

From memory so not to be too trusted.

White - attack unlikely
Yellow - attack probable
Red - attack imminent/in progress

I could be off on the exact terminology, but that is the jist.

 

[Delta7]

Thanks

Great posts, discussions, and info.

Appreciate all your input, thanks!

John
AKA Delta 7

PS. When/how do i get my wings under my callsign?

 

[ea6bflyr]

PS. When/how do i get my wings under my callsign?

Request to join "Pilot" or "NFO" in the User Control Panel->Networking->Group Memberships. Also provide a copy of your winging card or certificate to the moderators for validation.

-ea6bflyr

 

[Gatordev]

Unless Webmaster has updated his images, I don't think there's a set of AF wings (wreath or otherwise) available to add. There's a thread over in the Forum FAQ section that I think talks about what kind of graphic is required, but as usual, webmaster needs the time to add it. Since he's about to jump in the big pool of kool-aid, who knows when that time will come.