Has anyone ever known someone to transfer out of Helo community to E6s/P8s? Specifically during/after their first sea tour.
My understanding is community transfers had to occur after high water and before you were projected to leave your squadron. My question is how much in advance?
Thanks in advance
The normal way to 'transfer' is to apply for a transition, they used to hold a 'board' twice a year dependent on whether they needed it or not though sometimes they suspended the boards when a community was shutting down (like S-3's) and there were a lot of transitions from that. The numbers when I did it were very small, usually about 20-30 a board, and it seemed to be more of an incentive thing than a manning solution. The majority of transitions when I did it were helo buys going to fixed wing with some P-3 types transitioning to TACAIR.
While it is officially a board in reality it was the two communities, the detailers and community managers really, getting together and determining whether your current community could let you go numbers-wise and if the new one could use you along with whether you did a good job in your first community.
As for timing, as long as you were fully qual'd in your first community you were cleared to put in for a transition board, but most folks I know who did it put in for it early on in their first shore tour. Why? You had to get a sign-off from your CO as part of the application and some squadron CO's seemed to frown on transition packages. My community was full of folks who started out in another community so my CO was enthusiastic, but our sister squadron's CO told his wardroom he wouldn't sign off any that got to his desk.
If you are interested in transitioning there are a few previous threads on it that explain the pluses and minuses, along with some advice on how to approach it.