People who chose the community thinking it was the "best" and "easiest" choice for their home life have mentioned that they were greatly mistaken, and many of them are jaded- more so then the norm. Why are these people joining the Navy then? Especially Naval Aviation? If you want a good "home life" become an accountant.
The previous point about long working hours was spot on. 6 day work weeks (and sometimes 7 depending on Mx, plane availability and readiness/training requirements) seem to be normal. Concur. The A/C and demands of MPRA require it. Members of the wardroom look forward to deployment as a break from the grind of the last six months of homecycle (where they are getting hit with surge, ORE and ARP on top of everything else). Absolutely, because deployment is where the "fun" is - you know the "flying" and "real-world" missions. On paper we have a 18month homecycle. However when you throw in a surge period = flying. (or more when your squadron has to pick up the slack for another squadron) = even more flying, you will be gone a lot more (each surge period brings most crewsone or two 6-8 week trips to augment deployed squadrons). That also doesnt include normal dets that squadrons have to provide crews for (RIMPAC, Valient Shield, CSG workups etc). Holy shit, you mean we get to fly even more ??? I don't think that our community has it harder then any other community- just don't look at P-3s as an easy answer for what you want. I advise you to pick a platform/community because it is what YOU want for yourself and not anyone else. If you do that and are happy where you work then the other pieces should fall into place.