Do naval aviators stand watch while serving on a carrier, or any other ship on which naval aviators are stationed?
Do naval aviators stand watch while serving on a carrier, or any other ship on which naval aviators are stationed?
Sure do. There are several different types:
SDO: Man the phone, make coffee/popcorn, get harassed by Skipper for a stupid Roll-em choice. Spend all day answering "is (callsign) in the ready room?" phone calls.
Pri-Fly Duty (aka Tower Flower): JO for the Boss to yell at when your idiot squadonmates arouse his ire by doing something stupid where he can see them.
CATCC (Carrier Air Traffic Control Center): Same as Pri-Fly except it's a Hinge for CAG to yell at, and at night. Motohinges volunteer "for the visibility" and then wish for invisibility after the first recovery.
CVIC: Some bullshit to get out of Flower/SDO. Nobody in the squadron is fooled, you fucking non-hacker no-load.
There are also several additional duties during port calls such as Shore Patrol, Intergrity Watch, Boat-O (all JO watches), and Air Wing Duty Officer (O-4), all of which are some asinine Shoe nonsense to make you glad you're not a Shoe and make them feel better about their poor life choices.
Is that frowned upon? On a side note does someone still "pipe aboard" on port calls?and whether or not the boat is on fire
On a side note does someone still "pipe aboard" on port calls?
Does Tommy C get to beat you?And Xenu help you if you fuck it away.
Or as an aviator on a ship's company you have your pick of equally terrible underway and in-port watches.
Underway: pretend you're excited about being a SWO and stand all the stupid watches that a 900' long boat requires. Most of your time on these watches is spent being equal parts terribly bored and worried that maybe you did run over a buoy/fishing boat/etc at 0330. The only benefit to them is that they all lead you to an OOD Letter that you can put in your record to show that you're a good company man.
In port: All roads lead to CDO In Port which involves being very worried about what flags are flying, whether or not the bells that were rung for a random O-6 were suitable, whether or not the lights that outline the big numbers on the island and whatever "don't call them Christmas lights" lights that are strung are on after dark, and whether or not the boat is on fire. You get an equally fancy letter suitable for framing that shows your dedication to the company.
Is that frowned upon? On a side note does someone still "pipe aboard" on port calls?
What @Uncle Fester said. As an aviator you think no one cares about all the damned bells, whistles, and flags until you have to answer to a number of O-5s and O-6s as to why some random flag or another is flying, why the four bells rung by an E-2 went "dingdingding ding" as opposed to "dingding dingding", and why colors weren't done at the EXACT same time as all the other ship in the basin*.Oh God yes. And Xenu help you if you fuck it away.
There's no escaping the Duty Blues.I'll take these responses as a yes?
Aviators stand watches like anyone else, or perhaps not like anyone else, but stand watch nonetheless.