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Navy JTACs?

Ventus

Ventus

Weather Guesser
pilot
Does the Navy have JTACs outside of the Naval Special Warfare Community?

What I mean by that is, I know that Marine Corps Aviators/NFOs have the ability to become JTACs after their first tour.
Is this an available career path on the Navy side of things?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I used the wrong acronym. I found another thread where the acronym FAC was used. My mistake.
 
Yes, it happens. In the Navy it’s rare and very difficult to get, and usually comes along with doing a tour as a fires officer in a NSW/EOD unit or with ANGLICO.
 
Be aware that the ANGLICO job is a non-career path job out of the cockpit. I've know a few guys that did it and ended up terminal O-4s.
 
I know a couple guys that did NSW fires and made skipper (one even did 2 tours there prior to VFA command select). But their particular situations were unique compared to the standard team jobs. I don't know much about it, but I'd guess mileage varies widely depending on where you go.

To answer the original question, it isn't a "career path", but rather either a post shore disassociated or post DH job. As was mentioned, your ability to come back to operational flying could vary, but lately, most VFA guys I've known to do it have. It isn't an offramp to becoming an NSW dude by any means though. Still a 1310/1320 and you don't wear a trident.
 
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HSC has sent a few pilots and AWS's over the years to get a JTAC qual to help with training and act as a CAS SME. Nearly all are WTI types and only one of them (that I know of) moved over to NSW to use the qual. But, it's not like USMC and making FACs for a tour... Basically, right place right time (or good leadership) in most cases.
 
Ventus said:
Does the Navy have JTACs outside of the Naval Special Warfare Community?
What I mean by that is, I know that Marine Corps Aviators/NFOs have the ability to become JTACs after their first tour.
Is this an available career path on the Navy side of things?
Thanks in advance.
EDIT: I used the wrong acronym. I found another thread where the acronym FAC was used. My mistake.
Click to expand...

SWOs regularly have billets open for hard chargers who want to be Naval Gunfire Liaison Officers (NGLOs) with ANGLICO and other Marine units. The guys I've worked with who've done it say they got some training on how to control aircraft onto target. That being said, they also spent very little of their time calling in fires and a whole lot of their time at HQ helping to plan the gunfire support and assault plans and all of the other ground-pounding, expeditionary stuff the greenside bubbas love doing.
 
In the reserves all things are possible. My SOCOM MOB billet sent me to TACP in Little Creek. But if your hoping to run around in the dirt with a radio as an navy officer I wouldn't get your hopes up, the teams make their own JTACs. There is plenty of jobs for Navy O JTACs to do in country that doesn’t involve leaving the FOB or Camp.
 
NUFO06 said:
In the reserves all things are possible. My SOCOM MOB billet sent me to TACP in Little Creek. But if your hoping to run around in the dirt with a radio as an navy officer I wouldn't get your hopes up, the teams make their own JTACs. There is plenty of jobs for Navy O JTACs to do in country that doesn’t involve leaving the FOB or Camp.
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Hey, those JTARs aren't going to write themselves. :D
 
insanebikerboy said:
Yes, it happens. In the Navy it’s rare and very difficult to get, and usually comes along with doing a tour as a fires officer in a NSW/EOD unit or with ANGLICO.
Click to expand...
How rare and how difficult? I'm leaning Navy over Marines (it looks like nothing beats carrier ops, and the culture/other jobs in the Navy interest me more), but if doing at least one tour as a FAC or something similar is something I really, really would want to do in my lifetime, then does that disqualify the Navy from being my first choice? Obviously I would choose whatever branch gives me a flying slot, but it's nice to think about what I would choose in a perfect world.

PS Have you ever heard of fires officers with SWCC/Special Boat Teams? I know that they are a purely enlisted community, so at that point wouldn't you also be the Officer in Charge?
 
wlawr005 said:
SWCC OICs are SEALs
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SWCC Officers? [Archive] - SOCNET: The Special Operations Community Network

[Archive] SWCC Officers? Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen (SWCC)
www.socnet.com
The thread is old, but one of the guys is talking about how SWOs were at the time able to become OICs, so I really don't think it's much of a stretch for anyone involved with NSW to have the opportunity to do that. What makes a Seal significantly more qualified to command a small boat than say, an EOD with NSW? I'm guessing that they probably just say Seals because the vast majority of NSW officers happen to be Seals.
 
ChiccinTendies said:
How rare and how difficult?
Click to expand...


I like telling people, and not just you, that they need to understand how the Navy works. I do not say this to be mean, but don't plan on doing the "one-off" cool-sounding jobs. It's good to have a goal, but at some point you have to make tradeoffs (in your case, carrier aviation & culture vs. other things you might want to do). You also have to remember that goal may be limited to a very specific timeline in your career path only for you to be told: "sorry, your timing doesn't work." I remember being in your shoes thinking: "oh man the Navy has so many opportunities; I want to do them all," but the reality is everyone on the officer side is owned by a "community" within the Navy, that has to be willing to give you up for the vast majority of the "cool" opportunities that are not immediately on the path/billeted for that community. Also, each job is specifically for a specific rank and timeline +/-. Additionally, once you get off one path, it can be very difficult to get back on it; I say this because I remember thinking as a brand new Midshipman something along the lines of: "oh man, I'll fly one tour, go instruct, then do some random other cool super tactical thing, at this point I'll be old enough to want to settle down a bit, go to grad school, I'll be schooled up, go back to flying, then become an attache, then go back to flying again... yadda yadda yadda" but it's not exactly like that. There's a set path, with limited options, and while there are some off ramps, they are often permanent off-ramps, and most of those are highly selective and timing dependent, plus your community has to be willing to give you up.
 
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