Well, we do work for the same completely unprofitable company. Look on the bright side, it's for a bigger purpose.
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Naval Aviation and Watches
- Thread starter JWL
- Start date
Well, we do work for the same completely unprofitable company. Look on the bright side, it's for a bigger purpose.
TA-BRO over being on the bridge ANY DAY. At least we get WUGed up internet (and even computers for that matter). Also, OOD sucks balls and somehow ENSes seem to avoid it (particulalrly LDO types) and repeatedly get ATTWO or barracks rover or some other such horseshit. Ship's company on a carrier is just about the worst thing there is. Being underway is almost better than all the inport duty section BS. And if you're a geo-bach, it is DEFINITELY better.
Sort of. Everyone stands some kind of duty on a boat. Ashore, Navy dudes "stand duty" with a phone on their couch at home. Marines get to put on a service uniform and take charge of a post and all guardhouses furthest from their own especially at night during fire or disorder with all government property in view in a military manner. With a pistol, for 24 hours.
SDO: See previous, and also be the designated fall guy when ship's company decides to pull YET ANOTHER man overboard drill, because it's halfway through cruise and they still can't pull their heads out of their own asses. Doesn't matter if the squadron's mustered perfectly within 5 minutes each of the last 5 times if AN Timmy decides to fong it away now. Play infuriating games of "telephone" with the Flower and Maintenance Control when Boss is pinging the Flower on just whether that damn jet is making the launch or not.
Pri-Fly Duty (aka Tower Flower): See previous. Be prepared to answer dumb questions about your platform. Amuse yourself by watching the junior ACs call out aircraft with binoculars, and marvel at how "Hornet at the initial" can magically turn into "Prowler in the break." Be prepared to relinquish your spot to Skipper when he comes running up to Pri-Fly in the event anything actually serious goes down. Play infuriating games of "telephone" with the SDO and Maintenance Control when Boss is pinging you on just whether that damn jet is making the launch or not.
CVIC: Also known as Papa and Romeo watches . . . a one-person job inexplicably split into a hinge watch and a JO watch. Because fuck you, squadron skeds writers, that's why. Some bullshit to get the CAG Ops scheds writer out of actually executing the schedule that they wrote last night. None of the air wing senior watch officers are fooled, you fucking staff guy, but we have to pony up a body anyway. Play infuriating games of telephone with EVERY DAMN SDO IN THE AIR WING when jets start breaking and CAG Ops is pinging you on just who the fuck is making the launch or not. And oh by the way, VFA-[redacted] wants yet another change to the ordnance load plan, no one knows where the fuck CAG gunner is, and he's not answering his brick. Dog is cranky about something because they're Dog, and someone's spare is trapped on the wrong side of an el run. A random helo deck hit somehow materialized on the air plan, but you can't read the last guy's chicken scratch, and oh, is that the same time the COD full of DVs is showing up? The tanker plan might be borked if the weather keeps getting worse, you're really not sure what fucked-up maintenance voodoo shell game the Charlie squadrons are using to actually make their ATO tasking, and you're not sure you want to know. Oh, there's an AC vent pointed at the back of your neck, and if they don't get that damned Alert 15 set soon enough, you're going to miss out on rats.
Pri-Fly Duty (aka Tower Flower): See previous. Be prepared to answer dumb questions about your platform. Amuse yourself by watching the junior ACs call out aircraft with binoculars, and marvel at how "Hornet at the initial" can magically turn into "Prowler in the break." Be prepared to relinquish your spot to Skipper when he comes running up to Pri-Fly in the event anything actually serious goes down. Play infuriating games of "telephone" with the SDO and Maintenance Control when Boss is pinging you on just whether that damn jet is making the launch or not.
CVIC: Also known as Papa and Romeo watches . . . a one-person job inexplicably split into a hinge watch and a JO watch. Because fuck you, squadron skeds writers, that's why. Some bullshit to get the CAG Ops scheds writer out of actually executing the schedule that they wrote last night. None of the air wing senior watch officers are fooled, you fucking staff guy, but we have to pony up a body anyway. Play infuriating games of telephone with EVERY DAMN SDO IN THE AIR WING when jets start breaking and CAG Ops is pinging you on just who the fuck is making the launch or not. And oh by the way, VFA-[redacted] wants yet another change to the ordnance load plan, no one knows where the fuck CAG gunner is, and he's not answering his brick. Dog is cranky about something because they're Dog, and someone's spare is trapped on the wrong side of an el run. A random helo deck hit somehow materialized on the air plan, but you can't read the last guy's chicken scratch, and oh, is that the same time the COD full of DVs is showing up? The tanker plan might be borked if the weather keeps getting worse, you're really not sure what fucked-up maintenance voodoo shell game the Charlie squadrons are using to actually make their ATO tasking, and you're not sure you want to know. Oh, there's an AC vent pointed at the back of your neck, and if they don't get that damned Alert 15 set soon enough, you're going to miss out on rats.
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Depends on the command for USN types. SDO at my first squadron was 24hr duty on base in khakis. No gun though. CDO In Port on the boat you had to be on the boat for 24hrs. Working uniforms were ok. No gun but you got a sweet walkie talkie.
Every letter of every word of every sentence of this post is exactly accurate.
As an aviator your job is not standing watch. Your job is to do flying stuff. And you have to stand watch too. As a JO you'll probably stand SDO about once a week or a little sooner (depending on size of your squadron.) If you go VFA/VAW/VAQ... you can get out of SDO by being an LSO and then you do paddles stuff every 3-4 days on deployment. Then you can mix in the Romeo watch once you start getting a little more senior but some squadrons don't make you stand Romeo and SDO.
For everyone else your job is to basically be on watch. Everyday. Without the fun of flying.
http://terminallance.com/2012/05/15/terminal-lance-199-duty/
Watch is an integral part of the military, regardless of what branch you're in. Embrace the suck.
Watch is an integral part of the military, regardless of what branch you're in. Embrace the suck.
SDO = Squadron Duty Officer
If you are still around for O-4 then you can get CDO underway. Which allows you to drive the ship under extreme adult supervision. You won't ever really use the qual except for the fact that it looks good for Command / O-5. Unless you really like pain and then you can be the Skipper of the carrier. They are always aviators.
Aviators will all be forced to drive Mom around at some point in their careers. Command Duty Officer Underway for the Carrier and Officer Of the Deck for other ships. I got an OOD letter which meant I was qualified to be responsible for the routine operations of Mom for two sections of watch a day. By the time an aviator is afforded the opportunity for one of these quals they'll have had several years of experience under their belt so being an OOD isn't all that challenging.
It's called being a contractor...
It's called The Show.
Well duh.