Yes, you are the only one.
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E-2/C-2 Life?
- Thread starter kappu411
- Start date
Never bee happier to get onboard the boat then after a little vacay at Camp Lemonnier.
RadicalDude
Social Justice Warlord
I joined the navy and went VFA to be on the boat and do fun shit. Wouldn’t trade my ready room time and all that goes with being embarked aboard the CVN during combat ops for any number of five star meals and nice hotels. But that’s just me...
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Fair point, for you. There's something to be said though for the adventure of operating from foreign shores with minimal support. Combat ops must be pretty awesome because you get to put your skills into practice. COD guys put their skills (both aviation and "diplomatic") routinely in a variety of operating areas. It's not just anytime babe, it's all the time baby.
I haven't come across a single COD guy who wished he had gone VFA, but I've met plenty of VFA guys who wished they had selected CODs.
RadicalDude
Social Justice Warlord
Done both. Prefer austere bases in shitcanistan on combat deployments over the floating reform school for juvenile delinquents...
Nine month combat boat deployments full of beer days and the same middle eastern port calls once a month or three isn’t nearly as cool as the Cold War 6 month go everywhere do nothing med deployments with port calls every week or two.
The boat is even more lame when you’re ships company.
Spoken like someone who hasn’t been underway in a while. 14 day menu of prison food, shit connectivity, and endless wars for all my friends! The days of good real Med cruises are over.
Nice straw man, bro.
Well, that makes two of us.
True, I haven't been underway in a while, but four full fleet squadron tours, and both ship's company and embarked staff tours, gave me some insights into the myriad issues. What is this "shit connectivity" of which you speak? 3-4 weeks of turnaround time on queries by mail constituted shit connectivity once upon a time...and I did make a med cruise, but it wasn't the norm for me.
I'll admit you guys own the pool table when it comes to the subject of endless wars.
We can't really compare timeframe hardships with any fidelity...it is/was what it is/was and "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." [Rudyard Kipling; The Ballad of East and West (1892)]. But flying from the boat seems to have been a constant for most going Naval Aviation. It was probably a truism at some point that folks who hate horses shouldn't join the cavalry either.
Honest question given your VP background...haven't you only been ship's company when underway? Or at least a non-(regular) flying ship's company when underway? There's plenty to complain about on the boat (and trust me, whatever you think you've seen can only equal an-about-to-be-decommissioned FFG but can't be worse), but from a purely "people aren't trying to kill me but I still fly everyday" point of view, being on a ship isn't the worst place to be. It certainly may not have as much job-satisfaction as what you potentially could have been doing when shore-based, but that's a different argument.
Bottom line, being on a ship eventually sucks for everyone, at some point. But being on a ship and getting to go fly everyday decreases the suck slightly. And I say that as someone who has had to take a shower on the flight deck after doing a very sweaty and sketchy SAR because the aircraft could get water but the people couldn't. We called those days a "Tuesday."
No doubt the boat sucks more when you live and work there full time compared to when it’s just the place you come back to eat, sleep, play video games and hangout with your friends in between flying.
Uhh . . . and deal with that pesky ground job, too.
Max the Mad Russian
Hands off Ukraine! Feet too
Interesting stuff arose. Pardon me, whether the young ensign who has to choose the path to earn wings of gold has enough experience to compare boat time and shore deployment? Let alone disassosiated tour on a carrier? What those instructors on Indoctrination or Primary are usually telling to youngsters regarding the boat time? Do they have to stick with some unwritten law to glorify the boat deployments just to fool the people into tailhook crowd or are they fair enough in boat life's description? Look, "Boat sucks" is the general truth for all sailors, not only for NavAir dudes. "If you can establish the fulltime naval career ashore, do that with no hesitations, since the ship (or sub) sucks no matter which ship (or sub) you're considering and how cool it seems from outside" - a general wisdom from the teachers and course tactical officers in any Russian naval college when you have the chance to speak to them offrec.
Things that make me go "Hmmm...".