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Carrier Leadership

wlawr005

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pilot
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CommodoreMid

Whateva! I do what I want!
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OK so I was right on the ship command requiring the OOD letter or, as mentioned earlier, the CDO underway!
 

Brett327

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So, basically the aviators who eventually command carriers receive training, formally and informally, to learn to drive a ship? If so, would this typically happen after a squadron CO tour? Where is such a course provided and how long is it?
What difference does it make? It happens, it's effective, and if you're ever in the position to be in the CVN command nuke pipeline, you'll be briefed in excruciating detail about the training.
 

Max the Mad Russian

Hands off Ukraine! Feet too
In short yes, despite "world wonders". It works. In my opinion, it works - as all US Navy as whole - due to the quality of CPO corps. Take USAF Colonel winged on his exchange tour before and who was in charge of USAF TFS once and let him go through all this way from "deep draft" onward - you will probably have an outstanding carrier captain.
 

Max the Mad Russian

Hands off Ukraine! Feet too
Gents,

By the way - exchange USAF or foreign NATO pilots who fly Hornets from USN carriers, do they earn their Wings of Gold as a result?
 

Uncle Fester

Robot Pimp
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Gents,

By the way - exchange USAF or foreign NATO pilots who fly Hornets from USN carriers, do they earn their Wings of Gold as a result?

Yes they do; once they've CQed they've met all the requirements.

Air Force Pilot Earns Navy Wings Aboard GW

Interservice exchange tours aren't common, so I don't know how many AF dudes have actually done it. There's one colonel I've seen walking around the Pentagon with Navy wings, but whether that's from an exchange tour or an inter-service transfer, I don't know.
 

Uncle Fester

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Thanks. Interestingly whether the opposite is true - i.e. Navy pilots earned Silver Wings after exchange tour in AF?

No. Navy uniform regs don't allow wearing other services' pins unless it's also a Navy pin. So if you earned, say, your 'lead sled' jump wings in the Army and then joined the Navy, you could keep wearing them because the Navy has the same pin. This has been an issue with a couple of insignia in the last few years, notably Navy Corpsmen who earned Combat Aircrew wings with Marine squadrons (they later put an exception in the regs to allow that) and Navy guys earning Combat Action Badges on IA tours with the Army (I think the solution was to allow them to 'convert' it to a Navy CAR).

Having said that - there's no new skill or qualification a Navy or Marine pilot would earn by going on a PEP tour with the Air Force. Giving the AF guys their NA wings when they're with a seagoing squadron is recognition that they CQ'ed and therefore have met all the same requirements as Navy pilots.

Better question: if a Navy guy earned AF wings, would he ever tell anyone/wear them?

There's also that.
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
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Yes they do; once they've CQed they've met all the requirements...There's one colonel I've seen walking around the Pentagon with Navy wings, but whether that's from an exchange tour or an inter-service transfer, I don't know.

No. Navy uniform regs don't allow wearing other services' pins unless it's also a Navy pin.

There is a difference between officially being awarded something along with being officially allowed to wear it and symbolic 'awarding', I am pretty sure USAF getting gold Naval Aviator wings falls into the symbolic category and are not official. I worked with a few guys who rated both wings through exchange tours or inter-service transfers and the USAF guys only wore their wings of gold when playing dress up at more formal occasions or in one case to be contrary when he reported to the Pentagon. The contrary guy, a well respected Colonel who did a VFA exchange tour, could get away with it to a degree but even he was told to not wear them in his everyday uniform after his first day and he said it was against regs.

Navy guys earning Combat Action Badges on IA tours with the Army (I think the solution was to allow them to 'convert' it to a Navy CAR).

That may have been the solution for some but it is specifically not official policy but actually contrary to it I believe. Combat Action Badge criteria is much looser than CAR criteria, for land-based actions at least, with much more discretion is given to Army commanders in awarding it so many folks who have a CAB would not get a CAR. This came up when I was in the desert and Army folks got CAB's while Navy folks sitting/standing/ducking alongside them got nothing.
 

kmac

Coffee Drinker
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That may have been the solution for some but it is specifically not official policy but actually contrary to it I believe. Combat Action Badge criteria is much looser than CAR criteria, for land-based actions at least, with much more discretion is given to Army commanders in awarding it so many folks who have a CAB would not get a CAR. This came up when I was in the desert and Army folks got CAB's while Navy folks sitting/standing/ducking alongside them got nothing.

So I have both, and your description is correct. The CAB is a result of being somewhere, the CAR is a result of doing something.
 
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