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02 December 2012

unbreakableskies

SNA December 02
Welcome John! Glad to have a few priors in our class, show us rookies the ropes.

What have you thought about the base in Jacksonville? I've been on a few army bases on the east coast, GA and SC and wasn't too excited about either lol
 

john kalafatis

pro-rec IW
Welcome John! Glad to have a few priors in our class, show us rookies the ropes.

What have you thought about the base in Jacksonville? I've been on a few army bases on the east coast, GA and SC and wasn't too excited about either lol

I've been stationed at both NAVSTA Mayport and NAS Jax. Mayport is OK, mostly surface combatants, lots of Frigates. They're supposed to bring an ARG down in a few years to replace Kennedy. NAS Jax is nicer (imo), lots of new construction mostly due to transition to the P-8. all the helo squadrons got new facilities a couple of years ago.

Both bases have a lot of new base housing and are remodeling or have recently remodeled the fitness centers and daycare facilities, but I think that was nationwide for the most part.

Jacksonville as a whole (like anywhere else) is hit and miss depending on what part of town you're in.
 

froky36

Information Warfare Candidate
The only snow I like is snow I am snowboarding on!

Have you been on any other NAS bases?

Patrol aircraft: P-3C Orion, P-8 Poseidon
Location: Whidbey Island, WA
Synopsis: The SWO's of naval aviaiton. Huge crews, large squadrons, and land basing make these guys just as boring as the surface warfare life. Stay away unless you want to go commercial aviation later, then there's no better community.

I really can't speak for all the different platforms. I spent the better part of 15 years fixing and flying in the P-3's. Yeah they are boring compared to the fighters out there. But they do a hell of a lot of work for our front lines brothers on the ground as far as recon goes. Not as much ASW missions really. The one thing that stands out from the P-3 cadillacs of the Navy and the rest is the per diem. Normally you'll pull in a good chunk of per diem which helps keep those boring missions flying in circles to some good times on the no fly days. ;)

As far as the bases go, I'm a Hawaii kind of guy. First 10+ years over there on Barbers Point and Kaneohe Bay. No better place to perform an early morning FOD walkdown then Kaneohe Bay. :cool: If you get a chance with the P-3 variety, you want to get into the special projects or VQ side of the house. It'll be much more rewarding...
 

Planeform

Well-Known Member
pilot
Hey guys, congrats on your selections. I had a similar class date 2 years ago. I have some gouge about how things worked for me while I was there...

First, it's gonna be cold the whole time which means a reduced volume of outdoor PT. Unless they changed it, if its below 32 or 28 or something, PT is indoors...its annoying but also an OK deal because the outdoor PT procedures are annoying. You also will get to skip the extended chowhall procedure for something shorter so you can get insider sooner. This is all good, but in March when you leave, you'll be expected to teach the lower classes the procedures that you never really did...leads to some interesting days at the end, haha.

Second, holiday break. OCS will most likely shut down for XMAS as it is shore duty for the instructors there. I would make every effort to go on leave, even though you don't have any accumulated yet. If you don't go on leave, you will be stuck there cleaning the hallways for two weeks. I left and went home and then came back...95% of people did this as well.

Third...be strong and do well. It's a big mental game and once you figure it out, it's not so bad. All the other gouge on this site is pretty good. I just thought I'd share about the weird stuff since you all are going the same week I went 2 years ago.

Good luck!
 

Planeform

Well-Known Member
pilot
Oh, about xmas leave...they will let you go negative on your leave balance to facilitate XMAS.
 

sunowl

SNFO
Thanks for thinking to come back and post this great gouge. Good luck in you career and hope to see you in the fleet.
 

Planeform

Well-Known Member
pilot
I'm still in pilot training almost 2 years later! Thanks...and just keep pressing along, and you'll get out of there in no time. Let me know if you guys have any other questions. If you find out who your DI is, let me know....may have some gouge there as well.
 

Tycho_Brohe

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
Well, considering my last name is pronounced "freeze" its even more appropriate.
Thanks

MrFreeze.jpg
 
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