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One trip to the glue factory and I am sure life gets easier in the housing department. (simulated smiles)

TACAIR integration is getting looked at again with a skeptical eye.

A seam we should have exploited 35+ years ago.

The Boeing offering was UGLY and therefore it lost.

Concur. I honestly dont think that IFS can in almost anyway gauge a kids future potential in Naval Aviation. If a guy with gold wings on his chest says "you aren't cutting it" so be it. But I wonder about IFS sometimes. I did the precursor to IFS and honestly it made me want to be a tank...

Nope, Marine IAs are alive and well: Border transition teams, Police transition teams, Wing staff, ATO writer/PPT slide maker etc etc etc. Hornet guys suck up a great deal of them because they have more pilots than seats but there is a decent amount heaped on the other communities.

They are there on "cross country rules" so they can fly Xs on the weekend without having to pay contract maintenance overtime.

Never miss an opportunity to STFU in front of flag officers and the press.

Flying SNAs at NHA most of the time I had to tell them it is not a TH-57 pull some torque it's ok. The one Italian I took flying I had to guard the collective constantly.

And then another one that said it was back on.

Times change now every member of a squad kicking in an door have ballistic eye wear on so I cant see too much SPC mockery. We had an air contract lose an eye to an admin bivouac fire, squad made a fire and an old blank was on the deck and it went off throwing a piece of the casing into his eye...

Every Marine I know from LCpl to LtCol have a little bit of iconoclast in their personality. Yes there is an ethos and to the outsider the Marine Corps seems very monolithic but in reality we are a bunch of individuals who value individuality (we just hide it well in mixed company). As far...

No more so than any other aviator. Not a single seat guy don't claim to be one. However this notion that a single seat pilot is out lone wolf hunting the enemy is in no ways accurate. A new single seat guy will be on one of the old guys wing doing what he is told. Concur with all quoted...

They arent "looking over your shoulder" per se. Have I wished or felt like I was flying by myself (and wished I was) and the other guy was just there to talk over radio calls-sure but it doesnt hapen that often. There is no auto pilot in helicopters so on long transits it is nice to give up the...

Collateral Damage Estimates (CDE) are a way of life in todays fights. You are guided by ROE (which I will not discuss here) your experience and the situation on the ground. "Closeness" is not necessarily the determining factor on a CDE, accuracy and effects of the weapon is, there are things...

Go Cobras, more action bigger bonus less talk.

A JTAC is a Joint Terminal Attack Controller responsible for controlling Close Air Support mission in support of a ground unit. It depends on the branch of service. In the USMC an infantry battalion will have 3 winged officers (NAs or NFOs) ideally one F/W one Skid and one Assault Support but...

Jiffy

With A-10s you never know.

CWOs are the MMCOs (They run maintenance control), Avionics Officers, Ordnance Officers and maybe a 2ndLt Air intel O.

Who are you again?

Cut it off. Many say they would give their left nut to fly, put your money where your mouth is. When and if you get through flight school make sure your squadron knows the whole story so they come up with an appropriate callsign.

I am another visor offender. I have the smoke down day time and if the weather is bad it goes up. I have a clear and a laser on my helmet but hate both of them. In a low vis situation the idea of adding another pane of plexiglass to my vision equation isnt appealing. I might be rolling the...

I think playing a varsity sport would almost certainly trump CAP. I would think it would be important to keep CAP in perspective with regard to grades and sports.

My limited experience has been quite different. Conducting VBSS with an FFG I found all the Officers on the the ship to be capable, aggressive and competent warriors.

Yes........but. There was a fairly recent attempt for a reserve Army Aviator to make a fast lane transition to USMC (no TBS, no Naval flight school) reserve and it did not work out well so that may be in recent memory of all. I think most reserve COs would rather be a few aviators short than...

Anything for a more interesting GQ scenario on our vaunted Gator Navy, If the threat gets big enough maybe they will stop playing "battleship."

Outside of functional check flights yes the aircraft commander is called an AHC (Attack Helicopter Commander) and the co-pilot is just that, we dont really use H2P much. The copilot may or may not be a PQM (pilot qualified in model), a PQM can sign for the bird but not ordnance.

It has been done, IX-514 on NVGs is a little sporty.

Otto, Depends on the wind and the almigty PIM. The 1 mile upwind is usually an HMM (+) SOP thing and often not necessary. LHA/LHD is so dependant on a good airboss and his ability to get what is needed from the bridge.

It happens. I had a Phrog pick me up from an FFG once while on my FAC tour. I have seen Hueys go to CGs to update CQ codes, they didnt seem to enjoy it. I think LHA/LHD is much easier than LPD/LSD especially when running expanded spots. A Marine Helo guy right now could go an entire tour...

All but zero, the only aviators eligible to be reserve Marine aviators are former active Marine aviators.

Ridicule and embarrassment are a way of life in most ready rooms for your first year or so.

Not always. It depends on what the mission is, what the X the copilot is getting and sometimes a well played game of rock paper scissors. Yes there are pilots in both seats.

Running a lot of F/W FAC(A) at 200 feet and 400 knots are we?

Cant speak too much to the TTPs "back in the day" But would surmise that the skill of the mark and the ability to deliver a solid talk on was much more crucial to CAS success than it is today. IPS were very recognizable pieces of terrain and a heading was flown to the target looking for the...

It is relatively easy. Most of the F/W systems do all of that stuff for them but in the absence of those systems the jet hits an IP then flies on the offset side on a heading within the FAH given and looks for the mark or the target based on a talk on. There is very little lateral offset from...

WTF is wrong with the O CLubs is a better question. It wasn't as though everyone woke up one day and stopped going to the clubs, there was a long sad history of post Tailhook policies on bases, bad service at the clubs and better options out in town. If your campaign to reinvigorate the club is...

The UN does exactly what the creators envisioned it to do: nothing. The whole charter is one big ponderous bureaucracy that will in no way be able to interfere in the machinations of the victorious powers of WW II.

How does a Navy Chief prep for an inspection? He puts on his uniform and eats doughnuts until all the wrinkles are gone.

Everything is METT-T dependent. Individual regions in both Iraq and Afghanistan will require different levels of support and different tactics from those supporting. It is impossible to generalize and answer the question. The deployments will be what they will be and any truths today will...

Is there seriously even close to enough interest to warrant a Harrier only "club"? The Phrog guys tried their own little private "club" at one point and it failed pretty miserably. Is there really that much to talk about? Shit, the Harrier only flies for about 45 mins how many pictures can you...

Anyone with any real knowledge of carrier deployment plans and strategic movements is hopefully smart enough not to post it here, if not it will be swiftly deleted. As for deployments, it is way too early to make a prediction on deployment length and frequency.

Um the W cobra was just hitting the fleet in the late 80s. First squadron around 86. Reserves were flying Js in Desert Storm. I don't think there was much talk of Whiskeys on their last legs, there still isn't by the way.

The boat.

That is a lot of red light, no NVGs?

I still wonder at how a CO can have any credibility as low man on flight hours. The nice thing about USMC/USN is that for the most part the CO is one of the most experienced aviators in the unit. I cant see how a 500 hours guy can lead a flight of 2 let alone 4. At 500 hours one is still...

Or flying a mission in theater with sanitized flight suits, maybe someday you might get to try it.

Yeah not so much.

Your sense of service is an inspiration to us all.