MasterBates
Well-Known Member
Because ENS Timmay is afraid to ask for permission to use vector math.
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A day in the life (SWOs in action)
- Thread starter cwyx
- Start date
Simple. Lack of knowledge, which most likely equates to piss poor training. What the guy majored in at college has nothing to do with it. Knowing something is one thing. Being able to apply it is something altogether different.
EngineGirl
Sleepy Head
Because no one taught him and no one cared enough to make sure he knew. Our current Captain asked me to describe how to use wind wheels and how to find wind using moboards during my OOD board. I have never had an LSO tell me what course or speed to go to. Then again, I have never gone around in circles looking to be in the wind envelope. That is just stupid.
Most of us baby SWOS on the ship actually like our jobs. We have 2 flight school washouts. Both JG's. One is awesome, a hard worker, easy going, just all around great guy. The other one is a complete douche bag. Always whines, complains, cares about no one but himself. He is the only JO on the ship that wishes he was a pilot. And he makes sure everyone on the whole ship knows how he feels. I am not sure why he is an attrite...he said he was only a few weeks away from his winging.
As for asking for permission, its yes and no. It's more of formality thing. It's more to inform the Captain of what we are doing. And of course in any emergancy, we act and then call the Captain to let him know what we are doing.
Got to watch the SWO world do its thing for 5+ hours today from bridge of Stiletto from pierside at NB Norfolk to Ft Story and then into NAB Little Creek and back. We had savvy Combatant Craft types driving the Stiletto with former CO of USS Ogden standing behind coxswain commenting on traffic and techniques. "Highlight" of the day was listening to Navy Warship 79 (an Aegis destroyer) totally clobber the duty freq while coordinating a simple passenger transfer (harbor pilot) and sure enough, whoever was on the freq was checking with the captain numerous times and hesitated whenever asked a question. The alongside location for pax transfer changed 3 times as Patrol Boat was already passing the stern. The whole affair kept anyone else from using the freq and we passed fairly close aboard in opposite direction so had a front row seat. Seas were minimal and weather gorgeous and if ever there was a need for comm brevity and SOP, this was it.
Steve,
What is your perception of how the different communities handle division officer responsibilities. I've always believed, right or wrong, that the swo's put much more emphasis on how one handled one's division. In aviation, I think it's safe to say that the expectations of divo's are pretty low. At least for VFA. Most of the important decisions were made by the AMO, MMCO, MMCPO, etc. When I was a divo, it always seemed like as long as I looked after my folks welfare, listened to them, and was a visible presence in their spaces I would get a big thumbs up. In VFA, we tend to put much more emphasis on how you do in OPS.
What is your perception of how the different communities handle division officer responsibilities. I've always believed, right or wrong, that the swo's put much more emphasis on how one handled one's division. In aviation, I think it's safe to say that the expectations of divo's are pretty low. At least for VFA. Most of the important decisions were made by the AMO, MMCO, MMCPO, etc. When I was a divo, it always seemed like as long as I looked after my folks welfare, listened to them, and was a visible presence in their spaces I would get a big thumbs up. In VFA, we tend to put much more emphasis on how you do in OPS.
I have been, am, and always will be a radio discipline Nazi. Seriously this should be drilled into peoples skulls but unfortunately to many jobs give radios to people that have never had them before and dont understand that while they are studdering and trying to figure out what they want/need to say they need to take their damn finger off the button.
Other peoples lack or radio discipline has put my life and the lives of others in direct risk at more then one time. I had a long very angry one sided talk with another officer about why he did not need to be talking on the radio for something as trite as running an ID when we were Code A on that channel looking for an armed suspect in the dark with multiple officers on scene. And I think we all remember that student pilot or god forbid foriegn student pilot flying around taking his sweet damn time talking to ATC.
Probably a result of either the CO or XO micromanaging the evolution. Both Mom and Dad naturally want to prevent the ship from sounding like a bunch of morons on the radio, so try to tell whoever is talking on the radio what to say....word for word. The end result is that the ship sounds like a bunch of morons and it takes forever to coordinate something. Thankfully, I came to the SWO community being fairly confident on the radio. The CO and XO could see this and they left me alone. But I've seen them mercilessly hammer whoever happens to be the radio bitch at the time. It's usually not pretty. SWO's don't talk on the bridge to bridge (VHF radio) all that much, so it can be a skill that is difficult to become proficient in for many.
The SWO community believes in giving division officer responsibilities to officers right from the get-go. Even if there are more officers than divisions, they'll either give the new guy an assistant divo job or they'll make one of the senior divos an assistant department head so the new guy can have a division. Much of our fitrep is based on how we handled our divo responsibilities. From my conversations with aviators and reading the discussions here, my take is that aviators learn more about tactics than their SWO counterparts. On the contrary, I think SWO's learn the bigger picture sooner and save the tactical decisions for the department heads (as TAO), XO, and CO.
That would certainly explain it. Today, we followed "Warship 75" to sea with her entourage including a SH-60F checking out contacts. Comms were concise and understandable. We ended up at sea with 2 DDGs and a CG. One was pretty sharp on radio and relayed calls from the one who sounded like the same guy from yesterday. Of course, our AWACS wasn't that impressive and someone finally called them on a cellphone (wonders never cease) when they didn't respond to repeated UHF calls. The Coastal Warfare Squadron Four guys were all sharp and conducted two at sea Pax transfers with minimal muss and fuss and hardly any comms with their CO who was aboard Stiletto with his communicators, 2 0-3s and several POs for the exercise. Saw some fine SWO leadership being exercised there.
Falcaner
DCA "Don't give up the ship"
Swos
What do SWOs do? Well I would say that to understand SWO you should understand the whole point of SWOs career is command of a ship at sea. The first step in this is getting your pin. Steve has already delineated many of the things that go into getting that. However you can expect to spend 18 to 24 months getting your pin depending on your respective ships op tempo. But the basic career path for a SWO is that you have two DIVO tours followed by a shore tour.After that you will attend Department head school and two department head tours. You will have the possibility to command a PC in your second department head tour if you are selected. After your department head tours you roll to a second shore tour and then on to your XO/CO CDR command tour. their can be more then this but i will stop hear. This usaly brings you almost to your 20 year point. I do have to say that I would say that you do not have to ask permission all the time. Of course a lot of this depends on the kind of CO you have. But IMHO if you are an OOD worth your salt you should be acting and then informing not necessarily asking permission.
What do SWOs do? Well I would say that to understand SWO you should understand the whole point of SWOs career is command of a ship at sea. The first step in this is getting your pin. Steve has already delineated many of the things that go into getting that. However you can expect to spend 18 to 24 months getting your pin depending on your respective ships op tempo. But the basic career path for a SWO is that you have two DIVO tours followed by a shore tour.After that you will attend Department head school and two department head tours. You will have the possibility to command a PC in your second department head tour if you are selected. After your department head tours you roll to a second shore tour and then on to your XO/CO CDR command tour. their can be more then this but i will stop hear. This usaly brings you almost to your 20 year point. I do have to say that I would say that you do not have to ask permission all the time. Of course a lot of this depends on the kind of CO you have. But IMHO if you are an OOD worth your salt you should be acting and then informing not necessarily asking permission.
100212-N-9094S-114 PACIFIC OCEAN (Feb. 12, 2010) Lt. j.g. Dominic Alvaraan looks at the compass from the bridge of the U.S. 7th Fleet command ship USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19). Blue Ridge is the Navy's only forward deployed amphibious force. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Brian A. Stone/Released)