CORTRAMID East or West?

[BlackBearHockey]

First off, If it's been covered already, I apologize. I went back a few years in the threads and didn't see a topic regarding the comparison of the two.

I'm going to CORTRAMID this summer, and my understanding is I have the option of putting in for eithere east or west. I've heard great things about both, and am a little unsure of which to choose (if everyone has been lying to me and I don't get to choose, then my apologies).

I'm 22, so I'm pretty sure a beers a beer on either side of the country. I'm not really looking to go to CORTRAMID to party (nor will I be a mormon). I'm looking to go to one where I'll get a good experience of the workings of the Navy. From the stories I've heard, west is has a lot more Mids and a lot more shenanigans, and East is boring.

Which one would someone recommend to someone who's looking to have a great Naval experience? My goal is to come back from CORTRAMID with a better understanding of the people and technologies that make the Navy successful, and to have some good memories at the same time. Will one enhance that more than the other? Plus, If I go East, I will be able to have a car...

 

[phrogpilot73]

Whatever coast you think you'd like to be stationed on - go there. I did Leatherneck/West Coast FMF my firstie year, because I wanted to be stationed in California. It gave me an up close look at what being stationed in California would be like.

 

[HighDimension]

San Diego is the sh*t. Go West.

 

[sickboy]

I thought they sent you to whatever coast you live in unless they had a reason not to? aka, summer classes.

Anyway, I went East and still had a good time.

 

[Rubiks06]

I went east (protramid) same deal minus the swo part and had a blast.

 

[armada1651]

I went east and we got to travel around more than our west coast counterparts. West coast you pretty much stay around San Diego, east you go down to King's Bay for sub week and down to Lejeune for Marine week. I enjoyed getting around and seeing lots of places, but San Diego is pretty awesome. Either way, CORTRAMID should be a good time.

 

[whalepelt]

I'd highly recommend West. Having done CORTRAMID West and a surface 'cruise' tied to a pier in Norfolk, there is really no comparison. San Diego wins hands down.

 

[CommodoreMid]

If you have a car, east is fun. I'm from MD so I drove down and a bunch of people in my company had cars so we were able to get out easily and have fun. If you didn't have a car or didn't have friends that had one, I could see how east could suck really quickly.

 

[cfam]

Definitely take west. I met a bunch of NROTC guys doing cortramid in San Diego when I was doing my aviation cruise, and they were having a blast. I spent a month out at North Island last summer, and it was awesome. My protramid (our version of cortramid) was east coast, and it sucked. King's Bay is a nice base, but it's in the middle of nowhere, so we pretty much spent the week playing cards in the q. Norfvck sucked for aviation week...they really didn't know what to do with us, so we had a bunch of pointless briefs and got a couple hours of sim time. Marine week at Quantico was pretty cool though. East will be much much better if you bring your car, because then you can shoot down to VA Beach during liberty.

 

[ea6bflyr]

Unless your unit is much different then the rest of the NROTC units, then you do have limited input as to which CORTRAMID you attend.

When I was a NROTC instructor (2002-2004) we would only allow students to go to the "other" coast if they had a valid reason (ie: taking classes during one of the sessions, Family Obligations, etc).

With that said, you will have fun at either CORTRAMID location (San Diego or Norfolk). Each location has its PROs and CONs. Each coast has about the same number of MIDN in attendance (400-500).

Back on track:

Q: Where will I get the most Aviation exposure/flights?

A: Each coast uses local airfields to provide aviation training.
San Diego uses NAS North Island (Helos/CODS) and MCAS Miramar (Phys/Swim/T-34/FA-18)
Norfolk uses NAS Norfolk (Phys/Swim/Helos/CODS/sometimes P-3s) and NAS Oceana (T-34/FA-18)

But I cannot truly answer this question. I know that when I ran CORTRAMID (Norfolk) Aviation Training during the summer of 2003, each mid got at least one flight (T-34 or Helo)....some got 3 or more (T-34/H-53/P-3).

All recent CORTRAMID attendees:

QUESTION: How many Flights did you get during Aviation week at CORTRAMID? (Please include Aircraft type, number of flights and East or West.)

-ea6bflyr

 

[whalepelt]

QUESTION: How many Flights did you get during Aviation week at CORTRAMID? (Please include Aircraft type, number of flights and East or West.)

I went West in 2005. I got two flights: one in a T-34 and one in an S-3. Most people I know got the T-34 ride and one in helos. In any case, the S-3s are gone from North Island, so that's not an option anymore.

 

[armada1651]

I went east in 2005 and got two flights: T-34 and C-2. I know a few other people got helo rides.

 

[sickboy]

All recent CORTRAMID attendees:

QUESTION: How many Flights did you get during Aviation week at CORTRAMID? (Please include Aircraft type, number of flights and East or West.)

-ea6bflyr

I got shafted out of that one, they wouldn't let me up in the T-34 because some HM2 put a ceiling restriction on my flights after a Flight Surgeon approved my upchit for all altitudes. But because of that, I got about 30 minutes of stick time in a HH-60H. There were other mids that didn't get any.

This was CORTAMID East 07.

 

[sbpilot]

I'm going to CORTRAMID west this summer, but last year the mids from my unit each got a T-6 ride, got stick time in the 60, and the chance at an F-18 ride (Depending on PRT scores).

 

[cfam]

i went east, and we had one ride in a t-34