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Duty station and deployments

F

fangletooth

New Member
Random noob questions. If a squadron (ex. VAF based in Lemoore) was attached to a carrier based in San Diego, would that squadron fly out to SD and stay there for any pre-deployment exercises and for some time post-deployment? Or do they just fly out to the carrier from Lemoore and basically never see San Diego?
 
I'm not a Lemoore type, so I will let others who are chime in. But Lemoore is not a super long drive from San Diego. Maybe 5-6 hours depending on socal traffic at the time. So you could probably go visit if you were to find yourself in that position. Or you could fly VMFA out of Miramar and just live there, if you were a Marine. Some of us Navy guys were lucky enough to go through the RAG there, and it beats the hell out of Lemoore (or Oceana)
 
I never knew Navy guys can go through the RAG at Miramar. That'd be awesome (assuming I even get that chance at some point). However, I was actually asking if a squadron gets re-assigned(?) to San Diego from Lemoore. Like, is that squadron's new home base North Island while it is attached to the carrier air wing, or is it basically Lemoore ---> straight to carrier 1st day of deployment ---> back to Lemoore the last day of deployment? I'm just using San Diego and Lemoore as an example. I don't have a burning desire to be in SD (born and raised there), it just seems like other squadrons besides those based in Lemoore are already close to which air wing they'd be assigned to upon deploying (ex. helos in North Island, jets in virginia beach, etc.)
 
In short, the answer is no. Why would they move maintenance personnel, operations, and the jets 5 hours away from base when they don't have to? Sometimes the RAG may send a small detatchment for CQ, for a few days...but otherwise no.
 
That makes sense. I was just curious because I've seen jets flying around in San Diego before and I've always wondered if some of them were Navy. I guess not. Thanks for the answer.
 
Well, not all jets in the Navy are stationed in Lemoore...other squadrons may have reason to do business there. You can always show up to spend the night without moving the whole squadron there.
 
fangletooth said:
That makes sense. I was just curious because I've seen jets flying around in San Diego before and I've always wondered if some of them were Navy. I guess not. Thanks for the answer.
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Most of the jets flying around 'Sandy Eggo' are the Marines flying out of Miramar. A few of the Hornets from Miramar may have Navy Pilots (FRS), but are Marine aircraft.;)
BzB
 
If I read it right - I think the OP is asking if squadrons deploy from their home air stations. Answer in that case is yes. When I was at Cecil Field my squadron was part of Air Wing 8 on the TR. Our jets would depart Cecil and head straight for the boat. All of us enlisted types were flown from Cecil to Norfolk on C-9s a day or two before the ship was pulling out.
 
707guy said:
If I read it right - I think the OP is asking if squadrons deploy from their home air stations. Answer in that case is yes. When I was at Cecil Field my squadron was part of Air Wing 8 on the TR. Our jets would depart Cecil and head straight for the boat. All of us enlisted types were flown from Cecil to Norfolk on C-9s a day or two before the ship was pulling out.
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Yeah, as another example, prior to TSTA, COMPTUEX and later deployment, our VAQ squadron would typically fly out a few days in advance from Whidbey to Norfolk/Chambers, and operate out of there for the initial CQ period, and then fly on for good for the underway periods. It isn't like administratively "re-assigning" the command to that base, but for the out of towners, sometimes CQ has to be run from somewhere more local. I don't really know if the Lemoore squadrons have the "legs" to one way from Lemoore out to a ship in the socal operating area, but I'm certain that in those cases, they must have somewhat of a maintenance presence at the beach in North Island for any diverts/bingos/etc. Oceana is lucky in that respect, as you can do CQ from homeplate, and then have your last view of America be flying yourself out to the boat for the cruise fly off.

That all being said, for the folks that have to "det" to more forward places for CQ, that isn't like weeks or anything like a normal det. In my experience, fleet CQ is pretty quick, normally a couple days only if everything goes smoothly, so that scenario probably is not a time to really enjoy the place you are flying from the beach at.
 
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