Mike,
I was enlisted aircrew in SH60B's, and am in the process of applying for OCS. To begin, I loved flying helos. The squadron atmosphere was quite relaxed and much of the shore time flying was navigation training(over land and water), many FAM flights, and some tactical training. I was part of the HSL community, fly off of Cruisers, Destroyers, and Frigates. This made all of the difference in the world as far as I am concerned. During my four years flying, I only "saw" a carrier once and when you fly helos that's a good thing. Both of my times at sea was spent in a SAG (surface action group) of two destroyers and a frigate. Our mission was mostly to search for, investigate, and querry contacts over the horizon for the group. Basically, we were given an aircraft and told to go look for something, so we just got to fly where ever we wanted until a specific mission came up. Like I said, this was a very laid back and independent community. HSL communities don't often, if ever, detach more than two helos at a time. The CO and XO(CDRs)do not go to sea, the department heads (LCDRs)deploy as the Officer in Charge of the detachment (highest ranking aviator on board). So there is individual responsibility early on. It was also nice that there were only seven aviators on a single bird detachment and nine on a two bird detachment (talk about big ego's). Needless to say, I loved the HSL community. Anything else?--WT