Interesting. Any specifics? When did you go through TACP? East or West Coast?
The gouge on Osprey guys not doing FAC tours came from the mouth of 2nd MAW CG about a month ago, and corroborated by the Osprey guys in our MEU.
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Marine Jets: The Good, Bad, and Ugly.
- Thread starter Ave8tor
- Start date
Interesting. Any specifics? When did you go through TACP? East or West Coast?
The gouge on Osprey guys not doing FAC tours came from the mouth of 2nd MAW CG about a month ago, and corroborated by the Osprey guys in our MEU.
It was an east coast osprey guy at EWTGPAC in february.
Raising the dead here, but I can't help but laugh that some things never change. He's almost like a right of passage now.
I will say though, as much as sims sucked with him at the helm, he's the real deal.
The other token Osprey FAC from the East coast is currently in my battalion. According to him, the West coast has 2 others as well. They are multiplying!
TheYeti
Active Member
Reviving this thread just to get current info. I'm in Primary right now and am just curious if the Marine Jet community is basically the same as described above in the 14-ish time frame.
If it is and guys are only getting 8 hours a month once they hit the fleet, what options do you even have after you get out? I'm assuming you would be too low time for the airlines but not exactly sure.
If it is and guys are only getting 8 hours a month once they hit the fleet, what options do you even have after you get out? I'm assuming you would be too low time for the airlines but not exactly sure.
You almost certainly won't have the hours to get hired after one or two tours in a fleet squadron. A fleet tour then VT's or station? Sure.
8 hrs/month is probably a little below average in the jet world, but certainly not unheard of. You will make up for it if you get a legit deployment. I just did the math and I averaged 16 hrs/month as a Harrier guy during my first tour (which was very recent). We are getting more flight time than hornet and F-35 guys right now, but these things change all the time.
So I heard a rumor the other day that they are going to start taking the majority of new F-35 pilots from flight school in the near future. The reason behind this is that the vast majority of F-35 guys now were fairly senior harrier/hornet guys who got selected for the transition. This led the harrier/hornet community to be short on quals, and the f-35 community to be ridiculously senior. My theory is that the field grade pilots are getting tired of standing ODO...
Keep in mind that this is what's floating around the JOPA underground these days and is probably not true.
You can't have a sustainable operational squadron of all senior O-3's and above. Based on single seat VFA manning, you are talking 10-12 JO's, 4 O-4's, XO, CO, traditionally. There is no way that BUPERS is going to send 14-16 O-4's to compete in the same command, at least on 30 month orders. Given the existing FITREP system, that would equate to about a dozen guys being fodder in every squadron, or if they truly tried to cycle everyone through the DH jobs, everyone would be fodder based on the shortness of their tickets. Even combining VMA and VMFA/VMFA(AW), I'm not sure there would be enough bodies to do that, even if they wanted to.
This was done before with the stand-up of the first two F-14 squadrons, with all the predictable results that you describe. I was a JG Coffee Mess Officer in my first F-4 squadron (on my second cruise) and was asked by my "opposite number" in VF-1 to get their wooden F-14 models from the vendor in Olongapo because they had to leave port early for something. He was a LCDR Coffee Mess Officer.
Bet that boot fucking hinge knew his place tho....
Sustainable is the key word. VFA-201 cruised with CVW-8 in 2003 only a few months after being given a "get your shit together" order. Nineteen pilots, several who hadn't seen a ship in over a decade, eighteen of whom were patch wearers, figured it all out and did really well, but it couldn't have gone on for too long.
The VFA-201 "JO's" stood the hell out of some SDO
"VFA-201 SDO, CDR Whomever, Can I help you sir or ma'am?"
...The VFA-201 "JO's" stood the hell out of some SDO
I just saw their cruise plaque in the museum in Pensacola, I don't think there was a single JO aviator on it.
And while I'm sure a lot of the considerations were similar and painful as mentioned (lack of currency, proficiency, etc), VFA-201 being (normally) reservists, I'd say that the senior-heavy part is less out of the norm. But man have I heard stories about them on that deployment
As an aside, my old skipper used to occasionally stand a full day of boat SDO. You better believe we somehow got tubs of ice cream for the roll-em.
As an aside, my old skipper used to occasionally stand a full day of boat SDO. You better believe we somehow got tubs of ice cream for the roll-em.