• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

New guy with yet another question

gatordev said:
Words to live by, whatever the profession.
Click to expand...

I honestly had no idea what my NSS was at any point in flight school until they told me at graduation that I was on the Commodore's list. As previously stated, kick ass regardless of what you're doing and the rest will take care of itself.

Brett
 
MasterBates said:
And if you kick ass at your job, and still want Jets, C2s, P8s, whatever, there is a way to switch if you still want it.

Kick ass in your first sea tour, once you are all qual'ed up apply to the "Warfare Specialty Transition Board". Much like in primary, it is luck and timing, but neither matters if the performance was not there.
Click to expand...

This is true but doing really well, is sometimes a double edged sword. Why would a community want to get rid of a top performer? I'm talking perhaps a #1 EP player. A friend of mine, tried a few times to go jets but the "supposed" reason was not letting go of a #1 player. He was very solid, as an officer and pilot.
 
bunk22 said:
This is true but doing really well, is sometimes a double edged sword. Why would a community want to get rid of a top performer? I'm talking perhaps a #1 EP player. A friend of mine, tried a few times to go jets but the "supposed" reason was not letting go of a #1 player. He was very solid, as an officer and pilot.
Click to expand...

I guess I was in the "sweet spot". Not a #1/#2 EP type (no HAC cruise kept that out of the question) but I am arguably one of the best pilots in the squadron according to the CO that signed off on my package, and have not screwed up anything major in my ground job.

I was competitive for DH (you have to REALLY do bad or be unlucky not to be) in HSL, but was not competitve to be a CO down the road.

Bunk, was he a COD guy trying to go Jets, or another platform?
 
MasterBates said:
I guess I was in the "sweet spot". Not a #1/#2 EP type (no HAC cruise kept that out of the question) but I am arguably one of the best pilots in the squadron according to the CO that signed off on my package, and have not screwed up anything major in my ground job.

I was competitive for DH (you have to REALLY do bad or be unlucky not to be) in HSL, but was not competitve to be a CO down the road.

Bunk, was he a COD guy trying to go Jets, or another platform?
Click to expand...

:D COD guys don't transfer to other platforms :D . He was an E-2 pilot who never gave up the hunt for the jets, in the fleet that is. He could have been a T-45 IP but didn't want that for whatever reason. I knew one other E-2 pilot who wanted the transition and didn't get it but ended up with T-45 TAR and was as happy as could be. He's probably still down in Kingsville with a giant smile on his face.

All of us experienced types know that FITREP placement is often a combination of factors, from does the CO like you to timing. An officer can fall into the #1 when there's nobody else around and as long as he didn't screw the help, he's the chosen one. Then there's those CO's with the good ole boy club and if you're not a part of it, good luck in other endeavors. Neither of those happened to me but I've seen it and heard it, many a time. The navy puts way to emphasis on that placement but I guess until there's another way, that's the way it goes.
 
bunk22 said:
Then there's those CO's with the good ole boy club and if you're not a part of it, good luck in other endeavors. Neither of those happened to me but I've seen it and heard it, many a time.
Click to expand...
Ding, ding, Ding - we have a winner!

Back when there were 2 VP Rags and the east coast looked down upon the west coast, I checked into my DH tour in an east coast squadron with a west coast background. My welcome aboard interview with the XO & CO: "You know HAL Pilot, we've known the the other DHs since they were Ensigns. We have 8 of you but can only take care of 6. We just don't see you breaking out this tour." Since they tagged teamed me with this and since the COC was about a week before I checked in, I was stuck with this as the XO would be the CO when I had my last competitive fitrep there. I worked my ass off anyway, never could satisfy the JOs when they asked me why (they knew the situation - the Admin YNC who I knew as a YN3 heard the interview and told the Chiefs. The Chiefs told the JOs. The JOs saw my situation as the perfect reason they were not going to do 20.) and I got pack fitreps.

So I take an early retirement as a LCDR and it worked out great.... If I had broken out, I would have made CDR. I would not have retired before 9/11/2001 (my 20 would have been December 2001) and I would never have been hired at Hawaiian (they haven't hired since 2001 and probably won't until 2008).

To further put icing on the cake, I went to the annual VP Reunion in 2002 where this asshole skipper was getting ready to retire and was talking about moving to Hawaii and fly for either Hawaiian or Aloha. I said to him "you know I'm a Hawaiian pilot now. Hawaiian and Aloha are very selective. While I can't guarantee you a job at either I can sure prevent you from ever getting hired. I've known a lot of pilot a lot longer than you. I just don't see your resume breaking out......" He has been successfully blackballed at both airlines. I know that his resume was sent to both multiple times and it has always ended up in the trash.
 
So what percent get UAVs??? I keed, I keed! But really, you could go Air Force and take that risk.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top