NFO Questions 2

[ProwlerPilot]

Found out today that I was selected for NFO & I'm currently waiting for a response from Nuke. Got a few questions in hopes of making my final decision: [Female, 24, Navy]

What are the responsiblites of a NFO when not flying? [admin, etc]
I want to fly in helo's what are my chances?
How is it being a women NFO in the Navy - any restrictions [aircraft/training/etc]?
How is family life?

Any advice would be great.

The above was originally posted in another thread that was locked, due mainly to a digression into a conversation that should have taken place in the O'club on a Friday night and not in this forum. I apologize for getting it off course, but please continue with the suggestions as this thread will help more than the original poster. Plenty of up and coming aviators are wrestling with this question. We should not lose them to the reactor :icon_tong because of a couple people allowing the thread to get out of control. Thank you.

 

[SnipeDude]

Duties? Same as most officers, i.e. division officer, evals, admin, collateral duties, but they are more spread out in most aviation squadrons compared to the SWO world.

No chance at helos, sorry! There are no NFOs in rotary wing.

Sorry, can't speak to being a woman...I have a penis.

Family Life? Depends on the platform but aviation is generally better than surface. E-6Bs and P-3s being the best in aviation in my opinion. Take for example in-port duty sections: Subs 1 out of 3 days, Surface 1/6-8, Aviation 1/20-30.

I was originally a Nuke MM, had my pick and I am going NFO.

My .02

 

[robav8r]

I think there is something visceral about any pipeline you choose. We're all in the military contributing to the greater good of democracy, but you need to listen to that little voice inside you that says: "yeah, that's pretty frickin cool!!! That is something I would really like to do."

I have been flying non-stop for 26 years now - Helicopter aircrewman and rescue swimmer, TACCO and SENSO in S-3B's and P-3's, Shooter on an aircraft carrier, and I still absolutely love being around Naval Aviation and everything it has to offer. You will find great people and jerks in every community. You will also have a certain level of B.S. that you have to put up with as well. At the end of the day, you still gotta ask yourself: "Is something I WANT to do?, something I CAN do?, and something that I can be GOOD at?

 

[TurnandBurn55]

Minus the question about being in helos (no NFOs there), my answer would be "the same as a pilot"

The answers would mainly depend on the community you're in far more than your gender. Obviously it's always a balance between flying and ground jobs. You're going to be tasked with ground jobs you're going to have to learn on the fly, tasked with random things you're not quite sure how to do, and you're going to have to study your tactical shtuff constantly.

The solution, of course, is to berate and harass the dirty, filthy hinges who task you with this in the first place to the max extent possible

 

[vreyes90]

Wow, didn't expect the responses from my original post would lead to it being closed. Thank you to those who responsed to my questions

Came back yesturday from the NUKE VIP trip it was pretty cool got to go on board a frigate and a submarine. Good thing I went on this trip b/c I realized that Nuke wasn't what I expected. Told my recruiter right after that I wanted NFO. Now just need to do the PRT exam & get my OCS date.

 

[MasterBates]

Good luck with the PRT. Do well, train for it and OCS, but be careful to train properly and not break yourself.

 

[Intruder Driver]

Having been both an NFO and a pilot, the earlier responses about there being virtually no differences career-wise are true. I enjoyed my time in the right seat of an A6 immensely, just as I did my left seat time.

My experience was all in jets, but the only NFOs I knew who weren't happy were those who wanted to be pilots and showed up in a squadron with a 'co-pilot' attitude instead of a professional NFO attitude. Worst was the NFO who had a lot of civilian pilot time and made sure everyone knew it. I was certainly proud to be in the NFO community and proudly wore both sets of wings during the occasional mess dress affairs when the Navy said I could.

Good luck and congratulations.

 

[usnmerritt]

...

If you haven't already, you might want to check out this site... http://www.usnavyocs.com/ for a lot of good information about OCS and the different communities you could choose from.

 

[USAdefender]

As far as choosing pilot over NFO, any one ever stop to think that some people (like me) have to go NFO because of vision requirements? I don't know, but that could be the case here. Only speculating.

Yes I know about PRK, but my optometrist advised against it.

 

[MasterBates]

Why did he advsie against it?

 

[SnipeDude]

In my case the Air Force surgeon told me 4 days before the surgery that I would be a risky case for PRK since my eyes are oddly shaped

 

[Pugs]

As far as choosing pilot over NFO, any one ever stop to think that some people (like me) have to go NFO because of vision requirements? I don't know, but that could be the case here. Only speculating.

Yes I know about PRK, but my optometrist advised against it.

And of course there are those of us who went NFO long before eye surgery was an option. Sure, being a pilot would have been fun but I'll never regret my 20 years as an NFO. I have no stats to back it up but I'll bet the jet NFO is the rarest of all modern (keep the blimp pilots out of this!) Aviation designators.

Wonder how many have been winged out of VT-86 over the years?

 

[zippy]

As far as choosing pilot over NFO, any one ever stop to think that some people (like me) have to go NFO because of vision requirements? I don't know, but that could be the case here. Only speculating.

Sure, but don't think that everyone who is a NFO had to be one because they couldn't be a pilot for one reason or another. There are definately individuals out there who chose to be an NFO, even though there was nothing that would have prevented them from choosing to be a pilot, or some other designator, if thats what they wanted to do.

 

[USAdefender]

Why did he advsie against it?

He said that lasik is the best way to go but I told him that the navy doesn't accept lasik for waivers. He said that PRK, in his opinion, doesn't have as good results as lasik. I didn't ask anymore detailed questions about it since he is the doctor and I would hope he knows what he is talking about.


Oh I know that NFOs choose to be that. And I'm sure that they are happy with their choice to be one. Me, I'm having to go NFO because, no matter how bad I want to be a pilot, I just don't have the eyes for it., and at least I'll still be in the air as an NFO. I just love flying whether or not I'm in control of the aircraft.

 

[Brett327]

He said that lasik is the best way to go but I told him that the navy doesn't accept lasik for waivers. He said that PRK, in his opinion, doesn't have as good results as lasik. I didn't ask anymore detailed questions about it since he is the doctor and I would hope he knows what he is talking about.

Not all doctors are good ones. Get a second opinion from someone who does PRK.

Brett