Wise words
We used to get reservists flying with our E2 AD squadron for short dets, great crossover. They said the Skipper only told them to not spend all their cockpit time selling the airlines.
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Pilot shortage?
- Thread starter webmaster
- Start date
We used to get reservists flying with our E2 AD squadron for short dets, great crossover. They said the Skipper only told them to not spend all their cockpit time selling the airlines.
I feel like I disagree with most of this reserve premise. The amount of reps and sets it takes to be lethal across the VFA spectrum of missions is a full time job. In no way would I advocate for moving to a part-time capability. If anything, we need people to come and take over the collateral duties so the pilots can spend even more time on mission specifics.
The ANG begs to differ with your assessment.
So, flying warrants like the army.
That may be true, although as mentioned the ANG manages. Still, we are not talking about deploying on Friday and leading a division on a strike on Monday. We are talking leveraging the investment. Keep them flying and polish up the mission sets when needed. While it isn't a perfect analog to the modern VFA/VAQ, my Reserve SAU worked up the guys who would mob to the next VS squadron to deploy for Desert Storm. We were integrated into the squadron for key workups to include Fallon. It sure felt like we were up to speed. The CO had his reservists leading missions. In the end we didn't deploy with them but waited for a call. Never came. I also think that simulation technology would do a lot to keep the shine on skills, even if not polished. If not already a thing in Navy TACAIR, link up the sims across the country and you can train on Airwing level missions even if there isn't an appropriate range or enough players near NAS Hometown.
The SAU/reserve model works in a Cold War world with limitless money/resources.
It doesn’t work in 2020 when AD 1st tour JOs are barely hitting 1000 hours total time by the time they roll to shore tours. Adding more pilots into the mix with SAU/reserve units just going to take even more flight time and experience away from the fleet.
It doesn’t work in 2020 when AD 1st tour JOs are barely hitting 1000 hours total time by the time they roll to shore tours. Adding more pilots into the mix with SAU/reserve units just going to take even more flight time and experience away from the fleet.
VMO4
Well-Known Member
Not only that, but when I was living at home in Pensacola, there was a reserve C-9 squadron out of JAX I believe that would have scheduled flights from NAS Pensacola to NAS New Orleans on Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon to take reservist like me to and from drill, we got a small box with a Coke and a snickers bar on it usually, it helped defray the cost of being an E-3 and driving to NOLA each month. One of the chiefs told me one flight they also had hops to Warner/Robbins and other common drill locations, this is circa 1983.
But what about the 6-8 hours of mission prep prior to that? I know you have UAS experience, but everything I've been told by Predator folks is that they burn people out because of the mission prep, which happens either at the end or the beginning of your crew day, with the rest of the crew day doing the "operating."
It's an interesting idea, but it reminds me of when a SELRES would come in for a night flight after work, complain the D&T took 30 minutes longer than expected making them launch late, and then coming back on-time (even though they were allowed to fly the full bag) because they need to go to work the next day, and then complain how they didn't get all the hours they were supposed to.
It's very much a thing, but fidelity isn't the same, or not everyone is using the same game world. Historically, it's also been an issue to get the F-35 to play due to classification/network issues with everyone else.
VR-57 ran a milk run through Vegas, PHX and TUS. Although I did use it a bit when living in PHX and drilling at NASNI, I used it frequently when on AD at NASNI and dating the future Mrs Wink in AZ. After work drove over to the Terminal and flew space A to PHX to see her. Thought it was great. But I never saw a Coke or Snicker Bar.
This is essentially what some ANG units are now. For example, the Va ANG unit got rid of their F-16s when they moved away from Richmond. They're now an associate unit with the 1FW at Langley. They don't own any airplanes, but the pilots fill out the flight schedule for the F-22 squadrons, and augment those guys on deployment. Some of them might be flying the T-38 as red air- but I think those are generally ACC staff guys.
Can confirm. Having GCS's is also scalable, which gives some pressure relief to not only the AD guys but the other guard units as well. The community has the flexibility to interchange "deployed" units into the various AORs without much hassle. I can imagine the ass pain that would be involved if a manned unit found out they were picking up an ATO line in another AOR for 30 days starting in April.
Though I think you'll find that even the ANG MQ-9 units are much more like an AD squadron (manning-wise, not culture-wise) than that of a manned flying ANG squadron.
I'm not sure the ANG guys are as proficient as you may think them to be. For the fighter side, the most successful units are the A-10 and F-16 units who's primary mission is A/S. I have never worked a DCA lane against a peer threat with any ANG dudes.
In any case, ANG units possess a ton of active billets that make up the core of their cadre and the credentials to get those jobs usually include wearing a weapons school patch. My training officer is ANG flying Eagles and he owed a two year active commitment upon transition. Everyone at his unit is a weapons school grad.
Interesting. I was under the impression that the NGB actively put a stop to this. Historically units composed of primarily patch wearers have had higher mishap rates when compared to other squadrons with a more diverse makeup. It was also a catalyst for ANG units to have their own seats at the weapons school.
But on the flip side, units do have complete control over their own manpower- and guys can be the squadron commander for pretty much as long as want to once they're in the job.
Case in point- to get into Battle Creek for the last 3 years or so you pretty much had to be a gold wing wearing Navy/Marine pilot. At one point, every command billet from the Wing down was held by a prior Navy or Marine guy.
We don't have the airframes to do that, plus there's a huge overhead in training systems and specialized facilities that would be impractical and costly to replicate. There are efficiencies to consolidating T/M/S in relatively few geographic locations.