Thought I'd weigh in here. Just completed a P-3 tour at Whidbey. First off, the P-3 culture frowns on anything "fun". It is the "shoe" aviation community. The planes are so bad, that they are throwing them in the trash can for fear of the wings falling off. If you are on home cycle(aka not in the god@amn desert), you will only fly once or twice a month due to lack of aircraft etc..., so you will have more time to do your primary and secondary jobs of being a dept head's bitch (all of them, not just your dept head). I am in the VT's now, and talking with my peers fresh off of sea duty, I realize that I was wrong in thinking that Naval Aviation peaked in the 80's and has now become a Politically Correct shadow of itself. Naval Aviation is fine, the P-3 community has AIDS. Run!!! Run as fast as you can to ANY other platform!!!!!