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There is probably a very low likelihood of that happening, according to her profile she is a SNFO. ;)

I respectfully request a withdrawl of my previous comment. Instead replace with "Get some surgery. Enjoy the med down. Then join me in South Field. We'll have fun."

~D
 
Good luck. Having been in your shoes, compromise will become part of either your vocabulary or your spouse's very quickly. I was already 8 years into my platform when my wife and I married and she went off to P-Cola. We both compromised at each step of the way after that but still had some fun tours colocated, such as Puerto Rico. She was a pilot in the pre-women at sea days, so it was a bit easier.

To follow up on a previous comment in this thread, my recommendation is either P-3's or E-2's, with a leaning toward P-3's. Maybe not as many as Norfolk or Port Hueneme, but there are lots of CEC billets around JAX and Barber's Point, and your shore tours can probably be better accommodated. My feeling is if you are going to be stuck in a tube, better to be shore based that haze gray and underway. Besides, nothing against any of our E-2 types, but I'd personally hate a night trap in the back of an E-2, unless it was MasterB flying!
 
Basically, my knee-jerk concerns about the other platforms are:
1. P-3... It seems everyone who wants P-3s is doing so for the per diem or to not go to sea, both of which aren't important to me. I don't do things for the money, and going to sea... well, that just seems what someone in the Navy would do.

I wish this would go away. $3.50 a day in perdiem is NOT a reason to go P-3s. I don't care what base you end up on, it looks right now like you will spend some or all of any deployment somewhere hot and sandy and not Hawaii. Some of us have no aversion to going to sea. These are not reasons to go P-3s, but I wouldn't let the attitudes of other SNAs/SNFOs who haven't started Primary sway you in one direction or the other.
Go P-3s because you like the mission or because you like the idea of flying with a crew.
Really, any platform has opportunities for co-location with CEC. With Brunswick going away, Jax, Whidbey, and Hawaii are even better options.
 
I'd object, but you're kinder to us old 46 dinosaurs than some other folks on this board.
Hey now! The old girl is HARDLY a dinosaur, while the Navy may have sold its soul to the Sikorski Devil, the USMC is still flying her strong - and will be for quite a while! Even if the USMC did sell their soul to the Bell-Boeing devil...
 
Per diem these days is not what it used to be. As far as not going to sea, good chance you're gonna trade that for a stint in the desert. Keep that in mind.

Sorry to jack the thread, but why is per diem less of a factor these days? I know that all platforms, including P-3's, are spending more time in/around Iraq and that there is a very good chance of getting an IA (from most communities, especially P-3's), but I don't understand how that would affect per-diem on a regular deployment.

This isn't to say that per-diem should play a major factor in one's service selection decision, but I was just curious as to the change. Thanks.
 
Sorry to jack the thread, but why is per diem less of a factor these days? I know that all platforms, including P-3's, are spending more time in/around Iraq and that there is a very good chance of getting an IA (from most communities, especially P-3's), but I don't understand how that would affect per-diem on a regular deployment.

This isn't to say that per-diem should play a major factor in one's service selection decision, but I was just curious as to the change. Thanks.

A regular deployment these days involves the desert.

Per diem is less there. VP spends less time in the places that used to be known for more per diem. Make sense?

As far as P-3s providing more IAs, dunno where you came up with that.
 
Hey now! The old girl is HARDLY a dinosaur

No worries, brother, I was talking about guys around here who talk about 46 pilots as dinosaurs. I'll be the first to say that tail rotors are an inherent design flaw...
 
Sorry to jack the thread, but why is per diem less of a factor these days? I know that all platforms, including P-3's, are spending more time in/around Iraq and that there is a very good chance of getting an IA (from most communities, especially P-3's), but I don't understand how that would affect per-diem on a regular deployment.

This isn't to say that per-diem should play a major factor in one's service selection decision, but I was just curious as to the change. Thanks.

See comment about $3.50/day. We are hearing we are ponying up more IAs than other communities, don't know if that's truth or just whining. IAs are separate from deployment and have nothing to do with per diem and regular deployment.
 
No disrespect, but those damn navy guys...

It is all good, I'm sure the only thing the marines tolerated about me on my disassociated was my love of the phrog.
 
$3.50 may not seem like much when your P-3 squadron gets sent to the sandbox, ... but you'll sure get one hell of a nice tan while you're there.
 
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