Concur with greg, things change from week to week and class to class, plus you have to figure in that a large class size will enable the detailers to give everyone higher-ranked choices. We had a sizable number of prior aircrewmen in my class, and they all wanted HSL Mayport, which is good, because all of the single guys didn't. So most everyone got their #3 or higher choice.
As for what people want - well, for me, it came down to which communities had the happiest/best IPs, and in my experience, that was the HC guys. HS guys mostly liked their jobs, but there was some grumbling. And then there was HSL... I got told by more than one HSL IP "do not select HSL." I'm not sure if it's just the close association with SWOs that does it or what, but it was readily apparent that a good many HSL guys were not happy with their community. However, the priors loved it, and some guys really like the idea of going to smallboys. There used to be a perception that HS was where you go to insert SEALs and blow sh!t up in general, but I think that's sort of gone by the wayside with the transition to HSC/HSM. I tried to do some research on the transition from HS/HC/HSL to HSC/HSM, but information was sorely lacking... bevo and gator's exchanges in this thread have been way more informative as to the future of Navy helos than any IP I talked to, including the PXO for 8 who just came from HELTACWINGLANT (I think that's right... the HSC wing on the east coast.) One thing I was able to glean about the whole process is that most IPs I talked to about it think that the transition won't move as fast as the schedule calls for, and that it won't really change the way that everyone operates *that* much, deploying as a squadron aside.
As for spreads... well, there was 1 HSC West, 1 HSC Guam, 6 HSL Mayport, 3 HSC East, 1 HC-4 and one HM-14 on the Navy side of the house in the last winging class... and I forget about the Marines, except for my buddy who got his last choice - 46s in Okinawa. But that's another story, and definitely the exception to the rule of getting what you want.
Current scuttlebutt has it that HSL is tired of getting the dregs of the selection process, and has been aggressively pursuing a quality spread type approach to their pilots, resulting in an HSL draft for the past 3-4 classes. Like I said, it varies from class to class, and there's nothing that you can do about it.
Bottom line - do your homework, talk to people, put down your choices and don't worry about it after that.
@Bevo: from what I understand (and correct me if I'm wrong), but the flight deck is for fixed-wing ops and helos are 2nd class citizens when it comes to the way the show is run... that made me lean towards HSC vs. HS. Even though it'll be a crapshoot in a few years here.
