Between the Double Anchor dudes claiming their 1000 and O-6's downright abusing their rank to _steal_ traps from the JO's who deserve them I won't be re-upping my tailhook membership. Stuff like this defames my fraternity.
(disclaimer: Im not a NFO hater, god lets not start this f***ing argument please, I know we couldn't do some of the missions without them, in my world they should get to count every night trap they could see out the front of the airplane, and traps above O-5 should count as a CAG only... 2cents).
RANT ALERT
Gee, there's so much to work with here...where do I begin?
"I'm not an NFO hater, but..." That sounds as sincere as "I'm not a racist, but..." Guess what? If you weren't, you wouldn't feel the need to disclaim.
What makes you think JOs "deserve" traps? They may need them more to gain experience, and leadership may think JOs need them for retention, but I don't see where they "deserve" Jack.
Many moons ago I flew with the Carrier Group Commander (1-star). Not sure why you don't think his traps count. Does he incur less risk than any other Naval Aviator by virtue of his rank? Flying every few days gave him a different perspective on the readiness and capability of the ship / air wing team. If anyone "deserved" to get out of the office for the day and log a 2.2 and a trap, it ought to be the Old Man, in my opinion.
As for the "NFOs don't rate traps" diatribe, that's a bunch of crap. Granted, they should call them something else, like "trips."
Just remember, on your worst pass behind the boat in the fleet in the Tomcat, whether it was you who was AFU, or the Boat, or the weather, or just "because," there was some poor SOB riding shotgun. He / She may have been nothing but 200# of dead weight, or he / she might have been the only thing that helped you from becoming a statistic that flight. Regardless, they earned the recognition.
Finally, while one can argue that as a Naval Aviator progresses, he / she gains experience such that each trap may become less of a personal challenge (something I don't believe as each trap is probably a unique event), the lowly NFO often finds that as his / her experience increases, they get the pleasure of flying with Shakey Jake, or FUBAR, or a cast of other marginal pilots who need some special attention to avoid becoming a statistic or being sent home.
In my short flying career before I left active duty I got to fly with:
- CAGs who didn't know what / where most of the switches were.
- DCAGs who when in a pinch would want to do Bold Face EPs for their primary aircraft, instead of the one they were in.
- Flag officers whose vision was shot.
- Foreign Exchange pilots who had 3000+ hours in F-104s, Tornados, etc, but who had a real hard time w/ meatball, lineup, AoA.
- CAG Paddles (Hawkeye guy) who wanted to cross train in the A-6E, and got overwhelmed on a varsity day, and had to learn waveoff technique, bingo profile, and in extremis first time ever tanking off an S-3, all in one flight, and then land on the boat. (No slight on the E-2C bubbas - a jet guy put in a Hawkeye would have been set up for failure that day as well).
- The RAG student pilot who attrited the first time at the boat and now you need to be NFO, co-pilot, cheerleader, and child psychologist so he can get the gremlins out of his head.
How magnanimous of you to allow an NFO to get credit for a night trap if he is fortunate enough to get a seat with a view. Before you pontificate any further, perhaps you might want to volunteer for an E-2C NFO appreciation ride back in the tunnel on a night trap. I've known the names of "Moles" lost at sea in two different Hawkeye bolter mishaps where the plane went off the angle into the great unknown...
Give me a break.
End of rant.