And all after serving in real life as an Army infantry officer.
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USAF Enlisted Pilots, The Right Stuff, Stolen Bikes, AIC, and SWO pipe dreams.
- Thread starter Farva01
- Start date
And all after serving in real life as an Army infantry officer.
And the leader of the Dark Side.If memory serves me, he was also prior enlisted and did a stint with the Old Guard at Ft. Meyer.
We love our outliers around here. In your example I would take the OSC, since you said run-of -the-mill E-2 guy. Give me the option between the AIC LT on TOPGUN staff or the OSC and that one is a toss up.
Now take a group of 50 OS's and 50 NFOs and I'll take the tube rats every time. I've spent a bit of time on CRUDES or working with the OS's in port because they were not good. They were not bad because they wanted to be bad but because their leadership didn't give them the time to develop and refine their skills. We tried to take them to AIRWING Fallon with us but they weren't allowed because they literally had to stay back to chip paint. As a customer during many of those large scale, multi-national, ADEXs you spoke of I have been consistently disappointed by OS control. Not so much from the NFOs.
Like this guy! The only Navy enlisted sailor to ever receive the Navy Distinguished Service Medal for combat action.
If you're not already predisposed from eating ship food, OS controlled approaches to the back of the boat are a great way to shit yourself.
I think part of the problem is those TOPGUN OS controllers are supposed to go back to the fleet to teach the young'uns. I just don't think they are making enough of them. The OSC on CAG staff is supposed to be a level 5. I don't think I've ever actually seen an OS patch on CAG staff. I'm sure they exist but I never saw one. Those guys are the ones who are ultimately in charge of training the strike group's AICs.
exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
When I was recruiting enlisted years ago the OS's were the jobs people could get with very low ASVAB scores, some of the OS CPO's I dealt with were not the brightest, made my head hurt.
Huh...it's ironic...because they are about as close in spirit to enlisted pilots as you can get.
Non-technician rate, don't have to do any maintenance, and their main purpose in life is to learn how to operate various warfare areas IAW the TTP's and mash buttons.
I think FE’s are a much more realistic comparison, and I’d trust most of them (qualified) to fly in a pinch (in fact it was in my brief in case of an emergency affecting the other pilot on a PPT flight, I’d put the FE in the seat)...
Their job was to know the plane, fuel plan, and have good dick jokes...
This is a well informed post. OS's have to fight for controller spots in the schoolhouse with VAW and USAF guys. Guess who gets priority?
To my earlier point, an OS, with the same training and experience as an NFO, does just as well. When I need to task someone to chip paint, I'll pick the OS3, just ahead of the NFO. As a result, their AIC proficiency suffers a bit.
We're all products of our experience. The brown shoe navy is extremely parochial...to their own detriment.
An officer in a flightsuit must be better than an E-dog in blue cammies, right?
99.9% of the time, abso-fucking-lutely.
Well, the OS3 needs to maintain his paint-chipping proficiency as well. You don't expect aviators to do that shit, do you?