Why I fly what I fly...

[Sly1978]

I started this thread as a place where those of us with wings can talk about why we fly the particular aircraft we fly. What made us decide. That way the new guys can get a little bit more about the different communities. I don't want this to be a "I fly xxx because yyys suck!" type thing, but real reasons. Even if it's just that you got drafted into it. Also, for the more senior guys, how happy you are now with your decision.

 

[Sly1978]

Mh-60s

I decided to fly helicopters about half-way through primary. I was in the student ready room at VT-6 reading a "Naval Aviation News" when I came upon an article about the tsunami relief effort in Indonesia. I realized that everyone in the article were helo bubbas. So I wondered what the jet guys were doing, and realized that they were probably flying "Red-on-Blues" over the carrier (turns out they weren't really flying at all to keep the decks clear for humanitarian stuff). That's when it occured to me that that was the kind of flying I wanted to do. In the dirt, with the people. Granted, in the HSCs I'll be doing a lot more ship-to-ship stuff, but I'll still be in a SAR capable aircraft and be in a position to save lives.

Another reason for my choosing helos is a conversation I had with a C-2 pilot shortly after I started primary. He told me to look around at the people that wanted to fly the various platforms. Those are the types of people that I would be spending the rest of my career with. So if I found myself with more in common with one group or the other, that's what I should think about. As it turns out, I think my personality is much more suited to helos than to jets.

The reason I put HSC-25 out of Guam as my number one choice in advanced was because I wanted to go overseas. I also decided that HSC would be a good place to be with the changes going on in helos right now. The other reason for HSC is that during all of flight school, I encountered two instructors that I really had problems with. One was a good guy, just not a very good instructor. The other, in my opinion, has no redeeming value as a human being. I won't name names, but they were both HSL guys. That skewed my opinion, even though I did meet a lot of really cool HSL pilots as well.

 

[bunk22]

I'll be honest, I came into this Navy to fly jets, period. I easily made the 50 NSS cut (easily I say since I never had issues in flight school or struggles) but got drafted into the E2/C2 pipeline. I was a bitter dude but continued for the wings of gold. Earned those, went to VAW-120 and actually wanted E-2's west coast, being that's where I was from. I still had in my head to transition to jets as soon as I could. Well E-2's were not available but the E-2 Japan slot was. Nobody wanted it but decided to take a C-2 slot west coast. By the end of my second cruise, the dream of transitioning to something else was gone. The COD life was good. First cruise was a bit different with us staying onboard all 6 months, flying day and night. We called ourselves VAW-30. Second cruise, 3 months onboard, 3 months Bahrain and that sold me right there. My last two deployments, we spent 90% of our time on the beach. Great times, even while being in charge as OIC with all the crap that goes with it.

I'm done flying COD's and in the end, no regrets. Being married with a kid meant more family time being a COD guy. Good times on cruise while still being a carrier pilot, albeit a trash hauler. I would say though I wish I had flown either T-2's or T-45's as an IP between my sea tours but unfortunetly it didn't turn out that way. Would have been nice to have a break in the middle to fly a different platform for a while.

 

[kmac]

I was along the same lines as bunk, although I came in much later and am still much better looking. I wanted jets, and was assured by most of the IPs in VT-2 that it was a sure deal. In fact, the skipper of the squadron had previously promised anyone with a 55 NSS that he would guarantee them a jet slot. Then I rolled out with a 66 and found myself in the E2/C2 pipeline. At first I was pretty disappointed, and had the "screw the Navy mentality." That's when I slowly but surely went toward the COD vice the E-2. Not getting jets has been the best thing to happen to me. On my two deployments, I've spent the majority of time on the beach and have made a good chunk of per diem. I live in San Diego and get to enjoy having a real city as a backdrop as opposed to driving down to LA (for the Mugu guys). The community is much smaller than that of the E2, but we definitely still consider them our brothers/sisters. The guys you cruise with have a big impact on how that cruise goes. You get the right mix of guys, and every night on the beach can be a blast.

Professionally, I would argue that flying the COD has unique challenges that the rest of the airwing doesn't see. It's not all golden on the beach. You have CAG, Supply, the ATO, Flag Ops, and whoever else trying to get a say on your mission. Then you have air ops and strike ops having to argue with everyone else on who exactly has priority in dictating the COD mission. Even on the beach, dealing with embassies, foreign nationals, and of course the clearances required to fly from place to place can all be a headache. Some guys to work with are great, some guys just don't speak English very well. So when you end up being late to the boat because the DV's were late or ATC was a pain... it's still your fault. That's hard to explain to the boat who deals with nothing except themselves. That part of the job can be quite frustrating. That's why after a long day it's so mission critical to go have yourself an ice cold beer in that 4 star hotel.

 

[MasterBates]

I was in a similar boat to KMAC, 67 NSS, was told "whatever you want, you get" by the squadron.

I selected E2C2, but when I was in ground school, they kicked a bunch of us off to helos and P3s due to the advanced part of training being really backed up. Ended up in helos, 72 NSS out of Advanced (I was a comm helo pilot) and got HSL-East, my next to last choice. Had fun on my 2 cruises (Gulf on the JFK's shotgun cruiser in 04, and BALTOPS) but the ashore part of my tour was, how can I say, less than stellar. Partially due to a psychotic spouse, partially due to me doing a couple boneheaded things.

I applied 3 times to the Warfare Speciality Transition Board, asking for VFA or VRC/VAW. I got picked up on the third board for E2C2, and am waiting to go to Krock for the T-45.

I have been given the JO equivalent of a "do over" and I intend to use it to its fullest.

 

[HarveyBirdman]

Beautiful Thread Rep points to sly.

 

[MasterBates]

Does Harvey giving you rep reduce yours?

 

[HarveyBirdman]

Ouch, I hope not...

or was that a joke?..lets not thread jack this.

 

[Sly1978]

Does Harvey giving you rep reduce yours?

Actually, the funny thing is, it still added to my rep, but as a grey box instead of green. Hey, I'll take it. Thanks Harvey.

 

[A4sForever]

Simple ... I wanted to go to war. (?)

Ahhhh ..... The foolishness of youth .... so that basically eliminated VP and HS from serious choices for me .... althought VP was my original thinking (think: airlines later on) .... so when the cut came, my grades were Jets.

Hoooyah .... I got Jets. Most guys wanted Jets for the same reasons that I did ....

Sooooooooo .... the closer I came to reality ... like finishing the RAG and CQ'in, when the Wing assignment officer called me in and said ... "pack your bags, update your will, you're going by yourself, you're gonna be in Cubi in a week .... you'll pick up the squadron on Yankee Station .... .... "

VP looked pretty damn good .... but times passes .... and timing .... timing .... timing .... I still got that big silver cloud ... the 747.

 

[wink]

I went to VT-10 wanting F-14s, but really wanted anything with a tailhook. Made the cut to jets out of VT-10. By time we came up on the pipeline cut between what was then TacNav (VAQ,VA,VS) and RIO I went with TN because the pipeline was shorter and having flown some low levels at that point, bought into the speed is relative thing. Didn't see the point in going Mach 1 if there was no reference to the ground. My thinking was A-6s. Didn't want Prowlers because of the additional time you had to spend at Cory Station for EW school. I wanted out to the fleet as soon as possible. When I finally put in my dream sheet I flipped the order and asked for Vikings first, but would hve been very happy with Intruders. Basically, it was because I decided I wanted to live in San Diego or Jacksonville. I got VS east coast. The RAG was single site at North Island so when I got there I found a prior enlisted guy that had been a P-3 AW from JAX and they gave him a west coast squadron. Believe it or not, we actually got a detailer to switch our orders. Both of us were happy campers. VS was a good choice for me. I enjoyed qualifying in two different seats, the occasional stick time (I was a civilian pilot), the variety of missions and flying a fairly new aircraft (it had bugs though). There were also lots of officers to rotate through the watch bill .

 

[TurnandBurn55]

I wanted two things: an ejection seat and guns. That narrowed down the options.

 

[Flash]

The first time around in flight school I had a little bit of a hard time adjusting to things and I was not having a lot of fun by the end of primary. I thought long and hard about it, since I wanted to fly jets, and I put in and got Maritime Nav. I got to Randolph and learned the AF way of doing things for 7 months. During that time we found out a lot about the three platforms that we could go to and since I was, and still am, very interested in intelligence I chose EP-3's. I loved my tour and had a blast, but I still felt the pull of jets.

I put in for a transition and got picked up the first time around (there are not too many NFO's who put in for it). I figured I had matured in the intervening years and had become a little wiser and was ready for another challenge. I put in for VAQ because I still liked the EW world and liked the guys I knew in VAQ. I had a blast in Pensacola the second time around and had a hell of a lot of fun in Prowlers.

I don't regret either of my choices, they were the right ones at the right time. I can't complain about flying for 8 straight years with some of the finest people I have ever known. It's been good.......

 

[nittany03]

Can't comment on the flying yet because I haven't classed up . . . but I got Prowlers because I fit. Not that I'm complaining; it was my first choice. But that's what it came down to in the end. Not grades, anthros.

Went in to flight school wanting jets. Tomcats, specifically, but I wasn't going to be picky. Logged 1.0 in the backseat of a Tomcat on my mid cruise doing a low level on the VR-something-or-other in El Centro. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven. But then the last of those slots dried up and I was still in A-pool. But I still knew I wanted jets. Went through IFS and Primary and got 'em. During advanced, I really sat down and gave it thought and talked to IPs about the communities.

About the beginning of Phase II, I decided that I did, in fact, want to be a Prowler pilot. I wasn't keen on the whole single-seat thing, to be honest. Also, my degree was in Information Sciences and Technology, and I'd gotten a couple quarters of grad work in Information Operations while in A-pool. Seemed like something to continue doing. And while ACM and Weps were fun, I felt it was more in line with my personality to be the sneaky guy back there zapping people. Had also logged 1.0 or so in the backseat of the Prowler as a stash Ensign, plus some sim time. So it was a semi-known quantity.

It was funny to note the IP reactions when they asked me what I wanted to fly in Phase II. One guy essentially asked "are you sure? I mean, you seem like you'll handle an F/A-18 pretty well . . . " like he thought I was nervous about ACM or somesuch. Nope, just wanted to fly the station wagon.

But despite all that thought and philosophical angst, it came down to one thing. I fit. There were three Prowler slots to fill the week I selected. Two guys, me and a guy in my class, were the only guys in either wing who fit. So the third slot remained empty until the next winging and ended up being a gift to my other buddy who also wanted Prowlers. And to top it all off, a third guy I knew wanted Prowlers but was about an inch out of anthros. Along comes CNATRA relaxing the standards, and he, too, gets his first choice.

Of such randomness are Navy careers made.

 

[scoober78]

Of such randomness are Navy careers made.

Best Navy career statement ever...