Agree, and since some on this board have no idea what this means... ENS have duty 1x/week with a shitty watch. JGs have duty 2-3x/month, no watch. Again, this is in port, underway is a different beast.
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Worst parts of Naval Aviation
- Thread starter afsf1
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Agree, and since some on this board have no idea what this means... ENS have duty 1x/week with a shitty watch. JGs have duty 2-3x/month, no watch. Again, this is in port, underway is a different beast.
Best of (Not standing the AIWO) / worst of (standing the AIWO)
AIWO story time.
Sometime during my stint on CAG 11 staff 91-93, we were once again standing up the Abe's AIWO watch schedule. One evening the IWO was required. A LT in the A-6 squadron reported to the Handler's spaces with his fellow air wing enlisted watchstanders. He took a look at the Handler's LPO/CPO, sitting in the Handler's chair of course, and politely and professionally informed him, "I am the AIWO and I will sit in that chair, thank you". The Handler's LPO/CPO took issue with that and the AIWO opened the ship's SOP/Instruction about the AIWO, pointed to a statement that the AIWO was the Handler's representative in all matters. The LPO/CPO left the spaces, a few minutes later the Handler arrived, read the instruction, thanked the AIWO and released him, and of course the air wing enlisted, for the night. CAG came into the CAG staff spaces the next morning and let me know that the Air Wing would not be standing AIWO any more. The CO of the ship had let him know at their morning meeting. All very cordial. That day I ran to ground what had happened. The story spread like wildfire and needless to say, the LT had his 15 minutes of fame...
AIWO story time.
Sometime during my stint on CAG 11 staff 91-93, we were once again standing up the Abe's AIWO watch schedule. One evening the IWO was required. A LT in the A-6 squadron reported to the Handler's spaces with his fellow air wing enlisted watchstanders. He took a look at the Handler's LPO/CPO, sitting in the Handler's chair of course, and politely and professionally informed him, "I am the AIWO and I will sit in that chair, thank you". The Handler's LPO/CPO took issue with that and the AIWO opened the ship's SOP/Instruction about the AIWO, pointed to a statement that the AIWO was the Handler's representative in all matters. The LPO/CPO left the spaces, a few minutes later the Handler arrived, read the instruction, thanked the AIWO and released him, and of course the air wing enlisted, for the night. CAG came into the CAG staff spaces the next morning and let me know that the Air Wing would not be standing AIWO any more. The CO of the ship had let him know at their morning meeting. All very cordial. That day I ran to ground what had happened. The story spread like wildfire and needless to say, the LT had his 15 minutes of fame...
As best described to me, Papa is CAG's duty stander, Romeo is the Ship's Captain's watch.....at least wrt flight ops. I haven't stood Papa, but on Romeo, you do comm checks, and you work with squadrons to get airplan changes and load plan changes approved (which can be the result of an emergency, mx problems, or potentially going the other direction as a result of mission tasking changes from the CSG leadership). You can also stand it on a helo/vertrep/nofly day and have absolutely no idea what is going on because you never learned how to read the HSM/HSC lines on the airplan
I think I know intuitively what a "LOG HIT" is, but maybe not.....
No.
The primary watch JO pilots stand is SDO. It starts slightly before flight ops, and ends after they are complete and all inventories, ops summaries, etc are finished. Ashore, it is pretty much the same deal. Either way, it is typically a 12-15 hr day, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. It involves a lot of extraneous stuff, but on the most basic level, you coordinate between maintenance, pilots, and when afloat, with air ops/CATCC/prifly/deck control to execute the flight schedule. It's the kind of watch where you have 2 hrs of nothing pressing, and then all of a sudden 3 people decide to call simultaneously, the Skipper needs you to do something, airman schmuckateli needs you to do his job for him and cant figure out that the SDO is not an appropriate person to call, and an in flight emergency is suddenly in progress.
As best described to me, Papa is CAG's duty stander, Romeo is the Ship's Captain's watch.....at least wrt flight ops. I haven't stood Papa, but on Romeo, you do comm checks, and you work with squadrons to get airplan changes and load plan changes approved (which can be the result of an emergency, mx problems, or potentially going the other direction as a result of mission tasking changes from the CSG leadership). You can also stand it on a helo/vertrep/nofly day and have absolutely no idea what is going on because you never learned how to read the HSM/HSC lines on the airplan
To add on, as Romeo on OEF fly days you'll also have to coordinate with the CAOC to amend lines on the ATO, send spares in country, and request tanker changes if needed. I hope you guys don't end up standing it on no fly days. It would be a complete waste of time, because our helo guys just did their comms checks on their own.
The worst part of Romeo or Papa is that you have a spotlight on you the whole day, so the airwing's problems for the day are your problems.
Probably back when he was an ET.
Sent from the bottom of the bottle.
Sent from the bottom of the bottle.
I did stand that watch. Actually, being in SUBDEVGRUTWO, took part in the development of the first "deep submergence mail buoy", the precursor of modern e-mail... debunking the Al Gore claim!
BzB
Yep, that is sort of what I was getting at. Then again, anytime you are within 10 miles of the ship, the spotlight of the airwing is on you as well
As for standing it no fly day, that wasn't the norm, just a good way to get some of us without previous PR experience a look at it when it wasn't real demanding.....at least that is what I assumed at the time
Actually, yes. It just means something different. But it's not a watch, just a line on the flight schedule during launches, recoveries, and post flight straightening.
707guy
"You can't make this shit up..."
If memory serves you're also "Squadron Movie Officer" responsible for procuring a good evening movie for the ready room...