phrogpilot73
Well-Known Member
Whereas here, your misery could last a lifetime...And I would wholeheartedly agree with you!At least in the military you knew the landscape was going to completely change in 3 years, for better or worse.
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
officer retention
- Thread starter Fist Mollusk
- Start date
Never been out in the real world, have you?
Oh, I know the world is in no danger or running out of idiots...uniformed or otherwise...
MasterBates
Well-Known Member
Where do you think terminal LCDRs go when they retire? :icon_smil
The Simulator Building, The Aviation Museum (wait those are the 0-5s), and checking out Basketballs at the base Gym...
phrogpilot73
Well-Known Member
Or government contracting...The Simulator Building, The Aviation Museum (wait those are the 0-5s), and checking out Basketballs at the base Gym...
bolterking
Member
That is not always true. That used to be the mindset but now with BUPERS and quality spread, #1 EP's are getting orders to CNATRA whether they want to go or not.
I think the bigger issue here is the "HIGH BRASS" think CNATRA officer's are quote "Dirt Bags" and want to get out. Until the old guard mindset is changed, good Officer's and their careers will end but not by choice. I know too many that are dying to get back to the fleet and willing to sell sole and even take hard fill IA's but being denied. So yes while many are getting out while at CNATRA, the reason maybe forced and not volunteer.
That's seems to have always been the predominant perception. My sight picture is nine-years earlier than yours, but that was what our monitors/detailers were saying as well at the beginning. But I would have to say that it was about a 50/50 split on retention. And to ad to Bolterking's comments, of those that I know who stayed, the numbers to 0-5 are about 9 in 10! Sure, not many screened for command, but well over 90% made 0-5 after "surviving" a TRACOM tour. I see three of them weekly as VT COs or XOs, the rest I know are out there as 0-5s doing staff or base XO jobs. So TRACOM is not necessarily a career killer if you're looking at purely "promotion".
For most of them as helo guys, 0-5 is their glass ceiling anyway. Even if they screened for fleet squadron command, they're not going any further than 0-6 unless the planets are aligned.
FWIW, I fought tooth and nail to come back to the TRACOM for a second time. This wasn't no "non-vol".
Bolterking, Send me a PM.
I "got out" in '00 not because I was in the Training Command. I got out because the Navy was jerking me around. I asked the detailer to help me get somewhere that was win-win to the Nav. Out of spite or being power-drunk. She said "No, I'm going to send you where I want, and when I want to". Her quote. Seriously. Then I put in my papers, and guess what? She offered me exactly what I wanted and blocked my paperwork. Not because she was being nice, but because she was being punitive in thinking I was getting cr@ppy orders. She had already forgotten about my original request. But that's another story.
How about the Skipper promoting all his fair haired poster-boys and girls who were all getting out unbeknownst to him?!? Wasted EPs and #1s going down the drain and the rest of us pack plus players wanting 20 year careers left to shuffle through the carnage?
I got out because the realization that hard work, strong ethics, and the innate desire to do right wasn't enough to win at this game. I couldn't risk my job-security and long term career goals on something that didn't love me back. I didn't like the prospect of doing 20 years as a helo guy and have nothing to go to (flying wise) after the Navy was done with me.
In hindsight, that was my younger self doing all the thinking. But if I had stayed, I would have missed all the great opportunities and experiences of the past 7 years. But now I'm back and living Navy again. I almost can't ask for anything better than that.
Man, what is it about the Navy and training command?
I always wondered why so many of the Navy IPs I worked with had such chips on their shoulders. "If I take 1 more cross country, I'll have enough hours for IP of the month...uh...uh!" I guess they just thought they had to catch up to their buddies who went to the FRS.
"Chill out Clarence."
bolterking
Member
Actually CNATRA IP's will fly way more hours then RAG IP's. At least on TAC Air side. Almost double the hours per month.
bolterking
Member
Seems to be common thread. Difficult to work with detailers to get back to fleet. Also very difficult to get the fleet to want you back because been away from "tip of the spear" sort of speaking. I have had to put in a good word and use the good boy network to try to help old former buds try to stay in.
I will say it is getting better but still not perfect. BUPERS is now detailing "SM" special mission Department Head billets just like CO/XO's.
I think he's talking catch up career wise not hours wise.
For the record, I'm not one of those IPs. The reasons were varied, but the predominant ones were:
1. My 1,500 hours in this Fischer Price Turbo-Weenie-Whist'lin $h1tc@n 0' death is going to make me competitive for the airlines.
Uh ..that'd be NO Clarence...
2. The more hours I fly, and the more X's I produce the Skipper will love me more and my Daddy might really love me after all and make up for not hugging me when I was little.
Dream on, and you need some therapy. You need to define yourself outside what people tell you your self worth is on a FITREP.
Those are the two, with just a little tongue-in-cheek, reasons I saw in Primary IPs to fly just for logging hours and getting X's. It was rarely about quality instruction. It's self-critiquing when you take a kid out on a FAM (Contact) and have to utilize a radar departure, with a GCA to recover. What on Earth is the kid getting out of that sortie doing turn patterns using only sucker holes for "ground reference" up in the Delta or Juliette areas?!?:icon_rage
I always shake my head at "those guys." We're not all that way.