The first two F-14 Tomcat squadron bubbas can tell you chapter and verse how this shitty this can be. Nine…count 'em..NINE LCDR's per squadron….some of whom were the Coffee Mess Officers. One of them was my "opposite number" when I was a LTJG CMO in VF-111 and he asked me to pick up their wooden aircraft models in Cubi Point...
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Oh, so very true and very sad!
These early 1st F-14 squadrons were seeded and way overloaded with pack+ number one super-star senior performers from their previous commands. Huge mistake! Suddenly all were fighting for promotion to 0-5 and command screening, etc. against each other. [The squadrons even invented a new, extra "department head billet" to soothe the infighting.] The "setting up" to back-stab a fellow squadron mate to get a better FITREP than him made the squadrons dysfunctional in their first iteration. It was really ugly and toxic.
There were only two JOs in my squadron at the time.
Fortunately they - the battling LCDRs - all rotated after the first cruise, and mostly disappeared. Nevertheless one of the only two JG nuggets among multiple LCDRs in my squadron rose to command, multiple stars and more even today...."Streak"