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EP-3 guys
- Thread starter Sabre170
- Start date
The Chief said:Great summary. Did not realize we were all that "strange" ...
You sat the in-line Chief? Like I said, some of the back-end guys were a little strange but a lot were good guys, and the Chiefs and WO's always treated me good. Your rate just seemed to have a few more interesting personalities than others. To balance that out though, you all had some of the nicer looking.....uhhhh.....personnel too
. Hey, it is a hell of a lot better to walk to the back to cook your lunch and see a pretty face than it is to see a bald Greek guy running down the tube in an SV-2 and boots, and that is it...........
Fezz CB said:
Man, don't let the possibility of Per Diem have anything to do with what platform you choose. It's nice to see a little extra money, but based on what Flash said, it looks like you'll be deployed about a 1/3-1/2 of the time you're in the squadron(typical for any community) Counting 3 years for a JO tour, 2-3 for DH, and 2-3 for CO/XO, assuming you have the most successful flying career ever, you're still only looking at per diem for about 3-4 years out of 20... which is a decent amount, but you're going to spend it all on booze anyways! And if you don't stay in community for that long, what have you sacrificed personally for just a little money? Research everything you can about the job and places to live, but leave per diem out of the equation. It would suck to take a job for money and realize later you made a mistake. I wanted P-3's out of Primary but didn't get it, so I chose the next fattest plane and couldn't be happier... But $$ never figured into my figuring!
FLASH, would you agree with me on this, or is the money enough to be worth considering as a major factor?
Although the per diem sounds very yummy, of course im not going to base my entire decision on money. I look at the overall mission of the platform, duty stations, talk to pilots/nfos from that platform, etc.
Another question: Does the platform you select (or the navy selects for you) have different impacts as far as being with family? I mean, if i went P-3s would i be home more often or get to see my family more.....versus if I went F-18s since they deploy with the boat?
Another question: Does the platform you select (or the navy selects for you) have different impacts as far as being with family? I mean, if i went P-3s would i be home more often or get to see my family more.....versus if I went F-18s since they deploy with the boat?
Some may argue that without having to go to the boat for deployment workups, you get more time at home. I can't speak to that, but the retreads we had all said their time at home was roughly the same due to extended dets and exercises on homecycle.
Now that VP is on the 12 month homecycle, 6 month "surge", and 6 month deployment run (at least last I heard), you may have more time at home. Keep in mind that VP will det at a moment's notice for pretty much ANY exercise, which could mean 2 days, could mean a month, during your "homecycle". The community is known for "helium hands", meaning when Big Nav asks "who wants in on this", everyone puts their paws in the air.
You're not going to see your family any more/less in VP than in any other community when it comes to deployment time. Your family isn't coming on the plane with you to Stankistan.
Now that VP is on the 12 month homecycle, 6 month "surge", and 6 month deployment run (at least last I heard), you may have more time at home. Keep in mind that VP will det at a moment's notice for pretty much ANY exercise, which could mean 2 days, could mean a month, during your "homecycle". The community is known for "helium hands", meaning when Big Nav asks "who wants in on this", everyone puts their paws in the air.
You're not going to see your family any more/less in VP than in any other community when it comes to deployment time. Your family isn't coming on the plane with you to Stankistan.
Speaking as someone who writes and schedules exercises, that is not the case anymore. If there (1) aren't the flight hours and (2) any "return on investment", ie crew quals/training, then VP ain't coming to the party. I have seen quite a few responses "no thanks, we aren't interested". Comes as quite a shock to the CSG/DESRON bubbas.zab1001 said:
I would say your time away from home for TACCAIR is about the same. For carrier-based squadrons, you perform your workup cycle and go on cruise as a unit with the airwing, so each squadron has (pretty much) the same time away from home.
You cold get sent to a squadron who's airwing just got back from cruise and isn't scheduled to go out again for 2.5 years... then you've got over a year at home until workups begin. I wasn't as fortunate. I joined CVW-14 as they were seven months into a ten month cruise... we got back and jumped straight into an accelerated workup cycle and went on cruise ten months later... when we got back from that 6 month cruise, we jumped straight into a full workup cycle and they just left without me headed for the gulf. I was also in Yuma almost two months for MAWTS. I was gone 20 months out of 3 I was with the squadron. A buddy of mine did exactly the opposite. He did nothing... I shit you not, nothing for 14 months, had an accelerated workup cycle, went on cruise for five months, and just got about 2 dets out of his next workup cycle before leaving the squadron. He was only gone about 8 out of 36 months. The carrier schedule is very dynamic and changes monthly... to say nothing if another major action happens somewhere, then all bets are off.
You cold get sent to a squadron who's airwing just got back from cruise and isn't scheduled to go out again for 2.5 years... then you've got over a year at home until workups begin. I wasn't as fortunate. I joined CVW-14 as they were seven months into a ten month cruise... we got back and jumped straight into an accelerated workup cycle and went on cruise ten months later... when we got back from that 6 month cruise, we jumped straight into a full workup cycle and they just left without me headed for the gulf. I was also in Yuma almost two months for MAWTS. I was gone 20 months out of 3 I was with the squadron. A buddy of mine did exactly the opposite. He did nothing... I shit you not, nothing for 14 months, had an accelerated workup cycle, went on cruise for five months, and just got about 2 dets out of his next workup cycle before leaving the squadron. He was only gone about 8 out of 36 months. The carrier schedule is very dynamic and changes monthly... to say nothing if another major action happens somewhere, then all bets are off.