Your soon to be XO is good people, and so is the current XO. They know this isn’t ideal for anyone, so kick ass, take advantage of every opportunity you get, and support your fellow JOs as you all make the best of it while getting to say you were the last of your kind .
All, thanks for the helpful responses. Obviously, less than ideal position to be in but I have heard good things from multiple people about the current and incoming leadership so I'm hopeful it will end up working out.
Getting qualified as quickly as humanly possible seems like the best route to success. After having talked to some IP's in the squadron it seems like the current plan is that people who want a P8 transition will "probably" get one. I realize that this is only the plan and there are plenty of ways this could change based on performance/needs of the Navy.
As far as the hard down by 2025 it seems pretty likely. The FE syllabus has been shut off for a couple years, all the IP's have orders out in the coming months, less than a handful of P3's even in Jax for training, etc. so it would be a massive effort to ramp up production again. However, some have mentioned that VQ-1 might get extended slightly and the current people would stay with it for a year-ish longer if needed. Who knows.
For sure trying to avoid an early roll to shore duty.
Thanks for the help!