Anyone hear any good rumors about the results?
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FY2018 O-4 Board
- Thread starter NUFO06
- Start date
I would be curious to know how it works out. Had a buddy do it at the beginning, back in '11, said it was a bit of a shit show as they didn't quite know what to do with him. Kinda got hosed FITREP wise.
I think an alternate track for SMEs, where you can't go higher than O4 or O5 would be a good thing. Kinda like they were trying to do with the warrant officer thing, but have them be full officers so they can command a crew. If a guy had a lot of flying experience, maybe ONE non-joint staff tour, and a lot of fleet experience, I don't know how that couldn't benefit the squadron.
As much as I love the fact that i'll probably only work 10-12 days this month, I'd have gone back to a squadron if I could have just been an O4 SME, helping develop tactical expertise for crews, and focusing on the mission rather than all the other O4 BS, I'd have done it. I know going to the squadron is a lot of work and a lot of long days, but if I were divorced of the need to do a bunch of extra crap to get a good FITREP, and I could just focus on being tactically and aviation proficient, and teaching those things, it would have been very rewarding.
There is a need for the O4s who fight the readiness battle (to a limited extent, "readiness" is another screed for another thread), resources battle, and all the other shit associated with managing a squadron. Stuff they will need to know as a skipper. Unfortunately it means they often don't have the time to devote to flying and are often less proficient than JOs.
Way too soon for that. As much as it sucks, we'll all just have to wait. Any rumors would only serve to make you feel more insecure anyway.
Results will be released in September, again...
Thanks, I guess?
I'm not trying to be antagonistic, but trying to better understand what those things are. I was the maintenance officer for 13 months of my DH tour. My FITREP(s) were based on how well (or how poorly) I ran the maintenance department and led in the air. There were no reindeer games; just being MO and flying my face off. To be fair, I had a great front office who probably ate a lot of shit sandwiches so the rest of us could do just what I've described. My gut tells me that the community and individual squadron leadership determine a lot of this.
It's not an attack on you or anyone else. I just have yet to see any rumors about board results yield helpful or individually actionable information. I agree 100% that waiting 4-5 months for board results sucks hard.
It's not just your gut- I am hearing this over and over again as I get ready to start my DH tour: front office quality is a YUGE factor in one's enjoyment of a DH tour.
No worries. It's my second look, so I know the effect that rumors/conjecture can have. I just couldn't stand to see the adults in the room having a meaningful conversation.
you're totally right there! Across my peer group there were widely divergent DH experiences. One guy I know flew his ass off, did his ground job pretty well, and got hammered for flying too much - being told his focus was his ground job, not flying. Others had much better leadership who rewarded both. In all cases, there never seemed to be enough hours in the day to be good at both. Partly I think this is due to the excessive BS DH's have to track and deal with, i.e. readiness.
My experiences are generally VP-centric, so take that for what it's worth.
The FITREP thing is unfortunate in VP as we collectively get out of flight school way earlier than other communities, and as such a lot of the SMTIs/super JOs are not in the O-4 select crowd for a good portion of their tours. Some dudes even finish up before they screen. I have pretty traditional timing so once the list comes out in the fall I'll be in 1 of 1 land and will spend the last 6 months of my tour as a hinge. Day 1 here I literally had to dispel the rumors amongst JOPA that I would be an EP hog.
That being said, our community has issues managing this program, but those are best discussed over beverages.....
You pretty much described my last FITREP debrief.
I have all the flying a non-due course O4 could ever want. I have 4 gapped OP-T DH billets because the Navy hasn't been able to send an AD O4 to my command in 3 years. I have gapped billets for any O4 that aren't being filled. That's just where I am at. There are 3 other VTJ squadrons in similar circumstances. I would argue that the navy isn't making the best detailing choices for these folk. Send me the non-due course folks, we can get a great ROI on it. And it benefits both the Navy & the member who wants to fly.
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We'll have none of that!
Skipper signs the flight schedule. Managing distribution of flight hours is ultimately the CO's responsibility and should never be a hit on an individual.
Those good idea trackers and slideshows aren't going to email themselves back and forth between higher and lower echelons and otherwise spawn more trackers and slideshows. We are putting too much emphasis on warfighting in this thread. (Can someone quantify this emphasis in a one-page executive summary and have it back to me by COB today?)