Originally posted by Steve Wilkins
Your ground jobs are SWO's collateral duties.
Ok, first off, GROUND JOB = COLLATERAL DUTY.
It is same shipboard as it is in the aviation community (I have seen both as you know Steve). Your primary job is qualification in your warfare specialty. You are given a set time to get your warfare pin, if you don't do it in the time allotted, "see ya!". In my case, if I didn't make 2P by 12 months, or the final upgrade to PPC in 24 then I can expect a FNEB and possible departure from Naval Aviation. Same goes for submarines, you don't get your dolphins (silver or gold) by I believe 12 months (been awhile), the command loses its silver or gold dolphin pennant and you might be pulled from the community.
You have your PQS, you have your training flights (same thing as you being scheduled for JOOD or standing engineering watches), but then there are many other flights that you are doing your #1 job, and that is to fly and get the missions done. When all is said and done, you just finished that 3 hour preflight, 7 hour tactical mission, and 1 hour post flight, then you go back to your desk and find a pile of work waiting for you on your collateral duties, or in the case of aviators, it is called our "ground job". Depending on what ground job you have at a given moment determines in a way how it important/priority it is compared to your main job of flying. Legal Officer or Safety Officer are two reactionary billets, if something happens, you are more than likely going to get pulled from whatever event you had on the flight sked, and scramble to put the fires out, or provide answers/solutions to the CO and chain of command.
In the end, we both have the same tasks to do as junior officers and what is expected of us:
1. Qualify in your warfare specialty (w/o that you are useless to your community)
2. Perform your mission (whether it is standing watch or flying planes)
3. Tackle your collateral duties/ground job
And speaking of FITREPs, my last two centered around my warfare qualification, flight hours, and missions I participated in. Secondly were my "collateral duties/ground jobs" (Legal Officer and then Strike Officer). You could be the best damn Tac Pubs Officer, or PAO, but if you don't qualify on time, pass your quarterly NATOPs exams, do well on your check rides, or keep up with the PQS or flight syllabus, god help you. That stellar work in your ground job won't mean **** for your FITREP. Now if you juggle both (or several, I had multiple ground jobs) well, then of course you are going to have a much better FITREP and get ranked ahead of your peers.
As for GQ, well, you train in Damage Control and fighting to save the ship, or preparing to "fight the ship", as the case may be. Well, when we go flying, it is not just to burn JP8. Every event I fly on we run our emergency procedures. Fire on the ground with a full tactical crew, ditching procedures, bailout procedures, fire of unknown origin in flight. Same type of fun that I experienced on board ship, and they both do the same thing, prepare us so to face the unexpected. That just encompasses the crew, but we train just as hard in the flight station, from practicing 2 or 3 engine landings, no flap landings, or simulated prop/engine malfunctions. So, where I am going with this? You stumble across a flight crew sleeping in their berthing while you are running your shipboard drill. And you complain, why are they living the high life, and getting out of it? Well, what do you think they were doing while you were watching a movie in the wardroom and they were running flight ops?
