I've tried to look this up before, and never have found a definitive answer;
The catapult officer is an aviatior, but is that a full time job on a particular cruise? Or does that officer also fly with a squadron as well? From reading this site it seems as if being an LSO is a plus, is the catapult officer job considered a desirable billet?
The Catapult Officer, more commonly referred to as a Shooter is typically a 24 month disassociated sea tour as part of ship's company. NFOs and pilots typically fill the shooter billets, but on my boat we also an LDO Aviation Boatwain's Mate qualify as a shooter too. There was an LDO AB in my class at shooter school, and when I went TAD to another boat, they had an LDO shooter. You definitely won't be flying as a shooter, unless you're flying off the boat in the back of a COD to go home on emergency leave, or you're at the end of your tour. If you have an ejection seat qual you may be able to get a cat shot and trap. The prowler squadron on my boat hooked a couple of shooters up. When I first checked in for my boat tour, we had 7 shooters, and only one was a pilot. We all came from the P-3, EP-3, and E-6B (TACAMO) community. By the time I left, we'd picked up a couple of helo pilots, an EP-3 pilot, and a Prowler NFO. When I first accepted my shooter orders, it was still pretty much a hard fill billet, but now it's tough to get shooter orders. Just about everybody from land based acft want to be a shooter. If you have to go to a boat for a non-flying tour, this is absolutely the best job. Although we have some interaction with the shoes, it's not nearly as bad or as much as the other boat jobs. For general quarters, shooters typically do like the Air Wing JOs and hang out in our staterooms in "shooter alley", unless of course, you're on deck shooting.
