zab1001 said:
I've had Skippers expressly forbid it.
Ditto... P3 operations have changed alot in the last decade, with an emphasis away from the pure ASW, until we have become the "jack of all trades". Now, instead of just the CSG wanting our services, you also have the Marines and Army asking for assistance. Now, this get back to why CO's are forbidding wives to come out and visit. The traditional single or dual det site scenario has changed, and now you have dets all over the place (yes, I know VP has done that in the past too). The other half of it, we (along with the rest of the Navy), are on an operational/war footing when we head off onto deployment. The last thing the CO wants, is for dependents trying to come out during deployment and disrupting his crews.
Maybe there are some old VP bubbas on here that can expound on the golden days, but those are GONE. We don't have the hours on the aircraft anymore, so good bye log runs back to Hawaii (insert home station) so a crew could get training in the sims and see family, and of course pick up parts. Gone are the dets to airshows (still happens, but looked at alot more closely, and not nearly as frequently).
Everything is now on the focus: what is the mission priority? can the crews achieve any readiness/quals/training from those flight houts? is this mission/det supporting Tier 1 commander's tasking?
Back to the original question.
I do not believe any deployment is easy on the spouse or family back home. I would say that being in the VP community has one possible advantage that makes it a little easier:
Connectivity. The ability to call home on the phone, or be called, throughout deployment. For the majority of the det sites (yes, there ARE exceptions), you will have excellent connectivity, either with your own room, or dedicated areas in the squadron for everyone to use internet/phone 24/7. This is not to say that there have been great strides in recent years in the surface community with the expansion of unclassified internet connectivity and phones at sea. But depending on location at sea, status of the ship, weather, and if the CO decides to turn it off, you may not have the same degree of connectivity.
Concur with Zab's statement. I was a qualified PPC sitting 2P, and we had a brand new 3P. We landed at location XXXX, there was a VP reserve squadron waiting for us with a huge cooler of beer, and wouldn't you know it, we needed to do maintenance turns on the plane. Well, said 3P doesn't drink, never went out with us, and in this case, surprise, his girlfriend flew out unbenknownst to anyone and was at the hotel already waiting. He ran down to the cooler and popped open a beer and started drinking, just to get out of the maintenance turns.... Yeah, he won alot of friends that day, and left a lasting impression.
Yes, depending on location, and what the CO's policy is, you MIGHT have the window of opportunity to fly the spouse out. But, you are gambling, someone could get sick, your ready day could get launched and you could be somewhere else on the globe when your spouse arrives. Also the question on where to stay, some just use the BOQ room (in many cases against the CO's orders), others pay for another room at a hotel. Some ppl pull it off, or don't get caught. Others get busted, and the front office loses faith in them, with consequences that Zab mentioned.
On my last deployment, as PPC, I flew my wife out. I KNEW the schedule, had enough seniority in the squadron, to pull it off. My wife still ended up waiting for my crew to arrive for 3 days at the hotel (I have the credit card bill from the shopping to prove it). But, it was a great det location, and I was fortunate for the week we were there to have banker's hours flying.
Hope that info helps. But, I think you should be deciding what platform you want to fly on other factors, such as the mission it is involved in and the aircraft characteristics/crew dynamics.
John