Q's for all CH-53D/K-Bay Marines

[teufelsurfer]

I'm looking for the scoop on the 53D communities in hawaii, as well as current info about living/working in hawaii.

Currently in the 53E RAG in New River, as they disbanded the 53D rag in K-Bay and are making all the Delta RACs do the echo syllabus. Should be in HMH-363 in October or so.

Specifically:

1. Current deplyment cycles of the deltas. Our sponsors in 53D squadrons are telling us rumors that Ds will now be deplying to support OIF by next year and are reducing deployments for UDPs in Japan and Southeast Asia.

2. Differences between the 53D and 53E. Are limitations/EPs/flight handling anywhere close to each other? What's the AFCS system like?

3. Are most 1stLts renting or buying housing? Going rates in K-Bay?

4. How long is the commute time from say, honolulu? North Shore? Waikiki?

5. Should I bother shipping my POV over there and waiting for a few months before it shows up or are auto prices (along with everything else) stratospheric?

6. Command climate- How's the atmosphere around the squadrons? Does it live up to the stereotypes of the laid-back Hawaiian image? How many hours can we expect to fly a month?

7. Social life- is everyone married or are there a lot of single marines? Is it easy to escape the military scene?

8. How hard is it to travel from island to island?

9. What's the maintenance status of the D's? I have this image in my head that they're being held together with duct tape and 550 cord. What's their current avionics package- any gps or ils?

Anything people can comment on would be great. We're the first ones to go through the 53E rag before going to the deltas so we have no clue what is going on or what to expect.

FYI for those in deltas right now expect a steady flow of RACs. We have 4 in the pipeline at the rag right now and two more that apparently selected in the HTs yesterday.


Military Acronym Decoder:
UDP- Unit deployment program (go to japan and SE asia to give air support to exercises with foreign militaries
RAC- replacement air crew, ie 1stlt out of flight school with wings
rag- replacement air group, 1st stop for 1st lt's out of flight school
'deltas'= CH-53D helicopter
k-bay= marine corps air station kaneohe bay, hawai
pov- your car or truck
ht's= helcopter training squadrons. The last step in flight school for future helicopter pilots before they get their wings

 

[Gatordev]

I can't comment on the Marine specific stuff, but as for K-Bay stuff, I just left. Here's some answers:

3. Housing sucks. Good luck. It's not that you can't find something that's near your BAH and/or COLA, especially if you plan on having a room mate. It's that you can't find anything, period. Personally, I've lived too long w/out a roomate, so when I got kicked out of my place last April, I was looking for something I could afford and want to live in. It's tough. A cinder block 1 or 2 bedroom in the "local" part of Kailua goes for around $1200-$1800. And that's not probably a part of Kailua that's "optimum." Kailua is definitely the place you want to live, if you can. Kaneohe is a bit more local and a little more traffic and drive to work, but doable. Personally I think it's hotter there, too. www.retalsillustrated.com is a good website. I just did a search for Windward Oahu, and came up w/ 3 listings. at least 2 of those are probably already gone. Good luck, but it's worth it if you're persistent. I ended up in Lanikai (in the ritzy part of Kailua) on block from the beach, and across the street from the Paul Mitchel estate and I think Michelle Pfiefer's house.

4. Commuting from North Shore is a haul, probably at least 50 minutes, but don't quote me on that. Honolulu is better if you can get to the H3, probably 25 minutes in the morning, shorter during the day. Waikiki is more of a pain because of the traffic and no direct route. You'd probably have to take the Pali to get over the mountain, which is much slower than the H3 during rush hour. Kailua is really nice, so if beach and surfing is your game, you can still do it on the windward side, and then go to the other places on the weekend or evenings.

5. If you want a new car, it's kind of up to you on how you want to play it. Prices are higher in HI, but at least then you're not shipping a new car you bought in the states. Experiences w/ Matson (car shipper) are mixed. I had one tiny scratch that's hard to see on my bumper when I got out there. Not even worth fixing, but Matson payed me for it, so I was happy. A guy in my squadron had his car dropped, and you could tell. I'm sure there's stories in between. When I shipped it there, it was from San Dog to HI. Coming back, it was HI to Orlando, FL, so a lot more transit time, but the car was just how I left it, so I was very happy.

However, if you're happy w/ the car you have now, just ship it early and borrow someone elses or get a rental for a bit. It's much better to have your car in HI and rent on the mainland than the other way around.

6. Not being in the squadrons, I'm only going on what I've heard from the husband of someone in my squadron... His complaint was that the Marine maintainers weren't as "motivated" as say the infantry enlisted guys that are on base too. This guy became a FAC, and appreciated the grunts being more "Marine" than the maintainers. I can imagine this, as the maintainers seemed more half-assed, shall we say, when I'd see them out on line, compared to our Navy guys. Again, that's just me talking.

As for the pilots, the guys I knew from flight school as well as the ones I'd interact w/ at the club were usually pretty cool. You'll get the hardasses, of course, but that's true everywhere.

7. I wouldn't say it's easy to escape the military scene on Oahu, but it's easy to find something to do. I never got island fever, and I didn't even go to the other islands that much. Living there is just awesome, once you get over some of the local weirdness (why do I need to drive 25 MPH on a 4 lane divided road?).

8. Island hopping is a piece of cake, as long as you can get the time off. The -53Ds are deploying now, so it's busier than before, but I still think you guys have more at home time than us or the P-3 guys. And just a word of warning. Some of those pilots on the local airlines like Aloha are pretty shifty. They seem to spend more time surfing the 'net than actually flying...

9. Maintenance status? You mean they do maintenance on those things?

One more thing on living arrangements. Yes, it sucks trying to find a place, but the Q sucks even more. Can you say "ghetto?" Just a word of warning.

I'm sure there's more, but that's enough for now. You're going to love it. I really miss the flying. It's probably the best you'll ever do.