I know that NFO should not be a problem and that is what I'm worried about...do not want to be a back seater
Well cnata, I would be lying if I said I didn't think the same things when I was where you are... I counted myself lucky when i didn't score high enough on my fofar to qual for an snfo slot out for nrotc, and got sna. However i was in API during the large FY'04 SNA cuts, and was placed in a situation where I was going to have chose between transferring to SNFO, or try to lat tansfer to a RL community(where pretty much all were full) or get IRAD'd. I had a pretty tough time weighing all my options and deciding what I was going to do (I was pretty bitter at the Navy and the aviation community in general for screwing myself and a bunch of my friends over, and I didn't really know what NFO's did beside ride around in the back of the plane doing nav with their whizwheels)...
Things worked out and I got to keep my original job. However, a couple weeks ago some discussion came up and caused me to glance back at the options presented to me at that time. If I knew then what know now (from exposure to FO transitions in TRACOM as well as some fleet guys, and my friends who went through the pipeline themselves) my decision would have been an easy one-I would have gone SNFO.
I'll let the guys who actually do the job full tell you more about it (do a search and look through some of their stories), but basically my thoughts boil down to this- most/all joking around aside- its an important job, your a member of the team and your still in aviation, and after talking to my friends who have been on ships and subs- life is a lot better in bags then it is in a poopy suit.
I know a good amount of FO's. Some were perfectly happy with their selection for their first choice. Some originally were very disappointed that they didn't get to be pilots, but got over it once they got into flightschool and started learning their jobs and their mission. There were others who didn't outgrow the "stick envy/chip on the shoulder" attitude and they didn't last very long in the pipeline (and I haven't met any others who have that attitude with wings yet). Others are very happy to be FOs because they are no longer living life as ships company.
You did put NFO down as your second choice for service selection so you better do some research on the community, and start looking at the positives to it. The last thing people will want to do in P'cola is deal with you if you don't want to be there or have a giant chip on your shoulder.
NozeMan said:
if that's how you feel, I hope you're dont get to be an NFO either, hardly seems like the attitude.
NozeMan, that is actually fairly common attitude around service selection time. I think a lot of it has to do with the lack of understanding of what NFO's really do, whether the cause of that is lack of exposure or just having people who don't do the job tell you that you "don't want to be in aviation if you can't fly the plane" or "you don't want to be a second class citizen". I think once people get more exposure their opinions change somewhat and their attitudes towards the community improve.
