The Kool Aid pitcher is overflowing...
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
Some USMC NFO Questions- Advice Appreciated
Sure, if you want to try your hand at being a great leader and have people working for you from jump, go Marine Ground. Some people love that kind of thing, take the hill, yut yut yut yut. Dodging IEDs, crazies waiting to klack themselves off, and all that might be for some, but if I want that experiences I'll buy the lastest first person shooter video game and not care when me and my team gets blow up, because a new life is just a button push away.
But aviation is a bit different. Sure, you are 'in charge' of people, but you aren't leading them on a field of battle (TacAir Aviation). They keep the planes ready to go and the officers fly and fight. Kind of like NASCAR driver and pit crew. Sure you might be the AVARM Divo or the MO, but the E's and LDOs really know what the F*&^ is going on and what needs to be done. You're there as top cover and to provide some motivation / geedunk along the way. But you aren't gonna invent a bettter way to change out the FOD'ed motor, or trouble shoot something. Like (hopefully) a Marine Infantry Officer would have excellence in his trade, aviators excellence is in THE AIR.
Now when it comes to NFO type jobs, the Navy is where it is at. No second class citizenship like the USAF or USMC, plenty of diverse career fields (VPs, VAW, VAQ, VFA, etc) to accel in, with new planes / gear.
Personally, early LRIP Rhinos were beat as hell for me to ride in, and they are better than any late lot D-model the Marines have been wearing hard / putting away wet. Jump into new models and it's NFO Nirvana, with it all 'laid out like that' for you to help kill people and break their $hit. Heck, as an NFO I have lased more Legacy Hornet bombs in combat than most pilots have dropped in their whole careers.
But aviation is a bit different. Sure, you are 'in charge' of people, but you aren't leading them on a field of battle (TacAir Aviation). They keep the planes ready to go and the officers fly and fight. Kind of like NASCAR driver and pit crew. Sure you might be the AVARM Divo or the MO, but the E's and LDOs really know what the F*&^ is going on and what needs to be done. You're there as top cover and to provide some motivation / geedunk along the way. But you aren't gonna invent a bettter way to change out the FOD'ed motor, or trouble shoot something. Like (hopefully) a Marine Infantry Officer would have excellence in his trade, aviators excellence is in THE AIR.
Now when it comes to NFO type jobs, the Navy is where it is at. No second class citizenship like the USAF or USMC, plenty of diverse career fields (VPs, VAW, VAQ, VFA, etc) to accel in, with new planes / gear.
Personally, early LRIP Rhinos were beat as hell for me to ride in, and they are better than any late lot D-model the Marines have been wearing hard / putting away wet. Jump into new models and it's NFO Nirvana, with it all 'laid out like that' for you to help kill people and break their $hit. Heck, as an NFO I have lased more Legacy Hornet bombs in combat than most pilots have dropped in their whole careers.
Or do you want to eat shitty boat food and sleep under the flight deck with hornets landing on your head until 2am? Choices.. Choices...
Hahahah, gotta get a room down in sleepy hollow...
Baller b-robe and slippers to take a hollywood shower during Big XOs Happy Hour, of course!
Microwave, Fridge, Icemaker and popcorn machine in your stateroom, tumbler glasses and a flatscreen HD TV for entertainment...
Disconnect the 1MC and pipe as much A/C as you can get into the room, rig for dark ops with copious amounts of duct tape, a couple of fake plants / trees, and shag carpet wall to wall. Knock out a couple of lockers if you can and get a futon installed for guest ops.
Disco ball optional, along with a smoke generator.
BTDT, got the T-shirt and time in hack. Completely worth it.
David Berke... and he still got to punch that ticket as s FAC in Ramadi.
For what it's worth, one of my good buddies had a similar situation when I graduated the Academy in 2010. He had a PPL, an Instrument Rating, and was devastated when he was NPQ'd for Pilot. He decided to go to Pensacola with the intent of hoping the docs would clear him there and he could transfer to pilot easily, despite everyone's advice. He eventually stuck it out and went Prowlers. He ended up being very bitter he couldn't transfer to pilot, hated his ground jobs, hated flying an old, aging aircraft that (in his opinion) was not performing any missions of value, and hated that he had no career prospects. He is getting out at the earliest opportunity. (In fairness, he also admits his pilots aren't stoked to be there either, due to the many issues the Marines are having.) Anecdotal, yes, but food for thought.
Shitty boat food is less shitty than MREs. And I'll take whistles and bells on the 1MC as I sleep in my rack over incoming fire all night while I lay awake in a dirt hole to make sure someone doesn't crawl in and stab me. But, choose your rate choose your fate.
I believe the late Neptunus Lex had a comment about this back when. Army specific, as I recall, but it might as well go for Marine ground MOSes. Something to the effect of considering what service to join, and being told "in the Army, you live like a rat and die like a gentleman. In the Navy, you live like a gentleman, but die like a rat." And since he was young and didn't really have any designs on the latter, well . . .
That's . . . an interesting way to put it. Don't get me wrong; I get VMAQ NFOs not being thrilled about future career prospects, based on what I've seen. Sign up to fly jets, and get shunted everywhere but, and all. But the idea that EA isn't a mission of value these days? I'm wondering if said person just hasn't had it explained to them correctly, or is just willfully not understanding the capabilities of their particular platform due to being in a snit as you mentioned.
Last edited:
Every Squadron seems to have the obligatory "I'm not even supposed to here" guy. That guy sucks.
^^^^
Yup - and in squadrons with NFOs, there is always 'that guy' what has "gotta be a pilot / supposed to be a pilot / got screwed outta being a pilot".
And honestly, all NFOs would have liked to be pilots, but sometimes life doesn't work that way. For me it was depth perception / dreaded circle test, Nammi-Whammy before API. I could have complained, I could have asked to be a Shoe or Intel or something, but riding in fighters was the best thing I could have asked for, in the end. Where else do you get to shoot the ducks while someone rows the boat for you?
Yup - and in squadrons with NFOs, there is always 'that guy' what has "gotta be a pilot / supposed to be a pilot / got screwed outta being a pilot".
And honestly, all NFOs would have liked to be pilots, but sometimes life doesn't work that way. For me it was depth perception / dreaded circle test, Nammi-Whammy before API. I could have complained, I could have asked to be a Shoe or Intel or something, but riding in fighters was the best thing I could have asked for, in the end. Where else do you get to shoot the ducks while someone rows the boat for you?
balloonattack
New Member
2 years ago, I had PRK at while at USNA 2 days after reform, so it's definitely possible to get the surgery outside of summer training and before 01Sep (unless the medical folks are telling you something different). The only problem is getting to Bethesda for the pre-op if you don't have summer training at USNA or the DC area at all during the summer. If you want to go pilot badly enough, you could either pay off your own dime to get to Bethesda for a pre-op during your leave block, or talk to enough officers at the academy to switch your training around. The people there are there for you, and if you want to be a pilot and need the surgery to do so, somebody can make that possible.
Reading my old e-mails, it looks like my stuff had been sent over to Bethesda by the eye people at USNA by mid-July, and my PRK date had been scheduled by 28July. My pre-op was 03Aug during 3rd block when I was in PFP. If you haven't got this train rolling yet, and you really want to be a pilot, call the optometry people at USNA ASAP and tell them your situation. If you have any more specific questions you can PM me.
If you already have all that information and it's something else that might keep you from getting surgery by 01Sep... sorry, and good luck!
I'm currently spending a month at Quantico doing a program that Academy mids do if they want to commission into the USMC after graduation. Unfortunately, its more TBS-lite than it is the operational Marine Corps, so I don't really think I'm getting the best look at what life would actually be like. I also asked to take an Aviation cruise this summer but was not given one because it was not my #1 preference at the time. My 3/c cruise was on the Stennis so I got a tiny look at carrier aviation but still not really squadron life.
Thanks for the info. I'll have time to contact optometry in July when I'll be on the Yard for Plebe Summer. I'm still on the fence about whether to get a second surgery. The docs at Bethesda messed up a Mid's eyes this past semester (I mean legit malpractice, not that there were complications with the procedure) and even though its extremely unlikely I'm still not sure I want to take the chance that something might go wrong and my eyesight will be worse off than before.