H20man
Drill baby drill!
Stashing at a Fleet Squadron
This is aimed more at people who are graduating soon or have a large enough wait time down here to get TAD.
As a preface, you can get a good deal if you are willing to do the leg work for it, are willing to be the SLJO, and are not a douche and ruin it for people in the future.
Sea story with bits of information below of my time with an HSC squadron.
__________________________________________________________
Rewind to June of last year: I had requested to report down here to Pcola in October, and my school suggested to those of us not reporting till that timeframe to either stick around school (hell no), or to try and do OHARP.
I wanted to hide away in San Diego, but not do OHARP, so I asked if I could stash at a squadron. School said do the leg work for it.
All I did was start pulling up SDO phone numbers and started going through the list of places I wanted to stash, first squadron said no, but second squadron said yes. You have to be paitent when contacting the squadrons as they have more important things to deal with than a newbie ensign.
Before getting the final go ahead the XO wanted to make sure I had a place to live and a form of transportation. Have those two items in place before trying to stash.
Bring a coin/patch from your school for the skipper when you check in, helps if the skipper is an alumni from your school, mega bonus points.
When you first get there be proactive. I went around to all the DH's introducing myself and asking if they had any jobs for me. After a few days of asking around departments and getting told there was nothing for me, I stopped this practice and started to hide in Safety with a guy who had just checked in from the FRS. Even most of the DIVO's had nothing for me.
The front office wanted me to get a ground job, so I ended up as PAO for the second half of my time there. At the same time other departments will utilize you for new and exciting jobs (SLJO), like training jacket organizer, designated copyman and pub retriever, and the most fun of all, designated meat gazer for drug testing. I also stood SDO a few times. Overall these jobs were painless, and a small price to pay for all the fun stuff I got to do.
The fun stuff:
Wearing a flight suit for 4 months and (gasp!) being issued brown boots.
Getting flights.
Getting to play in the sim A LOT.
Tons of free time to hang out with friends and enjoy San Diego.
Hanging out at the I-bar and playing dice A LOT.
Playing survivor for a week in the desert to help the Air Ambulance det, nothing like an IV in the back of a moving helicopter.
Helping setup the admin room for the community ball and having to use my sandal as the bottle opener.
Also if you do something stupid like break a finger on your motorcycle fess up to it quickly, and show you have learned from it. Do not ruin a good deal for others like the case study down here in Pcola.
The best part of my time at the squadron, especially as a know nothing stash: Being treated as an integral member of the squadron and told I was welcome back anytime.
This is aimed more at people who are graduating soon or have a large enough wait time down here to get TAD.
As a preface, you can get a good deal if you are willing to do the leg work for it, are willing to be the SLJO, and are not a douche and ruin it for people in the future.
Sea story with bits of information below of my time with an HSC squadron.
__________________________________________________________
Rewind to June of last year: I had requested to report down here to Pcola in October, and my school suggested to those of us not reporting till that timeframe to either stick around school (hell no), or to try and do OHARP.
I wanted to hide away in San Diego, but not do OHARP, so I asked if I could stash at a squadron. School said do the leg work for it.
All I did was start pulling up SDO phone numbers and started going through the list of places I wanted to stash, first squadron said no, but second squadron said yes. You have to be paitent when contacting the squadrons as they have more important things to deal with than a newbie ensign.
Before getting the final go ahead the XO wanted to make sure I had a place to live and a form of transportation. Have those two items in place before trying to stash.
Bring a coin/patch from your school for the skipper when you check in, helps if the skipper is an alumni from your school, mega bonus points.
When you first get there be proactive. I went around to all the DH's introducing myself and asking if they had any jobs for me. After a few days of asking around departments and getting told there was nothing for me, I stopped this practice and started to hide in Safety with a guy who had just checked in from the FRS. Even most of the DIVO's had nothing for me.
The front office wanted me to get a ground job, so I ended up as PAO for the second half of my time there. At the same time other departments will utilize you for new and exciting jobs (SLJO), like training jacket organizer, designated copyman and pub retriever, and the most fun of all, designated meat gazer for drug testing. I also stood SDO a few times. Overall these jobs were painless, and a small price to pay for all the fun stuff I got to do.
The fun stuff:
Wearing a flight suit for 4 months and (gasp!) being issued brown boots.
Getting flights.
Getting to play in the sim A LOT.
Tons of free time to hang out with friends and enjoy San Diego.
Hanging out at the I-bar and playing dice A LOT.
Playing survivor for a week in the desert to help the Air Ambulance det, nothing like an IV in the back of a moving helicopter.
Helping setup the admin room for the community ball and having to use my sandal as the bottle opener.
Also if you do something stupid like break a finger on your motorcycle fess up to it quickly, and show you have learned from it. Do not ruin a good deal for others like the case study down here in Pcola.
The best part of my time at the squadron, especially as a know nothing stash: Being treated as an integral member of the squadron and told I was welcome back anytime.
