Stashed Ensigns

[USDScott33]

I'm another May '04 Grad Stash. I graduated in San Diego so I went to VMFAT-101 at Miramar since it was the only quasi-Navy hornet squadron in the area. Job is cake. Work about an hour a day, but trying to get backseat qual'ed here is like pulling teeth. I've been at the squadron since the beginning of August, got my annual physical and UPCHIT and Aviation Phys check in Sept. and they are still sorting through approval paperwork. Word is, the Squadron CO gave his approval and now I have to wait for MAG (Marine Wing) approval. Not a super efficient system and kind of frustrating at times. Hopefully it will all go through soon and I should have open access to backseat hops regularly. (Theres quite a few available weekly since its a RAG with mostly F/A-18 D's.) Either way, I have free roam of the F-18 SIM building and have gotten close to 10 hours in the dome including some instrument approaches. So I guess thats cool. Anyway, the point of this lengthy blabbering is to give anyone whos thinking TAD out here a heads up on this squadron. Anyway, I've got an APR 1, 05 report date making my wait about a year right now. Someday we might all fly!!

 

[Fmr1833]

FYI...I went to P-cola this weekend and did some househunting. Not fun. I ended up getting a 1-bedroom at Marcus Pointe Grande, a new complex, for about $695 - not too bad and they are very nice. Governor's Gate, Kings Mill, and Austin Wood had waitlists of about 100 people. Most places look to have been built in the late 60's and are crappy. Stayed with a friend at Sweetwater and they were nice enough, but the living room was a bit smallish. Guess you can't be too picky, though! By far the two nicest places with availability were Marcus Pointe Grande which will have one- and two-bedrooms available in excess from late Feb on (they are still under construction for the most part - at least they are new!) and The Villages (at Something or other) - sorry I can't remember the whole name on that one. It 7111 Blue Angel Parkway, though. Very nice, granite countertops, real tile, etc. A bit pricy, approx. $900 for a two-bedroom. Marcus Pointe Grande was only 8 miles from the main gate and their prices were much better for the quality: $695 for a nice one- bedroom with private, groundfloor access for an upstairs unit and $855 for the same thing with a two-bedroom.
I HIGHLY suggest getting the housing taken care of well in advance. I cannot stress this enough.
For those of you who are spoiled by nice apartment complexes in a college environement, you can forget about valet trash or any of that other foo-foo crap. There are, however, a disturbing overabundance of Waffle Houses. I mean, I love a good covered and smothered but this was freakin' ridiculous.
Last point, beware of the driving up there! They have this thing called the "Pensacola Pull-out" and it sucks. Basically, if you happen to be the only one traveling in the left lane on a three lane avenue (Fairfield, ahem!) and some local in a 1952 Chevy pickup wants to turn onto said avenue, it is a certainty that he will come across two empty lanes in order to place himself in front of you going no less than 15 miles under the posted speed limit. Food for thought.
Good luck and I hope this helps.

:banghead_

 

[gregsivers]

You couldn't be more right about the drivers there, the worst I've ever seen. And everyone runs the damn red lights too.

 

[married2ashoe]

I've been stashed with HSL-37 since September. A good stash job if you are willing to drop some change to come out to Oahu.
With a second ordermod in July, my orders currently have me reporting in March, but those were pre-Ivan days. From everything I've heard from P'cola, things sound bad for the SNA's...anyone hear anything about us getting pushed back again?

 

[gregsivers]

I just left Pcola, and I know several SNAs who reported 18Jun and still haven't classed up for API, and won't til at least March. They stopped classing up pilots in API about 4 weeks ago, they said Whiting and Corpus are that backed up. I just reported to Corpus and have about a 3 month wait before I start Primary. Don't be too surprised if you get pushed back.

 

[Terminatrix77]

I'm a stashed Ensign also, just chillin like a villian, and waitin for the ole O-1E Pay to kick in!! Hopefully there will be more availablity on housing when I get to API in MAY.

 

[Prashant Patel]

Me and one other ENS are supposed to detach for P-cola from our ROTC unit (we've been here since June 2004) at the end of February but some problems in starting and completing IFS due to an IFS office screwup and bad SoCal weather might endanger that detach date. Do you think we should get our orders modded to detach 2-4 weeks later ?