TAD while you wait?

[snizo]

I'm due down in p-cola in a couple of months and have been hearing about the wait to get started. Is there any possibility of being TAD somewhere else while you wait to start API? I know that ENS sometimes get 'stash' jobs, but I'm wondering if they ever send ENS to other commands or to dive/jump school.

Basically I'm just looking for something to do other than bang my head against a wall for a couple of months...

 

[zab1001]

I wouldn't get my hopes up for dive or jump school. Back in the day (ok, like 99/2000) I tried to put in packages for both while stashed. Basically I was told that they had too much money invested to risk me getting seriously hurt.

You CAN try to get a job recruiting. Talk to the officer recruiter in whatever town you want to be stashed in and work with him/your superiors to make the arrangements. Sometimes fleet squadrons on homecycles will take you in as well (I know of one guy who did this). The key is doing your own dirty work. No one is gonna go out of their way to get this done for you.

 

[petescheu]

Good luck... I tried to get to PAX River to work at TPS for a bit when I was stuck in the Never-Navy land of A Pool. Had an O-6 (Superhornet Chief Test Pilot) and an O-5 (XO of TPS) call down to STUCON on my behalf asking for me to be released, and I got nowhere with it, even though it would have been all no-cost TAD orders. So I just spent 6 months on the beach instead.... Although it never hurts to ask I suppose.

 

[UncleFester]

Stash Jobz

Well, if you don't get assigned a stash job, you're looking at a few weeks to a few months of getting paid to lay in the sun. But if you get assigned one, ten will get you twenty that it'll be the sucky stash job from hell. My wife was stashed in the preflight program (where you fly cessnas before API, whatever it's called - didn't have it in my day) while she waited for API; spent nine hours a day in khakis in an office doing some LT's work for him. Bad scene.
My advice is head them off and go find a good one on base or within driving distance.
When I was stashed in '99, I made friends with the station SAR guys (the H-3 bubbas) and got them to "request" me. Best summer job I ever had. Went through swim survival (so I had that time off during API). For the rest of the summer, I rolled in for the alert brief at 0630 if I wanted to fly, went running on the chip trail until we went flying at 1000, did the "day in the bay" helo hoists or USAF parajump support, or just dicked around and checked out the bikinis on P'cola Beach. Even got some stick time and got a Sikorsky rescue pin when we picked up a Whiting IP who bailed out near Evergreen. Got lots of night flying time, too. If I didn't feel like flying, I came in around 10, did some busywork around the office until noon, was on the beach with Cerveza Mas Fina in hand by one.
That's how you work a stash job, shipmate.

 

[46Driver]

Call some of the reserve squadrons. They loved having extra bodies around - and the squadrons themselves were laid back. Good chance you can get some stick time as well (for that you will need squadrons that fly multi-piloted aircraft, i.e., P-3's or helos.)

 

[snizo]

Well I got a good deal after all. I got stashed at my ROTC command, so I got another football season at school (while I do IFS) before I head down for API.

On a slightly different topic. I know you can go to some AF bases for primary ... but can you do that for API too? Or does everyone HAVE to go through P-cola at some point (and wait 4 years to start)?

 

[Pags]

Well I got a good deal after all. I got stashed at my ROTC command, so I got another football season at school (while I do IFS) before I head down for API.

On a slightly different topic. I know you can go to some AF bases for primary ... but can you do that for API too? Or does everyone HAVE to go through P-cola at some point (and wait 4 years to start)?

If you go to Moody or Vance you will still do API at NAS Pcola. Then you'll do the AF's version of API at their base. But there's no way to avoid API and the A-pool. Think of it as pledging a fraternity. But until then, enjoy watching Tech get stomped by Miama and VT this year.

Right now the wait for Whiting is 6mo, and it's a bit shorter for Corpus. And you can always go to an AFB if you like 0400-1600 crew days.

 

[UncleFester]

Oh, christ, whatever you do, don't go to Vance or Moody. They've f*cked up many a promising young SNA with their deviant lifestyles.
BTW, you might still get stashed once you get down to Pensacola. There's a difference bewtween post-grad stash and A-pool stash. I don't know how long the wait is these days, but it's a few weeks, count on it.