Ask a Naval Aircrewman

Haasino · 08-08-2015, 10:26 AM

It does indeed. Rico was in my squadron before he PCS'd down there a few months back. I've also got one of our guys at AW "A" School, and at VP-30... they're not BSing you when they say this is a very small rate! The AWF thing doesn't surprise me... that rate is basically a death rattle at this point, with personnel under 17 years being forced to re-rate as billets continue to disappear. I forget, are you SelRes or FTS Reserve? Either way, you're most likely going to end up in VP-69 up at NAS Whidbey Island if you're returning to Seattle. Unfortunately, the reserve VP squadrons aren't used to getting unqualified Cat I AW's... traditionally it's where aircrew who leave Active Duty, but still want to fly, go. The biggest challenge... especially if you're SelRes...is that you've got ~1 year of on-the-job training before you're fully sensor operator qualified... and that's 1 year of M-F, 0900-1700 study. For a while, nobody even thought SelRes AWO was possible out of NACCS... then one showed up straight out of "A" School without any VP-30 or SERE training, and VP-69 had no idea what to do with her.

The good news though is that you won't be the first unicorn now! Last I heard, they figured out how to get the money to send her back down to VP-30 on 1 year AD orders so she could get Cat I training done and come back. Hopefully, they'll know you're coming and get the money so you can go straight from Pensacola to Jacksonville... if not, you'll get a break back home, then go back to Florida to finish the training pipeline. There's also going to be a cadre of Active Duty AWO's there by the time you arrive, so you'll have personnel there to train you.

08-08-2015, 10:26 AM	#11
Haasino Active Duty Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Pacific Northwest Posts: 1,439 Rep Power: 0	It does indeed. Rico was in my squadron before he PCS'd down there a few months back. I've also got one of our guys at AW "A" School, and at VP-30... they're not BSing you when they say this is a very small rate! The AWF thing doesn't surprise me... that rate is basically a death rattle at this point, with personnel under 17 years being forced to re-rate as billets continue to disappear. I forget, are you SelRes or FTS Reserve? Either way, you're most likely going to end up in VP-69 up at NAS Whidbey Island if you're returning to Seattle. Unfortunately, the reserve VP squadrons aren't used to getting unqualified Cat I AW's... traditionally it's where aircrew who leave Active Duty, but still want to fly, go. The biggest challenge... especially if you're SelRes...is that you've got ~1 year of on-the-job training before you're fully sensor operator qualified... and that's 1 year of M-F, 0900-1700 study. For a while, nobody even thought SelRes AWO was possible out of NACCS... then one showed up straight out of "A" School without any VP-30 or SERE training, and VP-69 had no idea what to do with her. The good news though is that you won't be the first unicorn now! Last I heard, they figured out how to get the money to send her back down to VP-30 on 1 year AD orders so she could get Cat I training done and come back. Hopefully, they'll know you're coming and get the money so you can go straight from Pensacola to Jacksonville... if not, you'll get a break back home, then go back to Florida to finish the training pipeline. There's also going to be a cadre of Active Duty AWO's there by the time you arrive, so you'll have personnel there to train you.