The Stuff I Wish I'd Known

[Temen]

Originally Posted by Auridan

Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork!

Man, paper PQS? That really sucks. I'm glad F-18 squadrons use a website to track quals. Only paper PQS I've touched is EAWS.
Granted the site likes to go down randomly and it still takes a month to get the CO to login. Of course, I imagine our Chain of Command tends to be smaller than yours.

Definitely smart to keep a copy of all of your medical paperwork and any chits you try to route. They do tend to disappear more often than not.


TAD
I love how all through RTC and A-School I heard how shitty being Undes is. I thought I was lucky to have gotten the rate I wanted! Turns out any Undes who goes to a squadron ends up in the Line Shack. Guess what? So does the majority of rated Airman.
I did enjoy my time TAD to security though, got to learn a bit about MAs and it's probably the only time in my career I had to keep up with my pistol qual.
I'm also feeling very fortunate that my first time on the boat, I'll be an E-5. No TAD to the galley for me.


Sweepers, sweepers! Man your brooms!
This is especially true while you're student status. Waiting 2 months to class up? Well your work day will consist of 8 hours cleaning the barracks or school houses then.
At the hangar we have "Areas of Responsibility". Oh, your area of responsibility is occupied by a jet leaking hydraulic fluid? That sucks for you, better be spotless by the end of shift.



Personally, I wish I knew that some NEC are nearly impossible to get out of. I knew from the start I wanted to be an electrician. I wanted to work on Helicopters, Props, Jets, UAV, everything. I ended up with F-18 orders in A-School, got the F-18 O-Level NEC and turns out, I'm probably going to be stuck on this platform for awhile. The navy is relying more and more on the F-18s (look at the Growlers) and as such, they need people with the F-18 NEC.