Ask a Naval Aircrewman

[Future A Dubbz]

I've enlisted as an AW in dep and looking to go AWO when I go through Naccs and A school. I was wondering what my options for duty stations might be after i get through the schooling pipeline. Couldn't really find any info on that anywhere besides where Naccs and A school is.

[Haasino]

Originally Posted by Iamchriswest

Hey man when or how do you volunteer for aircrew? I'm enlisted as an AV in dep. Is this the time to do it? I heard I'll be in a P8a or P3c if I go through everything and I will be required to expand my contract for 6 years which is not much of a problem.

Unfortunately, you cannot volunteer for Aircrew as an AE/AT anymore... that ended Oct. 1st 2008 when all Aircrew duties were consolidated into the AW rating. If you want to be Aircrew, you'll need to have your recruiter submit a DAR to switch your rating from AV to either AIRC (Fixed-wing/MH-53E) or AIRR (Rescue Swimmer). Your other option will be to enlist AV, and then try to cross-rate once you hit PO2 (You can try after 2 years, but nobody is coming back here below PO2 currently).

AWOs are currently going P-3C and P-8A... you can still be on a helo if you go AWS... that'll put you on the MH-53E Sea Dragon.

Originally Posted by Future A Dubbz

I've enlisted as an AW in dep and looking to go AWO when I go through Naccs and A school. I was wondering what my options for duty stations might be after i get through the schooling pipeline. Couldn't really find any info on that anywhere besides where Naccs and A school is.

Currently, it's NAS Whidbey Island, WA... NAS Jacksonville, FL... and MCAS Kaneohe Bay, HI for P-3C Orions... and NAS Jacksonville for P-8A Poseidons. At the moment, the only operational P-8 squadron is VP-5 out of JAX, with VP-45 beginning acquisition soon. MCAS Kaneohe Bay is also being shut down (For the Navy), so all P-3 squadrons are being moved to Whidbey.

[tyler_____]

One more question, how's the travel for an aircrewman? I mean I know you fly all over the place, but do you get to sightsee and whatnot?

[Haasino]

Originally Posted by tyler_____

One more question, how's the travel for an aircrewman? I mean I know you fly all over the place, but do you get to sightsee and whatnot?

If you end up AWO, AWV, or AWF on a P-3 or P-8, you're going to travel a lot and learn to carpe per diem, lol. We don't deploy on ships and sleep in racks... we go to foreign air bases, always on per diem, and stay in hotels. Sometimes a mission might take you to South America for a short period, or a longer deployment could put you in Italy, Australia, Japan, S. Korea, Bahrain, etc. Some of the best per diem locations will net you over $100/day in addition to flight pay, and your base pay + whatever allowances you have for family, etc. My instructor is an AWO2 SS1, and on his last 3 month deployment to Sigonella, Italy, he flew his wife out twice and met her in Rome for a weekend... and he still came back with a lot of $$ in his bank account. We don't do a lot of tertiary BS... we don't stand watches, we don't field day/clean the hangers, and we don't work too much overtime because we're required to get 8hrs of sleep a night when on a flight schedule. As an AWO especially, you're gonna pre-mission brief... fly... debrief... work out... and then probably sight-see or sleep if deployed; depends on where you are, what type of missions you're flying, and how long you've been there.

P-3s also break... sometimes at convenient times. You may land in Ireland on your way to a NATO deployment in the Netherlands and your engine breaks; guess who spends almost a week pub-crawling in Dublin while they fly out a new engine and a crew to replace it? The pilots, TACCO, and Aircrew!

[tyler_____]

Haha wow that's so awesome. I can't wait, 20130909! Thanks!

What would you recommend someone who is trying to go into the AIRR rating?

[Haasino]

Originally Posted by lilmoemito91

What would you recommend someone who is trying to go into the AIRR rating?

PT, swim, swim, PT, and then PT some more... lol! The PST requirements should be an easy workout for you; you not only need to pass one almost every day at RSS, but your eligibility for when you class up is based on PST scores. You also need to be very comfortable in the pool... both for NACCS and for RSS.


This video gives you a little example of what to expect...

Aviation Rescue Swimmer School

[Hamilton]

[QUOTE=Haasino;34014]Unfortunately, you cannot volunteer for Aircrew as an AE/AT anymore... that ended Oct. 1st 2008 when all Aircrew duties were consolidated into the AW rating. If you want to be Aircrew, you'll need to have your recruiter submit a DAR to switch your rating from AV to either AIRC (Fixed-wing/MH-53E) or AIRR (Rescue Swimmer). Your other option will be to enlist AV, and then try to cross-rate once you hit PO2 (You can try after 2 years, but nobody is coming back here below PO2 currently).

I just DEPd in as an AV today and after reading your posts AW seems like something I really want to do. My recruiter told me I had the option to volunteer for Aircrew duties but clearly he was wrong. How likely are my chances of getting my recruiter to submit a DAR (btw what is a DAR?) and actually being able to switch over to AIRC, AIRR or AW? Also I'm a female and plan on getting my college transcripts in before I graduate bootcamp in June and enlisting as an E-3 if that helps or makes any difference at all.

[BloodyPheonix]

Forgive me for cutting in as this is largely Hassino's thread. As the Navy retires the Aircraft they work on, the AWF and AWV rates are cutting billets to the point that there is consideration of going back to the system where those billets currently filled by Fs and Vs are filled by ATs and AEs who have gone through NACCS. So there is that to consider but if you are more interested in the AWO experience, I'll do my best to answer your questions.

A DAR is a dep action request, they're chits submitted by your recruiter into their chain of command to change the terms of your contact. For you to get an AIRR or AIRC contract via DAR a person with one of those contracts has to drop out of dep. The likelihood is really impossible to tell.

[Haasino]

^ BloodyPheonix pretty much covered it.

The discussion of going back to the pre-2008 rating system is mentioned in this article: Advisory Board Formed to Assess Future of AW Rate. It took them 3 years to make the decision to consolidate the ratings last time... so I'm not expecting a quick answer. Maybe by the time the AWF and AWV billets are completely gone, they'll have reached a decision, lol.

[NavyGirl2015]

Went to MEPS yesterday and got my contract for Aircrew! I ship on the 27th of May!

[BloodyPheonix]

I just got my hands on the Aeromedical Reference and Waiver Guide and perusing through it I found that fixed wing aircrew doesn't require depth perception. Am I interpreting that correctly? I've seen people who got DQ'd from Aircrew for not having Depth Perception so I'm confused.