Training the Best

Nothing earth shattering to report, the most exciting thing is the addition of a new link to my blog. See it there on the right? Click on the one that reads SNA Training Timeline. This is a link to the Chief of Naval Aviation Training website and it explains in one web page the training that I am going to go through.

The website is, of course, very Navy-centric, but we train with those squids so most of it applies to me. In the FRS list, the Marine squadrons are the ones that start with VM or HM. All of the others are for squids and that is the point at which we part ways. Marine aviators go to the Marine RAGs. (Now would be a good time to give the glossary link a try!)

Also, there is no E2/C2 pipeline for me, the Marines don't fly those planes. And there is no E-6 TACAMO pipeline. If you are shit hot in jet advanced they will pick you to fly the Marine EA-6Bs. There are so few of them, they are so hard to fly, and they are so valuable they hand pick pilots to fly them. I'm thinking of tanking a few flights to avoid that particular hell. The last thing I want to be is a glorified taxi driver for three disguntled wanna-be pilots.

There may be a tilt-rotor pipeline soon (the MV-22 Osprey) but I don't know for sure when that will happen. They just started putting the Osprey into mass production and it will take some time to get enough aircraft to train pilots and have them in the operational squadrons.

I am training for my green belt in the MCMAP program, so I have to wake up every morning at 0545 and drive to NAS. I would complain about it but it keeps me from being bored and I get some good PT in. It also satisfies my savage urges by throwing some buddies around. Being around the Navy gets to you after a while; there is no warrior culture there and it bothers me. Most days the Navy and Air Force are more similar to a corporation than a military organization and that drives me nuts.

Now I'm starting API on the 9th. I have no idea why it was changed but so be it. In all likelyhood the date will change again, nothing here is certain until your ass is in the seat on day one.

I went to Navy dental on Wednesday to get a filling, but the doc started poking around and couldn't find the tooth that needed to be filled. Turns out there was no need for a filling at all, just a defect on the x-ray film. Guess that's why they call it "practicing" medicine.

There was no way the Navy was going to let me get away without subjecting me to some kind of pain, so they repaired one of my sealants and subjected me to the most painful cleaning ever. I remember teeth cleanings being mostly pleasant experiences and the only reason I didn't like them was because I had to sit still for more than ten minutes. I'm sure my mother will come up with some story of my childhood involving my reluctance to see the dentist but I remember tooth cleanings as non events.

It's probably my fault, I haven't had a proper cleaning for several years. She spent the better part of a half an hour assaulting my teeth and gums as punishment. Guess I'll make a point of scheduling cleanings regularly from now on.

Let me start by saying that after months of waiting here in Pensacola I finally have a start date: 2 December! That means that I will take the physical fitness test on 2 December and start API (Aviation Pre-Flight Indoctrination) the following Monday on the 5th.

Now for the complications. To start this early I had to take a Primary seat in Corpus Christi, Texas. I don't really care whether I do Primary (six months of flying T-34s) here or there, I just didn't want to do it with the Air Force at Vance AFB in Enid, Oklahoma.

Besides the obvious reason of not wanting to live in Oklahoma, the Air Force treats their junior officers like kids. They have mandatory study periods, they must live in the barracks, the relationship between their instructors and their students is very different, it is a very different culture. The Navy treats us like big boys. If we don't want to put in the work we'll fail and the Navy is going to let us do that. You might as well learn that way in Primary because you will do Advanced with the Navy and I think someone who was spoon fed Primary by the Air Force would be likely to struggle.

That said, here's how it went down.

I have been doing a martial arts class every morning for the last two weeks and excused from the normal Monday and Friday MATSG formations, so it was a little unusual when I was told after class on Friday that we all had to go to the MATSG formation. There was a "Corpus Draft" is all I was told.

Everyone here wants to do Primary at Whiting field in Pensacola because they don't want to move again. If you want to fly helicopters you really want to stay here for Primary because Helo Advanced is taught here in Pensacola. I want jets, which are taught in Meridian, MS so I don't mind the move.

As a result of everyone wanting to stay at Whiting there was a huge group of people waiting for Whiting seats and no one to fill the Corpus and Vance seats. There was an open Corpus seat for the class starting this Friday and one to two empty seats for the next six weeks. Captain Kyte told us that no one from Alpha Company (my TBS company) was leaving until every one of us had our name under a class number. This meant that people had to volunteer for the open Corpus and Vance spots or they would be placed in them. We have a lot more control over our preferences than the enlisted do but they Marine Corps is not going to screw around and waste seats in flight school because you want to stay in Pensacola and work on your tan.

I have learned that in the military it is often better to step up and take charge of your destiny than hope to hide in the background and hope that things fall in place for you. Sometimes you will get exactly what you want but sometimes the alternatives are just too bad to risk.

With this in mind I stepped up and told Captain Kyte that I was willing to take one of the Corpus seats if I could start on or after the 23rd of November. He asked why and I told him about my diving trip from the 16th through the 20th. He agreed that mine was a good reason to wait and put me in the 2 December class.

I had to laugh a little about the exchange afterwards. I could just imagine myself as a PFC just out of boot camp telling the XO that I didn't want to start MOS school for another month because I had a SCUBA diving vacation planned. "Well holy shit Private, we'll just hold up the freakin war so you can go look at some fishes, don't you worry about a thing!" "Really sir? Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it!" "NO! Get your ass down to Camp Johnson and start training!" Or something like that.

So I've angered some friends who thought I'd be here for some time to come and really pissed off my roommate who was counting on me paying a part of the rent for another eight months or so, but I feel good about the decision. My roommate will be able to get out of her lease when I leave and any of my friends who haven't gotten used to the fact that we will all go our separate ways eventually haven't fully grasped what line of work they are in.

I feel good that I finally have a solid date for starting flight school; I'm that much closer to actually flying.

What is an up chit you ask? A very important little piece of paper which clears me to fly and therefore clears me to start flight school. Don't get excited yet, I am still projected to class up in mid December; that has not changed.

So in pursuit of this 1/3 sheet of paper, which comes complete with a pink, yellow, and white copy, I have had quite an adventure. My initial flight physical included a waiver for a kidney stone, more labs than you could ever imagine, and three seven hour round trips from Chapel Hill to Cherry Point, NC. Just try to get yourself to sleep at 9pm when you are on a college sleeping schedule. I had to wake up at 3 am to be in Cherry Point at 0730 all three times. Good lord that was painful. And of course you can not eat or drink anything for 12 hours before the labs are drawn. Not fun.

Then, due to the wonderful work of my officer selection office I had to go do another one. Flight physicals are only good for two years and they could not get their shit together fast enough to get me into TBS before my original expired. Once again I was on the road at 3am on my way to Cherry Point. Everything went well, except for the fact that Ophthalmology was not taking any appointments that day. "Sir would you mind coming back next week?" You've got to be fucking kidding me. "Do I mind? Yes. Will I do it? Yes." I don't yet know what I won't do to get into the air, but I'm sure it's not pretty.

So I got here to Pensacola and got through my physical with no sweat but those two remaining wisdom teeth had to come out. Ok, fine, let's do it. I dread dental work like anyone else but if it is necessary for me to fly, let's get it on.

The Navy actually did a really good job and they came out without much pain at all. I was really sweating it, they hooked me up to a pulse and blood pressure monitor while they prepped me for the extraction and my BP was something like 185/90 and a heart rate in the high 80s. The doctor saw that and jokingly asked if I was a little nervous about the extraction. I tried to play it cool, but it's hard to convince someone you're not nervous when your heart rate and blood pressure are on a ten inch monitor right next to you.

All of this anxiety comes from a terrible experience at the UNC dental school last year when they removed my lower right wisdom tooth. Everyone has likely heard the story, but an hour and a half of back spasm inducing pain is not something you readily forget.

After being on light duty for a week I went back to dental to make sure that I had attained a class two dental status in order to get my up chit and discovered that I need a filling. Crap! I still got my up chit because I am class two without the filling but I now have to go back on the 26th to get this tooth filled. That will make me class one dental and end my dental odyssey for now. I hope.

API - Aviation Preflight Indoctrination: A six week course every Student Naval Aviator has to complete before moving onto Primary. This is taught only at NAS Pensacola and involves no flying, only written tests, swimming tests, and some basic classes.

Advanced - The next step after Primary. This is where you learn to fly jets, helicopters, multi-engine propeller aircraft.

Corpus - NAS Corpus Christi, Texas

ECMO - Electronic Countermeasures Officer - The electronic warfare specialists that work in the EA-6B Prowler. They specialize in intercepting and jamming enemy air defense and communication systems. There are two ECMOs in the back two seats, a mission commander/navigator in the front right seat and a pilot in the Prowler.

FRS - Fleet Replacement Squadron - The more politically correct new term for the RAG.

IOC - Infantry Officers' School - The school in Quantico, VA where brand new second lieutenants out of The Basic School are trained to be infantry officers. Used commonly as a threat to flight students who aren't studying enough. If you fail flight school, this is most likely where you are headed.

IP - Instructor Pilot

Meridian - NAS Meridian, Mississippi. Jet Advanced is taught here.

MATSG - Marine Aviation Training Support Group - Here in Pensacola, MATSG-21 encompasses every single marine training and on staff here. Commanded by Col. Holzworth, this is the command I report to while here.

MCMAP - Marine Corps Martial Arts Program - A relatively new program started in 2000 or 2001 by then Commandant General Jones which incorporates many different disciplines of martial arts and adapts the moves for a Marine who will be loaded down with gear, wearing boots, and not interested in style as much as saving his own ass. The program is much more in depth and much more useful than the older programs. The program is divided into belts which are worn with the camoflauge utility uniform and designate that marine's skill level in the program. The order is Tan - Gray - Green - Brown - Black.

NAS - Naval Air Station

Primary - Primary flight training. Six months of flying the T-34. Everyone starts here no matter whether they will fly jets, helos, or C-130s. Can be taken at Whiting Field in Pensacola, NAS Corpus Christi, TX, or Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma.

PT - Physical Training - Running, pushups, pullups, whatever you can think of to generally punish and shape your body.

RAG - Replacement Air Group - The first squadron in which an SNA will fly his combat aircraft, it follows your advanced school. Here you familiarize yourself with the most advanced warplanes in the inventory and learn what you will need to know before reaching your first combat squadron.

SNA - Student Naval Aviator - That's me! A designation given to anyone training to be a pilot for the Navy or Marine Corps because we are both sea services. The MOS designation is 7599.

SNFO - Student Naval Flight Officers - The back seaters, like Goose in Top Gun. Often called FOs for short. They are responsible for navigation, finding targets, radio traffic, electronic warfare, pretty much anything the pilot needs except actually flying the plane and dropping the bombs. Their MOS designation is 7580. Once they finish training they will become WSOs or ECMOs

Squadron Designations - The H designates rotary wing (helicopters), the V designates fixed wing. The M designates it is a Marine squadron, the Navy squadrons omit this charachter. For example, a Navy Hornet squadron would be VFA-101.

HMH - Heavy Helicopter Squadron (CH-53E Super Stallion)
HMLA - Light Attack Helicopter Squadron (UH-1W Huey and AH-1W Cobra)
HMM - Medium Helicopter Squadron (CH-46 Sea Knight)
VMA - Fixed Wing Attack Squadron (AV-8B Harrier)
VMFA - Fixed Wing Fighter/Attack Squadron (F/A-18 Hornet)
VMGR - Fixed Wing Aerial Refueling and Cargo Lift Squadron (C-130 Hercules)

T-2C Buckeye - A two seat dual engine jet aircraft flown at NAS Pensacola and used for SNFO training.

T-6 Texan II - A two seat single turboprop engine aircraft flown at NAS Pensacola and used for SNFO training. Named for a WWII era trainer used to train pilots of that war.


T-34 Turbo Mentor - A two seat turboprop aircraft that the Navy uses in Primary.

T-39N Sabreliner- A twin, pod mounted engine jet aircraft flown at NAS Pensacola and used for SNFO training.

T-45C Goshawk - A two seat single engine jet aircraft flown at NAS Meridian, MS for Jet Advanced. The T-45A is flown at NAS Kingsville, TX and is the earlier version with a less advanced cockpit.

TBS - The Basic School. Six month basic officer course in Quantico, VA required of all newly commissioned Marine officers. Lieutenants learn the basics of being an infantry officer here.

Whiting - NAS Whiting Field. Actually in Milton, Florida which is 20 miles north east of Pensacola. In addition to Primary; Helicopter Advanced is taught here.

WSO - Weapons Systems Officer - In the Marine Corps, this is an NFO that works in the back seat of the F/A-18D. The WSO's job is to reduce the workload on the pilot. The WSO can navigate, find targets, work the radios, work radar, everything short of flying the plane or dropping bombs.