Originally Posted by
Dragon7
C,
Well time to fish or cut bait. assume you are a VQ guy who did an off the beaten track flying shore tour, so if you go to Sea then you have to come back and do a DH tour to get current, maybe 4-5 years total. Out at 13-14 is not out of the question and no a bad idea in the right environment.
Lots of permutations of what to do. Will say that QOL is about to go WAY down for you in the Nav. So here is an idea. Apply for FTS NOW! If you get it you have the option to stay in the Navy's greatest deal, VR. You also have an easy slide over to the icing on the VR cake, Selres VR!
Push the detailer for C-12 somewhere. Career suicide but if you are determined to go fly on the outside, (your dad being at Fedex is HUGE; the good old boy system is not as strong but you didn't get interviewed there so far for 95% of folks without at least knowing somebody and same at SWA and UAL) go for it. The IA is such a crapshoot right now in the drawdown not worth it unless detailer throws you a bone in the negotiation, so negotiate hard for the C-12 job if FTS doesn't happen, and if the detailer won't do it turn down the crappy stuff he gives you first. He is a used car dealer and has to move the lemons off the lot. Push him a bit until he gives you another choice. That is gonna be as good as it gets. In no way do you share your airline vision with that forked tongued devil. Play the "not sure i will get a DH slot due to non traditional shore duty" card and then let him talk about your DH chances. Maybe he says your right and gives you C-12s. Maybe he tries to sell you boat and DH tour. Worse case you get underway on nuclear power and then come back and do FRS then bail. The jobs will be there. Just have a plan and put it in action now. Good luck.
You pretty much hit what I'm thinking spot on. My ideal plan is to apply for FTS when eligible...and still trying to negotiate the slim possibility of C-12 flying orders. I mentioned Bahrain because my timing would match up beautifully so I'm hawking those. Of course I'd take anything in the King Air...but places like Japan and Gitmo are considered shore tours, so it would be purely up to detailer discretion.
I did find a lovely little tidbit in the MILSPERSMAN 1920-200 instruction involving resigning your commission. Apparently a buddy of mine faced the same situation that I will come to face. He was pressured for the boat, and made the argument that he wasn't competitive, off the beaten path, and was FTS or bust. According to the instruction...if you submit a LOI to resign your commission 6 months prior to your PRD...the next set of orders cannot legally extend you past your MSR. So in other words, the detailer trying to sell 24+ boat orders when you only owe 16-18 months isn't going to fly unless he finds a way to maliciously modify shorter boat orders, which to my knowledge has zero precedent. In any case, he went through as promised and submited his LOI. Magically the situation went from little to no chance to getting FTS...to actually being eligible. He did get picked up in the end. And common sense tells me that the detailer office tried to scramble and find something and just let him go as a result.
Either way, if I can manage my way into a VR community, I'll be pretty happy. I suppose it's just a matter of finding the best way in getting there.
Thanks to everyone for the feedback already.