Originally Posted by
USMCFLYR
BDGERJMN can say for sure, but I thought that for quite sometime the Marine IPs weren't dual qual'ed on the east coast and only the MATSG IPs on the West Coast were dual qualed because they got so little flight time with the Legacy training squadron and the Super training squadron was hurting for pilot IPs at one point (but as I said - it was done on the fairly downlow side so as to not unduely ruffle feathers along the way)
East Coast FRS Marines have been flying the Rhino since shortly after the OPS/Training integration of the E/F and C/D sides. At that time it was on the down low not as a product of dudes keeping mum about it, but more as a function of the numbers. VFA-106 for years only had 2 full time Marine IPs and 2 IPs from MATSG-33(CO/XO). At times there was another from the LSO school that would fly part time. So the footprint was very small. Now that the Marine billets at 106 have increased substantially, I think around 10 full time and MATSG/LSO school players, the numbers are much higher. This has made OPS/Training way more efficient across the board, while still putting out the numbers of USN/USMC Hornet aircrew to the fleet that are demanded and by the way, increasing EVERYONE's flight time. This decision by Marine leadership is completley for political reasons and is IMHO a detriment to the Naval service as a whole. I digress...what do I know, I'm just a SELRES!