Callsign Controversy
 

We often tell young wanna-bes on here to have a thick skin because military aviation is a give-and-take environment. I know that in my career, callsigns were often given to other than pilots in an attempt to make the maintenance/admin (ground officers) feel more like part of the team instead of a separate group with a squadron. I always lived by the same rule of the callsign being something that you could tell your grandmother :) or explain without TOO MUCH embarrassment at a family reunion (since it often gets asked!)

In any case - it is sad on both ends really that something as traditional (though not a long time tradition as the article details) has to get pulled into the controversy :( along with more time honored traditions such as the Line Crossings.

Ensign cites harassment in call sign choice - Navy News, news from Iraq - Navy Times

USMCFLYR

"Butts" Tench, that's funny.

I like in the credits of a certain movie where it shows the names/callsigns of the guys that did the actual flying.

Seckinger's callsign was the coolest.

I think there could have been a much better way to handle this. It seems as if he didn't get the result he wanted so he called the Navy Times. One way to handle it was to grow a pair and say FU to those who started it, accept it and move on. I suppose being careful on extreme callsigns is a better way to approach it with today's PC society but damn, you're in a Hornet squadron, surrounded by warriors, man up a bit and carry on. There are more important fires to burn out there I think.

Bunky :D

If I remember there was a LT Caulk call sign "Horse" on that movie.

Most callsigns are either a play on your last name or for something really boneheaded you've done. Why this guy was singled out must be a deeper story than what is presented. He either has something on line (i.e. Facebook pics) or the Chief's mess had some stories about him.

Actually I don't know why an LDO would even have a callsign.

That's a good one too.

Not that I know ANYTHING about this stuff, but I noticed that two guys had the same callsign. I thought I saw somewhere else that that's not allowed.

No kidding. Giving one to a ground pounder sort of devalues all of them.

Waaah waaah waaaah. This is our new sensitive Navy. Good lord.

Notice he's not in the command anymore. Good. I'm curious how he survived CPO initiation.

I agree that everyone getting them has gotten out of control. Also notice he never answered the question of whether he's gay. Maybe he really is Romo's *****.

In today's military and the politically sensitive environment dealing with the issue of homos, I'm really surprised that they were that robust in their name calling, especially in company offices and on company time.

I was always a proponent of "buy in" by the namee (AF). We had a rule that the namee could request to be "renamed" after 90 days (or something like that). One poor guy was the victim of a picture from a squadron party where it appeared that he was staring at another guy's butt. Hence, he was named "Gayzer". He tolerated it in good nature, but I believe he went for and was granted a rename later on.

Last name Johnson, call sign "Gotno".
Last name Roundtree, call sign "Squarebush".
Took a few dumps on the plane, call sign "Duece".
Doesn't have a callsign: call sign NFN^2 (no *******ing nickname, aka nfnsquared)

I wish I had a callsign. :D