Sponge,

CVW-5 on Kitty Hawk......we had conv power, thus hot showers! And the food was actually not too bad, Sunday brunch was the bomb. Our Admin was in the Hyatt above Brick's, I think it was the Hyatt or the Mariott, I forget.

 

Hyatt...Marriott is the pagoda looking place on the corner. We "might" have damaged some "property" there and decided to lye low and not go back on future occasions After that, we admin'd on the other side, either the Ritz or Mandarin Oriental. I managed to convince the JO' to explore there this last cruise and they liked it better than the Rose/Scott area. Easier to get to the Quay's too.

Food was hit or miss: good on Vinson, bad on Nimitz and OK on Reagan. Reagan get's mucho props of having hot food available 21 of 24 hours in a day. Sunday brunch involved enough calories to feed a Somali family of 12 for a week.

All were hot water challenged - most especially Nimitz where the showers mysteriously were sea water temperature: in the Pacific, around 50 degrees, in the gulf, no COLD water where the gulf water temps are around 100 in the summer. But we were getting fresh water out of the showers....weird.

Spongebob

 

If by "truth" you mean the ridiculous drivel that you wrote above about flying in the USAF, then no.

I especially liked the "The AF stopped flying during the sandstorm" part. That's pretty creative.

 

Ok Hacker, since I refuse to get into a ****ing contest with you, I will agree to disagree with you. Perhaps one day we'll have this friendly, yes I consider it friendly, conversation over a beer. Nowhere in my orginal post did I attack you directly or your community but rather the philosophy by which the USAF operates. It's just different. They make it work for them and we make ours work for us. One doesn't make the other any better or any worse, just different. You chose yours and I chose mine and the end result of serving our country and defending the Flag and our freedom is what really matters, the rest is gravy.

As for the sandstorm, its true. You guys didn't fly. NOt because you were afraid but because you couldn't. We could, by virtue of being on the boat, that was my only point. I certainly would never sit here at wings level 1G flight at my desk and say...........anyone wearing a unifrom wouldn't have wanted to help. So, perhaps a little thicker skin on your part would have helped. Again, no insult was ever intended. Its a forum.

Safe flying!

Bdger

 

Hacker,

Tell us what it's like in reality. Enlighten us if we have it wrong.

We flew during the sandstorm because there are no hard wx mins at the boat. Smart/stupid or not, we did fly. It was not fun, but CAG told us to fly and we got the job done (and the reality is target area wx was so bad there wasn't much that could be done). AF guys that came from afar (Al Udeid & similar) flew also, but the folks close by were definitely wx cancels. Nobody's fault, just the AF's aircrew union is better than the Navy's. The Navy doesn't cancel for crosswinds (we turn the boat), the weather (maybe in a hurricane, but I've flown in wx that was pretty close to that), crew day or crew rest (waiverable). The AF does. I've launched for my 3rd combat support go of the day (after 2 4.5's already) on an Alert-60 because an AWACS canceled for "crew rest". I'm sure it wasn't the choice of the crew, but that's the rules. I flew 13.5 hours in a Hawkeye. And I flew again 10 hours later. Part of the deal.

Spongebob

 

Don't get me wrong I'm not in the military. But I do train IFS here at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio Texas and I know for a fact this is the dumbest and most falsified statement. I'm not partial to either. I'd like to know where you get your info from on this? Guys that go to the AF academy have first dibs on flight slots. Basically any spare slots are then filled by other people. If you go to the academy you have very very good odds at ending up flying slot. There are TONS of them here currently training.

As far as being a fighter or tanker I find most get what they want. Very few don't. There are many students I've had that wanted to fly heavies and many that wanted to fly fighters. The hard ones to get appear to be heli's. Or at least here. They have to really fight eachother to get into those things.

Perhaps the real difference is that the Navy air power is to protect the fleet while the AirForce is designed to eliminate the enemy? They could run missions contrary to this statement but that's what's on paper about them.

 

BDGERMN,
You related to good ol' DaveGriffin on Flight Info? You guys could be twins (or bunk mates). You sound just like him. If you are not him, go check out his drivel on FI. You'll probably like it.

 

6 to 9 months at sea with 5,000 men, sounds great!

 

TD, I would venture to say that preferential treatment does not go to the cadets in Colorado Springs, I can't say that for sure so if I'm AFU someone who actually knows, please let me know. In the Navy, again, this isn't saying that's the model, the USNA, ROTC, OCS, get proportional amounts of flight school spots according to the number of accessions they produce. Bottom line, students in OCS, ROTC, or the Academy have the same chances of getting a spot. My point in the thread was that you have a better chance of not flying in both services, it holds true since most of the Officers in both branches, don't fly. Just as in Banzai's post there is a fair amount of sarcasm, that's what I replied with, and wow did it get under the thin skin of some readers.

 

Come on Buzz, we have females on board now, whats not to like.

Holy serious crowd in here Batman.

Bdger