AW1Steve
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Joined: 3/10/2007
From: Mordor Illlinois
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ORIGINAL: USS America
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ORIGINAL: AW1Steve
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ORIGINAL: USS America
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ORIGINAL: AW1Steve
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ORIGINAL: sprior
Junior Rates aren't allowed beer on tap at sea.
Beer? At sea? They can't have beer on tap at sea? OH-WA! What is the world comming too? 
Um, Steve? What was your longest time away from a land base? 12-16 hours? I spend 87 straight days at sea during Desert Storm. 
We "earned" one beer day during that time and I was handed two cans of hot Heineken to drink. 
OK Mike. Let's lay that "Cadillac duty myth" to rest. Yes, I was land based. But unlike maintainers, for who "VP" duty is Cadillac duty , for Aircrew, it's a little different. Maintainers can have a beer anytime that they are not on duty ) and I've know a few who would have one when they were on duty. If you think it's hard not having a beer when you've been months at sea , where NO ONE , not even the Captain is having one , try going 30 days when everyone around you is having one , offering you one , and trying to repay you by buying you one.
Here is how it works: You show up for a 2-3 hour brief, then go to the plane and do a three hour preflight. Then you wait for 4-5 hours for maintainance to fix a gripe with the airplane that they supposedly fixed , but didn't. THEN you go flying. And yes , it's only 12-14 hours on patrol. And the P-3c has three pilots, two flight engineers, two navigators, two sonar operators and ONE EWO. Guess which one I am? So after 12-14 hours of sitting the seat (because no one else can) we land, and the "crew rest cycle" begins.This means , since your base is "flapping" (at a high alert status, tracking multiple "real world targets"--read "bad guys") that EXACTLY 12 hours after landing you WILL fly again. Unfortunately , this flight isn't done. And you are already supposed to be preparing (read--no booze) . So you post flight the plane for an hour or so, then go to a debrief for two hours--that turns into three or four if you had an interesting flight.
Then you go eat. But as a "Prisoner of the flight schedual" , you eat when you can and Navy and Air Force galleys have very specific hours. They never, ever coincide with the flight schedual. (It's against the rules). So you go to the club (This is Iceland--no MacDonalds, Burger King, etc. The basing treaty doesn't permit them). The club is expensive, but..it's hot. So you finally sit down in a comfortable chair (having changed--no flight suits). Your dead, but starving. Then the devil's begin their torment. Every 15 minutes for the rest of your meal , the waitress will offer you a drink. People all around you are having drinks. You smell it, you crave it , but it's not for you!
Finally , ordeal over , you get to your room....and everybody in the barracks is having a party. Except you. Your flying in six hours. Despite the "do not disturb, crew resting sign" on your door , at least 3 times through the night some drunken maintainer will knock on your door, demand someone who doesn't live there , then try to give you a beer to make up[ for waking you up. If you can sleep at all , due to the non-stop partying going on.
Your alarm goes off and it's 0Dark30 and it's time to do it all over again. Repeat again and again for thirty or so days. Maybe, just maybe the "flap" will end , and you can try to make inroads to deal with your sleep and beer deprivation. Or not. I've seen flaps that lasted most of an entire deployment (six months or more).
So , yeah , your right that P-3 deployments can be fun . Or not. Unless your a maintainer. Then it's usually fun. Weren't you a AT Mike?
'Bout time we heard from you.
Let me recap. It seems that you are complaining about how hard you had it with waitresses, rooms, and noise while trying to sleep. I often went more than a month without seeing anything close to a waitress, except in a few "training" magazines on board. The "room" I had to sleep in was also occupied by about 150 other guys and I couldn't sit up in my rack because there was only about 2 feet of clearance to the 1 or 2 other racks above me. (Simon can explain what hot racking is. I was happy with what I had  ) My rack was about 20 feet below catapult #1, and I worked nights, 7 - 7, so there were usually these really loud machines hooked up to a giant sling shot, cranking their engines at full military or full afterburner, directly over my head. Is it a wonder that I can sleep through anything now?
Oh, and yes, I had the best job on the entire ship. I was an AT2 at the time of my 3 deployments, working on electronics in a secured, air conditioned shop. I fixed things, I didn't "operate" (break) them.
Yeah Mike. I know it was tough having only six to a room, where you had 30+. Of course then there was Aircrew school (where SEAL and Marines got to beat on you for 12 hours a day), and SERE school where you got to live in the Maine woods for up to two weeks with no food except what you could catch , then you get "rewarded" by spending a week plus in a POW camp where the quarters were exquisite and the staff, well let's say they were "attentive". They made sure that you were never bored.
I didn't mean to complain that I was allowed to go to a restraunt (on a e-3's pay in 1979-83) when you expected to use COMRATS and use a mess hall that was never available to you. And I'll admit , I never really needed the soft bunk that They so thoughtfully spoiled me with (as I could have just as easily slept on my feet, and often did). But you're right .I was spoiled . And I'd have killed anyone to kept my job. I spent nealy six years refusing promotion (it would have meant changing rate) just to keep that job. People pointing missiles and guns at us (unarmed and unafraid) fighters wearing the Red star and other emblems giving us an "escort" to make sure that we went away safely (nice of them wasn't it) . We didn't need or want air conditioned space (but it would have been nice in Pueato Rico and South America) or a safe and secure space. Frankly I really didn't want a carrier (I trained for SH-3's) as I really wanted to be more than a airborne Lifeguard or mailman.And those of us lucky enough to be top of our class to get those orders were very, very lucky.
Jimmy Dolittle entittled his biography "I could never be so lucky again". And that man knew something about flying. So I guess that you're right. We were spoiled. And ya know something? I'm not gonna apologize about it. In your face! So there!
I still hope that you'll let me buy you a beer next time your up this way (hopefully before May). 
< Message edited by AW1Steve -- 3/3/2010 2:25:55 AM >
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