2

7/1/2008 4:51:34 PM

bttt

7/1/2008 6:21:54 PM

ha, I just stumbled across this

I'm going to Iraq, probably towards the end of September (to Al-Asad airbase)

I'll be leaving WA in probably 10 days or so, then coming to Cherry Point, NC for a week or two...then going back to CA for about 3 weeks, then back to Cherry Point for a month (half of which I'll spend on pre-deployment leave, which will probably be mostly in Raleigh and possibly FL).


I haven't gone simply because it takes forfuckingever to get trained up in my job. 6 months of infantry/basic officership training for all USMC officers after commissioning (not boot-camp style...that's before), 2 years of flight school, couple weeks of SERE, few days in the centrifuge, training delays and transit times, another 13 months learning my specific aircraft...that's just to get to my first operational unit, which will be in a couple of weeks.

(basically, I will show up to my first operational squadron about a month before I hit the 4 year mark...probably get promoted to Captain around September or so, and haven't REALLY done shit in terms of warfighting).

7/1/2008 10:00:30 PM

if you are shot down, i will avenge you

at the very least, i'll post in the thread about you getting shot down

WORD IS BOND

7/1/2008 10:11:17 PM

^ our enemies in iraq don't have shit to shoot down planes with...so i doubt thats much of a risk

7/1/2008 10:15:30 PM

haven't gotten any threat briefing, and i wouldn't post it here anyway, but i bet there are some manpads floating around, and there are sure as hell plenty of small arms. all of the RADAR guided shit got smoked a long time ago.

takeoff/climbout/approach/landing is about the only time we'd be in the envelope for the MANPAD threat with what we're doing over there, though. I'd be more concerned about a 4.5 degree bearing failing and causing one engine to shit itself into the other engine.

(I know plenty of people who got missiles shot at them earlier, though)

7/1/2008 10:20:13 PM

i was told people like you go to iraq but are like in buildings in shit...i was told just having a college education gives u like higher ranks or some shit

7/1/2008 10:23:39 PM

has less to do with my rank and more to do with my job.

have to have an airbase to fly a Prowler, and there's no point in sleeping in a fighting hole when you live on an airbase.

I think they were in tents for a while, but they have "cans" now. i think they're kinda like a travel trailer, minus the traveling part.


I think even most of the grunts have actual accomodations over there now, too. it's not like they're fighting conventional battles across the open desert for days on end.

7/1/2008 10:27:03 PM

i thought USMC pilots, ECMOs, WSOs, whatever had to all do one tour on the ground as a regular grunt

7/1/2008 10:30:24 PM

no. one option for us (being Marines and all) is to do a Forward Air Controller tour with the grunts/tanks/etc after we do our squadron tour. You don't have to, though (I mean, you could get voluntold, but generallly if you don't want to do it, you can do something else. flight instructor, officer recruiting, instructor at various schools, foreign area officer, etc)

7/1/2008 10:39:15 PM

Quote :

"I'd be more concerned about a 4.5 degree bearing failing and causing one engine to shit itself into the other engine"

that been happening recently or something? there wasn't too much catastrophic stuff like that happening when i was in.

Quote :

"(I know plenty of people who got missiles shot at them earlier, though)"

yep i heard the sky was pretty bright when i was out there on southern watch (2000ish)

Quote :

"i thought USMC pilots, ECMOs, WSOs, whatever had to all do one tour on the ground as a regular grunt"

Where did you hear that? The USMC spends a crazy amount of $$$ training those bodies for those jobs. I don't see why they would force themselves to waste all that $ in training on a grunt position (no offense to the grunts out there )

7/1/2008 10:47:29 PM

well first and foremost they're MARINES, right?

i don't know where i heard that, though

7/1/2008 10:50:26 PM

all marines are trained in combat. they're not all forced to actually do it though. that would be a colossal waste of money in some cases (like flight officers)

7/1/2008 10:52:04 PM

you better hit me up when you get to raleigh

7/1/2008 11:09:05 PM

Quote :

"that been happening recently or something? there wasn't too much catastrophic stuff like that happening when i was in. "

yeah, i'm guessing that bearing has been the #1 cause of lost airplanes over the last few years. they take tons of oil samples to try and catch it before a catastrophic failure, but it still happens sometimes.


^^ yeah, like i said, they have us do the Forward Air Controller (FAC, or JTAC in the terms of the Army/Air Force) sometimes, and we can also go to ANGLICO (as aviators)...but no, it's not like EVERY aviator HAS to do a tour doing ground combat stuff, even though we get some training in it (not as much as an infantry officer, but a shit ton more than aviators in any other service).

^ alright

7/2/2008 12:49:51 AM

TWW got your back in Iraq, we'll flood the internet with useless crap on your order sir.

[Edited on July 2, 2008 at 1:02 AM. Reason : ftw]

7/2/2008 1:02:17 AM