Top Gun / Fighter Jets

Viking Jeeper said:
Rescue swimmer is all you had to say. THANK YOU SIR! You guys went to the aircraft every day with the intention of risking your life while saving ours should the need arise.

Added in first edit: Thankfully I was never in need of rescue but I have witnessed a few guys step off that helo on to the flight deck, soaking wet with sea water thankful for the rescue. I'm sure they had a renewed appreciation for you.

And as an S-3 guy I can sympathize with your plight with the pointy nose guys. The T-shirt story is awesome. I sure wish there was an example for you to show. Yes, this type of thing does go on within a carrier air wing. We had a feud between the Tomcat guys and Prowler guys that resulted in guys being locked in their stateroom and the CO/XO stateroom doors being removed to be stowed away in hiding for days. They even had the PR's make curtains so they could at least have some privacy.
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Hey, us ASW types gotta stick together, right? It did seem as though we were the red-headed stepchildren of the air wing, didn't it? It sure would have been a shame if some RedFleet pig boat put a hole in the carrier, though. Our success was measured by what DIDN'T happen, which was sometimes hard to quantify. I do have to admit that the Whale guys from the VQ dets came close to us in overall invisbility, but their aircraft were so big and noisy that they were harder to ignore. The rescue swimmer thing was always classified as a collateral duty, but we took more pride in it than we did in being AW's. Go figure.

I was mostly West Coast Navy but I did manage an instructor tour at HS-1 at NAS Jax in the late 80's, even got a rescue there, a reporter for the Times-Union who capsized his sailboat in the St. Johns, believe it or not. I enjoyed my time in Florida, got out to Cecil a few times to hang with some VS AW buddies.

FLY NAVY
 
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Neal said:
Hey, us ASW types gotta stick together, right? It did seem as though we were the red-headed stepchildren of the air wing, didn't it? It sure would have been a shame if some RedFleet pig boat put a hole in the carrier, though. Our success was measured by what DIDN'T happen, which was sometimes hard to quantify. I do have to admit that the Whale guys from the VQ dets came close to us in overall invisbility, but their aircraft were so big and noisy that they were harder to ignore. The rescue swimmer thing was always classified as a collateral duty, but we took more pride in it than we did in being AW's. Go figure.

I was mostly West Coast Navy but I did manage an instructor tour at HS-1 at NAS Jax in the late 80's, even got a rescue there, a reporter for the Times-Union who capsized his sailboat in the St. Johns, believe it or not. I enjoyed my time in Florida, got out to Cecil a few times to hang with some VS AW buddies.

FLY NAVY
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We had AW's for my first deployment then the acoustic gear was removed from the aircraft. In my days the H-60, S-3, E-2 and EA-6B were all the "Fat Kids" squadrons. I didn't get to Jacksonville until 1997, started at Cecil but shortly after moved to JAX.
 
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Apparition said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1745831757042123081
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Fab 5 Netflix GIF by Queer Eye
 
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