Any Navy Controllers on here?

sailor_pianist Senior Member Birmingham, AL

I've noticed a lot of Air Force Air Traffic Controllers, but not to many Navy ones (or maybe I'm just not looking in the right place)?

To all the Navy Controllers, what is life like in the Navy for Air Traffic Control? What is/was a typical day like? Are there certain things you wish you would've known before going to A school?

Roach Rookie Ft. Worth

I was a Navy SAR Swimmer/Crew Chief. Life all depends on where you get stationed. Ship is a different ball of wax from shore duty.

markthetape Senior Member

i was navy atc it is great as long as you can spend most of your time at naval air stations and get quals and a cto, if you get stuck on a ship for your first tour it is pointless because the faa does not recognize any of those quals and you get little experience, i was on shore duty the whole timv and got 2 cto's and ratcf so it worked for me i was in 5 yrs.

Matty13 Senior Member

Yeah, but deployments rocked (as long as you're not leaving a wife and kids behind). You do stuff on a CV that would make the gnarliest FAA TRACON controller sit up bug-eyed. When I was ship's company and we were in port, we would muster for quarters, do sweepers, and secure down to the duty section by 9:30 every morning. We made up for it at sea, with 20-hour case III ops per day.

MTT, if you were never at sea you can't really say much about the experience, can you?

Roach, BZ for being a SAR swimmer.

sailor_pianist Senior Member Birmingham, AL

How did you get it so you could get shore duty the whole time? Did they ask you after A school? I want to go to a Naval Air Station (although I heard where I want to go--Atlanta--probably won't be available to me). I was hoping to get placed closer to home since I was trying to keep and eye on my mother who is disabled and lives in Alabama, so Atlanta or Florida Naval Air Stations would be ideal.

sailor_pianist Senior Member Birmingham, AL

But none of that counted for the FAA though, right? You mention what you did on the ship but did you get a CTO?

Roach Rookie Ft. Worth

Thanks man! All done and over now though. Sure would like to trade my TOL for an FOL. Peace man!

ATC_MacGyver MacGyver with the bears.

it has been explained to you about choosing orders. it is based on your class gpa/ranking.

if 8 people are in your class, they print off 8 sets of orders. they could be all ship duty, all shore duty, half and half, whatever. it's the needs of the navy. so out of those 8 sets of orders, you go in and choose based on your class rank. #1 goes first, #2 second, blah blah etc etc.

no, the faa doesnt care that you can do air traffic control on a ship. they will never need you to land a 757 on an aircraft carrier. so those quals mean nothing.

for florida... you have nas pensacola, nas whiting field (just outside of pcola), nas key west, nas jacksonville, nas mayport (jacksonville beach.)

your first two years at a shore duty station may go something like this.

you check into the command. you do two weeks of indoc classes. you might start training. or you might get assigned to a temporary duty for 3 months. like gate guard, or 1st LT. (clean up.). after those 3 months you will start training. depending on YOU and your command, you will train to a certain point.

shore duty orders for people out of A school are for 2 years. but everyone (including myself) was extended for the the rest of their enlistment. i dont know if they are still doing that. i arrived at NAS Jax in april of 2005, was supposed to transfer in april of 2007. i got extended until april of 2009. and stayed there through my enlistment which ended in august of 2009.

i got two ctos, and a ratcf ticket.

sailor_pianist Senior Member Birmingham, AL

Thanks for explaining to me about exactly what happens when you're choosing orders. I knew that if you got a higher GPA you could choose (kind of) where you wanted, but I didn't know you had to pick and choose from a given list. I thought you could just name the Naval Air Station where you wanted to go. Again, I'm a total noob, so rather than just assuming I know it all, I would much rather ask. I also didn't know about the possible 3 month temporary assignment. Recruiters don't really go into detail about certain rates, they just want you in and want the credit for you. I really just want to have a good grip on what to expect.

Again, I'm sorry that I keep asking this. I just want as much info as possible on what to expect...

ATC_MacGyver MacGyver with the bears.

bah. i just reread what i wrote. i might have sounded dickish. but i regret nothing.

they call it TAD (temporary assignment of duty.... i think) and it all depends on a lot of things if you get sent. maybe ATC just sent a body there right before you got there, so it wont apply to you, maybe ATC division is up next on the rotation... so. there are a lot of variables.

and maybe you will never go. i never went. the 3 people before me did, and a lot of people after me did.