Posted on 02/07/2005 4:23:52 PM PST by Former Military Chick
Yes. TAR units.
Typically, when it comes to the Navy, TAR units are a bit different from normal military reserve units.
They have the same number of aircraft as a RegNav unit, they fly nearly the same number of flight hours, but half of their people are reservists and only show up for two days a month.
That is, except for the pilots, who show up randomly and want to go fly.
The biggest difference is that TAR units don't regularly deploy to the boat, though that's starting to change too.
Contrary to your impulse, I doubt that the policy has anything to do with UAV or unmanned subs.
Thanks for the info - he's only 13 but we are preparing nonetheless ; )
Did you (or anyone else interested) see the Newsday article yesterday about Naval Academy applications being down 20%?
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--academyapplicatio0208feb08,0,3290763.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
Obviously, 11,140 applications (down from 13,922 at the same time last year) is still many more than the approximately 1,200 slots available for the Class of 2009, but still - not good news. Besides the USNA or Pensacola, where would be the best military pilot training I can get my junior high student on track with?
Thanks for the info and support - like I said, he's only 13 but has been interested for a couple years - Annapolis would be his first choice at this point. While we would be proud, it's kinda scary to think of our only child going off to war. We'll see.
Something happened to my last post - just thanks to everyone for the info and support.
Diligence, knowledge of candidate requirements, and stringent academic preparation, supplemented by athletics, school/community leadership, excellent physical condition, and a keen, unrelenting desire to serve the nation as a commissioned military or naval officer are the prerequisites to appointments to one of the service academies. Also, the candidate must contact his/her senator and congressman to discovery their requirements for obtaining a nomination; a track totally separate and apart from the academies' application procedures.
Preparing to obtain an appointment to one of our service academies isn't an easy undertaking. It is purposefully difficult as an indicator of the candidate's motivation and to assure those considering the applicant that the young man or woman has what it takes to successfully complete what is an arduous four years. But, the old axiom is certainly true here: If it were easy anyone could do it.
Middies response above is for you.
It appears you will be right, based on what I saw of the Senate Armed Services committee hearings today. If they retired the Kennedy right now, that would leave 5 carriers on the east coast, all based in Norfolk, which brings up vulnerability concerns. According to today's testimony, it would take 5 to 6 years to upgrade Mayport to handle nuclear powered carriers, which seemed to suprise Sen. Warner and got him all worked up. There seemed to be a bi-partisan consensus that retiring the Kennedy right now would be a bad idea.
In my opinion, carriers are even more valuable and needed now in the War on Terror than they were during the Cold War (when the US and Soviets were facing off under water). Cutting the carrier fleet back at this juncture seems like a big mistake to me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.