ROTODOME

I found out early last week that I will be training to become an E-2C Hawkeye pilot!

We showed up for class early morning, Monday April 5th and we were introduced to our classmates (7Aviators, 10 NFOs) and a few of our instructors. The lead guy was an NFO and after introducing himself as the NFO rep for the class he turned it over to a pilot who he said would talk to us about different pilot issues and also let us know the split for how many E-2C Hawkeye and C-2 Greyhound spots were available for the 7 of us.

Of course we were extremely nervous (not like Meridian, but still there was tension in the air...). The plan was that they were going to tell us how many spots of each there were and we were going to have to decide amongst ourselves who was going to fly what i.e. "hey guys we have 3 C-2 spots and 4 E-2, let us know by tomorrow morning who's doing what." I appreciate that method because it puts the next 7.75 years of our lives more into our own hands but at the same time it still sucks pretty bad for the guy who doesn't get what he wanted.

But all was well when our guy stood up, looked around and said, "Hi, I'm LT so-and-so, call sign Cheese and welcome to the E-2 comunity." Then he sat down and that was it, every one of us got the E-2. Thankfully, as it happened (due to the Tailhook program, if you ask me), we all wanted the Hawkeye. We all wanted to do night carrier landings, live on the boat, make less money (C-2 pilots live on land and in hotels and get a TON of per diem) and actually be an integral part of the strike package and/or the battle group's mission.

From the day I decided I wanted to go to the Naval Academy, I knew wanted to make a difference and now the craft that I will fly will do just that. I can't wait.