Forum: General F-16 forum

Here's one of those rare career moves where a Navy Pilot switches services - not an exchange tour or even leaving the Navy and joining the ANG or AF Reserves but staying active and actually progressing in rank..and is now the Vice Wing Commander at Luke..

Even gets to wear his wings of gold on his Air Force uniform..

http://www.luke.af.mil/library/biograph ... p?id=14578

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I don't know Col. Webb personally, but I can think of two obvious reason a pilot would do this. The Navy don't allow pilots to bring their family with them on a carrier deployment. The second reason is he didn't want to fly off carriers anymore, although there are quite a few assignments that result in non-carrier flying, such as test and aggressor squadrons.

Maybe Col Webb wants to fly an F22? Very Happy

I know if i had that opportunity I would swap a hornet for a raptor as well.

asianviper wrote:

Maybe Col Webb wants to fly an F22? Very Happy

I know if i had that opportunity I would swap a hornet for a raptor as well.

They have Navy test pilots at Edwards AFB. With some friends in the Pentagon, it would be a TDY to Tyndall for transition training, 6 flights, and then they'd be eligible to join the F-22 CTF.

They'd have to remind the guy not to put the tail hook down for landing Very Happy

asianviper wrote:

Maybe Col Webb wants to fly an F22? Very Happy

I know if i had that opportunity I would swap a hornet for a raptor as well.

I don't think there are any F-22's at Luke anyways.

neurotech wrote:

I don't know Col. Webb personally, but I can think of two obvious reason a pilot would do this. The Navy don't allow pilots to bring their family with them on a carrier deployment. The second reason is he didn't want to fly off carriers anymore, although there are quite a few assignments that result in non-carrier flying, such as test and aggressor squadrons.

The Air Force since 1999 has been using the AEF deployment and 3-6 month deployments are now the norm for Air Force units. And if you look at his bio he was in Afghanistan for a year...and thats not an accompanied tour and longer than a carrier deployment.

Siesta wrote:

The Air Force since 1999 has been using the AEF deployment and 3-6 month deployments are now the norm for Air Force units. And if you look at his bio he was in Afghanistan for a year...and thats not an accompanied tour and longer than a carrier deployment.

I didn't say a USAF officer wouldn't get a year long tour. Most operational carrier tours are over 6 months long, and there is pre-deployment workups on the carrier before that.

I only offered a possible reason, I could be mistaken. Does anyone here know Col. Webb personally?

Inter-service transfers (IST's) are not as "rare" as many believe.
For example, the U-2 community has taken USN, USMC, and USCG IST's since around '97.
I'm not sure on the current stats, but just a few years ago, about 20% of the U-2 pilot force was an IST.
The reasons they do this are as varied as the people that do it.
And in many cases, they will be deployed at a higher rate in the AF than they were in their previous Service.

huggy wrote:

Inter-service transfers (IST's) are not as "rare" as many believe.
For example, the U-2 community has taken USN, USMC, and USCG IST's since around '97.
I'm not sure on the current stats, but just a few years ago, about 20% of the U-2 pilot force was an IST.
The reasons they do this are as varied as the people that do it.
And in many cases, they will be deployed at a higher rate in the AF than they were in their previous Service.

Interesting - if you look at in this case.. he has had time in the F-16 in an exchange tour prior to him going switching services. I think it is rare compared to the over all numbers and the manning requirements. I worked with an officer that had to do a tour at MPC for F-15 assignments and he said it the number is "rare".

Forum: General F-16 forum

Navy pilot switches to Air Force - active duty