To Deploy or Not To Deploy

2014-01-28T09:52:07-05:00

So I am almost finished with C130 School House and will be returning to my reserve unit for several months of home seasoning. I am very blessed that I am in a reserve squadron that currently has a lot of flight hours on a weekly basis.  We have also had several opportunities for voluntary 3 month deployments while I have been in pilot training.  My goal is to get back to my unit and attempt to rack up as many flight hours as possible in an effort to accelerate my schedule in getting to AC school and obtaining my unrestricted ATP certificate.  I should be able to pick up between 60 and 90 hours a month flying with my unit on a weekly basis as an active reservist. A couple of the guys in my unit that deployed for three months this past year came back with just under 500 hours for 13 weeks. 38 hours a week is great and for only three months away from home I feel like that is totally worth it.  Clearly I have never deployed before so I am only going on the feedback from the guys in my squadron. I would love some outside opinions on if I should just stay stateside and rack up hours with my unit or attempt to fast track by picking up a voluntary deployment.  Thanks in advance for any and all feedback!

Response by SFC James Baber made Jan 28 at 2014 4:37 PM

2014-01-28T16:37:58-05:00

Ma'am,

I would never turn down a chance to deploy especially a short tour, if I was still able and eligible I would deploy in a heartbeat, I always loved going to new places and experiencing new people and cultures, it helps to round you more as a person and SM, at least in my opinion.

I would jump on it if I was in your shoes.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 28 at 2014 8:31 PM

2014-01-28T20:31:15-05:00

Ma'am, Take the opportunity to deploy and use it to gain the flight hours you want and to gain new experience as a professional. You will have plenty of time to fly stateside, however the chance for deployment is quickly going away. You will gain much more than just flight hours while on a deployment. Regardless of the tour length.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 28 at 2014 8:31 PM

2014-01-28T20:31:27-05:00

I used to be at LRAFB where we had about 100 C-130s. They were green-camo at that time. I still like the looks.

Response by CMC Robert Young made Jan 28 at 2014 10:10 PM

2014-01-28T22:10:02-05:00

Ma'am, my two cents from the peanut gallery. Take any opportunity you can to catch a deployment. It's good experience, and almost always provides accelerated training opportunities for gaining higher levels of certification. It also frequently allows you the chance to manage your personal life around the deployment as opposed to that phone call where you get a short notice select and direct order that sets off a series of second and third effects in your personal or family world. Do it...

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 28 at 2014 10:15 PM

2014-01-28T22:15:46-05:00

Deploy the reason I say this is if you use the rocking chair method. I know this will work because your already asking the question so its already a internal debate. so imagine when your 60, 70, maybe 80 years old with your love ones or grandchildren and your rocking away and you are telling your family stories and sharing your life your going to hit the topic of military and if you don't deploy I think its going to build and build on you and do you want to have a regret while your sharing your stories or do you want to say I gave it my all I got the most out of every possible situation, and I lived my life to the fullest. so my NON expert advice is DEPLOY.....

Response by Maj Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 29 at 2014 12:03 AM

2014-01-29T00:03:34-05:00

deploy. they will have a hard time justifying a quick upgrade without the experience. you can also pull it back and log more hrs, at home you have a set landing time. its better on the engines anyway, right? ;)

Response by SGM Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 29 at 2014 1:20 AM

2014-01-29T01:20:53-05:00

Ma'am, you need to deploy for multiple reasons. While I do not have a clear picture of your long term goals (staying in, getting promoted, etc.), I can say this from a perspective of experience: 1. The flying hours in combat is invaluable. The experience you gain from short airfield landings, rapid decent landings, and combat flying will never be able to be replaced with stateside training. 2. Others will deploy. When you are trying to get a promotion, have a deployment will be a huge discriminator. 3. The experience you will gain stateside (personnel drops, heavy drops, LCLV drops) is minor compared to the combat experience. 4. It is three months....you can do that standing on your head.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 29 at 2014 1:15 PM

2014-01-29T13:15:31-05:00

I would deploy. Deployments are becoming few and far
between. It will be the only time you will do your real world mission. What
looks better? Conducted 300 training missions or conducted 300 missions in
Afghanistan while supporting combat troops? That's an easy call. Real world experience
always trumps training. Think about it, you just came out of a year of
training.....I learned more as a deployed PL then I did in garrison.

Response by Maj Jeremy R. made Apr 1 at 2015 2:15 PM

2015-04-01T14:15:54-04:00

I am actually surprised to hear that you can rack up 60 to 90 hours a month. For 2014 (we had no deployments) most pilots averaged under 200 for the year with a couple about 300 and 1 just over 400 (our only co-pilot). We had heard that most other C-130 wings were averaging less than that.

Response by SFC Michael Hasbun made Nov 5 at 2021 9:33 AM

2021-11-05T09:33:49-04:00

Given the option, always choose deployment.
It's an issue of credibility. To me, combat/deployment is "real world". It's where we take all of our training and garrison experience and actually apply it.
It's where we discover what ACTUALLY works, what doesn't work, third order effects from our actions, how to manage those effects, etc...
Basically, combat/deployment is where we do our REAL jobs.
In my personal opinion, if you have never deployed, all of your training and knowledge is still in the theoretical stage, because you've never applied it in the real world. All you have is what you were told, and what's worked in training/garrison, which as I stated earlier, is NOT the "real world" we train to operate in.
Without practical experience in the real world, all of your training will push you to no higher than novice status (regardless of rank or nifty schools). It's practical application that truly nets you knowledge, and not just theory.
The only setting that matters is combat/deployment. The rest is just training for that environment.