Naval Aviator

You are the FNG in a fleet squadron — the officer the maintenance crews are waiting to see earn it. You have Wings of Gold and a designator. You do not yet have traps, quals, or a deployment. The FRS is the first real read the community takes on you, and the community never forgets its first impression.

You commission through USNA, NROTC, or OCS and report to API (Aviation Preflight Indoctrination) at NAS Pensacola FL — roughly five weeks of academics, water survival, aviation physiology, and swim qualification before you touch an aircraft. Primary flight training follows in the T-6B Texan II at NAS Corpus Christi or NAS Pensacola, roughly six months. Your performance in primary drives your track selection: jets (T-45C Goshawk for the strike track), multi-engine (T-44C Pegasus or T-54A for maritime and transport), helicopters (TH-73A Thrasher), or tiltrotor (Bell TH-1 at NAS Corpus Christi for MV-22 pipeline). Advanced jet training runs through Training Air Wing TEN at NAS Corpus Christi or Training Air Wing ONE at NAS Meridian MS in the T-45C. Winging — the Wings of Gold ceremony and the official 1310 designator pin — is the gate, and the 8-year minimum service requirement (MSR) from wings date is the financial and career clock that starts the moment that pin touches your chest. The Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) follows: VFA-106 at NAS Oceana (East Coast Super Hornet / F/A-18E/F), VFA-122 at NAS Lemoore (West Coast Super Hornet), VAQ-129 at NAS Whidbey Island (EA-18G Growler), VAW-120 at NAS Norfolk (E-2D Advanced Hawkeye), VFA-125 at NAS Lemoore (F-35C), or the appropriate helo / maritime patrol FRS depending on your platform. FRS is 6-12 months of intensive NATOPS academics, simulator events, and flight syllabus events culminating in your carrier qualification (CQ) board — arrested landings (traps) and catapult launches (cats) aboard a carrier — before you report to your first fleet squadron. The fleet tour is the operational reality: deployment cycles, OPNAVINST 3710.7 series compliance, sortie generation, qualification progression from wingman to Section Lead to Division Lead, and the ground jobs (schedules, NATOPS officer, safety officer, admin officer) that define you to the wardroom as much as your flight performance does.

• 01Complete the CQ (carrier qualification) syllabus — arrested landings and catapult launches aboard a carrier — to FRS syllabus standard; carry the CQ board pass forward into the fleet without a repeat.
• 02Perform all platform-specific NATOPS procedures and emergency procedures for the assigned MDS from memory; the NATOPS check is not a formality, and the FRS IP who fails you in the sim does not forget.
• 03Execute a complete carrier approach, ACLS-coupled or manual, on glideslope and on-speed to the three-wire; the LSO (Landing Signal Officer) wave-off is not the answer you are looking for.
• 04Conduct sortie planning, brief, and debrief to squadron standard — threat analysis, mission card build, crew coordination (where applicable), tactical debrief with honest self-assessment of error.
• 05Stand your assigned ground job (schedules, NATOPS, safety, admin) without being chased. The FNG who owns his ground job without daily supervision is the FNG the DH notices; the FNG who phones it is the FNG the DH files under "requires supervision."
• 06Understand the 8-year MSR math from your wings date, the Aviation Career Continuation Pay (ACCP / aviation bonus) structure published in NAVADMIN, and the DH school selection timeline — you should be running the spreadsheet at year 3, not year 7.

• —OPNAVINST 3710.7 series — Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization (NATOPS) General Flight and Operating Instructions; the governing instruction for all naval aviation flight operations.
• —Platform NATOPS for assigned MDS (e.g., NAVAIR 01-F18EEF-1 for F/A-18E/F, NAVAIR 01-EA18G-1 for EA-18G, NAVAIR 01-E2AAD-1 for E-2D, and equivalents) — the aircraft procedures manual your check rides are graded against.
• —MILPERSMAN 1000-series — naval personnel policy; the ADSO, MSR, and designation framework governing your 1310 career from day one.
• —NAVPERS 1616 / OPNAVINST 6110.1 series — FITREP procedures and the Navy Physical Readiness Program (PRT/BCA standard).
• —Current NAVADMIN on Aviation Career Continuation Pay (ACCP) / Aviation Bonus — published annually by OPNAV N13; the instrument you use to model the airline-departure math.

• —API graduate (NAS Pensacola, ~5 weeks) and Primary flight training complete (T-6B, ~6 months); track selection drives the rest of the pipeline.
• —Advanced training complete in assigned track (T-45C for jets, T-44C/T-54A for multi-engine, TH-73A for helo); Wings of Gold designation and 1310 designator; 8-year MSR from wings date running.
• —FRS syllabus complete with NATOPS checkrides passed and carrier qualification (CQ) on record; fleet-ready report date to operational squadron.
• —PRT pass (Good or better) and BCA in standard per OPNAVINST 6110.1 every reporting period.
• —FITREP relative ranking (1-of-X) in the top half of peer JOs at the fleet squadron by the second reporting period; understand the EP% cap and where your ranking sits before the report closes.

• —Carrying a "close enough" NATOPS attitude into FRS. The FRS syllabus will find every gap in your emergency procedures knowledge, and a failed NATOPS check in the FRS generates a community read that follows you to the fleet squadron.
• —Phoning the ground job. Schedules, safety, NATOPS, admin — the DH (Department Head) reads your ground job performance as the indicator of how you will run the same DH billets in seven years. Phone it and the inference is set.
• —Letting the 8-year MSR clock run without running the spreadsheet. The airline hiring environment, the ACCP structure, and the DH school timeline all intersect at a specific date range. The pilot who discovers the math at year 7 is making the decision under time pressure the pilot who ran it at year 3 is not.
• —OPSEC sloppiness — posting aircraft configurations, squadron tail numbers, port call schedules, or deployment timelines on social media. The ship's N2 and the wing OPSEC officer are reading accounts; a 1310 OPSEC violation at the JO level is a CO-level conversation.
• —Missing a NATOPS recurrency event without proactive scheduling coordination. On a high-OPTEMPO deployment the sortie count and the requirement can get out of sync faster than the schedules officer catches it; own your currency board, not the other way around.

The good 1310 JO arrives at the first fleet squadron with clean FRS grades, a CQ pass that did not require three attempts, and a NATOPS record the FRS IP signed without hesitation. He has his ground job owned before the DH has to mention it, his currency board current, and his FITREP support form submitted with concrete sortie counts and qual progressions the DH can quote directly. By month 18 the LSO board knows his name for the right reason — consistent passes, on-speed, on-glideslope — and the squadron schedules officer is building his Section Lead currency events because the DH said so.

You are either fighting for DH school selection — the first real competitive gate of your career — or you are the Department Head running a fleet squadron billet and building the FITREP profile the post-DH command screen will read. The airline clock is ticking. The ACCP spreadsheet is open. Do not pretend it is not.

After the first fleet tour you move through the LT window: post-JO shore billet (FRS instructor tour, OPNAV, NAVAIR program office, fleet staff), and then the DH school nomination conversation with your NPC detailer. Aviation Department Head School — platform-specific and gated by NPC selection — is the prerequisite for the KD department head tour itself. In the Strike Fighter community this runs through the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC) at NAS Fallon NV, which houses the Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor (TOPGUN) program and the community department head courses. In the Growler community the VAQ-specific DH pipeline at NAS Whidbey Island integrates EW mission leadership. In the Hawkeye community (VAW) the DH pipeline runs through VRC/VAW command-track schools at NAS Norfolk. In maritime patrol (VP / P-8) the DH pipeline runs through the VP community at NAS Jacksonville. Not every LT screens for DH school; the NPC detailing board reads your FITREP relative rankings, your fleet qualification progression, your post-JO billet performance, and your year-group competition. DH school non-selection is a career branch point that the Navy will not softcode for you — it is real. The DH tour itself is the Key Developmental billet of the 1310 career: Operations Officer, Maintenance Officer, Safety Officer, Training Officer, Administrative Officer — typically two consecutive DH billets at the same or co-located squadron over roughly 3 years. The DH tour FITREP — specifically the second-tour DH FITREP where you are stratified against your DH peers — is the single most-read document in your file going into the LCDR board and the post-DH command screen. The aviation bonus / ACCP decision window also lands here; current NAVADMIN rates and contract lengths need to be verified against current messaging, not rumored numbers. The post-DH wing tour or major staff billet — wing staff, CSG staff, COCOM J-staff, OPNAV N98, NAVAIR program office — is the next visible signal before the command screen conversation begins.

• 01Run a fleet aviation DH billet — Ops, Maint, Safety, Training, Admin — such that the CO does not rewrite your DH products. The Ops Officer who owns the schedule, the Maintenance Officer who briefs PMCR without caveat, the Safety Officer whose mishap prevention program passes the type-wing inspection.
• 02Write FITREPs on junior officers that are honest, differentiated, and competitive: relative rankings (1-of-X) the wardroom can defend, EP designations used within the command's allotment, narrative bullets tied to observable sortie and qualification data.
• 03Navigate the ACCP / aviation bonus decision with a real spreadsheet — wings date plus 8 years, projected airline first-officer pay at the applicable seniority windows, ACCP contract length and value per current NAVADMIN, DH bonus structure, and the personal cost of the post-DH / XO / CO path.
• 04Execute the platform's TOPGUN / NSAWC / community weapons school if selected — the Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor course at NSAWC Fallon (TOPGUN), the EW Weapons School equivalent for Growler ECMOs, the E-2 community weapons equivalents. Patch selection is competitive and the community weight of the patch is real.
• 05Manage a post-DH wing tour or staff billet as a visible signal — type wing operations, CSG staff, COCOM J-staff with appropriate joint qualification (JPME-II / JDA). The joint billet is increasingly weighted at O-5 / O-6 command boards; absence at this tier is a structural deficiency that the pre-command package cannot paper over.
• 06Understand the command screen math: what the NPC command screening board precept is actually evaluating, how the FITREP stratification and narrative from the DH tour propagates, and whether the XO / CO path is the right trajectory for this officer in this community at this time.

• —OPNAVINST 3710.7 series — NATOPS General Flight and Operating Instructions; the governing framework for fleet aviation operations at the DH level.
• —NAVPERS 1610-series (FITREP / EVALREP instructions) — you are writing FITREPs on JOs now; know the EP% cap, the relative ranking requirements, and the administrative procedures cold.
• —OPNAVINST 1306.2 (or successor) — Officer detailing policy; the governing instruction for NPC DH school nominations, billet slating, and the post-DH assignment window.
• —Current NAVADMIN on Aviation Career Continuation Pay (ACCP) / Aviation Bonus — published annually by OPNAV N13; the instrument you use to model the airline-departure math honestly.
• —Current NPC Command Screening Board precept (available via MyNavy HR) — read the actual language before the first pre-command package goes in.
• —MILPERSMAN 1000-series — personnel actions at DH and post-DH level include NJP authority, administrative separations, and UCMJ reporting chain; know what you can sign and what goes to the CO.

• —DH school graduate (platform-specific; NSAWC Fallon DH pipeline for Strike Fighter, VAQ-specific DH course for Growler, VAW DH course for Hawkeye, VP DH course for P-8) — the required gate before the KD DH tour; non-selection is a career branch point.
• —KD DH tour complete — two consecutive DH billets at fleet squadron(s), roughly 3 years total; this FITREP is the most consequential document in your file going into the LCDR board.
• —LCDR promotion board (IPZ per current DOPMA / NAVADMIN board release) — pull the current year-group selection rate from NPC's published board results; the aviation community has historically run high IPZ select rates, but verify against the actual board data.
• —Post-DH wing tour or major staff billet with JPME-II / JDA on record or actively sought — the joint qualification the command screen boards weight explicitly.
• —PRT pass and BCA in standard per OPNAVINST 6110.1 every reporting period — a fitness flag on a DH or post-DH FITREP propagates to the command screen in a way a JO fitness flag does not.

• —Coasting through the post-JO shore billet. The FITREP from the FRS instructor tour, the NAVAIR program office, or the fleet staff billet is the one NPC reads alongside the fleet JO FITREPs when nominating for DH school. A visible coast is a visible signal.
• —Phoning the Maintenance Officer billet. The MO DH is the billet the community reads most closely for leadership outside the cockpit — hundreds of Sailors, PMCR maintenance metrics, readiness rates. The Maintenance Officer whose squadron briefs 80% MC rate at the type-wing inspection is the Maintenance Officer the CO names in the post-DH command screen conversation.
• —Missing the ACCP decision window. Aviators who run the airline-departure spreadsheet at year 11 are making the decision under time pressure the aviator who ran it at year 8 is not. The ACCP contract window and the airline first-year pay models are public enough to model honestly — do it early.
• —Writing FITREPs on JOs that are inflated, vague, or inconsistent in relative ranking across reporting periods. The XO scrubs every FITREP before it reaches the CO; a DH who cannot write honest, differentiated evaluations is a DH the XO has to fix in real time, and the CO notices.
• —Skipping joint exposure. JPME-II / JDA for post-DH 1310 officers is a weighted input at O-5 / O-6 command boards; the DH who completes the post-DH wing tour without a joint-qualification conversation is the LCdr who arrives at the command screen package window with a structural deficiency.

The good LT/LCDR 1310 is the officer the CO names in the DH school debrief as a future CO — not because he managed up well, but because his DH billets ran clean. The schedule was accurate, the maintenance metrics briefed without caveat, the safety program passed the type-wing inspection, and the JO FITREPs were differentiated and honest. The ACCP decision was made with a real spreadsheet at year 8, not in a panic at year 11. If the Patch was on the table and he got selected, he came back to the wing as the tactics authority who made the squadron better — not the officer who put the diploma in a frame and stopped learning. The command screen conversation either happens because the FITREP profile built itself from genuine performance, or it doesn't happen and the transition is made with intention rather than bitterness.