September 29th The Guardian

[bossf51]

The pilots are officers. For the current 1/c class, they are going to pick 10% of the graduating class to become pilots. That is up from the usual 5% in the past. There are so many applying the competition is fierce.

 

[USNA69]

The pilots are officers. For the current 1/c class, they are going to pick 10% of the graduating class to become pilots. That is up from the usual 5% in the past. There are so many applying the competition is fierce.

The Coast Guard gets a substantial number of it's pilots from the Navy. At times during the past, it has been as high as 50%. Since it costs in the neighborhood of one million dollars to train a pilot, it is a substantial savings to the Coast Guard budget. In a way, it is a win-win situation. Pilots who cannot endure the rigors of Naval Aviation continue flying and the Coast Guard doesn't have to train them. However, I wonder how many would have stayed in the Navy had the Coast Guard transition not been available to them

 

[Just_A_Mom]

Getting back to the topic:

Yes, Jamzmom, I do think we were chuckling at the same parts in the movie! Those Navy guys seem a little sensitive - don't ya think? haha

I hope they bring their sense of humor with them to the theater.

It certainly is nice to see a branch of service that is so often taken for granted get its "15 minutes" of fame.

 

[USNA69]

Those Navy guys seem a little sensitive - don't ya think? haha
I hope they bring their sense of humor with them to the theater.
It certainly is nice to see a branch of service that is so often taken for granted get its "15 minutes" of fame.

The "Official" Service Academy Forum NAVY Review

Great movie. If it's primary purpose was to portray the professionalism, dedication, and devotion of wet swimmers, it did a fantastic job. If there are any 50 year old swimmers out there, I'm sure Costner played them perfectly. Perhaps the Wild Turkey-Vicodin diet was a little far fetched.

There aren't many professions in the world other than professional sports where harnessed cockiness is an asset. Certain jobs in the military is the other. Rescue swimmers is one of those. The Kutcher character plays it perfectly.

The recruit class welcoming address by the school CO was hilarious. Even he admitted that he was "on a roll" to the Costner character when he finished. The "Navy" comment should be taken in the same spirit as the "God reaching down and sweeping homes off their foundation" comment. I loved it, including the Navy "jab", which of course isn't true. Go to Norfolk during a hurricane alert and the piers are empty. As taxpayers we should applaud this. The Navy's mission is to protect their assets for wartime, not provide rescue.

Harnessing the cockiness has to happen. I suppose a bar scene was as good a way of doing it as any. However, I don't think there are any "Navy" bars in Lousiana anything like the one in the movie. And the Navy was totally misrepresented. Navy chiefs will probably take offense. From the outside it was a biker bar, and from the inside, totally Navy. My big question; did the overweight Navy Captain arrive on a Harley or the chopped hot rod?

I think the movie portrays the character of the swimmers to perfection. One has to have a screw loose to jump out of a perfectly good aircraft into the cold dark sea. And that is what it is. Very few boats founder on nice warm sunny days. The portrayal of the seas in the movie was outstanding. Additionally, most boat crews think they have things under control until the fear of the unknown of darkness grips them. A large proportion of rescues are at night in the exact sea conditions as seen in the movie.

Everything else in the movie could probably have used some technical assistance:
-Cutters with landing and refueling decks are at sea constantly in the Bering Sea. Low fuel states made the missions seem more dangerous than they actually need to be.
-RCCs (Rescue Coordination Centers) are nothing like what was portrayed, unless things have changed drastically in the last few years. It would probably be manned by a LT and a few enlisted, definitely not the CO of the base.
-I think the portrayal of the numbers lost is exaggerated. The "22" though was worth the improper portrayal.
-I don't think I would ever allow a swimmer to go inside a sinking vessel. Probably by now there are standardization rules to this effect.
-It was a movie about rescue swimmers, not aircrew in general so my statement that every pilot in the movie deserved to have either his wings pulled or be court martialled should detract nothing from the enjoyment of the movie. One of the instructors during the A-school portion was using Katrina as an example of the benefits of standardization. The pilots in the movie however seemed to go to great lengths to insert non-standard unnecessarily unsafe procedures into each mission. The last mission alone violated nearly every reg in their book, I'm sure. However it was necessary to set up the ending.

Great movie, though. I agree with whoever said it was an USCG "Top Gun" except Kutcher plays Tom Cruise better than Tom Cruise plays Tom Cruise. Don't wait for the DVD.