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<p>Not so sure. I was a VERTREP pilot. During one three year period in my life, I was OINC for a bunch of short term detachments involving CVs and a lot of ordnance transfer on an extremely limited timetable. My detachment usually consisted of two or three experienced pilots, three aircraft, and a bunch of nuggets. Usually, not more than a few hours into the non-stop two day evolution, I would get a call from the CV airboss that the admiral wanted to see me right away. Refusing to get out of the cockpit and set a bad precedent, I always gave a phone number and told him to tell the admiral that he could talk to my duty officer. Do the math. It was normally some kid who hadn’t been out of the training command more than a few months.</p>
<p>How did I prepare these nuggets to talk to the Admiral. Every time one of these dets was established, the first thing I told the gathered pilots was that I firmly believed there was always one perfect way to do anything. There was probably also one way that was totally wrong in every manner. Barring those, I expected my duty officer to pick one of the remaining ninety nine that he felt comfortable with and go with it. We would execute based on his briefing to the Admiral or CO. If there was something that maybe needed a discussion, we would do it later, after the evolution. And I did not expect any of the experienced pilots to second guess them.</p>
<p>During the early days when AIRLANT was supporting an Indian Ocean CV and there were not enough bombs to go around, we moved a LOT of ordnance, and all of it safely and expeditiously. And a lot of nuggets had their first very positive fleet experience watching their plans come to fruitation.</p>
<p>The main purpose of USNA training, different from WP, is that the ultimate goal of a Navy officer, be it an aviator or a surface/sub type, is driving their own thing around out there and be capable of making decisions.</p>