cdemarco

Were you AW? We got HS guys and a few HM guys coming through the syllabus now transfering to HSC.

Monk

iTrader: (3)

Yessir, one of the first nuggets after the transition from the 46. I grew up in HSC-21, did my junior cruise in the Tarawa, and finished out with two consecutive tours with the 2515th NAAD. I hear it's a totally different world now with all of the mergers.

cdemarco

Yeah, I almost went HS. Would have only gotten in one deployment in before being sent to Norfolk to go through the RAG again for HSC. Apparently this year was the last year to select F/Hs out of flight school for us. 53s are going away too. And on top of all that we're getting lots of new weapon systems for the Sierra, so the mission is changing a lot. I think the Navy is trying to make it the answer to small boat tactics or something.

Monk

iTrader: (3)

Yep, saw that coming pretty early on. That was one of the tactics our det on the Tarawa practiced a lot.
HSC guys were traditionally the workhorses of the fleet. Older HSC guys are truly masterful at VERTREP and are good at traditional SOF missions and brownout landings. HS guys tend (at least in my time) to be tacticool CSAR wannabes that can't hover over a stationary object to save their lives. A lot of that is probably old resentment over the HS community trying to fundamentally change the way our community did business, but that was a common perception.
Anyway, good luck regardless of what you do, and thank you for serving. I'm slowly starting to appreciate the NC styling. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to drive one yet. NA all the way for me.

cdemarco

I think the NC can be a handsome car. But it needs to come down off its stock 4x4 suspension. I'm on a quest to make it more Miata. Single exhaust is next and a proper roll bar. Not sure what to do with the soft top, since you can't have a proper roll bar and the soft top on this car. Shitty design, Mazda.

Monk

iTrader: (3)

Proper as in taller than the hard dog sport?

It's going to be tough finding something tall enough to prevent your brains from turning into asphalt paint in a street car with stock seats and no harness.

cdemarco

Nah, proper as in having rear supports. The Hard Dog is sometimes sufficient depending on the tech inspector, track, and organization. I want to get the Faborworx rollbar. It has rear supports and would be good for any track day or SCCA event, but it requires removing the soft top. So I need to get a hold of a hard top. I think I may just save up for the carbon fiber top from Good-Win and fabricating my own brackets and weather stripping. Also, I'm really freaking short, so I don't have issues with clearance at the top of the bar.

It's this roll bar for reference.

Monk

iTrader: (3)

I was actually going to say something about that very one, but I didn't realize you were planning on tracking the car. That thing looks stout. Door bars too?

cdemarco

Not sure if I can get a hold of the model with door bars. I believe the guy who makes these refuses to ship the model with door bars and only ships the four mounting point model. Yeah, my goal is to make this a fun track toy. I used to go to track days all the time with my motorcycle, and it is the most fun thing I've done. More fun than anything I've done in an aircraft to be honest.

barbiemx5

Nice, can't wait to see you on the streets! I'm around the Newport News area.

cdemarco

So, it's bee a while. Car has gone through some changes. Namely, it's supercharged now, and has a stupid loud exhaust.