Pathways To Blue - Combat Systems Officer

In this installment of "Pathways to Blue," Capt. Khary Branch-Romero, a combat systems officer and evaluator at Naval Air Station Pensacola, talks about what it means to be a CSO in today's Air Force.

[@Inspadave]

R2D2 is a good description of a CSO's responsibilities.

[@judahmetz1943]

do you have any say in what aircraft you get assigned after cso school? I'd love to get bomber! I'm having a hard time finding information on this so any help would be great! thanks!

[@atifri]

Judah Metz I think it depends on your skills, but I'm not sure

[@deanclothier6966]

The primary aircraft CSOs serve on: AC130 gunship, B1 bomber, B52 bomber, C130 airlift, E3 AWACS, E8 JSTARS, EC130 electronic warfare, F15E fighter-bomber, HC/MC130 special ops airlift, and RC135 reconnaisance.

[@MinecraftMed343]

Hey! I hate to give you such a late answer, but here's what I know. Before your Drop Night (when you get assigned a certain airplane) you have Track Night, which is when you pick whether you'll be a navigator, EWO, or WSO. The higher your class rank, the more likely you get your first pick as to which track you want to do. After that, you have Drop Night, which is when you pick your aircraft. It is important to be as close to the top of your class as possible to get the airframe you want.

[@desperate_desperado]

@@MinecraftMed343 down here now and that answer is spot on!

[@chrisdelzell8467]

You tell them about 3/4ths through the initial training which type of job you want, WSO or EWO. WSOs further subdivide into Navs and WSO during the intermediate training, and then towards the end you get a list of airplanes that are available and rank your top 3 choices. They'll usually get you into one of those.

[@kennethpadgettflightparame3548]

Good video. But he seemed robotic. Like he’s reading a script.