OK, you’re a fighter pilot. You’ve been serving in one place - on a carrier in the South Pacific, or at an air force base in Ramstein. And now you’re being transferred somewhere else.
How does your stuff make the journey?
Your flight gear obviously gets worn while you fly your aircraft to its destination. But what about all the stuff you wear or use when you’r e not flying? Your toothbrush, your spare underwear, your volleyball tournament trophies - how does all that get to where you’re going? Is there any storage capacity at all on a fighter aircraft, or does all your stuff get bagged up and stuck on a transport aircraft? If the latter, is it a flight just for your stuff, or does your stuff get moved through a dedicated shipping network? Does it typically arrive the same day, or are you just stuck wearing the same underwear until the end of the week?
Aircraft belong to a location. If a pilot goes TDY or PCSes, the plane stays behind. If they need to fly at the new location there will be a different plane there.
The only exception I can think of is if there’s a mechanical issue. Based on stories I’ve been told, that could suck. Fly an F-16 an hour away, land at a new base, mechanical issue prevents you from taking off again and you just have to deal with what you have on you until they fix it. Or in some cases, you rent a car and drive home.
Blue Angel pilots fly their jets from base to base, but those are specially modified jets. They have a C-130 with them with all their seabags on board.
The same way anyone’s toothpaste and underwear gets from one location to another in the military: the military hires a private firm to ship it for you. A fighter pilot doesn’t stick with his plane any more than an infantryman keeps the same rifle when going from one duty station to another: he’ll either fly commercial or hitch a ride on a military transport plane.
In the case where they are forward deploying a squadron to a forward temporary location like during a conflict they will most likely fly their planes there in multiple hops. Their equipment gets packed up and sent along with the support staff and support equipment. And since it’s the Air Force they probably have 5 Star accommodations waiting for them.
Yes, if the planes are going somewhere new, there’s a veritable plethora of support equipment, spare parts, technicians, tools etc. that joins the squadron at the destination. Shipping personal baggage would be the smallest part of the cargo.
Do they get their name painted on the plane when they arrive, like Maverick and Goose? Does someone at their old location have to remove the name from the plane they used? Is that a real thing or just something for the movies?
I would put money on that a pilot has some basic essentials in a pocket. Toothbrush, wetwipes, tissues and maybe socks and underwear. I was a truck driver working in a job that got me home every night (almost), but I always had some basics for a night away in my kit - just in case.
I have read a lot of fighter pilot memoirs, one thing that I remember is a 1950’s pilot recieving instruction on how to fit a sword (part of the dress uniform) into a F-86 cockpit. So at least back in the day they were expected to carry some of it with them.
There’s a real chance that after a PCS there’s not a plane waiting for them to fly at their new duty station. It could be a location that doesn’t have any of the planes they are qualified to fly…or even any planes at all. Flying planes is not the entirety of the job.
Just for clarity, the military hires civilian moving companies to move household goods for a PCS (permanent change of station) move. If you are deploying, then you’re expected to bring your shit with you, either in a seabag, footlocker or suitcase. In my case, when Seabees deploy, it’s always by air, so your stuff is in the hold of the commercial charter you’re on. The military is, however, very expert in deploying large numbers of men, equipment, and weapons on military aircraft.
“They” don’t have a plane per se. They have their name on a plane but they don’t fly the same plane all the time. They fly the planes that are available.
There was an old episode of NCIS (Kate was in it, that’s how old) where they found a dead body in one that had fallen off an airplane. Also, in Chuck Horner’s book, written with Tom Clancy, on the first Gulf War, he mentions them.
