Doesn't anyone in the NOAA Corps blog candidly about it?

March 31, 2008 8:58 PM

What's it like to be an officer in the NOAA Corps?

I'm somewhat intrigued by the idea of serving in the NOAA Corps on a lot of levels, but I wish I could find some accounts of how it is day-to-day that weren't on NOAA's website. I've found a blog or two that mention the writer's being an officer in the NOAA Corps but they don't tend to give any opinions on what it's like. Can anyone recommend any books, blogs I've overlooked, or relay personal experiences, or those of friends? Even if I don't decide to sign up I really am curious about what it's like culturally. It seems like that sort of life would be great blog fodder, and the biographies on the NOAA Corps homepage make the officers sound like smart, interesting people, so I'm surprised and dismayed by the dearth.

posted by crinklebat to work & money (2 comments total)

Could you e-mail some of the bloggers you found?
posted by Jahaza at 4:23 AM on April 1, 2008

A friend from college is a pilot for NOAA. It's been a couple of years since I've seen her, but last I heard, she loves her job.

She'd always wanted to be a pilot, but the Navy and Air Force were out for her because of her less-than-perfect eyesight (she has to wear glasses). She was in the Merchant Marines for a little bit, and was (maybe still is) in the Coast Guard reserves, but eventually found her way to NOAA. She's always been kind of a science geek (despite being a Classics and Drama major in college; she went on to do some grad school in physics at Mount Holyoke), and she loves that she's surrounded by other science geeks. She's also a lesbian, and she is not now, nor has she ever been, the kind of lesbian who can "pass" as straight. While she technically has to remain closeted, it's apparently a pretty transparent closet, and from what she told me, she's not the only one in it. Her fellow NOAA officers are in NOAA because they like science, not because they're big on military tradition and regulations.

As a pilot, her job involves flying scientists around the Gulf (she's based in Florida) and up and down the California coast, tracking migrating sea turtles and whales.

I can try to contact her - I've got her email somewhere - but honestly, her keep-up-with-people-far-away communications skills have always been kind of terrible; I might hear back from her....in 2009.

Hope this helps.
posted by rtha at 9:29 AM on April 1, 2008