Military Guys In Here

69Rcode Mach 1,

As a Major in the Marine Corps who started flying AV-8B Harriers in 1997, I will pass along my $.02. I was commissioned in the Marine Corps after graduating from the US Naval Academy in 1993. I had a guaranteed "aviation contract" upon commissioning. Pipeline selection (jets, helos, or props) takes place after the completion of Primary Flight Training and is dependant upon your flight grades in Primary Flight Training and the number of billets available that week. Specific platform selection (AV-8B, F/A-18, EA-6B) takes places upon "winging".

After flying over 1300 hours in the Harrier, I feel I am qualified to say it is the coolest job on the planet. I'm sure flying any pointy nosed attack or fighter aircraft would give you a similar experience. It is worth the years of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice required to be entrusted with such a machine. There is no way I could describe all of my experiences in this forum.

That being said let me expand on some of the good advice some of the other members have passed along. In the Marine Corps, you are a Marine first, then an officer, then a pilot. Once you are commissioned, there is no guarantee that you will actually end up in a cockpit (medical disqualifications, needs of the service, etc). You must be prepared for this possibility. In any service you will spend time away from home. In my experience, engineering degrees are really only necessary if you have aspirations of becoming a Military Test Pilot or possibly an Astronaut. Aviation is dangerous. Airplanes crash and pilots die on training missions. You must be prepared for that as well.

Unfortunately I have to leave for work so I will have to stop here. I will be back in a few days. Let me know if you have questions.

Semper Fi,
Waldo

You at Yongsan Waldo? I've seen quite a few MC Officers running around there. Not so many here. My shop's probably worked on something for your higher ups.

We tend to work all over Area II.

~Critter

NoKitten said:

You at Yongsan Waldo? I've seen quite a few MC Officers running around there. Not so many here. My shop's probably worked on something for your higher ups.

We tend to work all over Area II.

~Critter

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Yes, I'm in Yongsan.

SadbutTrue said:

Not true at all. ROTC gets more slots than any other commissioning source (the pool is much, much larger). Roughly 300 OTS grads a year, vs 1000 academy grads vs 3-5000 ROTC grads. Even with the gauranteed academy slots, ROTC gets more than the rest.

edit: This is Air Force only, I don't know a whole lot about the other services' commissioning processes.

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Well, of course ROTC will get more slots, there are more people coming from rotc than the other commissioning sources.

I recommend(ed) that he does marine corps plc or at least look into it. It is where the Marine Corps gets over a third of it's officers(largest single source) and with PLC they can guarantee you aviation before you go to OCS. You also get payed a monthly stipend while you go to school and get tution assistance to pay for school. It's a "Good Deal" (tm). At the end of the day though, it's a tough row to hoe and you have either 2 6 week sessions of OCS or 1 10 week session plus 6 months of basic school. Then you can begin flight school. However, it isn't until after you actually get your wings that the clock starts ticking on your contract. And you have 3 flight schools to go through.

BTW, to the guy who is an ROTC sourced -60 pilot: The do exist, but it is a lot more competitive our of ROTC.

BTW, The black hawk is an extrordinary aircraft, but I'd take a huey pilot any day of the week.