If you’ve considered becoming a pilot in the USN or USMC, you’ve surely wondered, “What does a Navy or Marine Corps pilot do?” An easier question to answer might be what a USN or USMC pilot doesn’t do, because, simply put, we do just about everything. This article will cover the broad brushstrokes of what these branches of Aviation do, where they do it and who they are. We will get down into the weeds on each topic later in our introductory series, but for now…
Naval Aviation is a diverse collection of aircraft and people covering down on a broad mission set. In general, we lean away from specialization to favor platforms with multiple capabilities–the proverbial “Jacks of All Trades” is the going-in game plan. If there’s one concept that really serves to separate USN/USMC aviation from that of other service branches, it’s flexibility. This is innate to our mission, which is oriented around the sea, because the enemy on the sea has an annoying propensity to move around. Similarly, the mission of the USN’s smaller sibling, the U.S. Marine Corps, is all about flexibility: showing up someplace unanticipated with an unexpected amount of force.
Broadly speaking, the Marines and the Navy share similar characteristics when it comes to pilots. They have the same commissioning sources and the same initial training pipelines—something I’ll cover at length in the near future. It’s common to have Marines lurking around in some Navy units and vice versa. Some Marine fighter squadrons deploy on Navy carriers, and platforms with similar missions employ similar procedures that are often standardized across the service schoolhouses.
Naval Aviation has its own culture, and it’s enough of a topic that I won’t even attempt to cover it here. It deserves its own chapter in this series. Hard work, hard missions and constant personal sacrifice forge strong bonds among its members. You may be sure you want to try it, but if you are totally sure you are going to be able to handle it, your attitude may require adjustment. It is more of a lifestyle than a job. This could be said of every service branch, but…they don’t spend extended amounts of time together in floating prisons. Boats, excuse me…
The Marines are a unique cultural entity. If you are not sure if you want to be a Navy pilot or a Marine pilot, you probably want to be a Navy pilot. The Marines tend to get the short end of the funding stick. And you would think that this would make USN aviation more attractive, as planes and training in them is insanely expensive…but it turns out money isn’t the whole story. Doing more with less tends to draw and/or generate some spectacularly talented people. There’s a certain ethos in the Marines–a swagger–that is all their own.
The “Wings of Gold” adorn three different sets of chests:
1) Pilots- Officers with their hands on the controls.
2) Naval Flight Officers- Officers who operate weapons systems or sensors while flying.
3) Naval Aircrewmen- Enlisted Sailors and Marines in the back, doing all of the jobs that need to be done while airborne: SAR swimmers, crew chiefs and crew-served weapons operators on helicopters, as well as sensor operators aboard patrol aircraft, for example.
The Navy has, historically, dabbled with Warrant Officers or enlisted pilots, but never really committed to the process in the same way the Army has. Programs for flying Warrant Officers, in particular, have popped up and gone away in recent years.
Everyone who has seen a television and is reading this article can probably quote enough Top Gun to cover down on the basics. Carrier aviation certainly gets the press, but it’s only a fraction of what we fly. The carrier’s basic mission is oriented around its air wing, which is charged with both striking targets on land or at sea while protecting the strike group from all comers. The fighters fly the single-seat F/A-18E Super Hornet and two-seat F/A-18F, which adds an NFO to the mix. The new hotness on the scene is the stealth F-35 Lightning II. Protecting the fighters are the electronic attack squadrons, which fly the E/A-18G Growler, a two-seat (Pilot/NFO), dedicated-electronic warfare derivative of the Super Hornet. Guiding the Air Wing is the E-2 Hawkeye, a command and control platform with a crew of 5 (2 pilots/3 NFOs) whose job is to quarterback the whole show. These assets are supported by a few helicopters (all variants of the ubiquitous dual-pilot H-60 Blackhawk series of helicopters) pulling search-and-rescue, logistics and anti-ship/anti-submarine duties, as well as a small contingent of transport aircraft. It’s an entire, self-contained air force in miniature, and while the carrier is very large for a ship, it is very, very small for an airfield!
By the numbers, the most common seat for a Navy pilot is in a helicopter. In addition to the carrier-based duties, the Navy flies helos off of all kinds of other ships, including ones that seem much too small to host airplanes. These helos extend the range of their host ships’ sensors and weapons. USN aviation also hosts a small contingent of mighty CH-53E Super Stallions that perform airborne minesweeping duties. In the unmanned lane, the Navy flies the MQ-8 Fire Scout drone helicopter as well. The Navy also flies a number of large, land-based aircraft: P-8 and EP-3E patrol and electronic surveillance aircraft as well as a small number of E-6B Mercury airborne communications platforms. New to the fleet is the unmanned MQ-4C Triton, a large drone that’s the Navy’s version of the Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk.
The Marines have a whole separate air arm which, much like the Navy’s carrier units, is designed to cover down on all their requirements without much outside help. Fighter units include the older F/A-18C (single-seat) and F/A-18D (two-seat) versions of the Hornet, known as the “Legacy” Hornet (as opposed to the newer Super Hornet). These are mostly land-based, though they maintain a couple of units that deploy with carriers, all of which have now converted to newer platforms. The Marines are actively replacing these squadrons with F-35s. Unique to the Corps is the F-35B, the Vertical/Short Take-Off and Landing (V/STOL) or “jump jet” flavor of the Lightning II which trades a lot of gas for the ability to take off and land from extremely small areas. There are a few AV-8B Harriers still around waiting for their F-35Bs, but these aging platforms aren’t long for the skies.
The Marines deploy aboard ships in an Amphibious Readiness Group, or ARG, which has its own air wing. It’s like an even smaller carrier. Given that the mission is to support amphibious operations, the makeup is a lot different than a USN air wing. The mission of the Marine Corps revolves around the rifleman, and the ARG’s job is to deliver the rifleman to a place where they can fight, then support them once they’re there. To this end, the ARG employs transport aircraft, CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transports as well as the massive CH-53 Super Stallion for the heavy loads. Defending these platforms and the rifleman once they’re ashore is the attack helo contingent, a mixture of AH-1Z Vipers (the latest flavor of the Cobra attack helicopter) and UH-1Y Venom, a modern take on the Vietnam-era Huey. Closer to the back of the bus than the front on the ARG are its small contingents of F-35B stealth strike fighters. Additionally, land-based Marines also fly various flavors of the C-130 transport/tanker aircraft.
If you want to fly, shouldn’t you go where the most airplanes are? If high and fast is your plan, the U.S. Military has a whole Air Force; if low and slow is your speed, we’ve got a literal Army of rotary-wing aircraft in America. So…what’s the deal with Naval Aviation, anyway? Has anybody ever pulled an espresso on an Air Force base and compared it to “being in jail, with the chance of being drowned?”
It isn’t easy to explain. It’s visceral. Highly objective people look at Naval Aviators trying to land fighters on a ship in the dark, or helicopters on an even smaller and less stable ship in the dark, and conclude that they are slightly insane thrill-seekers with a death wish. Those highly objective people certainly make good Air Force pilots. In fact, the stereotype of the adrenaline-fueled, arrogant, hotshot Navy pilot is much more Hollywood than truth. The business is too difficult to survive alone, so you find humble professionals that band together and help each other out. I won’t say there’s no ego in Naval Aviation, but I will warn the ego-charged Naval Aviation-wannabe that your instructors in flight school can smell ego a mile away and will punish it with an iron fist. This is because ego gets in the way of doing hard things well. The culture of Naval Aviation tends to pile on the tasking and responsibility and, in turn, rewards those who can thrive with uncertainty. It isn’t for everyone…but if it’s for you, you’ll feel it in your bones.
If you’re a regular to the annals of BogiDope, odds are pretty high that you’re fully aware of the United States Air Force’s beginnings. You’re, no doubt, deeply educated about Billy Mitchell (WWI pilot – Army officer) pitching airpower to the United States War Department, stating that wars would become truly three-dimensional and that the team that controlled the air would win (then) future conflicts. Despite the very public dismantling of Mitchell’s career, WWII (and subsequent conflicts) proved him prophetic and he was subsequently rewarded with two stars posthumously by FDR. The war expanded the Army Air Corps (which became the Army Air Forces) rapidly and its implementation was utterly critical in the eventual victory of the Allies, just as Mitchell said it would be.
If you aren’t aware of these events and would like to learn more, there are several good biographies about Mitchell. Or, for broader history, I highly recommend the book Masters of the Air: How the Bomber Boys Broke Down the Nazi War Machine by Donald Miller (incidentally, the subject of the next Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg miniseries). But even without this history, you certainly know that the Army Air Forces became the United States Air Force shortly after WWII.
Far from being the end of aviation in the United States Army, the creation of the new branch of service, along with the advent of rotary-wing flight, simply served to redefined what flying soldiers would be doing as many of their former mission sets became the expertise of their Air Force brethren. Today, the Army very nearly has the same number of aircraft as the Air Force, and, just like the Air Force, the Army is having a hard time hanging on to experienced aviators and quality officers to fly those aircraft. The civilian opportunities that for so long targeted Air Force, Navy and Army (yes, Army) fixed-wing flyers have expanded to offer amazing training and transition opportunities to the rotary-wing pilots of all branches. It’s for this reason that BogiDope.com will, starting now, be breaking into the world of Army Aviation. To inform, educate and encourage motivated, quality candidates on how to become aviators in the most advanced rotary-wing aircraft in the world (or to fly fixed-wing for the Army if you’re into wearing Tevas, Hawaiian shirts and Ray-Bans as part of your uniform).
It’s our goal to not only ensure a consistent flow of these quality candidates into the front seats of Army aircraft, but to help those same quality candidates to maximize the benefits of being an Army aviator while hopefully avoiding some of the pitfalls so common to the unaware and/or inexperienced. But before diving into the various avenues to enter Army Aviation, the training and prerequisites, etc., a brief overview of the aircraft flown by the Army and the mission sets that they accommodate seems appropriate. Because as any good Joe will tell you, “Knowing is half the battle!”
The officially stated mission of United States Army Aviation is to “find, fix and destroy any enemy through fire and maneuver, and to provide combat support and combat service support in coordinated operations as an integral part of the combined arms team, fully integrated within the joint operational framework,” (as a reference point, one who likes to dive DEEPLY into military doctrine without first taking a couple breaths of standard human-speak air should look up FM 3-04: Army Aviation). In more palatable words: Army Aviation’s job is to support the people on the ground in doing their job, which is, in short, to take ground away from the bad guys, by force if necessary.
The aviation assets of the Army can help in this task in an almost innumerable amount of ways, particularly given the capabilities that rotary-flight offers. These applications began to be tested and used at a small scale in Korea, but found their baptism and large-scale use during the Vietnam War. The concept of Air Assault was propagated to such a degree in that conflict that it has since been dubbed by many as “The Helicopter War.” News reels, films and books about Vietnam all invariably bare images of the UH-1 “Huey” dropping soldiers in hot landing zones (LZs) and picking countless wounded up almost simultaneously. Who can forget the most iconic use of the song “Flight of the Valkyries” as Bob Duvall and company laid waste to a small village in Apocalypse Now?
It was also during this war that the effective application of helicopters in an attack/support role was tested, proven and stamped as dependable and necessary. The AH-1 Cobra became the Army’s first designated “attack helicopter,” built solely for the purpose of finding and chewing up those of ill-intent. Following the conflict in Vietnam, the demands of the Cold War and the many worldwide skirmishes that it caused led to the continued evolution of the Army’s aviation platforms and their capabilities and missions. The fiasco at Desert One in Iran led to the formation of the first ever Special Operations aviation outfit. Grenada, Panama, Iraq and Somalia, right up to the conflicts of the past 20 years have served to shape and modernize what the Army, its aircraft and its pilots do to support those soldiers on the ground who are, still to this day, working to take ground from the bad guys.
Here are the instruments those pilots are wielding:
There’s a common joke among Army aviators about the type of pilots that fly attack aircraft. Mostly that they’re jock-ish, loud, boisterous, overconfident and incredibly proud of/obsessed with the weapons that they bring to bear. For the most part, all of this is absolutely true. But who can blame them? Sincerely, try and blame an Apache pilot for thinking that being an Apache pilot is cool:
The AH-64 Apache is the primary Attack Helicopter used by the United States Army. It was developed to replace the AH-1 Cobra in the decades following the Vietnam War and was designed specifically with a conflict against Russian armored columns in mind. It’s for this reason that the Apache can carry up to 16 Hellfire missiles: four aircraft in a platoon, eight in company, multiply that by 16…you get the idea. It also has that 30mm cannon (yes, the one that follows the pilots’ heads to point where they’re looking) and the capability to shoot rockets. But with the Cold War freezing up, the Apache didn’t fall into hibernation. It’s maiden combat mission kicked off Desert Storm and it’s been proving its value in deep attack, escort, reconnaissance and air support of troops in- and out-of-close-contact with the enemy ever since. It’s certainly gained notoriety among the United States’ enemies as something to be avoided.
But the Apache is not the only attack platform in use by Army Aviation. The others are a modified (MH)-60 Blackhawk Direct Action Penetrator (DAP) and the AH-6 Little Bird, both of which are used exclusively by the Special Operations Aviation community. Anyone aspiring to fly these airframes will have to look specifically to that organization for the opportunity, whereas the Apache can be found at most Army bases and in four states as part of the Army National Guard. All of these aircraft serve those same aforementioned purposes in support of the ground-pounders:
Reconnaissance
Find the bad guys
Kill the bad guys (whether they’re close or far from the good guys)
Remember that Apocalypse Now clip that I mentioned earlier? Cue the Dick Wagner. The Air Assault is among the most impressive sights one can see in the world of aviation. We don’t live in a world or fight wars anymore where massive amounts of troops are operationally jumping from airplanes that are flying wing-to-wing like in WWII. The Air Assault is the modern equivalent. Most people with an interest in militaria have seen Blackhawk Down and can recall the scene that begins the battle for which the movie was made. Dozens of aircraft flying in close formation loaded with bubble gum-chewing door-kickers with enough Rip It in their collective bloodstream to awaken the residents of Pompeii.
Both of these scenes more or less accurately depict the role of an Air Assault. Movement of friendly forces by rotary-wing aircraft for the purpose of engaging and destroying enemies and seizing/holding key terrain. We Were Soldiers and its depiction of the Battle of the Ia Drang Valleyalso comes to mind. Interesting to note is that such a simple description, though entirely accurate, is used to introduce what is undoubtedly among the most intricate and complex missions for which air assets can be used throughout all of military aviation.
Air Assaults are primarily conducted by the pilots flying the UH-60 Blackhawk and the CH-47 Chinook, though the MH-6 is also used in the Special Operations Aviation community. These aircraft are built with the purpose of moving people and things quickly and, if necessary, eating a lot of rounds without having to leave the fight. They have a long history of distinguished service in accomplishing this and I need not dive too deeply into it. For those interested in some excellent stories regarding these machines and their pilots/crews, I recommend reading The Night Stalkers: Top Secret Mission of the U.S. Army’s Special Operations Aviation Regiment by Michael Durant (one of the pilots shot down in the Blackhawk Down affair), Robert Johnson and Steven Hartov.
Air Movement is the other primary mission that these platforms conduct, and in the conflicts of the last 20 years, this has certainly been their most common use (outside of the Special Ops world). Air Movement can also be very simply defined: moving people and things from one point to another. Unlike an Air Assault, Air Movement is not an inherently kinetic task and, in fact, shouldn’t be. It’s used for resupplying, reorganizing the placement of troops and equipment and even giving aerial tours to “the Stars,” among other things.
The pilots of both Chinooks and Blackhawks work in tandem with crewmembers in the operation of their aircraft and thus certainly more closely resemble the bulk of the Army Air Forces’ during WWII. The pilots fly the aircraft, but they require a crew to effectively carry out their given missions. Those interested in flying (or serving as a crewmember in) these aircraft can rest easy knowing that they are present at almost every Army base around the world, and, in the case of the Blackhawks, in the National Guard of just about every State and Territory in the Union. So your options for where you can live are, quite literally, anywhere the Army is.
But here is a shameless plug for those who elect to fly or crew ‘Hawks or ‘Hooks in the Army National Guard. Your mission set broadens even further once you get to your State, as you can begin training in both Aerial Search and Rescue and, particularly for those in the Western States, Aerial Firefighting. I will go further into these missions and the opportunities that experience therein will open to you in the world of civilian aviation in a future article, but for now simply take this into consideration: within eight months of returning home from Flight School, a friend of mine flew 160 hours in a UH-60 over the course of two months on two of the (then) largest wildfires in California State history. Many may recall that just last summer, seven crewmembers from the California Army National Guard were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for the actions they took in rescuing civilians who were caught in a fire. Consider what that kind of varsity flying experience is worth both on a resume and in gaining street credit with your grandkids.
The aeromedical evacuation mission is one that I don’t think I need to explain. Most people who read those two words in combination will be able to put together what it means, so I won’t belabor it. The actual MEDEVAC mission in the Army is traditionally done by the HH-60 Blackhawk. Chinooks are also capable of being fitted for CASEVAC, but this is neither the time nor the place to begin discussing the differences between MEDEVAC and CASEVAC. Suffice it to say, if you’re flying MEDEVAC, you’re unarmed and you’re flying from point A to point B as fast as possible to save someone’s life, limb or eyesight. And it will most likely be in a ‘Hawk.
Just like an in-depth explanation of what Aeromedical Evacuation is feels utterly superfluous, describing the civilian applications for which this experience would be ideally suited is likewise an exercise akin to predicting that the sky will get darker when the sun goes down. But the opportunities for pilots with this kind of experience are plentiful and nationwide. And for many, the MEDEVAC mantras of “That Others May Live” and “When I Have Your Wounded” speak to something deeper in the soul.
Interesting to note, again, for those who choose to fly in the Guard is that you will also have the potentiality of flying this mission in the LUH-72 Lakota. This is the newest aircraft in the Army’s line-up (a source of no small amount of controversy) and is the first aircraft in which a flight student will wiggle the sticks during Flight School at Fort Rucker. It’s not a “go to war” aircraft, meaning it can’t deploy to combat zones, but it regularly deploys to the borders for patrol missions, participates in most states’ Counter-Drug missions and, as stated, also serves in a stateside MEDEVAC capacity. Again, the civilian applications…are many.
I would be remiss if I didn’t follow-up on the remarks above about the Army’s fixed-wing inventory. The Army flies the C-12, C-26, UC-35 and C-37 operationally, with the first two being the most common of the four. These aircraft fly everything from reconnaissance and intel-gathering to executive transport, and most States’ National Guards have at least a small contingent of these. The fixed-wing community in the Army is relatively small and, due to the Army’s modernization objectives, is getting smaller. It’s a viable option for anyone entering the Army in the short-term, but will likely not be an option in the not-too-distant future as the Army pushes towards “Future Vertical Lift” (undoubtedly the topic of a future article).
And there you have it! Again, this is a VERY condensed overview of the actual missions flown by Army aviators but should give you a good idea of the aircraft you’d fly and the purposes for flying them that you’d encounter if you elected to become a pilot in the Army. The training, opportunities and experiences that are available to Army aviators go so far beyond just the fundamentals of flying or even beyond the flying itself. Keep checking in over the next weeks and months to learn more about such opportunities, Flight School and everything inherent therein, the differences in the life of an Active Duty aviator and a Reservist (whether Guard or Army Reserves), etc.
Until then, go turn on an episode of Airwolf…and enjoy.
I’ve written extensively on The Pilot Network about what I consider to be the Ideal Career Path for a Military Pilot. I envisioned that path specifically for a pilot on Active Duty in the military; however, that doesn’t have to be the case. It turns out there’s an even better option, the Ultimate Military Pilot Career Path, and BogiDope is the perfect place to get started on it.
Military units in the Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve, Army National Guard, and other Reserve branches hire young men and women directly out of college and send them to military Undergraduate Flying Training (UFT). You’ll see shortly why this is probably the best possible way to become a military aviator. Had I known this was an option, I’d be flying C-130s out of FE Warren AFB, WY, or Colorado Springs, CO, or F-16s out of Buckley AFB, CO, right now. I want you to benefit from my hindsight, so I’m giving you access to what I consider the best kept secret in military aviation.
Let’s put this into context by first looking at how the military gets pilots for Active Duty:
Most military pilots come from a military service academy (USAF Academy, Annapolis, or Westpoint) or the college ROTC program. Just getting into a service academy is extremely competitive, and getting a pilot slot upon graduation narrows that field. (At the Air Force Academy, the selection rate for people who want to be pilots is about 95%.)
The ROTC program offers some amazing, competitive scholarships, though almost anyone is eligible to join whether they have a scholarship or not. Unfortunately, getting a pilot slot through ROTC is even more competitive than at a service academy because you’re competing with every other college in the country for about half of the spots available each year. (The selection rate for USAF ROTC pilot hopefuls drops to about 33%.)
The military does hire some pilots who didn’t do either of these programs. They go to Officer Training School (OTS) after college, and then right on to pilot training. It’s also possible to fly helicopters for the Army as a Warrant Officer without even having to finish college.
The military’s UFT programs are very stressful. (They’re designed that way for a reason.) One of the many stressors is worrying about whether you’ll do well enough in the program to earn a spot flying the aircraft you want. I always felt bad as a UFT instructor watching new classes come in with every student thinking he or she was going to be an F-22 pilot. That’s a statistical impossibility, and the process of having that realization forced upon you isn’t fun.
After UFT, Active Duty pilots generally owe about 10 years of service before they’re eligible to even consider moving on to the airlines or other jobs. That was an amazing 10 years for me, but it was a lot of work. I deployed 8 times, trained on 4 different aircraft, and had more than one assignment so far from my wife that we couldn’t even live under the same roof. It’s a great career, despite the frustrations, but there is a much better way to do things!
Guard and Reserve – The Better Way to Become a Pilot
Instead of burning yourself out trying to get into a service academy or win an ROTC scholarship (where you’ll then continue to burn yourself out competing for a pilot slot) you can go to college like a regular person and apply for a pilot slot directly with any Guard or Reserve unit you choose. BogiDope maintains a listing of these job openings all over the country. You can browse through those listings, or use MilRecruiters Map to identify specific squadrons in places you’d like to live with aircraft you’d like to fly. The map also lets you see airline bases near those units, allowing you to identify places that work for both military and civilian careers. Once you find the right Guard or Reserve unit, you “simply” fill out an application just like any other job.
(Okay, it’s not that simple. The application process is unique, there is a relatively limited number of job openings, and there are many ways to maximize your chances. BogiDope has successfully helped hundreds of pilots through this process. See more here.)
Once a unit hires you, they’ll send you to OTS and schedule you for UFT. Not only do they foot the $1,000,000+ bill for your flight training, they give you full-time pay as a Lieutenant or Warrant Officer while you’re there. One of the beauties of this path is that you know from day one of UFT what aircraft you’ll be flying after graduation. You need to fly well enough to pass, but you don’t have to deal with the added stress of having to compete for a spot flying the aircraft you want. I cannot overstate how much this improves your Quality of Life for that year!
After UFT, you’ll go to a qualification course for your unit’s aircraft. This is another very intense few months during which you’re still getting paid and accruing lots of flight hours in a relatively short period of time. After you earn a basic qualification in your aircraft you’ll go home to your unit to Mission Qualification Training (MQT).
It will probably be 18-24 months from the time you go to OTS to the time you’re qualified to fly actual missions with the squadron that hired you. At that point, most units will put you on full-time orders (think of “orders” as an employment contract) for anywhere from a few months to two years. They call this “seasoning” and they want you flying as much as possible to build your skills prior to potentially going part-time. You should plan on deploying, possibly more than once, during this time. All told, you’ll have spent 3-4 years on full-time military flying.
At this point, you can compete for more full-time orders or move to a part-time status. The standard tagline for the Guard and Reserve is “one weekend a month, two weeks in the summer,” but that’s unrealistic for a pilot. You’ll need to spend about one week each month flying with your unit to maintain your skills and continue your development as a military pilot. It’s usually possible to pick up some extra flying, if desired, but you’ll also need to go find a day job.
Thankfully, 3-4 years of military flying is enough to get you to 750 total flight hours in most communities (it will likely be slightly less in fighters since the average flight time for each sortie is relatively low). That magic number lets military pilots obtain a Restricted Airline Transport Pilot (RATP) certificate. A military pilot with that rating should have no trouble getting hired by a regional airline and starting a civilian flying career while continuing to fly part-time in the Guard or Reserve. The airlines hire military pilots knowing that they’ll have a part-time military commitment, and a federal law called USERRA protects your right hold both jobs at the same time. Guard and Reserve units realize that their people have to hold day jobs and you’ll probably find many fellow airline pilots in your unit.
This lets you start the clock on a regional airline career just four years after joining the military. A pilot on this path should be competitive for a major airline job 2-4 years after that, depending on how much you fly. This puts you at a major airline 6-8 years after graduating college.
Your Active Duty counterparts can’t hope to start at a major airline until at least 11-12 years after finishing college. An all-civilian pilot may be able to start at a regional airline, and therefore move up to the majors, sooner. However, he or she probably had to incur $60,000-$100,000 in debt for flight training, above what he or she paid for college. Not only was your flight training free, you made a salary at least as good as any regional airline pilot while you were there. Unlike your all-civilian peers, you’ll be eligible for Tricare, the military’s health care system, while you serve. You’ll also be working toward a military retirement.
In my opinion, it’s tough to find anything not to love about this career path. It covers the costs of your flight training and removes a significant source of stress from that program. It allows you to start earning a salary the day you finish college. It gets you to the airlines years ahead of your Active Duty peers. It gives you the chance to do amazing military flying that mere mortals can only dream of. It allows you to plan where you’ll live from the very start of your career and protects you from having to move every 2-3 years like Active Duty pilots.
I attended the USAF Academy, and it was great in many ways. I think the service academies and ROTC are wonderful opportunities. However, if I’d known that I could apply directly to Guard and Reserve units, that would absolutely have been my primary plan. Any service academy or ROTC programs would have been backups to my backups. You simply cannot beat the benefits of starting your flying career by getting hired directly by a Guard or Reserve unit.
If you’re thinking about starting your flying career this way, BogiDope has great resources to help! You should also watch for the sequel to this post where I’ll cover a way to optimize this Ultimate Career Path even more. I’ll tell you how you can get college for free, improve your chances of getting hired by the unit you want to fly with, and earn your military retirement four years sooner. Stay tuned for Part 2.
Welcome back, future aviators! In Part 1 of this series we saw how getting hired by a Guard or Reserve unit right out of college is the Ultimate Military Pilot Career Path. The military pays for your flight training, you get to enjoy operating amazing military aircraft, and you can start your parallel career as an airline pilot (or anything else) years sooner than an Active Duty military pilot. I hope this sounds like a great deal to you because it is. Can you believe that there’s a way to make this deal even better?
It turns out that getting hired by a Guard or Reserve unit is neither easy nor guaranteed. There are only so many slots, and even though this is a pretty well-kept secret, there are plenty of qualified applicants for each job. Your advantage comes from understanding something fundamental about the nature of these military units.
Unlike Active Duty flying squadrons where 1/3 of the members leave every year, most people stay in a Guard or Reserve squadron for their entire career. This means that when a squadron hires a prospective pilot right out of college, they’re committing to a 10-30 year relationship with that person. That’s a big deal!
Put yourself in their shoes for a moment. Would you feel comfortable committing yourself to a multi-decade relationship with someone you don’t know? I sure wouldn’t! Ideally, you’d spend some time getting to know the other person first. That’s why we date, sometimes for years, before we get married. I guarantee that a Guard or Reserve unit would rather have some time to get to know you before they commit to footing the $1,000,000 bill for your pilot training and then working with you for the rest of your career.
Thankfully, they can get exactly what they want. Every flying unit needs support personnel. From maintainers, to records keepers, to flight equipment specialists and more, there are dozens of support personnel for every pilot in a flying squadron. Most of these people are enlisted troops, rather than officers. A person can enlist right after (or sometimes even just before finishing) high school and only owe a few years of service.
If you want to be a military pilot in the Air Force, you’re going to need a 4-year college degree. If you want to truly optimize the Ultimate Military Pilot Career Path, you can enlist with the Guard or Reserve unit where you want to fly, and work part-time for them while you’re in college. I cannot overstate the benefits of this choice.
First off, this gives your unit full four years to get to know you. (And vice-versa.) They can find out whether you’re a hard worker or the kind of person who just makes more work for everyone else. They can find out if you’re interesting and funny (the kind of person they’ll want to deploy with for the next 20+ years) or if you don’t quite have the right kind of chemistry. They can see how quickly you learn new things, how hard you study, and gauge how serious you are about becoming a pilot.
Every single unit would rather send their own people to pilot training for all these reasons. They’ll give a fair shot to everyone who applies, but all else being equal, they’d always rather give a slot to one of their own before they hire a stranger. You can drastically improve your chances of getting a pilot slot with your desired unit by spending your college years working with them as an enlisted Airman.
Personally, I’d choose a job that has the most positive impact on and exposure to the pilots in the unit. My first choice would be Crew Chief. This person is responsible for getting aircraft ready to fly. He or she meets the pilot or crew when they show up at the aircraft, helps get them settled in, takes part in the startup process, and deals with any issues that arise. After the jet lands, the Crew Chief is responsible for keeping the aircraft clean, serviced, and ensuring maintenance gets done on time. It’s very hard work, but there is no better way to earn your future pilot job than to be the best Crew Chief your unit has ever seen.
If I knew that I definitely wanted to fly a tanker, I’d enlist as a boom operator. If my dream aircraft has flight engineers or loadmasters, then I’d go for one of those jobs. These give you the absolute best opportunity to get to know the people in your unit. You’ll fly with them every day. You’ll spend time on the road together. You’ll fly combat missions together. If the pilots in your unit like flying with you as an enlisted aircrew member, it will be a no-brainer for them to send you to UPT.
There are plenty of other great, high-exposure jobs out there. As long as you do great work in them, it will help you when you’re ready to submit your application for a pilot slot. To me, this is enough of a benefit to justify this career move.
Although this is an ideal setup, there is a chance that your unit won’t want or be able to hire you when you finish college. There’s also a chance that you’ll want to apply to a different unit that flies a different type of aircraft. While you’ll always maximize the benefits of this path by enlisting with the unit where you’ll eventually become a pilot, it’s not mandatory. If you give your unit lots of reasons to like you, they’ll go out of their way to help you achieve your dreams. They’ll help find other units that are hiring pilots and they’ll be proud to recommend you. The Guard and Reserve are tight-knit communities, and your unit’s recommendation may be nearly as good as if you’d enlisted in that other unit in the first place. As long as you focus on being outstanding in your job, your unit will take care of you.
The next most obvious benefit is that you get paid for your work. Whether you need to pay for college, or you’re just earning beer money, you’ll be glad that you’re able to earn some extra cash from this job.
As great as cash can be, you may get an even better benefit. Many Guard and Reserve units have programs where they pay your college tuition. So many young people burn themselves out chasing college scholarships, but if you find the right unit to enlist with, you could get the same benefits. (I recommend going for scholarships anyway… it doesn’t hurt to have both.) Not only is free college an outstanding benefit, but your unit will also feel that they’ve invested in you. What better way for them to ensure a return on their investment than “trapping” you with a 10-year commitment in exchange for sending you to pilot training? Please sir, lock me up… right?
Educational benefits vary by branch of service and even state. The Air National Guard website lets you search benefits by state. Military.com maintains a list of these benefits for all branches of service by state. When I started looking, I was shocked to see how many states offer 100% free tuition at state schools. Combine that with a few smaller scholarships, some smart house hacking, and the benefits you earn as an enlisted troop in the Guard or Reserve, and you could absolutely set yourself up to graduate from college debt-free (and even net-worth positive) as you head to pilot training. This is a pretty fantastic situation in a world where we use the term “crisis” in conjunction with student debt. Can you see why this topic excites me?
Again, I could stop here and conclude that these are overwhelming reasons to pursue this career path. However, there’s one last point to consider:
In order to earn a military retirement and receive a pension, you must serve for a specific amount of time. In most cases, this is 20 years. They don’t differentiate those years based on what you did though. As long as you work at least the minimum number of days, you get credit for a “good year.” It doesn’t matter whether you worked full-time on active duty orders, or you were a traditional part-timer in the Guard or Reserve. Once you hit 20 good years, you’re eligible for a pension.
Pilots on Active Duty, or even Guard and Reserve pilots without any prior military service, start on this 20-year path after they graduate from college. This means most of them won’t be eligible to retire until at least age 42. However, if you enlist with your Guard or Reserve unit right after high school, you can start that 20-year clock ticking four years earlier. Those four years you spend as an enlisted Crew Chief while you’re in college count toward retirement, meaning you could potentially earn your pension by age 38.
Unfortunately, Reservists have to wait until roughly age 60 to start collecting their pension. However, it’s still extremely valuable to know it’s locked in so early in your life. Once you’re eligible for retirement, you have total control over your military life. I recommend you keep doing it as long as you’re having fun, but the moment you aren’t you can just walk away.
Under the new Blended Retirement System, the pension is only part of the benefit. The government will now contribute up to an extra 5% (above regular pay) to your Thrift Savings Plan (the TSP, or 401(k)-equivalent for you civilian types). This money is vested immediately, meaning that you get to keep all of it, even if you leave military service before completing 20 good years.
You also gain incredible benefits by contributing to your TSP early in life. By enlisting right after high school, you’ll give your money up to four extra years to grow before you withdraw it. For comparison, if you invested $1,000 in your TSP at age 18 and it earned an average of 8% interest until age 60, you’d end up with more than $25,000. If you chose not to enlist and didn’t start contributing to a TSP until four years later after graduating from college, the same $1,000 would be less than $19,000. That difference of more than $6,000 is a nice bonus. If I were in your shoes, I’d do everything in my power to put far more than $1,000 per year into my TSP.
If you’re an airline pilot, this career path will allow you to end your military service and go full-time airline four years sooner than your peers. Those four years could easily be worth a couple million dollars in total compensation. I’m pretty sure you can think of some ways to put that kind of money to good use.
Enlisting with a Guard or Reserve unit while you’re in college has all kinds of benefits:
It lets your unit get to know you. As long as you’re a hard-worker and a good person, this will significantly increase your chances of getting one of their coveted pilot slots.
It lets you earn money while you’re in college and may pay your tuition as well.
It gives you four years of TSP investing advantage.
It also gives you the option to retire four years sooner than your peers, an option that is potentially worth millions.
In my opinion, this is absolutely the best way to become a military pilot. If time is on your side, I highly recommend considering the benefits of enlisting in a Guard or Reserve unit. It’s an extremely wise way to begin your journey towards becoming a military pilot.
Have you seen Top Gun or any of the (objectively terrible) Iron Eagle movies more times than you’re willing to admit? Do you daydream of flying twice the speed of sound, pulling 9Gs, and dominating the airspace over any country on the planet, at will? Perhaps you’re motivated by the idea of protecting troops on the ground through close air support or just being a part of an elite aviation fraternity (for both guys and gals) full of rich history and tradition. If any of this sounds like you, serving your country as a fighter pilot may be the perfect career (and calling) you’re looking for.
One of the questions we get most often here at BogiDope is: “How can I become a fighter pilot?” We’re not surprised at how often we hear this. In many ways, flying a fighter is the pinnacle of human aviation. It’s both incredibly demanding and incredibly rewarding. Our hope is that what follows will serve as a useful answer to this question.
There are two main paths you can take to become a fighter pilot, Active Duty or Guard/Reserve. Both paths can lead to the same destination, but there are critical differences as to how to get there and quality of life along the way.
Active Duty
The first path is serving on Active Duty (i.e. Air Force, Navy, or Marine Corps). This is what most people think of when they picture someone serving in the military. Being an Active Duty pilot is a full-time job. You show up for work 5 days per week, whether you’re flying or not. This path offers fantastic pay and benefits and a government pension if you serve a full 20 years.
The Active Duty path essentially entails competing for the opportunity to attend pilot training while earning a commission through a service academy, ROTC, or OTS/OCS. Then you will commit to 10(ish) years of full-time military service before knowing what airplane you will fly. (You commit to 10 years after completing pilot training in the Air Force, only 8 years in the Navy and Marine Corps.) This leaves you beholden to the whims of the Air Force, Navy, or Marine Corps. You’ll be assigned to a new base every 3 years, or so. You’ll be deployed to combat zones for 6-12 months at a time, sometimes with only 72 hours notice. Since you’re serving out your 8-10 year obligation, you don’t get to decline any of these orders.
Your performance at pilot training relative to your peers will determine the order in which you can choose your aircraft. However, the needs of that particular branch of service will determine which aircraft are available when it’s your turn to choose. For example, if you’re ranked 5th in your pilot training class, and there are 5+ fighter slots available, you will have the opportunity to pick one (although it may not be the exact fighter you want). If on the other hand, there are only 3 fighter slots available, your dream of flying fighters may be over forever. As they say, timing is everything.
Air National Guard / Air Force Reserve
The path I wish I’d known about is the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. These two organizations are theoretically backups for the Active Duty Air Force, and they’re intended to be a part-time job for most pilots. The tagline you often hear is “one weekend a month, two weeks in the summer,” though as a fighter pilot you’ll have to spend at least one full week per month in your squadron just to maintain your qualifications.
One of the biggest benefits of the Guard and Reserve is that you only apply to the units that you want to join. You can be hired with no military experience (and before signing any military service obligation) to fly the A-10, F-15C, F-16, F-22, or F-35. To see a full list of fighter squadron locations in the Guard and Reserve, check out the MilRecruiter Map.
You will attend the same Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) as your active duty peers, but you will have the benefit of knowing that not only will you fly fighters, but you will know exactly which type of fighter and the location of your assigned squadron for the rest of your career. This is critical:
Joining the Guard or Reserve is the only way to guarantee that you’ll get to fly a fighter.
The Guard and Reserve also offer nice pay and benefits, though these work differently than Active Duty. The Guard and Reserve also have a pension for pilots who give at least 20 years of service. Again, this works differently than the Active Duty version.
Earning pilot wings in the Guard or Reserve still obligates you to 10 years of service; however, that service can be part-time. You’ll still end up deploying, though there tends to be a lot more flexibility on when and how often you go. Most Guard and Reserve pilots have other full-time jobs. Airline pilot is by far the most common “other” job, though I’ve heard of anything from lawyer, to entrepreneur, to beach bum. If, on the other hand, you want to work full-time at your Guard or Reserve unit, there will almost always be full-time orders available in most fighter squadrons.
There are pluses and minuses to each path. However, if your ultimate goal in life is to become a fighter pilot, we absolutely recommend choosing the Guard or Reserve path. For more information on the (very different) application processes for these paths, check out our 2-part series here.
All US fighter pilots are commissioned officers, which means you must have a college degree. How well you do in that college program will often determine your competitiveness for any pilot training application. The most fundamental and objective input into any of these rankings is your GPA.
One school of thought says that you should take the easiest classes possible to make sure you get straight As and maximize GPA. At the USAF Academy, one of the most common majors is Management. It’s lovingly (or derisively) referred to as “The M-Train” because so many people hitch a ride to maximize the class rank to effort required ratio. I’m not a huge fan of this mentality, for reasons we’ll discuss in a moment. However, this is a delicate situation.
On a Guard or Reserve hiring board, the value of your GPA is very important. A 3.5 GPA in Business will stand out more favorably than a 2.6 in Engineering. You should choose a degree program in which you can maintain at least a 3.0, though you’re a lot better off keeping your GPA even higher than that.
That said, you need to learn how to handle a challenging academic load at some point. Being a fighter pilot requires a lot of studying throughout your career. It also requires actually absorbing and being able to apply the information you study. If you somehow manage to get to a fighter squadron having never learned how to study, you’re in for a rough life. Taking some classes in high school and college that actually challenge you will help you learn to study. It’s not about English, or Chemistry, or Social Studies now…it’s about weapons specs, tactics, and threat profiles later.
Another reason to choose a more challenging program is that some of the easier college degrees are worthless. We wish everyone reading this a long career of healthy flying, but that doesn’t always work out. If you were to find yourself medically unqualified at some point in the future, a marketable degree will be invaluable. Choose wisely.
For me, the most important reason to take hard classes is that it will make you a better fighter pilot. Up through the 1960s or so, there wasn’t really a systematic development of fighter pilot tactics. Generations of fighter pilots did the best they could, but the truth is that nobody really had things figured out. Then, a man named John Boyd joined the Air Force. He intuitively figured out better ways to fly a fighter and could beat just about anyone he went up against. Then, the USAF sent him to get a Master’s degree in mathematics at Georgia Tech.
Boyd studied math, physics, computer programming, and thermodynamics. He realized that it was possible to scientifically derive the facts that he intuitively knew about flying fighters. He scammed time on a bunch of computers (they were all building-sized mainframes back then) and developed a way of thinking about and flying fighter aircraft that changed our world forever. The F-22 is a technological marvel, but its pilots still train and fight according to Boyd’s concepts.
Boyd was one of the best fighter pilots of his time because he understood the math and science behind what he was doing. He changed the world because of that education.
If you don’t like math and science, you can still learn how to fly a fighter. However, if you’re willing to put in the effort to understand the math behind what’s going on, you will be far better. It’s the difference between being a technician and a master at your craft.
If I’ve persuaded you to take more challenging classes, make sure that you can keep your GPA at or above a 3.0. If you’re finding that difficult, you’re better off changing to something more manageable.
Two other critical components of your application’s overall score at a Guard or Reserve unit are how well you do on the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) and your Pilot Candidate Scoring Method (PCSM) score. There are several services that can help you study for the AFOQT and it’s important that you do your best to ace it! Your goal should be to earn at least a 90 in the AFOQT Pilot sections and a 90 on your PCSM. Don’t be discouraged if your scores aren’t quite there yet. You can improve your scores by retaking the tests and/or increasing your flight time.
Hollywood movies have done you a great disservice by making it look like flying a fighter isn’t physically demanding. The truth is that a 1-hour BFM sortie (Basic Fighter Maneuvers, aka: dogfighting) will leave you physically exhausted, if you’re in good shape. If you aren’t able to maintain great physical conditioning, flying a fighter could be deadly.
This video shows a pilot going through centrifuge training. He does well through his test, and then tries out an intentional G-Induced Loss of Consciousness (G-LOC). It’s funny to watch here, but we’ve lost far more fighter pilots in the last 40 years to training accidents caused by G-LOC than from flying combat missions.
The fundamental way to prepare for this environment is to learn to lift weights early in your life. A fighter pilot needs strong legs, abs, and glutes, but it doesn’t hurt to set up a lifting program for your whole body. The Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) is heavy, and you need good core strength to support it while you’re pulling 7-9 Gs and looking over your shoulder to fire an AIM-9X at your enemy.
The Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) is an augmented reality heads up display. (For reference, go watch any movie that shows Iron Man’s view from inside his suit.) It’s also a lot heavier than a traditional visor, especially when pulling Gs.
You also need to make sure you’re in decent cardiovascular shape. It’s one thing to do a loop or two on a sunny day. It’s something else entirely to fly BFM for upwards of an hour.
Once you’ve learned to maintain your basic physical condition, you should find some type of sport to play. Sports are useful for conditioning yourself to work as part of a team and continue to give your all even when you’re physically exhausted. However, the most important benefit of sports is that they teach you how to accept criticism.
We’ll discuss this more later, but dealing with (and deriving benefit from) criticism is fundamental to this job. Sports are good at teaching this because no matter how good you think you are, there’s always someone better–there’s always something else to learn. Star NFL quarterbacks throw interceptions. Star MLB batters fail to get on base 7 out of every 10 times they step up to the plate. They’re world-class athletes because they’ve learned to accept those failures, learn from them, and mentally persevere. A fighter pilot must possess that skill.
This benefit of sports is so important, that some fighter squadron hiring boards have been known to take the applicant with slightly lower scores, but a strong athletic background, knowing that he or she will have thick skin and the desire to overcome any obstacle.
It’s important to note that none of these physical activities are the point. You’re not out to be the world’s greatest weightlifter, baseball player, or quarterback. These activities are ways to train your attitude. You should work hard at them to make sure you get that benefit, but don’t let sports get in the way of all the other things you need to do.
I highly recommend that you do some flying before you start military flight training. Yes, most services will get you 20-40 hours in a light aircraft before you start flying the T-6. However, I believe that this isn’t enough. I taught USAF pilot training and I could tell a significant difference between a student pilot who started with 20 hours and one who had a private pilot’s license (PPL). I could also see a difference when I encountered a student with an instrument rating, CFI, and hundreds or even thousands of flight hours. Doing extra flying didn’t always mean that they excelled at aerobatics and formation and ended up flying T-38s, but it sure helped early on!
At the very least, doing some flying training on your own gives you advanced notice if you get airsick. It’s possible for almost anyone to overcome airsickness. The military is very good at getting people through that process, but if you don’t start it until you’re at UPT, your performance and grades will suffer until you get things worked out. Why not start that process on your own before you even get there so that you can maximize performance on all your rides in UPT?
I would recommend at least getting your PPL and Instrument Rating before UPT. This will teach you some fundamental pilot knowledge and airmanship basics. You’ll do better in academics, you’ll learn the traffic pattern faster, you’ll be better at checklists and talking on the radio.
Having an instrument rating will pay huge dividends in UPT. If you’re going to the USAF, try to learn instruments in an older aircraft with individual round-dial flight instruments because that’s what you’ll get in the T-6A. The T-6 GPS is a KLN-900, so you should look for a civilian trainer with a KLN-89, -90, or -94. If you’re going to be flying the T-6B with the Navy, it’s okay to fly an aircraft with newer avionics like the G500 or G1000.
You don’t necessarily need to seek out civilian aerobatic flying before UPT. If you’re nervous about doing this type of flying, a couple of hours might help you overcome your concerns. However, the T-6 is a fantastic aerobatic trainer, and you shouldn’t have any trouble with the aerobatics if you enter the program with just a PPL.
If you have the means to continue your civilian flight training, it wouldn’t hurt to become a Certificated Flight Instructor (CFI). Not only will the hours and training improve your basic flying skills, having this rating will help you understand what your military Instructor Pilots (IP) are watching for and thinking at UPT.
Although I believe that some previous flying experience can go a long way, it’s not entirely necessary. There are people in every UPT class that started with 20 hours in a flight screening program and go on to fly fighters. Don’t sweat all this if you lack the means to pay for civilian pilot ratings.
If you’re applying to a Guard or Reserve unit, however, every competitive candidate will have at the very least soloed, but more than likely earned a PPL. Many candidates don’t go any further than this in their flight training. (And nobody blames them…it’s expensive.) This means that if you can find a way to fund at least an Instrument Rating and/or an aerobatic flying course, it will really stand out on your application.
Believe it or not, I also recommend you do some video gaming as part of your aeronautical preparation. Fighters are getting increasingly systems-intensive. The F-35 isn’t actually a fighter. It’s a technology platform. It’s never intended to actually get into a dogfight. (If you agree with me that this is a ridiculous mindset, you may enjoy an article I wrote on this topic a few years ago.) Being good at flying any fighter these days involves executing sequences of button pushes, quickly and accurately, in response to a threat. Video games are cheap and effective ways to train yourself in these skills.
Once again, gaming is not an end unto itself. It’s a means for building a particular skill set. Don’t get all clanned-up and dive so deep into the world of gaming that you forget to do all the other things we’re talking about here.
Being a fighter pilot all but requires that you adopt specific mindsets in several areas. I’ve seen countless pilots who fail to figure this out until after they become fighter pilots, but they take a beating for it. The sooner you can engrain some of these ideas in your soul the better.
First and foremost: you are a team player. Fighter pilots have to succeed as individuals, but if the rest of the formation or squadron doesn’t also succeed your individual accomplishments are worse than useless.
Trying to get a fighter slot at UPT is a competition. However, some people get a little too cutthroat and try to get ahead at the expense of others. Guess what: your IPs see all of that. In a way, the T-38/T-45 portion of UPT is a multi-month job interview. Your IPs are deciding whether you send you to fly with their buddies. Once the IPs complete their assignment, they’re going to have to fly in the same squadron as anyone they send to their jet. They’re not going to send you there unless they believe that you’ll be a fantastic member of that team. You can do well without undercutting others. You will get further ahead by helping others than by stabbing them in the back.
This is only a UPT ride debrief. Debriefing a fighter mission is significantly more intense. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Beaux Hebert)
Next: you must learn to humbly accept feedback without getting emotional or defensive. No matter how well you think you fly, you will get eviscerated in mission debriefs. Your IPs and flight leads will notice every mistake you make. You’ll be told that you’re a bad American because you didn’t try hard enough. They won’t be telling you this to try and upset you. They’ll say it in hopes of making you better. Don’t argue. Don’t defend. Train yourself to humbly “take your spears,” and learn from everything. One of the best pieces of advice that has ever been given to a wingman is:
Never pass up the opportunity to shut the hell up!
Another important part of not getting emotional is to decide not to be offended by behaviors that aren’t acceptable in common society. Yes, there’s a lot of recent emphasis on this stuff, and some behaviors that are no longer acceptable, even in a fighter squadron. That’s a good thing. However, as a fighter pilot your job description includes violating the sovereign territory of another country and murdering its citizens if the situation requires. This is not a profession for sensitive souls.
We should also note here that drinking is a part of fighter pilot culture. You absolutely don’t have to drink, but don’t be self-righteous about it either. You can still hang out with a mug full of root beer. You can take care of your buddies and be the DD. They’ll love you for it!
If you do drink, be careful! One of the best pilots I’ve ever known should be flying the F-22 right now. Unfortunately, he had just a little too much to drink one night in Austin and got arrested for relieving himself in a public location. That single event ruined his chances of ever flying a fighter…of any kind. Is the Air Force a moronic organization for giving up such a great potential fighter pilot for such a minor infraction? Yes! Sadly, it doesn’t matter though. Military commanders are increasingly scrutinized by both their superiors and the media. The USAF doesn’t mess around with this anymore. Remember: there is nothing so fun today that it’s worth sacrificing your future. You absolutely must learn, before you get to UPT, to have a fool-proof plan in place when you decide to go have a good time and get foolish.
As if I haven’t given you enough homework yet, I’m going to assign you some reading. If you want to get a job at Southwest Airlines, you absolutely must read and be able to intelligently discuss the book Nuts. If you want to be a fighter pilot, I recommend you read about some of the best. As a bare minimum, I recommend:
This only scratches the surface of what you could read on this topic. It turns out that there’s a lifetime of great fighter pilot literature in our world. It’s important for you to know about some of the people and events that shaped this profession. This study is another part of the difference between being a technician and a master.
Now that we’ve discussed some general areas of preparation, we’ll go over a step-by-step process for putting it all together. We’ll cover the processes for both paths, Guard/Reserve and Active Duty because they’re different.
Pick a smart major in college. It should be something challenging that offers you a non-flying backup career. However, don’t sacrifice GPA. Your mindset should be: 3.0 is the absolute minimum, 3.5 is better, but no GPA is good enough until you’re sitting in the cockpit of your fighter.
Do something to gain leadership experience at/after college. This can be a job, a school or club sports team, a civic organization, or some other type of club. It’s not good enough to just be a member of the organization. You need a meaningful leadership position that you can list on your resume.
Get your PPL. If you can afford it, get your instrument rating as well. (Some aerobatic flying and a CFI are nice, but will be a stretch for many.)
Study for and CRUSH the AFOQT (especially the pilot sections) and TBAS!
Network. Throughout your college career you need to build and maintain meaningful relationships with those around you. You’ll want 3-5 solid letters of recommendation from professors, bosses, mentors, etc. when you apply to a unit.
Check out the BogiDope Military Job Board for application deadlines. (Plan to apply no earlier than your senior year of college.)
Use the BogiDope Application Prep Package to help prepare a world-class cover letter and resume for the squadrons you want to apply to.
Shotgun your applications out to every single fighter unit that you’d consider serving in. The more you apply to, the better your odds.
Execution – How to Get an Active Duty Fighter Pilot Slot
Get good grades in high school. They don’t have to be perfect, but the higher the better.
Play at least one sport in high school. These don’t have to be school sports. They could be club or community teams. You need to work to earn the spot as Team Captain, or the equivalent.
In my opinion, the Guard and Reserves are your best bet for becoming a fighter pilot. If you’re limited to Active Duty though, you have a few different options:
Your best bet is to attend the USAF Academy. It gets more pilot slots than any other commissioning source. If you’re medically qualified to be a pilot, you stand an excellent chance of getting a pilot slot there. (Also, it’s a completely free education and you earn a valuable degree.)
The US Naval Academy is a good option if you want to become a Naval or Marine Corps fighter pilot. Most people at that school chase big boats or want to carry rifles through the mud. If you work hard enough to get a good class rank, you stand a good chance of getting a pilot slot.
Your best remaining option here is college ROTC. They offer great scholarships and you get a far more enjoyable college experience than you do at a service academy. Unfortunately, each individual college only gets a few (if any) pilot slots. You’ll need to work extra hard to earn one of them. You’ll need to serve in a leadership role within your ROTC program and get fantastic grades.
One final option here is Officer Training School (OTS). This is the officer equivalent of enlisting in the military and doesn’t require any prior military service. It’s the least common way to join Active Duty as a pilot, but could be an avenue worth considering. If you’re interested, read our series on getting an OTS Rated Slot here.
While in college, get good grades, play sports, and show leadership in some type of extra-curricular activities. No matter where you go to school, the Air Force will eventually rack-and-stack you against your peers. You need to have a variety of activities in which you’ve continued to demonstrate leadership ability.
Somewhere along the line, you should consider doing the civilian flight training we discussed. The Active Duty path is one long competition towards that fighter slot, so why not get a head start? If you’re really hurting for cash, you could consider the Civil Air Patrol as a way to get some less-expensive flying. I’ve also written about some other ways to earn civilian pilot ratings without breaking the bank. Start here.
Do everything in your power to be top ranked pilot throughout training. Your individual performance is the only thing you have control over, so take advantage. With any luck, there will be enough fighter slots available by the time you get to choose your destiny. Fingers crossed!
No matter which path you choose, getting a UPT slot is just an intermediate step along the way. Although a Guard/Reserve pilot selectee has a guaranteed fighter slot waiting for him or her, poor performance at UPT can get that taken away. If you want to know how to do well in pilot training, check out our series on Winning UPT.
The list we’ve given you here should sound like a lot of work because it is! Becoming a fighter pilot is not something you can successfully do on a whim. If this sounds like too much, then you may want to consider another profession. The competition at every step in this process is fierce, and you’ll have a tough time staying competitive unless the prize is significant enough for you.
If becoming a fighter pilot is and will always be your ultimate goal in life, I hope that this list gets you excited. It’s a (relatively) concise explanation of most of the big pieces in the puzzle. All you need to do is go out and put them together.
I’ll give you one last book recommendation to help you on your path. I recently read Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Dr. Angela Duckworth, and it’s fantastic. It explains why all the things we mentioned here are important. It helps you understand why focusing on your goal is critical. Surprisingly, she also explains some ways to develop grit if you find yourself lacking it. This should be wonderful news. You don’t have to be perfect at any of this right now. If you internalize Dr. Duckworth’s ideas, you can make yourself a better, more effective person and increase your chances of achieving your dreams.
And being a fighter pilot is a dream worth pursuing! It’s almost impossible to describe the sense of power and freedom you get while flying. Work hard and do your best because it’s absolutely worth the effort. Good luck and fly safe!
The picture of the L3/Doss Aviation IFT team comes from their website. They’ve been the USAF’s premier IFT provider for decades. https://www2.l3t.com/doss/about/index.htm
We have a treat for you today! A recently-commissioned Second Lieutenant wrote a fantastic report about what to expect at Total Force Officer Training (TFOT, formerly known as OTS). Many of our customers find their Guard or Reserve units, or find their way to Active Duty, as new-hired directly “off the street” and have to complete TFOT as the first step in their training. If you’re headed that way, you’re going to want to buy Lt Cooper a drink after you read what he has to say.
There’s a lot to cover, so we’ve broken this post up into two installments that we’ll be publishing over the next two weeks. We hope you enjoy!
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If you’ve recently been hired by a squadron and are reading this article in preparation for your upcoming TFOT class, let me be one of the first to say congratulations! The journey of a lifetime is on the tip of your fingers.
If you are reading this article with the hopes that you’ll soon be getting that life-changing phone call; good for you and keep pushing! It’s absolutely worth it.
This article will explain what OTS/TFOT is, what you need to prepare for to dominate OTS, what you should bring, what life as an OTS student looks like, and it details some of the main events of OTS.
The Air Force has three commissioning sources: The Air Force Academy (nerds), Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), and Officer Training School (OTS). As a Guard/Reserve hire, you will commission through OTS.
Maxwell AFB, Ala. – Air University’s Officer Training School Class 19-07, dubbed “Godzilla” class, holds its awards ceremony at the Alabama State University (ASU) Acadome, Sep. 26, 2019. The “Godzilla” class contained 800 students and OTS awarded 80 Distinguished Graduate awards across its two training squadrons. (U.S. Air Force photo by Trey Ward/Released)
In casual conversation, OTS and Total Force Officer Training (TFOT) are often used interchangeably. In short, TFOT just means that Active Duty, Reserve, and Guard members (the total force) will train side-by-side in the same course/curriculum. In the past, Guard and Reserve members completed a different curriculum than their Active Duty counterparts.
It is worth noting that OTS is a continually changing school. The curriculum is regularly being tweaked and modified; do not be surprised if some curriculum changes take place between the time this article is written (Dec ’19) and the time you attend OTS.
Also, of note, a new Commandant will take command sometime in the near future (2020/2021) who has made it very clear that he is pushing for all TFOT students to attend Basic Military Training (BMT, ~9 weeks) with the Enlisted force prior to attending OTS. As of Dec ’19, this has neither been approved nor officially planned for, however, high-level discussions are taking place and there seems to be strong support among the staff.
You’ll use this web portal to access OTS/TFOT materials.
Preparing for OTS
**If you are unfamiliar with the Air Force PT test/have not passed a mock PT test/are unconfident in your ability to successfully pass the PT test 100% of the time, stop reading IMMEDIATELY and go take one. Very few things will get you removed from OTS; failing the PFA PT test is one of them.
If you have a CAC (aka Military ID card), the next thing you should do is order name tapes and branch tapes. You can order them here and here. If you do not have a CAC, you will likely have to wait to order them at Maxwell’s AAFES. Order at least 4 pairs. This is important to do ahead of time because it typically takes a few weeks to get these delivered. You will be able to receive mail during OTS however my class did not get access to mail service for a few weeks.
Approximately 2 weeks prior to your OTS start date, you will receive an email from wings@holmcenter.com asking you to validate your enrollment in the upcoming class. Follow the directions in that email and you will gain access to the pre-OTS coursework. The OTS Registrar is fairly responsive; if you have any issues, they should be able to resolve them promptly. If you need help, you can reach them at ots.registrar.workflow@us.af.mil. There is a video,here, with information on how to configure your browser properly to complete the pre-OTS coursework. Do yourself a favor and complete all of the material prior to arriving at OTS. There will be time allocated in the schedule to finish it during your first few weeks, however if you complete everything before arriving you will be able to use that time to do other things. The pre-course material is supposed to take 30 hours to complete but it is possible to finish in much less time.
During OTS you will take two formal PT tests; the PFB (taken within the first 2 weeks) and the PFA (taken week 6). The PFB is considered a “baseline” test and it is used for self-evaluation as well as to give the instructors an idea on who might need remedial PT. The PFA is the first official PT test of your career; failing it will possibly get you removed from OTS or recycled back to Day 1 of the next class.
The Air Force PT test is widely publicized (PDF) with plenty of quality information and training material available for it. There is not much to elaborate on this topic; go into OTS being able to pass the PT test on your worst day. Do not go into OTS expecting to improve your PT score.
Officer Training School trainees perform sit-ups during an official Air Force Physical Training test, Aug. 8, 2019, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. The Air Force PT test is comprised of four components: aerobic, body composition, push-ups and sit-ups. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Charles Welty)
OTS is a large group of very different people shoved into close proximity, put under stress, and kept mildly sleep-deprived; the majority of people will eventually get sick. A bad strain of flu went around while I was there and I was lucky enough to be one of the recipients of it. It was one of the worst colds I’ve ever had in my life and I barely got out of bed for 3 straight days; the PFA was the following week. Don’t put your career in jeopardy over this; be ready for it, period-dot.
At some point in the time leading up to OTS you **should** receive an email or get access to the OTS Dorm manual (to the best of my memory and records, I did not). However, if you do not receive it, you can find it here and at the bottom of this article. The Dorm Manual is your complete how-to for everything in the dorms. You will be expected to adhere to the dorm manual throughout OTS and will be inspected periodically to ensure that your room is neat, clean, organized, and standardized. This means everything beyond the threshold of your door is your (and your roommate’s) responsibility.
You will receive at least two graded dorm inspections throughout your time at OTS and you will have to pass at least 1 of these (80% or greater) in order to graduate. In my experience, the dorm inspections were typically announced a few days in advance and, as long as you follow the dorm manual, you will pass these with relative ease. Pay close attention to the details (the written explanations- the pictures are deceiving and often incorrect) as there are specific positions for everything. The best advice I can suggest is to print out the dorm manual before arriving at OTS and start working on getting your dorm inspection-ready as soon as you arrive. If you’re confident in your clothes-rolling abilities, it might even be a good idea to arrive with your clothes pre-rolled. You’ll know when your first inspection is coming and it’s your responsibility to be prepared when that time comes.
Prior to arriving at OTS, you will receive an email with the Welcome Guide that will have in it a “Uniform packing list/Required items” that details exactly what you need (pictures below).
If you have access to an AAFES/Mil clothing store, I STRONGLY suggest purchasing everything you intend to purchase prior to arriving at OTS (some people bought Mess Dress, others rented it). During the first week you will be taken to the OTS Shoppette to purchase what you need, but keep in mind the Shoppette is very small, you will have limited time, and there will likely be ~100 other Officer Trainees attempting to do the exact same thing you are. I purchased about ½ of the required items before OTS and, if I could do it all over again, I would absolutely have spent the time getting everything before.
If you are a non-prior purchasing uniforms for the first time, the Airman Battle Uniform (ABU) is being phased out in the next few years and is being replaced with the Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP) uniform. It would not make financial sense for you to purchase any ABU clothing.
While it is highly recommended to purchase three pairs of uniforms, keep in mind that everything you purchase will be in your dorm room and, accordingly, inspectable during dorm inspections. As long as you do laundry regularly, you should be fine with two. Full disclosure: I had 3 pairs but I really only ever wore 2 during any week. If you think you’ll outsmart the MTIs by living out of your laundry bag the whole time (you’ll hear a lot of prior enlisted suggest this trick from BMT), you won’t. You can take your chances (I did) but someone will get caught and have all their things dumped into the hallway. This is the MTI’s job and they know all the tips and tricks.
If you are attending OTS during the winter months (October-April) make sure that you purchase cold-weather gear. OCP Fleece, watch cap, gloves, long sleeve PT shirt, running pants, PT jacket, thermal underwear, waffle shirts, etc. will be your best friend and make your life much warmer during your time at OTS. I was the big and tough (and handsome) wannabe fighter pilot who determined he didn’t need any of these things; 4.69 minutes into our first 0430 PT session and I would have run to AAFES to buy everything they had in stock if I had any feeling left in my legs.
You absolutely want a hat, jacket, gloves, etc. if you’re scheduled to attend OTS/TFOT during cold weather months. (U.S. Air Force photo by Sarayuth Pinthong)
You will absolutely need a laptop; PC/Windows preferred as Mac will format differently when you submit your bullet point papers (more on those later).
I strongly encourage you to bring a printer with an additional cartridge of black ink and a printer cable so you can connect directly to your laptop. The WI-FI in the dorms is password protected and I don’t know anyone who was able to connect their printer through it. Having a printer is a huge value-add to yourself and your flight, you will absolutely have a use for it.
Bring a good pillow and a blanket with you. Whereas the beds are marginal, the pillows you’ll be issued are terrible. See #3 for reasons why I did not bring a pillow with me. You’re going to be tired and uncomfortable enough in the first few weeks, I imagine it would have made things a little more enjoyable if I didn’t have to sleep on a pile of rocks every night. After 5 weeks, I eventually caved and had my wife send me a care package.
If you have a talent for growing facial hair, do yourself a favor and bring an electric shaver as well as regular razors. During the first few weeks of OTS you will be given anywhere from 5-15 minutes to get ready in the morning. I did the whole full-shave with a razor and shaving cream gig for a while and eventually learned from my prior-enlisted peers by getting myself an electric razor. It will save you 5 minutes every morning, some blood, and maybe a few 341s.
Realize that OTS is a school. You will sit in a flight room (and auditoriums) for lectures and will be tested on the materials taught to you. You will need materials to write and take notes with. Before becoming the upstanding Officer Trainee that I eventually became, young OT Cooper spent the entire week before OTS in Las Vegas casinos staying up far too late, spending far too much money, and generally having a great time; I also showed up to OTS with no pens, no paper, and, apparently, no common sense. Would I do it again? Absolutely. Would I also make sure I have all those materials ready before leaving for Vegas? 100% yes. It will save you from the same headaches I put myself through.
Make sure you show up ready and willing to learn. All of your academic tests and papers will take place within the first 3 weeks of OTS. A lot of information will get thrown at you in a hurry. Don’t be the one who falls behind because you weren’t ready.
As mentioned earlier, you will probably get sick at some point during OTS. Bring some EmergenC, DayQuil/NyQuil, and some Advil.
Bring a Tide To-Go pen for when your pens leak ink all over your OCP sleeve during marching drills in the rain.
You will be issued a CamelBak upon arrival at OTS. You can still purchase a better one but make sure you check the regulations beforehand.
Depending on your specific demographic, you will have a number of required documents that you should have with you when you arrive at OTS. I will post the required document list below the packing list.
Welcome back BogiDope readers! This is Part 2 of our in-depth report on what OTS is like right now. We covered sections 1-3 last week, and will finish with sections 4-6 today. Enjoy!
It’s important to know that EVERYTHING described below will be taught and practiced enough that someone with absolutely no military background or knowledge (i.e. me) will have ample opportunity to learn and perform at an adequate level. You will be clearly told what is expected of you and told exactly how you will be graded for everything. As a pilot candidate, you represent one of the best and brightest the Air Force has to offer. As such, I feel confident in saying that as long as you put forth the effort and do what you’re supposed to be doing, you will be successful at OTS.
Your life at OTS will be very structured and controlled, especially early on. Expect the first few weeks to be filled with constant direction and corrective criticism. In short, you’ll be herded like cattle, your freedoms will be taken away, you will be made uncomfortable, you will be stressed, and you will be tired. There’s not much you can do about it except go along with it. It may sound a bit dreary, because it is, but I assure you it gets significantly better as you progress through the course. You will not ever get hazed, belittled, physically contacted, personally or professionally insulted, or anything of the sort. You will receive verbal constructive criticism to correct the mistakes you will inevitably make.
An MTI directs Officer Trainees during in-processing.
Throughout most of OTS you’ll have very little control over the specifics of your day-to-day life. Upon arrival to Maxwell AFB, decisions that directly affect your daily life have already been made.
First off, OTS consists of two different training squadrons with different training philosophies: Detachment 12 (Det 12) and the 24th TRS. The squadrons alternate classes and your placement in them is based on timing and luck of the draw. The squadrons have the same course curriculum but have a different cadre of Military Training Instructors (MTIs) and Flight Instructors. Subsequently, each respective squadron goes about its training mission a bit differently than the other. Since you have no influence or control over which training squadron your class will be under, I will leave my specific opinions regarding the squadrons to myself, however, suffice it to say that there are distinctions between the two.
When you arrive at OTS, you will arrive within a specific time-window (ex. 0900-1200) and will in-process as an entire class. None of this will be apparent to you at the time but your class (300+ people) will be slowly broken down into student squadrons (roughly 1/4th of the class), and, eventually, flights (16-ish members each) throughout the day. By the time lunch comes around, you will be with your specific flight. Take a good look around the room and start making introductions because these will be the people you will spend nearly every day with for the next ~9 weeks of your life. You have no influence over what flight you’re in or who you’re with, however your flight can make your time at OTS very enjoyable or it can make the whole school more uncomfortable. It’s in everyone’s best interest to communicate and cooperate so take the lead and get everyone working together. You may or may not have a “recycle” from a previous class in your flight, but if you do, they can be an extremely valuable resource in the first few days and weeks of OTS.
During in-processing day you will be given a small paper booklet called the Officer Training School Manual (OTSMAN) and you will be required to study it at all times throughout the day where you’re not actively participating in standard military training (SMT). The OTSMAN has all of the information you will need to use on a daily basis while at OTS. You will study the OTSMAN daily and eventually take two tests on the material within it. The OTSMAN is constantly changing and being updated so don’t spend too much time looking over past editions, but if you would like to get a basic understanding of what it looks like, you can find it here as well as at the bottom of this article.
There is no “typical” day at OTS as you will always be doing something a bit different as you progress through the curriculum. However, you can expect to wake up between 0400-0430 every day for the first few weeks, including weekends. Eventually, you will be granted 0530 wakeups during the weekend. Cell phones will not be authorized for the first 10 or so days so let your family/friends know accordingly.
You will eat MREs for the first few days, however you will eventually be introduced to the OTS dining facility (DFAC, i.e. cafeteria). The DFAC has very specific procedures that you will be expected to know and follow for every meal throughout your time at OTS. For the first few days, expect to be yelled at and corrected constantly during your time in the DFAC. All of the information you need to know is available in the OTSMAN. Look over the DFAC procedures while you’re standing in formation and it’ll make things go a bit smoother. Expect to have 10 minutes to eat your meal with no talking or looking around. DFAC procedure should remain constant throughout future classes so that would be something to study beforehand if you’re so inclined.
During the first few days of OTS you will be introduced to marching and flight formations. Expect to march, indoors (single file) as well as outdoors, in various sized formations and details everywhere you go for the entire time you are at OTS. If you want to get ahead, read the OTSMAN provided in this article and learn some of the basic terminology and formations, however there will be more than enough time to learn and practice everything. In the interest of full disclosure, this would be a fairly low priority if I were in your shoes.
Here’s an example of what marching in formation looks like:
You can also expect to wear a CamelBak and reflective belt everywhere (outside of the dorms) during your time at OTS. Get comfortable with them because they will be arms-length away from you for the entire time you’re at OTS (my class wore them until 1 hour before families showed up for our Open House during graduation week).
During your time at OTS you will refer to all of your peers as “Officer Trainee [Last Name]” or “OT [Insert Last Name]” and you will give all OTS staff the proper greeting of the day and salute, if appropriate. Greetings of the day are outlined in the OTSMAN, however expect a lot of “Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening Sir/Ma’am” and expect to be held accountable to that standard every day.
Throughout OTS all students will be assigned various roles and jobs which can be assigned to any OT. Every OT will have at least one job assigned to them within their flight. This document outlines exactly what these jobs are and what they entail.
Below are the current OT jobs:
A few important notes regarding OT jobs:
All Wing-level OT jobs are picked by staff (exception: you can volunteer for a wing position if you REALLY want one) and typically last 1 week (except Drill and Ceremonies Officer).
Flight Leader roles are picked by your respective Flight Instructor and typically change every week
Everyone in your flight will have at least one “Mission Support Group” level job that will remain for the duration of OTS
Highlights:
If I were to do OTS all over again, I would sign up to be the Community Service Officer, the Computer Officer, the Supply Officer, the Safety Officer, or the Graduation Events Officer based on perceived (or actual) workload throughout OTS.
During OTS I was my flight’s Graduation Events Officer (GEO) as well as the Flight Lead and I will provide the official job details as well as elaborate on the specifics of the reality of those jobs below.
GEO:
In layman’s terms, the GEO collects all the information of the visitors expected to attend your flight’s graduation week events and submits it to the Wing GEO. My flight had no Distinguished Visitors (DVs) so I did not have to deal with those particulars (Note: We did have some high-level Generals and civilian members attend our parade so it would be extra important for those respective flight GEOs not to mess that up). During Graduation Week you will write the specific script that will be read during your flight’s commissioning ceremony. It’s a bit of a headache during graduation week but other than the visitor list there’s not much for you to do during the first ~7 weeks.
Flight Leader:
Typically, the Flight Leader position is a week-long and acts as the main liaison between your flight instructor and your flight. For the first 4 flight leaders, this is a graded position; for the last flight leader it is not. I happened to be the lucky (see: unlucky) person who was selected to be the Flight Lead for the last 3 weeks of OTS.
Being a Flight Leader was challenging and fun; it requires you to be aware of everything that goes on in the day-to-day lives of your flight members. You will be responsible for getting everyone in your flight into formation and marching them to the proper location at the correct time, you will coordinate everything applicable with your flight instructor, and you will be responsible for all of the various goings-on that are happening. It requires a lot of communication and effort to do well but it makes the time go by a lot quicker as you will always be busy. If you are chosen for this position, take pride in it and remember that your main job is to take care of your flight mates and make their lives easier while also keeping the flight out of trouble.
During OTS there are a handful of main events that stand out from the remainder of the course. I will detail the following events below: In-processing day, Pennant test, SPT Test 1 & 2, PFB & PFA, Paper 1 & 2, AA1 & 2, LRC, briefing 1 & 2, HELPS, WELPS, ORI 1 & 2, Dorm Inspection 1 & 2, Deployment Week, and Grad Week. With the exception of In-processing day, deployment week, and Graduation week, all of these are graded events.
In-processing is a whirlwind of a day. There’s not much you can prepare for but there are still a few things worth noting. First and foremost, make sure you read your welcome guide and arrive wearing the proper attire (business casual with sneakers) and with your hair in regulation. You will be given a block of time in which you are supposed to arrive on campus, typically 0900-1200, and from the moment you arrive you will be told exactly what to do. Say goodbye to your cell phone because you’ll be directed to turn it off immediately. Expect yelling and lots of direction. You’ll go through various in-processing documents and will be given your OTSMAN and CamelBak.
There will be a lot of standing, single-file, and reading your OTSMAN while waiting for the MTIs to get things organized, but eventually you’ll take all of your luggage across campus to your respective dorm building. At this point, you will pick your dorm room. If you don’t mind having the top bunk then throw your stuff in the first room that you can and move on to the next event, but if I were to do it all over again, I would definitely find a room where the bottom bunk is available. You’re going to have a lot of rushed early-morning wake-ups, and making the jump from the top bunk got sportier than I preferred at 0400. After picking your dorm room you’ll bounce between various briefings for the remainder of the day.
The pennant test is one of the first graded events of OTS. Your flight will march through campus, led by your Flight Leader, doing a predetermined sequence of drill and facing movements. MTIs will follow you the entire way and debrief you on your performance afterward. That upcoming Friday will be a ceremony where you find out if your flight passed or not. If you fail, the MTIs will pay more attention to your flight (bad) and you will have to retake the test until you pass. Your Flight Leader can make or break it for your flight with this, help them get squared away and confident. If you are not the flight leader, make sure you do your part by being sharp with your movements. You will have more than enough time to practice and perfect this.
SPT 1 & 2 are taken in your flight room (classroom) on your laptops. They are 20-ish question quizzes on the OTSMAN and you need at least an 80% to pass. I was actually somewhat nervous about the first test as I didn’t know what to expect. The best advice I can give is to just study your OTSMAN cover to cover. SPT 1 was taken 6 days after arriving at OTS. SPT 2 was taken 25 days in and by then you should know the OTSMAN well enough that you don’t have to study for the test.
The PFB & PFA are standard Air Force PT tests, taken first thing in the morning. They are administered by the OTS Staff but the reps are counted by other OTs. There’s not much else to say about this; pass and you’re fine, fail and you’re not. The PFB was taken 6 days in and the PFA was taken 41 days in.
Officer Training School trainees perform push-ups during an official Air Force Physical Training test, Aug. 8, 2019, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. The Air Force PT test is comprised of four components: aerobic, body composition, push-ups and sit-ups. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Charles Welty)
Paper 1 & 2 are bullet point papers written in accordance with Tongue and Quill. They are frustratingly specific and graded precisely, however once it “clicks” for you it becomes pretty easy to write. I spent a good bit of time writing Paper 1 but spent less than an hour writing Paper 2. These are graduation requirements (80% or greater to pass) and people do fail them and get recycled. These and the academic assessment tests are your highest threat items while at OTS. Pro tip: Keep the MS Word document from Paper 1, make the appropriate formatting adjustments after it gets graded, and use that as a template for Paper 2.
Academic Assessment 1 & 2 are scantron based tests, taken as a Wing in Boyd auditorium, on all of the lectured material up until that point. You will know all of the topics that test will cover so make sure to study those. You will have access to an online course manager called AU Canvas where you’ll be able to find all of the PowerPoint slides, readers, and Standards of Behaviors (SOBs) for every lecture/brief at OTS. The SOBs are EXACTLY what you will be tested on. Make sure you focus all of your attention on studying the specifics of those SOBs and you’ll do just fine.
You can find the slides, reader, and SOBs on: AU Canvas>Courses>Home>Curriculum Materials
The Leadership Reaction Course is a fun and interesting full-day event out behind the PT “paperclip”. The LRC is a course of ~20 challenging obstacles that you have to analyze and complete within a certain time limit. More often than not you will run out of time before finishing. The purpose of the LRC is to surprise you with challenging obstacles to see how you react and lead. I will keep this description intentionally vague to preserve that intention. In short, you will either be leading, participating, or acting as safety during an obstacle. When it is your turn to lead, you will be graded on your performance. You won’t see any of the obstacles prior to “problem solving” them; you and your team will stand with your backs turned to the obstacle and will turn around to analyze and begin problem solving at the sound of a horn. You’ll need to score a 75% or higher on the LRC to pass. This will count as 1 of 2 required leadership positions you’ll have to complete throughout OTS.
Briefing 1 & 2 are advocacy briefs you will give to your flight on the same topic your corresponding paper is on (i.e. you will write Paper 1 and then brief your flight on the paper a week or so later). You will have to advocate for a change in current policy and will have between 5-9 minutes to do so, and you will need to create a PowerPoint. If your brief is less than 5 minutes or more than 9 minutes, you will automatically fail. By the time you get around to the briefs you should know the material and be comfortable enough with your flight to stand up and brief them without much of an issue. A handful of the more nervous members of my flight practiced these briefs a few times prior to the actual briefing but I felt comfortable enough simply studying the material and presenting it for the first time during my actual brief. There are some very specific particulars of the briefs so make sure you’re aware of them but other than that these are relatively low-threat events. Briefing 1 was 22 days into OTS and Briefing 2 was the second-to-last graded event, 38 days in.
HELPS is a series of “obstacles” and challenges presented to your flight on and around the campus of OTS. It is very similar to the LRC except instead of fixed obstacles, you will be given prompts and riddles that you need to solve in order to complete your mission. Like the LRC, you will either be leading, participating, or acting as a safety and if you are chosen to lead you will be graded on your performance. Only 4 members of my flight were chosen to lead an event.
WELPS is the exact same thing as HELPS except it is out in the woods near the compound where you will stay for deployment week. Everyone will get an opportunity to lead a HELPS event. Each event is a little different and challenging in its own way. By this point you will be excited to get off the OTS campus. Keep in mind you will need to pass 2 graded leadership positions in order to graduate so make sure you lock-in and crush these. WELPS was 31 days after in-processing.
Officer trainees apart of the Air Force Officer Training School’s “Godzilla Class,” participate in the Warrior Expeditionary Leadership Problem Solving (WELPS) field exercise, Aug. 28, 2019, on Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. WELPS is just one of many field training exercises a part of the OTS curriculum, all of which are designed to help make the future officers more well-rounded before they head into the operational Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Charles Welty)
Open Ranks Inspection 1 & 2 is an event where your flight will put on your dress blues, line up in formation, and get inspected by an MTI. They will be looking for any infraction on your uniform such as dust, wrinkles, scuff marks, improperly placed accouterments, etc. There is a specific sequence of commands given by the flight leader so make sure they know what they’re doing prior to your ORI. The MTIs will pick up on very little discrepancies in your uniform so make sure you and your flight mates look over each other a few times beforehand and you’ll be just fine.
Dorm Inspections are exactly how they sound: the MTIs enter your dorm room and inspect a specific part of it. They will either inspect the common area and beds, the closets, or the dressers. You will need to make sure your room exactly adheres to the Dorm Manual and you will be fine. We had some people get perfect scores on their dorm inspection and others get 15+ demerits. Pay attention to the details and you’ll be just fine. You need to pass at least 1 dorm inspection to graduate. Some people had to get their dorm inspected 3 or 4 times before they passed but typically you will only receive 2.
Deployment week is a week in a compound out in the woods where you will learn some basic room clearing, defensive perimeter, combative, and other techniques. You will leave on a Monday afternoon and return on Friday evening. The first 3 days of Deployment Week will be mostly educational in nature, with the exception of the obstacle course you’ll complete on Day 1, where the last 2 days will be an event called Operation Eagle. During Op Eagle the wing will split up into 3 different “chalks” (teams) and complete a number of missions. During this time your chalk will be responsible for building defensive perimeters, providing security, and going out on missions all while defending from attacks from the OTS staff and other chalks (each chalk will be issued 20-ish airsoft or paintball guns). Everyone will be assigned some sort of job during deployment week and your job will directly affect your participation, or lack thereof, during Op Eagle. If you are looking for the most action, make sure you get a Security Forces job. If you want to do nothing except sit around for two days, pick a logistics or “medical” job. Like anything else, you will get out of this what you put into it. My suggestion is to throw yourself into as many events as you can and you’ll have a good time. Deployment week is the last thing you will do before Graduation Week.
Congratulations, you made it to graduation week! By this point you will probably be completely fed up with OTS and you’ll barely be able to contain your excitement at the prospect of leaving Maxwell to head to your first duty base. Grad week “technically” kicks off at the informal open house but it will certainly feel like Grad week during your official Dining-In ceremony. Dining-In is when everyone will get dressed up in Mess Dress to have your first formal get-together. Colonels and Commandants will speak and there will be some mildly funny jokes told. This may or may not be your first exposure to alcohol since starting OTS and all you really have to do is not make a jerk of yourself and you’ll Commission as an Officer in the World’s Greatest Air Force. Dining-In was fun and all but by that point all I was really looking forward to was finishing the Graduation Parade and commissioning.
The day after Dining-In will be your open house where families are allowed on campus for the first time. You’ll spend the afternoon and early evening with your family before heading back to the dorms. The next day will be your flight’s commissioning ceremony, where you’ll officially FINALLY commission, and the wing awards ceremony. The awards ceremony is an hour-long ceremony where you will find out who is a Distinguished Graduate and other awards.
Lt. Gen. Anthony J. Cotton, Air University command and president, salutes the Air Force’s newest commissioned officers a part of Officer Training School class 19-07 during their graduation ceremony Sept. 27, 2019, in Montgomery, Alabama. Officer Training School’s class 19-07, or also known as “Godzilla Class” is the school’s largest class in history and pushed OTS to its maximum capacity. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Charles Welty)
Afterward, you’ll be cut loose to spend some time with your family before the final day of OTS: the Graduation Parade. The Grad parade takes place at roughly 0900 and will take about an hour. You will do some specific marching and will eventually march up front to take the Oath, read by the Commandant of OTS. If your class is lucky, you’ll get a flyover by something cool- such as a two-ship of MiG killing F-15C Eagles. Some classes get luckier than others. Anyways, you’ll say the oath, you’ll hopefully get a flyover from the World’s Greatest Air Superiority Fighter, you’ll throw your hat in the air, and you’ll officially graduate OTS. Congratulations Lieutenant, you did it!
So you’re a freshly minted, steely-eyed 2nd Lieutenant that’s ready to dominate UPT with the highest MASS score ever recorded and eager start your new life as the second-coming of Robin Olds.
Well…not so fast.
For those of you without a civilian Private Pilot’s License (PPL) or higher, you’ll need to graduate from Initial Flight Training in Pueblo, CO before you get anywhere near the UPT flight line.
Lucky for you, BogiDope has your six.
This article will detail everything you need to know about the USAF IFT program, give you some tips and techniques that will help you absolutely crush the IFT Syllabus and get you one step closer to earning those coveted wings.
At Doss you will be flying the Mighty Diamond DA20-C1 Katana. The Katana is a fun airplane to fly with 125 Hp (at sea-level) and a cruising speed of 100-120 KIAS. You can take her up to 60 degrees of bank and +4.4G/-2.2G with the flaps at CRUISE.
About Doss Aviation
In official verbiage, “L3 Doss Aviation operates the U.S. Air Force Initial Flight Training (IFT) Program that provides introductory flight training for all U.S. Air Force aviation candidates, at our state-of-the-art training facility at Pueblo, CO., supporting Headquarters Air Education and Training Command (HQ AETC). Known as the ‘Gateway to Air Force Aviation,’ every U.S. Air Force aviation candidate, be it pilot, combat systems officer, or remotely piloted aircraft pilot, receives flight instruction at the Pueblo facility.” Doss has trained more than 17,250 students since 2006.
In layman’s terms, Doss Aviation is a contractor (10-year, $290 million contract) that provides introductory flight training to all of the USAF’s aviation candidates. Doss owns and operates a 45-acre campus immediately adjacent to Pueblo Memorial Airport. The compound is fully inclusive and includes its own DFAC, lodging, auditorium, gym & track, barbershop, shoppette, flight rooms, heritage room, flight line, and three airplane hangars. As a student pilot at IFT, you don’t ever have to leave the campus (if you so choose) from the time you in-process until the day you out-process.
In 2005 the program officially changed its name from Initial Flight Screening (IFS) to Initial Flight Training (IFT). This change represents the shift in attitude from using the program as a primary screening tool to considering it as an initial exposure to the aviation world. The original program syllabus requirements remain unchanged, however, the extent to which IP’s and Military Training Officers (MTOs) will go to help a student succeed has increased. With that being said, the program does still have “wash-outs” (syllabus failures, drop on request, airsickness, etc.). As of FY18, the “Pilot track” students have a 2% attrition rate while the overall attrition rate (Pilot, CSO, RPA, & IMS) hovers around 3.5%.
Next, you should take the time to sit down and memorize the DA20-C1 BOLDFACE and Ops limits. (Keep in mind the BOLDFACE is required to be written/typed/spoken verbatim [in all caps] in its entirety while only the bold items on the Ops limits must be committed to memory).
Additionally, during IFT you will be exposed to “tabletop” and “stand-up” emergency procedure scenarios [which I will detail in the Life at Doss section]; both of which require you to verbalize (verbatim) a phrase that is called MATL. MATL is your reporting statement when called to perform one of these scenarios, and it is reported, at the position of attention, as follows:
“I will maintain aircraft control, analyze the situation, take proper action, and land as soon as conditions permit.”
It would be helpful to have this phrase memorized verbatim prior to arriving at IFT.
Finally, getting to Pueblo isn’t the easiest trip in the world but Doss does a good job of being accommodating to your travel schedule. You’ll likely have to fly to Colorado Springs Airport (~40 min drive away) as you are not permitted to book a ticket terminating in Denver and commercial flights to PUB are infrequent. At least 7 days prior to class start you’ll need to fill out a “Travel Itinerary Form” where a Doss employee will confirm your class and schedule a shuttle from C-Springs to Pueblo.
Don’t let the blurred windsock fool you, this Katana probably isn’t going much faster than 60 KIAS.
There’s not a ton that you need to bring to IFT, but there are a few things that will help you succeed. The official packing list is as follows:
Flight suits with rank and Velcro already sewn on
Name tags
AETC patches
Flight boots
Flight gloves
Flight cap
USAF PT gear
Conservative, non-offensive civilian clothing, including PT gear, for wear during non-duty hours and during individual PT. (Recommended)
Current Initial Flying Class 1 flight physical with Sitting Height and Buttock-to-Knee measurements
Proof of completion is the DD Form 2808 with the HQ AETC stamp
Begin the process to obtain an FAA Student Pilot Certificate (additional information in Pre-arrival guide)
If any part of your training falls between 1 Oct and 30 Apr, bring:
Flight jacket with rank and Velcro already sewn on (Required)
1 pair thermal underwear (Recommended)
Black watch cap (Recommended)
Notes:
Get flight uniforms that fit from your home station and bring them to IFT. IFT does not provide uniforms for students.
Students attending IFT who have been issued the A2CU uniform are authorized to wear that uniform. The A2CU uniform will be worn in accordance with AFI36-2903, AFGM2018-03, dated 28 September 2018. The OCP uniform is NOT authorized.
*These items are available for purchase at the Shoppette on campus for a slight upcharge, but if you’re particularly financially conscious, like myself, you should read our article on Winning UPT Financially!
Life at IFT is a drastically different experience than OTS.
Some of the major differences are that rooms at Doss are “hotel-style” with (usually) two beds (you will have a roommate) with 4 drawers each, two desks, a small closet with laundry baskets and hangers, and a bathroom and shower. Your room will also have a TV, mini-fridge, coffee pot (with coffee and filters), and a microwave. You will receive room service Monday-Friday and will only be responsible for generally not making a huge mess or breaking anything.
You are also allowed to possess and consume alcohol at your discretion (don’t get too excited, more to follow) as well as leave the Doss campus on the weekends.
There is a saying in aviation, “12 (or 8) hours bottle-to-throttle”, meaning that you can’t consume alcohol within 12 (or 8) hours of flying. The policy at Doss is “12 hours bottle-to-first event of the duty day” AND flying ops have to be completed for the day. This is a distinct difference. When you get to flying ops, you will be introduced to an event called “Formal Brief” (more on this shortly) which can be held as early as 0440. Depending on the time of year you attend IFT, flying ops can continue until 1730 or later. For the weeks you have 0440 Formal Briefs, it won’t matter what your personal schedule is because flying ops are almost guaranteed to continue past your 12-hour no-alcohol threshold.
In regards to the travel policy, you are cleared hot to leave on the weekends as long as you stay “in the local area”. Fortunately, the “local area”, according to the powers that be, includes Denver as well as some of the nearby skiing mountains (Arapaho Basin and others). Many student pilots take advantage of this opportunity, especially in the winter.
In regards to daily life as Doss, when you arrive on Day 0 you’ll be directed to the front desk to check in, pick up in-processing paperwork, and get your room key. Once you’re done in-processing you’ll have the rest of the day/night to do as you please to get ready for Day 1.
On Day 1 it’s a little surreal when you put your flight suit on for the first time, in an official capacity, to go to the auditorium in-brief. As a “Guard baby” (off-the-street ANG hire), I had the opportunity to wear “the bag” a few times previously at monthly drills, but that day is different…that’s Day 1 of your military aviation career. Unlike Armstrong’s famous first words on the Moon, that day feels like “one giant leap for a man, one [very] small step for mankind”. My wife will tell you I’m not the most sentimental man in the world, but I found myself standing just a little straighter, with my chest puffed and my chin held just a little higher that day. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself feeling the same way; enjoy it and take pride in it, you worked hard to get there and you’ll be hard at work again soon enough.
You can expect the first 4 days will be entirely in the auditorium learning about the various ins-and-outs of Doss and IFT as well as various aspects of aviation (reference the schedule above to get a feel for what the first few days will be like). You can also expect to take a BOLDFACE/Ops limits test on Day 1. There are no repercussions for failing it (I did for forgetting to write in all caps), but do yourself a favor and have that information down cold by the time Day 1 comes around.
By Monday (Day 5), you will take an official test on all of the “A” lessons (A101-109); these lessons include Safety/RM/CRM, aircraft systems, aerodynamic principles, airplane performance, communications, airport operations, weather theory & reports, airspace, and basic navigation. You will have to score 85% or greater on this test to be allowed to hit the flight line to fly your “Dollar Ride”.
A “Dollar Ride” is a term for your first flight in a particular airplane; it is tradition to give the IP who flies with you a dollar bill as a gesture of thanks.
Example of a Dollar Ride gift.
Once you hit the flight line, you can expect your official duty day to start anywhere between 0440-0730 and end at roughly 1700 (unless you have a late flight). You will begin attending Formal Briefs every day flying ops are in effect.
A Formal Brief is exactly as it sounds, a formalized briefing (first thing in the AM) that details the days current and forecast conditions, the runways being used, any relevant information about the airport, and any other pertinent information. The briefing takes roughly an hour and is highly formalized and scripted. The briefing will be conducted exactly the same way each and every day, and one person from your flight will conduct the brief each day. After all of the daily information is briefed, your class proctor will correct any mistakes and direct the class to take a BOLDFACE/Ops limits test. You will take these tests every day of the week until everyone in your flight gets 100% correct. If ANYONE in your class misses ANY question two days in the same week, your entire flight will be placed on Formal Release for the remainder of the week.
Formal Release is a requirement to be working in an official capacity (flying, studying, eating, or working out) until your Flight Commander officially releases you. Formal Release can be particularly brutal during the weeks you have 0440 Formal Briefs (I pulled a few 18-hour work days during that week).
The last part of Formal Briefs is the “Stand-Up” emergency procedure scenario. The class proctor will present a specific scenario to the class and call a student up to the front of the room (this is where MATL comes into play) to problem-solve the emergency procedure, and, in very specific detail, discuss how they would react.
In regards to flying while at IFT, the standard syllabus includes 14 sorties (~18 hours of flight time) and includes a pattern solo and a check ride. A standard flight will include a graded departure, traffic pattern work, area work, and an arrival, and will take roughly an hour to complete. There is no “normal” day at IFT but you can usually expect at least one sortie per duty day.
The IFT syllabus also requires you to complete 14 hours of self-logged PT work throughout the training.
“Gouge” is slang for personal advice/technique/experience. There’s a saying in Military aviation [you’ll find there are a lot of sayings], “If you live by the gouge, you die by the gouge”. While gouge can be a fantastic resource, it’s important to remember that things are always changing and gouge can quickly become old procedure…leaving you memorizing incorrect knowledge. Stealing Reagan’s phrase, “Trust, but verify” is best practice when dealing with gouge.
In this section, I will provide some of my personal gouge in regards to IFT. I strongly suggest you “trust, but verify” all that you read.
First and foremost, as mentioned previously, show up to IFT with BOLDFACE, Ops limits, and MATL memorized. From the day you start academics, you will be responsible for learning a tremendous amount of material very quickly. The rate at which information is taught and expected to be retained is, in my opinion, the most challenging part of IFT. You will be required to take a BOLDFACE/Ops limits test every week (potentially every day) and having those memorized beforehand allowed me to prioritize my time elsewhere.
From the day you get access to your flight room, run (don’t walk) over to the Local Flying Procedures (LFP) notebook and read it cover to cover. The LFP details all of the rules, procedures, and parameters on which you’re graded. Take notes on everything. Learn what you can and can’t do and how you are required to perform every maneuver. I severely ignored the LFP throughout most of my time at IFT and it came back to haunt me on a few sorties. Take the time to sit down and read it.
Use the ultra-fine point sharpies and draw out your upcoming flight in excruciating detail. I didn’t start doing this until halfway through IFT and there is a direct correlation between my performance and the amount of time I spent drawing out each flight and chair-flying (see example below).
Speaking of which, chair-fly, chair-fly, chair-fly! You have a very limited amount of time in the air and you do not want to learn everything while in flight. You should consider each flight as a demonstration of your knowledge. The learning is done in the flight rooms and at the cockpit trainers at 0 KIAS. Study and learn prior to your flight and demonstrate that knowledge in the air.
Take Friday and Saturdays off and blow off some steam. Sunday afternoon hit the books again and prep for the upcoming week. Memorize the following checklists: climb, cruise/level-off, before maneuvering, descent/approach, before landing, and go-around (see below).
Realize that everyone struggles with at least one aspect of IFT. Show up prepared and ready to learn. Hit the ground running on Day 1 and study your way through the learning curve.
All in all, IFT was a great experience and you should be excited to get there. While everyone I know was more than excited to get out of Pueblo and off to UPT, we all had a great time. Study hard, fly good, and don’t bring it weak!
Documents:
Draw out your flight profile with as much detail as possible. Here, blue lines signify departure path with proper altitudes, red signifies arrival path, green is radio calls (in order), orange is transponder changes, checklists are written out, navigation inputs are detailed, and the order of area maneuvers is listed. The more meticulous you are drawing these the more valuable they will be.An example of a DA20 checklist. This one is likely out of date, presented for illustration purposes only.The Boldface you must be able to write perfectly on day one. (Check for an updated version before you memorize it!)Learning the operating information (Ops Limits) for any aircraft is part of being a professional pilot. Don’t worry, this all makes a lot more sense when you start using it.
First of all, congratulations, you did it! Whether it was through ROTC, Active Duty, or the Guard/Reserves to fly fighters, heavies, or helos, you won the lottery and got selected during your board to attend Air Force Pilot Training. Inevitably, at some point after your well-earned celebration, you have the same thought that all of us have had at some point, “ohhh (insert favorite expletive), now I have to pass my medical.” If you’re like me and the select few others who have been lucky enough to have gotten orders to report to Building 840 at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, you’re feeling the same valid anxiety that all of us have felt at some point. I’d like to provide some assistance to help you navigate those unfamiliar waters, as well as give you some SA on what to expect to give you some extra confidence heading into this.
Wright Patterson Air Force Base (“Wright Patt” for short) is located in Dayton, Ohio and although there is a smaller flying mission on base, they are primarily focused on training, research, and medical functions, including conducting medical screenings for all pilot hopefuls. The Flying Class One, or more commonly known as FC1, is the first major landmark on your journey to wings. Unless you decide to pursue the astronaut program down the road it will be the most thorough and invasive medical evaluation that you will experience during your time in service.
Before my FC1, I had to complete MEPS (basic DoD medical screening). Some units will do a quick pre-screening with their doctors for major things that could be an issue prior to their FC1 as well.
I didn’t have to show up with any medical paperwork in hand. They had already built up our medical charts from things we had submitted to MEPS and also from a multi-page medical questionnaire that was similar to the MEPS initial medical form but more in-depth. If you know you have a medical condition that may require a waiver, however, you may want to bring any civilian medical documentation that describes what was fixed and even a letter from the doctor stating that they do not predict any medical barriers to successfully flying in the military for the next 10-20 years.
Initially, you will be scheduled and accommodated for five days at Wright Patterson, but most people will finish in two barring any issues or extra testing that needs to be done. Individuals will be separated into two groups and this will determine your schedule of testing as well as what tests you will begin with on your first day. This starts at 0700 on the Monday of your assigned week.
For convenience and brevity’s sake, I’ve outlined what my personal experience was with testing and the events of the two days I spent on base.
EKG: get hooked up to the machine with plenty of sticky pads and have some chest hair ripped out when they take them off (for those of us in the male variety), nothing major.
Medical History Overview: Sit down and discuss all of your disclosed medical history and try not to shoot yourself in the foot. (We’ll discuss that later below).
Anthropomorphic Measurements: Height, weight, and sitting height measurements, fairly straightforward.
Optical Vision Test: Basic testing of vision at near and far distances as well as depth perception. I knew I had weak depth perception coming in and that it was also one thing that many people get popped for, so I trained my eyes with a Brock String and a couple other online depth perception exercises for a few weeks at home before arriving. I would highly recommend that you Google these as well as the tricks to help on depth perception tests and do the same.
Eye Pressure Test: this one is really fun! You get a nice blast of high-pressure air right into your eyeball, and I’m not entirely convinced that it’s used for anything other than the entertainment of the staff, but I’m not a doctor.
Red Lens Test: The test administrator will give you a pair of red lens eyeglasses and instruct you to cover up one eye. A few different sets of glasses will be used during this test as well. After you’re set-up, the administrator will move a light around a grid on the wall and ask if you see double or single of the light. Fairly straight forward and no tricks to be had here.
Color Blindness Test: Here you’ll start by sitting down in a dark room and putting on an eye patch. You will be given a Play Station controller and instructed to indicate whether the letter “C” on the screen has the opening pointing up, down, left, or right, by pressing on the D-pad of the controller within a certain amount of time. As you progress through the test the letter will change colors and get progressively more washed out.
Lens Topography Measurement: This one was the roughest for me and involved staring into a painfully bright light and watching it change colors. Here they’re testing to see the thickness of different portions of your eye such as the lens and cornea and a few other things that I, again, am not smart enough to understand.
Eye Laser Measurement: I’m still not entirely sure what they’re measuring here, but this one consists of looking into a machine and focusing on a green star. Shortly after you’re set, a pretty intense laser light show starts. Sit back and enjoy!
Expect to spend a lot of time having your eyes evaluated during your FC1. (U.S. Air Force photo by Christopher Ball)
Hearing Evaluation: Same thing that you did at MEPS, close your eyes and hit the button when you hear the beep.
Blood Pressure and Heart Rate: Again, the same as your MEPS evaluation, blood pressure cuff and stethoscope. Take a breath and try to relax.
Dental Exam: X-Rays and evaluation by the dentist, very cool guy that likes to talk about golf, if you’re into that.
Psychological Evaluation and Computer Testing: Settle in and strap up because you now have four hours of computer-based testing to enjoy. This one varied from mental math, memory exercises, and psych questions asking if you believe yourself to be possessed by demons or enjoy anime. No calculators or writing allowed.
Lab Testing: Blood draw from both arms and urine tests. Wright Patterson is also a Phase-2 Tech School. If you’re lucky you’ll get an 18-year-old trainee that’s good with needles and you won’t walk away with some serious bruises and track marks that make the lady sitting next to you on the flight home look at you with some side-eye.
Chest X-Ray: Take off your shirt and hug the machine while they take pictures.
Interview with the Flight Doc: This one takes place in another exam room with the Flight Doc. He’ll go over your test results and records from the past few days and make you aware of any issues that are present that may require waivers or if you’re good to go so far. He’ll also conduct a few other minor tests for reflexes and balance. Also enjoys talking about golf.
Optometrist Exam: This is generally the last round of testing that you’ll go through, but it’s also one of the more stringent rounds. First, you’ll look into a couple more machines similar to the laser light show you received on the previous day and run through a few more tests and charts in a dark room with the Optometrist. After you complete those the Optometrist will apply some eye drops to dilate your pupils and temporarily wreck your vision. After you wait anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half for your eyes to completely dilate, (bring sunglasses for this, the waiting room lights aren’t friendly to massive pupils) you’ll be brought back to the same room to run through the same tests again.
Done: Call and get your flight home set, pack up, check out, and go grab some airport beers on the way home. Also, enjoy navigating your way through the world as a temporarily blind person from still being dilated. If you don’t fly out until the next day, absolutely make it a point to stop into the Air Force Museum. It’s free and incredible.
This was my personal experience; I didn’t need any waivers and I didn’t have any past major medical issues so your experience may vary. You’ll be given a break for lunch and breakfast when you aren’t required to fast for blood or urine testing, so bring cash or a card to buy food from the café upstairs. ROTC cadets will have all meals provided for them in boxed meals.
Next, why is the FC1 such a stressful and anxiety-inducing event? There are a multitude of reasons for this, but primarily, pilots and aspiring pilots in general love one thing above all else, and that is being in control. Wright Patterson and your FC1 physical is one of the most stressful parts of the early portion of the path to wings, and that’s mostly due to the fact that it’s the first point in the process where you no longer have control over whether you make it or not.
Coming from the Guard/Reserve side, leading up to this point you’ve had ultimate control over your packet, your scores, the units you apply to, how you rush, and how you perform during the interview board. Unfortunately, now, that all goes out the window and you release every bit of control to the doctors and staff on base. That understandably causes stress in every one of us.
Minimize your stress by controlling what you can. Again, if you know you may need to address a previous medical issue, bring any supporting documentation. If you’re unsure of what the medical regs are, check out the documents at the end of the article to get a better understanding of where you currently stack up.
Chances are that if you’ve been involved in the hunt for a pilot slot for any amount of time you’ve heard someone refer to the Golden Rule or Rule Number One, “don’t be a douche.” Without a doubt that applies to every interaction you will have at Wright Patterson.
It turns out a website called The Cheap Place has these for sale. They’ll fit perfectly on your frenemy’s flight suit pencil pocket velcro, in case you need to send a less-than-subtle message.
It may not seem like it initially, but every single doctor and individual on the medical staff that you interact with wants to see you succeed and get the green light for UPT. Nobody has any interest in seeing your dreams crushed and the end to your path. They will do everything in their power to give you the good-to-go or help you with any waivers that you may need.
However, if you walk into this event and are rude to the staff or show up with any sense of entitlement or anything other than sheer politeness and thankfulness towards the staff, you will not be doing yourself or your chances at passing any favors. The technicians administering the exams and tests are great people. If you’re cool and friendly with them they will return the same courtesy if you happen to struggle on a portion of a test.
Long before I started down the path to my pilot slot, my uncle would often tell me the story of a guy in his Navy Officer Candidate School class. Everybody had formed up on line for an inspection, and even though his buddy’s boots looked pristine and polished he had forgotten to polish them the night before as he should have.
When the Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant got around to him, he asked if he had shined his boots the night before, his response? An honest “no.” His reward? A thorough smoke session. After the Gunny got tired and let the poor guy recover, he leaned in and said to him, “Son, there’s a difference between being honest and being stupid, learn it.”
Nobody wears black leather boots anymore, but USMC Gunnery Sergeants still tend to have some great advice. Never pass up an opportunity to shut the hell up and listen to one.
I add that anecdote to say this: the number one principle you have to abide by in your new path as an Officer in the military is integrity before everything. If you lie and it’s found out at any point you are in for an absolute world of pain, and you deserve it. Medical records are easy to find and if you have something significant in your medical history you need to be upfront and honest by disclosing that The doctors at Wright Patterson are world-class and they will find it no matter how well you think you are hiding it.
However, having said that, there’s no need to disclose any unnecessary information or non-major medical information that could be used against you, like that one time that you stood up too fast in 7th-grade algebra and passed out or that time when you thought you maybe had a migraine but it might have just been a bad headache. Answer honestly to the specific questions that are asked. Beyond that, STFU!
It’s easy to say this now being on the other side, but as long as things go your way, your time at Wright Patterson will be something that you can look back on with fond memories. Make it a point to enjoy as much of your time at Wright Patterson as possible. Talk with the other candidates and learn from them, visit the museum for God’s sake, and when you get the word that you passed, go and celebrate with your new-found friends or squadron buddies.
X-15, X-29, XB-70, several lifting bodies, and more. This is just one corner of one hangar at the National Museum of the USAF. It’s a treasure trove for any aviator. Take advantage of the opportunity to check it out!
Seriously though, if you only take one thing from this whole article, whether you pass or not please make it a point to go to the Air Force Museum, it’s free and an experience and collection of aircraft and pieces of history unlike anything in the world. You’ll likely never make another trip back to Dayton, Ohio, so do it now!
Stress and anxiety are just part of this event, but if there’s one thing that I learned from my time at Wright Patterson, it’s that the majority of that stress and anxiety is self-induced. Most of us have dreamed of becoming an Air Force pilot from the first day that we saw the Thunderbirds rip through the sky, saw a picture of a relative hanging off the ladder on the side of their jet, or read one of the countless books telling the exploits of one of the many legends that have come from this community. The possible end to that dream can stir up some powerful emotions.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do about that, but if you arm yourself with as much knowledge as possible before arriving, you’ll be in good shape to tame those feelings when they come up. Remember, even if things go bad and you get disqualified, there is a waiver for almost everything; it only requires that you fight for it. Good luck, take a breath, and you’ll do just fine.
We’re going to discuss career progression today. As a former Active Duty pilot, I’ll admit I don’t love this topic.
You have to understand: I’m a pilot. I didn’t join the Air Force to sit at a desk pushing paper or sending emails. When I graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2004 and got to shake President Bush’s hand, all I said to him was “Thank you, sir,” and our class motto: “Ready for War!”
I went on to fight his war for several years, and I loved it!
You’d think that a pilot could focus on nothing but that…nothing but being an expert at employing Air Power against the enemies of the United States and the military would, in turn, take care of that pilot and his or her family. Like it or not, there’s more to it than that.
If you want the option of continuing to serve in the military for a full career, and if you want your family to have access to the amazing benefits and retirement that accompany that career, you have to make sure you obey the military’s instructions on how to be a good officer. (The Guard and Reserves are generally better about this, but each unit requires its pilots to play the same game to varying degrees.)
Thankfully, the career progression game is not cosmic. It’s possible to do what the military expects of you while still focusing on the parts of the job you actually care about.
I’m living proof that it’s possible to look really good in the eyes of the military without having to sacrifice too much of your time or attention on the stuff that you deem unimportant. You see, the Air Force loved me. My performance reports were embarrassing. The Air Force offered to send me to the Norwegian Command and Staff College for my Intermediate Developmental Education. They only have one slot for that school each year, and just the prestige from attending that program would have all but guaranteed me squadron command and promotion to O-6.
I didn’t have to sacrifice my identity as a pilot to achieve any of that though. I was an Evaluator Pilot in two aircraft, and an Instructor Pilot in three. I flew 312 combat missions all over the world. I checked every box the Air Force ever asked for but did so with disdain toward everything that tried to take me away from flying.
In hindsight, my disdain wasn’t all that productive. I hope you’ll do better than me and go with efficient indifference instead. However, today I’m going to tell you exactly how to have a fantastic military career, that preserves all your promotion options, without giving up on what’s important. We’re going to focus on progression for an Active Duty Air Force pilot. The same principles will apply in the Guard and Reserves. Some units stretch out timelines or don’t require you to accomplish all of these steps. However, it’s worth you understanding what your Active Duty counterparts are dealing with for context.
You’ll notice that this article is broken up into two separate categories of career progression: one for officer, and one for pilot. It turns out that every military pilot has to manage his or her progression on each of these paths. One path involves flying aircraft, while the other one involves being an officer. Yes, being an officer (or warrant officer) comes into play as a military pilot. However, most of what the military defines as “officership” involves writing reports, attending staff meetings, and doing other office work. We’re going to look at these two paths separately, starting on the officer side.
For our visual learners, the first few sections of our career progression discussion cover this part of your career:
Visual depiction of career progression for an Air Force officer.
Officer Accessions
A military pilot’s career starts at a commissioning source. For many, this is the USAF Academy or ROTC. For pilots smart enough to go directly to the Guard or Reserve, this will mean OTS (now called TFOT). The honest truth is that it doesn’t matter which source you come from. From here on out, all that matters is how good of a person and a pilot you are.
There are always rumors that one group (especially Academy grads) favors their own unfairly. In my experience, most of the people who get really worked up over this are people getting overlooked for reasons other than their commissioning source…and they just don’t realize it. Don’t be that guy or gal.
How many times in college did someone ask or really care about the sports or clubs you participated in during high school? I bet your answer is close to zero. The same thing applies to military officers. People care that you can do your job well and that you’re enjoyable to be around. It doesn’t matter whether you were the coolest kid ever or a total loser in your past life. It doesn’t have any bearing on what you’re doing now.
I think most people feel some loyalty to their college and the people they attended it with. However, serving in the military gives you far more meaningful experiences to bond over than drunken dorm parties or late-night class projects. Focus on where you are now and the people you are with.
On the day you graduate from college or TFOT you will be the most useless person in the entire US military. Sure, you’ll have some fancy degree, but you will have zero skills usable in employing Air Power against America’s enemies. You’ll need to go to some type of training, which means UPT for most BogiDope readers.
From an officer development perspective, you should focus on learning your new skills during this training. If you’re the Senior Ranking Officer (SRO) in any given course, you may be placed in charge of your classmates. Try to do a good job as a leader, but realize that your performance will not be formally documented. It may play into your flight commander ranking in UPT, but it’s a secondary consideration.
Sometimes, scheduling constraints will mean you have to wait as long as a year between commissioning and starting UPT. If that’s the case you’ll likely be sent to a random base to fill a random role for that year. Sometimes called “casual status” or just APT for “awaiting pilot training,” this year can be good or bad.
2nd Lt. Grant Temple, was assigned to an APT job in the 47 FTW’s safety office. “As a student awaiting pilot training at the Wing Safety Office, I received my Airfield Driving license, and I was able to assist the flight safety crew, in case no one else was at the office and there was, for example, an In-Flight Emergency,” Temple said. (U.S. Air Force photo by John A. Crawford)
If you’re lucky you’ll either get a fun and interesting job with some good people. You may even be placed in charge of some enlisted troops and get to learn how to deal with them – a skill that most Air Force pilots miss out on.
Another desirable APT job is one where your boss doesn’t really have much use for you. There will be plenty of time to go to the gym and find a copy of the T-6 aircraft manual and AETCMAN 11-248 to start studying for UPT.
A slightly less desirable APT assignment would involve working for a mean and/or demanding boss who doesn’t understand the concept of “balance” in life. He or she may give you lots of boring projects and expect completion on unrealistic timelines. If you get this, just make the best of it.
UPT lasts exactly one year in the Air Force, though Navy pilot training has been known to take as long as two. With all the other early pilot career progression steps we mentioned, it’s not unrealistic to think that you could already be a First Lieutenant / Lieutenant JG when you get to your first operational squadron.
If you look in the regulations for your aircraft (the “11-2” series pubs) you will find a paragraph that states something to the effect of: “It is forbidden for new pilots to have any job, other than being a pilot, for the first 6 (or 12) months in a new aircraft.” This is absolutely a great sentiment and the USAF would be better if this happened. Unfortunately, every squadron commander I ever worked for knowingly violated this regulation. His or her justification was always that the squadron wasn’t even staffed at full strength and in order to keep the circus running, even 2Lts had to help.
This means that as soon as you report to your new squadron you’re going to be assigned a job. Your squadron has many “shops” or departments to include: scheduling, mobility (deployment), plans (long-term scheduling), weapons and/or tactics, training, standardization and evaluation, admin/awards and decorations, etc.
As a minion in the Mobility Shop, you’ll help collect all the paperwork and equipment required for people in your squadron to deploy. The results of your efforts will resemble these members of the 163d Attack Wing, California Air National Guard, who are stand in a mobility processing line for training held at March Air Reserve Base, California, Oct. 6, 2019.
The Air Force also has a position called Executive Officer. Don’t get this confused with other military branches where the Executive Officer (abbreviated XO) is second in command of a boat or unit. In the Air Force, and “Exec” has the office symbol of CCE and is basically an overpaid secretary/administrative assistant to the commander.
Each of these shops exists because it’s necessary for running a combat squadron and you’ll need to learn what each of them does as part of your job.
You’ll start out as a clueless minion in your shop. Over time, you’ll figure out what your shop needs to be doing, and you’ll start receiving assignments. You may get transferred from shop to shop to shop during your first couple of years. Although this could happen because you’re weird or you smell bad, it’s probably a good thing. You want experience in as many different shops as you can get if you hope to eventually be a Squadron Commander in charge of them all.
Company Grade Officer (CGO) Leadership Opportunities
Your first real leadership opportunity as a Company Grade Officer (CGO – ranks Second Lieutenant through Captain) will be as a Shop Chief for one of these departments. Some of the other military branches give the Air Force a hard time about not giving its officers’ leadership opportunities early enough in their careers. Those people simply don’t understand how the Air Force works. Shop Chief is absolutely a leadership position, and you’re vulnerable for the position as a 1Lt.
You’ll potentially be in charge of officers, enlisted Airmen, and even civilians. You’ll answer to your Squadron Operations Officer (DO) and/or Commander (Sq/CC). Your ability to effectively lead your people will directly affect your squadron’s ability to go to war. It’s a lot of responsibility for someone in his or her early 20s.
Shop assignments are functional areas that keep a squadron running. Although a Shop Chief has authority over the people in the shop, this is not a command job, per se. Each Air Force Squadron is also divided up into three or more “Flights.” Each Flight has a Commander (Flt/CC) who reports directly to the Squadron Commander. This person is usually a Captain (O-3), though I’ve seen unique circumstances where Flight Commanders held ranks from 1Lt through Colonel. (The O-6 Flight Commanders were in my wife’s Dental Squadrons. It’s a weird world.) Each Flight Commander has an Assistant, sometimes abbreviated AFC.
The Flight Commander is the actual link in the chain of command between a line pilot and the Sq/CC. The Flt/CC is responsible for writing a pilot’s annual Officer Performance Report (OPR) and other care & feeding kinds of activities. That doesn’t mean a Shop Chief can’t also care about the welfare of the people in his or her shop, but those responsibilities are only formally assigned to the Flight Commander.
It’s possible to become an AFC or Flt/CC without having ever been a Shop Chief. It’s also possible to go from Shop Chief to Flt/CC. It doesn’t matter much which way you do this. Your records will show you progressing to new jobs of increasing responsibility throughout your career, which is all that matters.
The Air Force places a great deal of emphasis on Professional Military Education, or PME. As a Captain, you need to complete Squadron Officer School (SOS). The in-residence version of this course is held at Maxwell AFB, AL, and it lasts 5-8 weeks, depending on who’s in charge and how they’ve tried to adjust the syllabus lately.
There is also a correspondence (aka online) version of SOS. An officer used to be expected to complete the correspondence version of a PME course before the chain of command would even consider sending him or her in-residence. Thankfully, the Air Force has realized what a waste of tax dollars that mentality was and has largely squashed it. The AF has gone to great lengths to make in-residence SOS available to all Captains. You should only need to do the correspondence version if unusual circumstances have prevented you from attending in person.
Officially, it isn’t supposed to matter how you get SOS done. That’s mostly true. On a promotion board, there is usually enough to differentiate between two people so nobody ever looks at which version of SOS an officer did. However, if two people looked nearly identical, having gone in-residence could theoretically make a difference.
The in-residence version of SOS also makes you eligible to compete for Distinguished Graduate (DG) honors. I believe it’s a very negative characteristic of the Air Force, but getting DG is a huge deal for your career. It places you on a special, accelerated career path. It will get you better assignments and more positive attention from your chain of command. If you aspire to high rank and a long career, in-residence SOS is important because it gives you a shot at that classification.
USAF Squadron Officer School (SOS) involves a wide range of leadership development activities.
When I went to SOS, the people who wanted it the most ended up not getting it. Those who did seemed to be more experienced officers who had a lot to share with the class. They contributed actively in class and did a good job on all their assignments because that is their personal standard, but they didn’t obsess over things. They made sure to enjoy themselves and the break from real life.
Overall, don’t get too wrapped up about trying to become DG at SOS. There are other ways to get onto the shiny penny career path. Just try your best while maintaining balance in life and things will work out.
Once you’ve been a Shop Chief and/or Flight Commander, you’ve just about topped-out on useful career progression within your squadron. The Squadron DO has a few assistants (ADOs), usually a job for Majors or Lt Cols. This is a good move up from Shop Chief or Flt/CC, but not mandatory.
Even if you spend time as an ADO, you eventually need to get a job outside the squadron. There are usually jobs at the “Group” level (one level higher than the squadron) for executive officers, weapons and tactics, and standardization and evaluation. Some groups may also have positions for other functional areas. Your Wing Commander has his or her own executive officers along with a safety office, a plans shop, and other departments.
You need to move on to one of those jobs. As a Captain or Major you’ll start all over as a higher-level minion. The Air Force relies on the jobs throughout your career to expose you to increasingly larger spans of responsibility. It’s important for you to gain perspective at organizational levels higher than an ops squadron.
This is the second phase of your career as an officer is summarized in this chart:
The second half of an Air Force officer’s career progression will follow this general timeline.
As a Field Grade Officer (FGO – ranks Major through Colonel) you’re expected to complete the next level of PME, called Air Command and Staff College (ACSC). Like SOS, ACSC can be completed in person or by correspondence. The difference is that not everyone gets to attend in-residence, so it becomes a competition.
You’ll work as an ADO or in a Group or Wing job while you wait for your shot at ACSC. Although you’re officially not required to complete the correspondence version first, you may feel some pressure to do so. ACSC in correspondence is a nightmare right now. It has several self-paced courses, but there are also four live/proctored courses that are only offered a few times per year. If you don’t complete the self-paced courses in time to register for the next section of the proctored course, you’ll be stuck doing nothing until the next opportunity. Best case, it takes seven months to complete ACSC by correspondence.
Personally, I recommend signing up for ACSC and knocking it out as soon as possible, meaning the day you find out that you’ve been selected for promotion to Major. It will be a pain in the neck but it’s better to have it done and not need it, than the other way around.
The other reason to have it done early is that ACSC isn’t the only option for in-residence PME for Majors (also known as Intermediate Developmental Education, or IDE). Each year, the Air Force publishes a list of special programs you can apply for that count as IDE. These range from attending the IDE-equivalent at other services’ staff colleges, to internships at DARPA, to legislative fellows programs at Harvard, to Foreign Area Officer training through the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and the Defense Language Institute (DLI), and more.
The Air Force takes PME like Air Command and Staff college very seriously. It’s not uncommon for the Air Force Chief of Staff to stop by as a guest lecturer. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Alexa Culbert)
I’m told that ACSC in residence is a fun and relaxing year; however, most of these other competitive IDE programs are also unique and enjoyable. They’re at least slightly better for your career because they make you stand out when compared with your peers. Some of these programs are considered extremely prestigious and have an effect like SOS DG, but amplified. In many cases, you’re required to complete ACSC by correspondence in order for the unique program to count as IDE. It’s far better to already have that done than to try and squeeze in ACSC by correspondence while you’re attending Harvard, trying to learn Chinese at DLI, or trying to match grunts drink for drink at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College.
Before we get on to post-IDE assignments, we need to take a moment to discuss graduate school. Like it or not, a long-term Air Force officer must earn a Master’s Degree. It used to be that this was a prerequisite for making Major. Thankfully, the pilot shortage has helped kill that requirement. It may be possible to make Lt Col without a Master’s, but I wouldn’t risk it. You won’t make Colonel without one.
This means that you have to find time in the first 6-8 years of your Air Force career to do grad school. If you’re lucky, you can get one of the special IDE programs that also grants you a Master’s Degree. However, those programs are pretty competitive, so I wouldn’t count on it.
The Air Force offers an alternate version of ACSC in correspondence called the Online Masters Program (OLMP). If you don’t want to pay for grad school and you see the utility in combining this task with getting your IDE done, this could be a good option. Realize that this course demands even more than the regular correspondence version of ACSC. You should expect it to take 1.5 – 2 years to finish.
I think the OLMP is a fairly rare choice. There are plenty of universities with online programs these days. Many cater to military students and charge exactly as much as the Air Force Tuition Assistance program pays. I chose an MS in Human Factors Psychology through the University of Idaho, in part because it seemed like a rigorous course that didn’t require a thesis. However, I have some friends who went all-out and did an MS in Astronautical Engineering with a thesis.
Officially, the Air Force couldn’t care less what school you go to or what your degree is in. It’s merely a box to check in your record. While this is true for a promotion board, your degree choice could be important later in life. If you aspire to be a test pilot, astronaut, or anything else technical, you should do a degree in mathematics, a hard science, or engineering. If you aspire to one of the special IDE programs related to politics or becoming a Foreign Area Officer (FAO,) you should study Political Science or International Affairs.
It’s also worth noting that future employers pay attention to the what and where of your Master’s Degree later in life. When I went to Mentor training at my airline, someone very high up in the company told us that having a degree from a more prestigious school and/or a technical degree is a plus on your application.
It may be tempting to get a box-checking degree in “military studies” from a no-name, online-only university. However, if you can stand to put in a little more effort, I say it’s worth pursuing a challenging degree from a school that at least has a physical campus and a name that people recognize (for good reasons).
If you’re paying attention to the length of each section in this article, you’ll notice that I’ve spent far more time discussing education than I have on actual military leadership jobs. We’ll discuss more of the leadership opportunities you get as a pilot in Part 2 of this post. However, I’ll admit that some of the other services’ criticism of the Air Force is valid. Some of this is simply based on the structure of how the Air Force fights. Other than crew positions on some of our aircraft (load masters, flight engineers, gunners, boom operators, etc.) most combat Air Power is employed by officers. It’s exceedingly difficult for a Marine or Army ground commander to comprehend this difference (Using crayons to illustrate your points helps!). However, for better or for worse, it is true that the Air Force relies heavily on education for a lot of its officer development.
The sooner an Air Force officer can get each step of his or her education done, the better. It frees you up to focus on things that really matter (like flying or having a life/family). It’s also very noticeable to your commanding officers if you have your ducks in a row early in your career. Whether they do it consciously or not, they’ll favor you for awards and assignments if you have all of these important boxes checked as early as possible. Get it done, then forget about it and move on!
Having completed Air Command and Staff College, the Air Force prefers you to spend your next assignment serving on a staff.
There is a lot of variety among staffs and staff tours, and there is a sort of hierarchy to the prestige of these assignments. The top tier is The Air Staff, working for The Chief at the Pentagon, or perhaps working directly for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Below that are DOD-level combatant command (COCOM) staffs like US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) or European Command (EUCOM). Next is Air Force major commands (MAJCOMs) like Air Combat Command (ACC) or Pacific Air Forces (PACAF).
Your staff assignment is based upon your overall record and your performance at your IDE program. If you aspire to high rank, you should shoot for the most prestigious staff possible. There isn’t enough room for everyone on the Air Staff, so don’t be offended if you don’t get it. As always, do the best with what you have.
Staff work ranges from fascinating and engaging, to boring and overwhelming. You’ll work with people from a variety of military branches, countries, and other departments. In this picture, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Ellen M. Lord meets key staff members of the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve at Union III, Iraq, Nov. 18, 2019. Joint Task Force Iraq Commander, Brig. Gen. William Seely briefs current and future plans in regard to joint operations. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Desmond Cassell/ Maj. Charles Dietz)
The enjoyment of staff tours is very much a mixed bag. Sometimes you’ll work for a great boss who realizes that your family has sacrificed a lot. You’ll get to work on interesting, meaningful projects and go home every night at a reasonable hour. Unfortunately, some staff jobs place you under the command of people who just don’t get it. They’ll expect you to work excessively long hours. They may not understand what your background brings to the fight and will use you on projects that have nothing to do with your specialty. They may send you TDY (on business trips) a lot, or even let you be deployed for 6-12 months of your staff tour. I hope you get a good staff tour. If not, just remember that it will be over someday.
Once your staff tour is done, you have some decisions to make. If you’re highly competitive for command, you’ll follow a track that we’ll discuss in the next section. If you’re only somewhat competitive, or not competitive at all, you’ll probably have the option of staying on staff or going back to a Wing.
If you choose to stay in staff jobs, it should be based on the fact that you used your time there to network and have a good follow-on job lined up. Ideally, this will put you at a good base, in a job you enjoy, with some friends. It’s frequently possible to target jobs that will put you near extended family too. This is usually a play for family Quality of Life, more than career advancement. If you can make that work, I think this is a great option.
If you decide to go back to flying, you’ll have several possibilities. You could go back to your Major Weapon System (MWS) in an operational unit. You could also go back to your aircraft’s schoolhouse as an Instructor Pilot. This could let you return to flying an aircraft you love, at a location you know, while being less vulnerable for deployments…at least for a while. You’ll also have the option of going to a UPT base or other more generic training job.
In any of these assignments, you’ll primarily be looking at a job as an ADO in a flying squadron, working somewhere on base at the Group or Wing level. You’ll be eligible for jobs like Chief of Group Standardization and Evaluation (OGV) or Wing Chief of Plans. These aren’t always the most thrilling jobs, but you’ll get to fly on the side. You could do a lot worse. If you’re leaning toward leaving Active Duty and possibly trying for a UPT IP job in the Reserves, an assignment to a UPT base would be a strong choice.
If you’re not competitive for command, this could be the end of the line for your Active Duty career. It’s usually possible to find a way to stick around for a full 20 years and earn a retirement.
It’s possible that you won’t be competitive for command in your MWS, but you could have that opportunity at a UPT or other training base. I had two outstanding Squadron Commanders when I was an IP at Laughlin. One was an F-15C pilot and his command was his final assignment. Another was an F-16 pilot. He did a great job with his command and ended up moving on to higher-level assignments. Both seemed to thoroughly enjoy their time as Squadron Commanders. Don’t be afraid to choose this path if you aspire to command and won’t get it in your MWS community.
Speaking of command, this is where the Air Force wants officers to end up after IDE and staff. The “ideal” career path involves spending some time as an Operations Officer (DO). This is a good way to get back into your aircraft, get a refresher on life in a squadron after the staff, and studying how to be a commander. If there aren’t enough DO jobs available at your base, the Wing Chief of Safety position is usually considered an equally competitive stepping stone.
In general, the Air Force tries to put you in charge of a squadron where you weren’t the DO. If there are two squadrons on a base flying the same type of aircraft, it’s not unusual for the two DOs to take command of the opposite squadrons at the same time. In the Air Force, squadron command is usually a 2-year assignment. If you do well and you’re on track for further promotions, you’ll be looking at Senior Developmental Education (SDE). You may have to wait for that by spending some time as a Deputy Group Commander or going back to a staff position. The Air Force needs to push so many officers through the squadron command job that it’s extremely rare to command a squadron more than once.
Squadron command is a major goal for many officers. In this photo, Lt. Col. Benjamin Donberg assumes command of the 492nd Fighter Squadron from Col. Jason Camilletti, 48th Operations Group commander at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, Feb. 7, 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jessi Monte)
We could go into great detail on officer career progression past this point, but I think we’ve covered enough for now. If you get to that point, there will be no shortage of Colonels and Generals happy to discuss your options with you. You’ll also have figured out by then whether you have the potential to progress farther or not.
Many pilots consider squadron command to be the pinnacle of a flying career. You’ll be at or near 20 years by the time you finish that job, and unless you really want to pursue higher-level rank and staff jobs, this is a great time to retire.
Although the Air Force puts a tremendous amount of emphasis on squadron command, I recommend not using it, or any other rank or title, as your ultimate career goal. There’s a surprising amount of subjectivity in deciding who gets these good deals and it’s not healthy to base your happiness on something well beyond your span of control. One of my best squadron commanders continuously told us that each person has to define “success” for him or herself. If you base your definitions on things you can control, letting any titles or ranks serve as a bonus, you’re guaranteed to be happy with your career.
Put it all together, and an Air Force officer’s career progression will probably look something like this:
A summary of Air Force officer career progression from clueless Lieutenant to crusty old Colonel.
We’ve just covered the basics of officer progression for an Active Duty Air Force pilot. Most of this applies to the Guard and Reserve, to varying degrees. The main difference is that the timelines can get extended.
One of the best parts of a Guard or Reserve unit is that a pilot can spend an entire career there. However, this means there isn’t a constant stream of people moving up in rank and job, leaving shoes for you to fill. You may have to wait until someone high up retires, and leaves some room for people to move up to new jobs or take promotions before you get a chance to do the same. This is a great deal!
On Active Duty, everyone is constantly churning through a rat race of career progression. In the Guard or Reserve, you have more opportunities to enjoy where you are, master your current job, and enjoy flying your aircraft. Revel in and take advantage of this!
You’ll still have the opportunity to move around to different jobs both within your squadron, and at the Group, Wing, or even staff level. Frequently, those jobs require a full-time worker so you’ll only be able to do them if you take a few years of full-time orders. There’s nothing wrong with this, though you have to be careful you don’t exceed your limits for taking military leave from your civilian job.
You’re free to complete your PME courses by correspondence. There are seats allocated at each of these courses for Guard and Reserve personnel, and the Air Force actually has a tough time finding volunteers to fill them sometimes. If you’d like to take a couple of months to attend SOS, or a year to do ACSC, be sure to let your leadership know early so they can plan ahead and work on getting you a slot.
The long-term nature of membership in a Guard or Reserve unit means that there’s an almost airline-like seniority system. You’ll know who’s in line ahead of you for jobs like squadron command. If you aspire to something like that, the best thing you can do is be fantastic at your job and maintain a good relationship with the people in your community. As long as you do, your leadership will be motivated to help make sure you get your shot at your dream job.
Thankfully, unlike Active Duty, the Guard and Reserve is also happy to have you stick around and just fly, even if you don’t aspire to a high rank or fancy command jobs. Anecdotally, the majority of Guard and Reserve pilots are drawn to this track.
If you aspire to staff jobs or earning General’s stars, you can do that here as well. There are part- and full-time staff jobs available to Guard and Reserve pilots. You may be able to do some in your state, while others will require moving. You can serve on the headquarters staff for the ANG, AFRES, or in Guard or Reserve positions on staffs where most of your coworkers are Active Duty.
Most states have at least one General Officer serving as Adjutant General (state-level commander). The highest-level commanders in the Guard and Reserve are 4-star Generals. Reaching those levels generally requires enough full-time service that it would be difficult to accomplish as an airline pilot. However, if that’s what you aspire to, it’s absolutely a possibility.
Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, chief, National Guard Bureau, talks with members of the Red Horse Squadron serving with the Guam Air National Guard, Guam, Jan. 29, 2020. What do you love about serving in the military that you can’t do in the Guard or Reserves? (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jim Greenhill)
No matter what your career goals may be, it’s important to make sure your commander knows about them!
As a brand-new pilot, this includes your Flight Commander, but you should also speak directly with your Squadron Commander about it. Most Squadron Commanders are happy to talk about career development with you. It’s best to talk to the boss’s executive officer or secretary and get an official meeting scheduled on his or her calendar.
No matter whom you’re speaking with about career progression, you need to do it tactfully. As a brand new Lieutenant, your #1 concern should be learning how to employ your aircraft well. You’re supposed to spend almost all of your time worrying about that, and very little time thinking about 5-10 years in your future. You should make sure that people know you as a hard worker who knows his or her stuff and flies the aircraft well before you broach the subject of career progression with anyone.
Once you start having those conversations, you should not jump directly to what you want in the future. You should humbly and genuinely ask for feedback on how you’re performing in your current job. It’s okay to bring up your future goals but do so carefully. At first, you should just mention your goals in terms of asking what else you can do in your current job to make yourself eligible for those opportunities.
You should wait until you’ve earned some of your advanced pilot qualifications and some credibility within your community before you start bringing up specific assignments or opportunities that you want to pursue. If you’re open to a lot of possibilities this can wait, while if you want something specific or special, you may need to start discussing it earlier in your career. (Expect some upcoming articles that help illustrate this.)
Don’t be afraid to get on your Commander’s schedule for some official career development discussion. Most will be more than happy to sit down with you in a format like this. (Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Morgan R. Lipinski)
On some level, your boss wants and needs to hear that you plan to become an expert on your aircraft, complete IDE and a staff assignment, and come back to be a Squadron Commander. It’s okay to want something other than that, but I recommend always emphasizing how your pursuit of other/special opportunities will keep you competitive for traditional career progression in your community.
Some Squadron (or Group or Wing) commanders will actually be offended and confused if you say that you want to pursue an opportunity that will take you out of your primary community. The first time one of my buddies got picked up for the U-2, he was so enthusiastic about it that I had an application filled-out the next day. I was just about to send it to my Squadron Commander when word came down from the Wing Commander that he wasn’t going to release any more pilots for BS like the U-2 program. That is a stupid mentality that has more negative effects for the Air Force overall than it could possibly have positive effects for any specific Wing, but that’s a Commander’s prerogative. I ended up (regretfully) not even submitting my application because I didn’t see any use in making people angry.
Don’t be too worried if you face obstacles like this. My career worked out very well anyway. I excelled within my community and that Wing and got some other special opportunities. I also ended up teaching at a UPT base where I was largely out of reach of my MWS community. I could have submitted a U-2 application from there and been safe from an unfriendly Wing Commander’s wrath. If you find your path blocked now, wait a little while and you might find a way to make things work after all.
Talking to your boss about your career goals requires some tact, but it’s important to do it. You can’t get what you want unless you ask for it. Air Force Squadron Commanders fly less than anyone in their unit because their primary job is taking care of their people. Your boss will be thrilled if he or she can help you get the assignment of your dreams. Give him or her the opportunity to help you by expressing your goals.
We just looked at the officership side of career progression for an Air Force pilot up through the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. This feels like a lot, though it’s honestly just an overview. Don’t be afraid to find a mentor who can elaborate on each of these sections and help put them into context for your goals. Like it or not, you need to pay attention to this part of your career progression and check the appropriate boxes when you can.
However, this is only part of your job. You also need to take care of career progression as a pilot. That topic is broad enough that we’re saving it for another week. Be on the lookout for Part 2 in the near future.
Welcome back to Part 2 of our series about career progression for Air Force pilots, from the pilot perspective.
If you haven’t already read Part 1 about career progression as an officer, I recommend you click here and read it first.
For better or for worse, it’s necessary to look at your Air Force career progression from both of these perspectives. The Air Force is very fond of reminding its pilots that, “You’re an officer first and a pilot second.” You could be the greatest pilot in the world, but if you aren’t a “good” officer in the Air Force’s eyes you may not get the career progression opportunities you want.
Perhaps the most poignant example of this was Colonel John Boyd. (Here’s a fantastic biography about him.) He was inarguably the best fighter pilot of his time. More importantly, he was the first fighter pilot in human history to use thermodynamics and computer analysis to figure out the math behind dogfighting. He developed fighter doctrine and tactics, based on hard science, that USAF fighter pilots still use to this day. And that was just one of his major accomplishments in the Air Force.
You might think that the Air Force would have sung his praises and promoted him all the way to 4-star General. Unfortunately, Boyd was sort of a terrible person. He wasn’t great with people and didn’t meet the Air Force’s ideals as an officer. He missed out on opportunities because he was so focused on the pilot side of things that he struggled on the officer side. It was a fight for him to get promoted to O-6.
You’d think that the opposite would also be true: you must be a good pilot to get promoted in the Air Force. Surprisingly, this isn’t entirely true. Up to a point, yes, you have to check some of the pilot career progression boxes we’ll discuss here as part of your officer career progression. However, there are opportunities to spend a lot of time in non-flying assignments and get promoted anyway.
Many pilots pursue those non-flying opportunities thinking they can easily return to command a flying squadron when they reach the appropriate rank. Many of these pilots do get assigned as flying squadron commanders. However, their success in that job can suffer if they failed to take care of the pilot side of their career development.
Unlike many other professions, aviation is based on “street cred” and your performance comes with immediate feedback. Whether you’re flying in a formation or flying next to another pilot on a crewed aircraft, someone always sees if your skills aren’t up to par. There’s no way to hide it, and word gets around.
If you fail to take care of your pilot career progression, everyone around you will know about it. You might be assigned to command a flying squadron later in your career because your record, on paper, looks very competitive. However, if you lack credibility in your aircraft, your ability as a leader will be greatly diminished. (In a fighter squadron, you must be an IP to serve as a DO or Squadron Commander. Fail to earn that upgrade, and a lot of leadership opportunities will just be closed off to you.)
Your performance as a squadron commander weighs heavily on your subsequent assignments and promotions. Air Force squadron commander tours are usually only two years long. If you have to spend part or all of that time struggling just to regain credibility (or even earn it in the first place) you will not have a successful command.
This means both parts of this series are important to you. It’s a lot of work to check all the boxes required for development as both an officer and a pilot, but that’s what you signed up for. You need to be good as a pilot if you want to be an effective officer. Let’s examine what this career progression looks like, and then figure out how to do it well.
A military pilot’s career starts at a commissioning source. For many, this is the USAF Academy or ROTC. For pilots smart enough to go directly to the Guard or Reserve, this will mean OTS (now called TFOT). The honest truth is that it doesn’t matter how you earn your commission. From here on out, all that matters is how good of a person and a pilot you are.
There are always rumors that one group (especially Academy grads) favors their own unfairly. In my experience, most of the people who get really worked up over this getting passed-over because of shortcomings on their personal or pilot side, rather than their commissioning source. Don’t be that guy or gal.
Once you become an officer, your first stop will be Initial Flight Training (IFT). For USAF pilots this happens at an IFT program run by a company called Doss, now owned by L3 Harris, flying Diamond DA-20s in Pueblo, Colorado. This isn’t a garden spot, and the program isn’t designed to be especially fun, but it is important. It’s structured like UPT, so take advantage of the opportunity to put yourself in that mindset.
The Diamond DA-20 has proven itself to be a fantastic training aircraft.
IFT only gives you 20 hours of flying. It’s not enough, but it’s better than nothing. As a former UPT IP, I could tell a distinct difference between a student with just 20 hours in IFT, and a 40+ hour Private Pilot. If there’s any way to earn your pilot’s license before you get started on this whole track, it’ll be worth it. If you want to go further above and beyond, check out this post where I explain some of the other ratings and training you could consider.
Fighter pilots go to one unique training event at some point after UPT. They attend Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF) where they hone their skills as wingmen, learn basic fighter maneuvers and some surface attack procedures in the T-38. I’m looking for a reserve IFF IP to do an interview for a more in-depth article on this program. (Let me know if you’re interested.)
The next major step for every pilot is getting qualified in their first operational aircraft. The Air Force frequently refers to these aircraft as a Major Weapons System (MWS) or Mission Design Series (MDS). The course itself can be called an Initial Qualification Course (IQC), a Formal Training Unit (FTU), a Reserve Training Unit (RTU), or simply “The B Course” (B for Basic). In most cases, this course lasts for 6+ months.
Like UPT, FTU will include academics, sims, and flying the aircraft. Unlike UPT, you’ll also learn some specific tactical mission events. Although I hope you enjoyed loops to music and lunch & backs in UPT, this training will be more fun and engaging overall because you finally get to start learning the skills you’ll be using to fight the war.
Your initial qualification course usually includes two formal checkrides that each produce a USAF Form 8. One is your Instrument/Qual Evaluation that proves you’re capable of taking off, going somewhere, flying an instrument approach to a landing, and dealing with emergencies. The other is your Mission Evaluation that proves you’ve achieved at least basic competence in your aircraft’s specific mission events. Many communities accomplish this checkride at the schoolhouse, though fighter pilots should expect to not do this until they get to their operational squadron. You should be proud to qualify in your first aircraft, but don’t get too excited. You still have some hurdles to cross before you’re ready to go to war.
After FTU, you’ll finally be sent to your first operational squadron. In most communities, you’ll arrive as a “qualified” pilot, but that’s not good enough. Most communities will conduct a (relatively) short in-house training curriculum called something like Mission Qualification Training (MQT) to verify and start improving your skills. Some operational squadrons have targeting pods, weapons, or other equipment that the schoolhouse doesn’t, and you’ll be trained on these. Otherwise, MQT is mostly “just” a run-through of all your standard mission sets.
In a fighter, bomber, and a few other types of squadrons, MQT culminates in an event called Verification where you’ll plan a real-world mission and brief it to a “murder board” including an auditorium full of senior pilots up to and including your Wing Commander. In some wings, you even get to fly simulations of this mission. It’s a grueling week or two of work, but you’ll feel a huge sense of accomplishment when it’s done.
U.S. Air Force 480th Fighter Squadron F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots and 52nd Operations Support Squadron analysts learn locations on a map to get a better understanding of the European theater before a week-long verification event at Spangdahlem Air Base, Dec. 1, 2017. Verifications are the final Mission Qualification Training required for designation as a Combat Mission Ready pilot, and at Spangdahlem it offers the 52nd Operations Group and 52nd Maintenance Group an opportunity to test European Command and United States Air Forces in Europe readiness while providing lessons learned for higher headquarters. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Preston Cherry)
Assuming all goes well, you’ll be awarded the status of Combat Mission Ready (CMR) at the conclusion of MQT. This is finally the point where you’ve been deemed sufficiently trained and competent to deploy with your squadron and fly a real combat sortie.
Given frequent delays between training programs, it’s not unrealistic to expect this whole process to take 2-3 years from the day you commission to the day you become CMR. The Air Force has to make a huge investment in you just to get you to square one. As a pilot, there’s plenty of career progression to consider from here.
In most cases, when you finally reach CMR in a new aircraft, you’ll be a Wingman (fighters) or Copilot (crewed aircraft). Although it’s rough to be the most junior pilot in any flying organization, this will be one of the best times in your career. At this point, your entire job is to learn everything possible about your aircraft and get good at flying/employing it. All those years you spent dreaming about what it would be like to fly as a military pilot? This is what you were imagining.
After years of training, becoming a Wingman or Copilot is what you’ve been training for all your life. “You have arrived” takes on a whole new meaning. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew Lotz)
As a fighter pilot, new wingmen are expected to be at work all the time. If you aren’t mission planning, flying, or debriefing, your default location should be the vault – a set of rooms with high security where all of the unit’s classified documents are stored. (Other acceptable locations are the gym getting swole, cleaning/stocking the squadron bar [aka: Heritage Room] or mopping the floors. Expect more on these parts of your job in another article.)
You will spend months in the vault studying systems, weapons, enemy threats, tactics, and more…and you still won’t be able to cover everything. You’ll be expected to know all of this on your training flights, so the sooner you can gain some competence here the better.
Other types of units may have a vault for new pilots to study in, but most aren’t as intense as fighter squadrons. You’ll still have time to go to the gym, eat lunch with your spouse or friends, and get home at a reasonable hour.
The dichotomy between life as a fighter pilot and almost any other type of pilot is stark. I think most people who aspire to become fighter pilots understand and welcome the amount of work they’ll have to do. If there’s even a small part of you that thinks, “That sounds terrible. I’d hate working that hard for that long,” then you need to make sure you don’t get assigned to fly fighters.
No matter what type of squadron you’re in, the senior pilots pay attention to everything you do. They know if you get along well with others, they know if you work hard in the squadron, they know what your knowledge level is, and they know exactly how well (or poorly) you fly. They also talk about you all the time. Even if you aren’t in a fighter squadron, you want to make sure that you’re constantly studying to improve your knowledge. You need to do what it takes to fly well. If this means chair flying at home and spending extra time in the simulator, then do it! You need to make yourself available to fly and focus on flying as your primary job.
Why work so hard? You’re trying to earn the right to take the next step on your career progression. Called “upgrades,” these steps aren’t just given out arbitrarily. You must demonstrate competence at your current level of qualification and the potential to figure things out when you advance to the next level. I’ve flown with pilots who were doomed to never be anything more than a copilot in our aircraft. That’s not the end of the world. These guys still gave valuable service to their country. However, you don’t want that to be you.
Once you’ve gained some experience and demonstrated the ability to do your job as a Wingman/Copilot, you’ll be selected for upgrade to Flight Lead (fighters) or Aircraft Commander (crewed aircraft). In some communities, this means a TDY back to the schoolhouse for a few weeks. Most fighter squadrons, and many other types of units, do Flight Lead or Aircraft Commander upgrades “in-house.”
Going TDY for upgrade training is nice because it allows you to focus on your training with fewer distractions. However, these courses are usually pretty demanding. In-house upgrades are nice because you’re flying with people you know and they can feel slightly more collegial. However, it can be very difficult to study and prepare for training events when you have all the demands of your office job and family to worry about too. You probably have no say over which type of upgrade you do, so ask around your squadron for strategies to succeed at whichever one you get.
Once you finish your upgrade course, your squadron leadership will probably pair you with the absolute best Copilots and Wingmen for a while to help you learn your new role. However, you should be prepared to fly with the weakest pilot/crew pretty soon. There’s a lot more to think about in this new role, but you’ll learn it as time goes on.
When you upgrade to AC, its assumed you’re capable of commanding your aircraft in the most challenging conditions: at night, in bad weather, on NVGs, in hostile territory. Get up for it! (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Michael Mason)
In a fighter squadron, that initial upgrade only makes you a 2-ship Flight Lead. (This course is sometimes referred to as 2FLUG [FLUG = Flight Lead Upgrade]), and it’s a critical point in your career. It’s one thing to be good enough as a Wingman to get picked for 2FLUG. It’s something else entirely to learn to effectively execute as a FL during your upgrade process. FLUG will be a tough program requiring a tremendous amount of study and preparation for each and every training event. Your performance in that program will earn you a reputation in the squadron – either as someone who does whatever it takes to be ready and shines when it’s time to perform or someone who struggles through new challenges. This is a sort of the first impression of your potential as a future fighter pilot. You need to work hard and get it right.
You’ll need to gain experience and prove yourself in that role in hopes of being picked for 4-ship Flight Lead upgrade (4FLUG). In a fighter squadron, there are never enough Instructor Pilots to go around. The fundamental warfighting unit of a fighter squadron is a flight of four aircraft. As such, 4-ship Flight Lead is quite possibly the most important role in a fighter squadron. Although they aren’t officially Instructors, they’re expected to plan and fly missions, and conduct debriefs in a way that ensures every member of the flight learns something every time they go out.
Life as an FL or AC is pretty good. Copilots and Wingmen catch a lot of crap from everyone in the squadron. As an FL or AC, you’ve proven yourself competent enough and earned some respect. People will come to you with questions, and you’ll get the benefit of the doubt when you make big decisions in the jet. This is a fantastic place to be as a military pilot, and you should enjoy it. However, you still need to study and work hard in hopes of progressing further.
An experienced Aircraft Commander or 4-ship Flight Lead may eventually get selected for upgrade to Instructor Pilot. The Air Force regards IP as a serious responsibility. Unless you fly fighters, this upgrade is more likely to necessitate a TDY back to the schoolhouse. IPs teach upgrades, help pilots reset currency items they haven’t done in a while, train pilots on new aircraft upgrades, and much more. It’s a busy job.
If a fighter pilot’s progression ends at 4-ship Flight Lead he or she should feel a huge sense of accomplishment. The time it takes to go from a freshly commissioned officer to Flight Lead is several years. The Air Force assignment system doesn’t always allow for more. For any pilot to make IP is also a great honor and a deserving pinnacle of career development.
An Instructor Pilot is the only person who can fly with another pilot who isn’t qualified in his or her aircraft. There is a high amount of risk associated with signing for a multi-million dollar aircraft and letting an unqualified person take the controls. IPs are also responsible for documenting the training progress of each student, and making the call if a student’s performance isn’t good enough to move on in a given training program.
Being an IP is a challenge. You’re responsible for watching over an unqualified pilot…from a seat with a worse view. No, it doesn’t pay extra. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Christopher Boitz)
Most squadrons are chronically short on IPs, so you’ll get to fly a lot more with this upgrade. Nice, right? When I first upgraded to IP, I excitedly explained to my wife how I’d be flying more often and assuming more risk every time I went. Her response was a question: “And how much extra are they paying you for all this extra risk and work?”
“Uh, zero.”
Then she gave me The Look.
This upgrade comes with a lot of personal fulfillment, and that was rewarding enough for me. However, realize that every time you go out as an IP you’re accepting more risk than the average pilot. As long as you adhere to procedures, rules, and standards you should be fine. Don’t ever let your guard down though!
Some IPs will get selected for upgrade to Evaluator Pilot/Flight Examiner (EP or FE). Up until this point, the Squadron Operations Officer (DO) “owns” all of the upgrade programs. Decisions on upgrades are always a collaborative process between the Commander, DO, and other senior pilots, but the DO has a lot of say. EP upgrade is different. This program is owned entirely by the Squadron Commander. A squadron can always use more IPs, but it only needs a few EPs. Don’t be surprised or disappointed if you don’t get picked for this job. If you do, it’s because your commander identified you, specifically, as a pilot with great judgment.
Being an EP may sound prestigious, but it actually means you’re always busy doing a difficult job. Instructing is fun – you get to interact with the other pilot(s) and help them get better. A Flight Examiner exists to give checkrides – something nobody likes. The Examiner is supposed to sit quietly and not give any input on the flight unless he or she is part of the crew. If the pilot getting the checkride screws something up, the EP is immediately thrust into a minefield.
When trying to decide whether a given mistake was bad enough to deserve a failing grade, an EP has to consider several questions:
How bad was that mistake?
Did Emet recover from it quickly or not?
Am I allowed to let him try it again? If so, should I?
Can I debrief the mistake and let him pass the checkride, or are my hands tied?
My first time as an EP was in a unit where we deployed 20% of the squadron every month. Somehow, checkrides always seemed to get pushed to the absolute last minute…meaning if I awarded a failing grade there was a chance it’d screw up the deployment schedule for the entire Squadron. It also sucks that you’re flying with your friends. Checkride failures aren’t the end of the world, but they can impact your career both as a military aviator and in the civilian pilot job market. It’s not the EP’s fault, but it sucks to make that call and give that news.
This all makes the job of an EP a different kind of difficult and stressful. One of the nice things about this job is that there is always time to get a second opinion. It is 100% acceptable to land after a checkride, and then immediately go find another EP or two and lock yourselves in a room to talk things over. I probably did this on 50% of the checkrides I gave in the Air Force. It’s generally even acceptable to debrief the basics of the sortie for the formation/crew, but tell the examinee that you’ll finish his or her checkride debrief the next day.
I frequently counseled with my DO and/or commander about iffy situations on checkrides. I was surprised and impressed that none of them ever told me what to do. They always gave advice and suggested options, but made a point of leaving the final judgment up to me. They always backed up that eventual decision, without question. It’s nice to have that kind of support for this job.
These are the primary steps in an Air Force pilot’s career. Almost every community has upgrades through these positions, and as a pilot, you should always be working to earn the right to take that next step.
Wingman/Copilot
2-Ship Flight Lead/Aircraft Commander
4-Ship Flight Lead
Instructor Pilot
Evaluator Pilot/Flight Examiner
Along the way, there are other upgrades and training courses that count as career progression for pilots. Each community has a unique set of opportunities that you’ll learn about when you get there. We’re going to discuss a few to give you an idea of what to expect. We’ll also look at a few opportunities that are available to most Air Force pilots. You’re always better off pursuing these opportunities than not. (We’ll discuss if or how you should ask for these upgrades later on.) This list is far from exhaustive, but here are some of the other upgrades and training you should pursue as part of your pilot career progression:
Functional Check Flight (FCF) pilots fly aircraft when they get out of major maintenance to ensure that nothing got missed during repairs. On an FCF sortie, you get to fly your aircraft to or even slightly beyond the envelope in every possible direction. It’s fun and challenging flying. (Also, guess which pilots are statistically the most likely to declare emergencies during their careers.)
Airdrop & Assault Landing. Although the Air Force makes a big deal of our ability to safely drop things out of airplanes and land on short, semi-prepared surfaces, not all pilots of C-130s, C-17s, C-145s (and to a lesser extent C-5s) are certified to do this. Each of these activities is a separate upgrade with currencies that must be kept. In many cases, only certain squadrons are designated for these missions, and only some of the pilots in those squadrons are trained.
Airdrop is one of the most fun and rewarding missions for airlift aircraft. It’s also serious business with it’s own upgrade process.
Some aircraft have the opportunity to lead Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) missions from the air using the callsign “Sandy.” This is one of the most honored, challenging, and dangerous missions in the military. We all hope that they train very hard, and never get to use their skills in a real-world situation.
TAC(A) and FAC(A) – Tactical Air Coordinator (Airborne) and Forward Air Controller (Airborne) are two levels of a similar discipline. This job involves working with forces on the ground and controlling a stack of aircraft. A FAC(A) has the authority to plan Close Air Support (CAS) attacks and clear aircraft to release weapons. A TAC(A) can do most of what a FAC(A) can, except for clearing people to release weapons. Both types of pilot work for a Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) on the ground, although a FAC(A) is qualified to operate without a JTAC.
Weapons Officer is more than just an upgrade. It’s a six month school that covers a brutal and fascinating syllabus at the USAF Weapons School. Weapons Officers get a special career track from that point on. The details on this upgrade will get a full post of their own…some other time.
Mission Commander is a crew member in charge of an entire package of air assets. This is the person leading the entire push at Red Flag…or against the Russkies when WWIII kicks off. If you thought leading a 4-ship was demanding, you’re in for a surprise! For some aircraft, Mission Commander Upgrade (MCUG) is optional and somewhat rare. For a fighter pilot, it’s most common to do this as a 4-ship FL, before you upgrade to IP.
As a mission commander, you should be prepared to brief an entire auditorium of aviators, lead them during the mission, and then stand in front of them again afterwards to face the music in the debrief. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Angela Ruiz)
MAFFS, fighting fires in a C-130 with the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System, is a unique and challenging upgrade that got its very own BogiDope article.
Launch and Recovery. The average MQ-9 pilot is neither trained nor qualified to takeoff or land a drone. That’s a separate upgrade. You may think this is a prestigious way to advance your career, but be careful. The only drone pilots who deploy are the ones who hold L&R qualification.
Nukes. Within the communities of aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons, not everyone gets certified to do so. You have to pass psychological and other tests. You have to go through a specific, and very detailed training program. You have to maintain strict currency requirements and undergo periodic testing. You have to follow special procedures for certain dental and medical appointments. Honestly, this is all so much work that many pilots avoid it. However, it’s an important mission for our country’s defense.
Any B-52H can carry nuclear weapons, but the same is not true for its pilots. There’s a unique and arduous upgrade process for pilots who are given that responsibility.
The Advanced Instrument School (AIS) is a fascinating course where you study instrument flying, but also instrument approach/departure design. It’s great enrichment for any pilot, and it also looks good on both Air Force records and future job applications.
Safety School is another training course available to pilots in any community. The Air Force actually offers several different courses at this school, but if you take the right combination you can be officially designated a Safety Officer. This makes you eligible for safety-related jobs and qualifies you as an accident investigator. Most wings have assignment slots reserved for safety-qualified pilots that are usually unfilled. If you’re trying to get to a specific assignment, having completed Safety School can open up doors that are closed to most pilots. The flip side of this is that deployed bases all need a Safety Officer. You’ll be vulnerable for these deployments, and no-notice call-outs to conduct accident investigations. It’s a great power/great responsibility type of opportunity.
USAF Test Pilot School (TPS) is a dream opportunity for many of us pilots. You need at least a BS, if not an MS, in math, hard science, or engineering to go there because the course is as academically intense as it is fun. You get to fly a variety of aircraft and could have checkrides in the F-4, UH-1, Grumman Albatross, and C-130 all in the same week. Upon graduation, you’re eligible for a variety of special assignments and highly competitive for the US Astronaut program. To be fair, the US Navy also has a fantastic TPS. The USAFTPS made pictures and videos tough to find, so here’s a video from the Navy TPS showing just a few of the aircraft they get to fly.
As I said, this list is far from exhaustive. Although some of these opportunities require you to already be a FL, AC, or IP, you earn them individually and in parallel with the more common steps in pilot career progression. Within your community, you should aspire to earn the right to obtain any of the special upgrades available on your aircraft. We’ll discuss shortly how to make that happen.
Unlike many civilian careers, and even non-flying military ones, aviation does not allow you to get ahead by faking it or taking credit for the work of others. Your successful career progression as a pilot will be directly proportional to what you put into it.
The first step to maximizing your potential as a pilot is effective studying. If you’re a fighter pilot, the culture will more or less force this on you. If you aren’t a fighter pilot, there may not be as much direct pressure to study. This means the person who can most effectively build his or her knowledge (without failing on his or her other responsibilities) will look the best in the eyes of the IPs and commanders in the squadron.
In addition to studying, the best way to improve at flying is to go fly! You should lobby the scheduling shop (without being annoying) to make sure you’re on the schedule at least as much as everyone else. If a bad deal pops up that nobody else wants, tactfully letting your flight commander and/or scheduler know that you’ll “take one for the team” not only gets you flight hours but makes them feel like they owe you a better (flying) deal in the future.
When you can’t fly, it’s a good idea to spend time chair flying. This can and should be accomplished at home in your living room. Most bases also have simulators available. They’re used for official training, and for the emergency procedures portion of your annual check ride. However, they also spend a lot of time sitting idle. On most bases, you’re free to reserve a sim anytime it’s not otherwise scheduled, for your own practice. I can’t emphasize how beneficial this can be.
When I started flying the B-1B in the 34th BS at Ellsworth AFB, the squadron was getting ready for deployment. The IPs and IWSOs (Instructor Weapons System Officers) in the squadron were so busy that there wasn’t anyone available to teach us Close Air Support. (The RTU didn’t even teach CAS at that time. It was a relatively new mission set for the B-1 and few, if any, of the IPs at the schoolhouse had ever performed that mission. They relied on the operational squadron to teach CAS.)
Instead of sitting around waiting for someone to spoon-feed CAS to us, a bunch of us copilots and baby WSOs took matters into our own hands. We read all of the doctrine and the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). We talked to the squadron Weapons Officers and got audio recordings of some CAS engagements they’d practiced at Weapons School. Then, we went to the sim 5 or 6 at a time and practiced. We’d take turns as the odd-person out playing JTAC and running the scenario while everyone else tried to figure out how to apply the TTPs. We got the hang of things, and eventually cajoled some younger ACs who had at least some deployed experience to give us some pointers.
Our efforts paid off. When I did my (one) CAS sortie for MQT, it happened to be with the squadron Weapon’s Officer. I learned a lot; however, the comment he left in my gradebook was “Best MQT CAS seen to date.” That was high praise from him, and I felt like the hard work paid off.
Spending spare time in the B-1B simulator paid huge dividends for me and my fellow “Eggs” at the 34th Bomb Squadron.
As a young military aviator, you should not rest until you’re CMR and then an AC, FL, or IP. There are always things you can learn, and skills you can build. Much of that can be done on the ground.
Flying chairs and other simulators is nice, but you real flying is always better. Most Air Force squadrons have a public address (PA) system, and it’s not uncommon to hear, “Any available lieutenant, report to the step desk now!” Sometimes, this is a trap to gather bodies for emptying the trash cans or mopping the floors. Frequently though, it means that someone dropped out of a flight at the last minute and you have a shot at some extra, unscheduled flying, without having to do any mission planning. This is a great deal, and the more you make yourself available for this, the better.
Flying without little involvement in the mission planning can be perilous. The FL, AC, or IP in charge of the sortie will grant you a little leeway because you weren’t involved in the planning. However, if you perform too poorly it will not reflect well on you. Your reputation won’t benefit from that, and you won’t be offered similar opportunities in the future. This is why it’s critical to make sure your studying, chair flying, and extra sim practice is all keeping you ready for anything.
I feel like many pilots try to maximize their progress because we tend toward Type A personalities who want to excel no matter what we do. However, it’s important to understand the short- and long-term career impacts of your ability to progress as a pilot.
There’s enough variation in individual units and situations that nobody has ever established a firm timeline for when a pilot should achieve each upgrade. However, you do need to work to be ready for your next upgrade as soon as you become eligible. (That eligibility is usually expressed in terms of a minimum number of flight hours in your aircraft.) Most fighter pilots will be eligible for 2FLUG with a few hundred hours, and most crewed aircraft will consider a copilot for AC upgrade around 1,000 hours. If you’re a 750 hour wingman or a 1,500 hour copilot, people will notice.
This isn’t the end of the world, and as I mentioned some situations make a big difference here. Most pilots get a lot of flying while they’re deployed. If an experienced pilot started a deployment just short of having enough hours to upgrade, he or she could return home with a lot of hours. Your squadron will know this, and it won’t be counted against you. However, if you haven’t been picked for upgrade because your knowledge or skills are lacking, you will earn a reputation that you don’t want.
When your Squadron Commander starts coordinating for your next assignment, he or she has to consider whether you have the potential to continue as a contributing member of your community. If you want your second assignment to be in another operational squadron, or you want any other desirable assignment, you want your boss to feel inspired to keep you around. Otherwise, you will receive one of the less-desirable assignments that he or she has to give out. This won’t be the end of the world. Maybe it’ll work better for your family to go teach UPT or do something else for a few years. However, if you left your squadron as Maverick the Wingman or Iceman the weak Flight Lead, nobody is going to try hard to get you back. Worse, that reputation will follow you to your next assignment, starting you out at a disadvantage.
At BogiDope, we also see this dynamic play out on Guard and Reserve hiring boards all the time. If you have your heart set on settling down in a specific unit, you need to give them every reason to take you. If you show up as an IP, FCF pilot, Safety School Graduate, and/or Weapons Officer, you’re immensely useful to them. If you show up as the pilot who was that 750 hour wingman and just barely made it to 2FLUG, you could have the best interview of all-time, but not get the job because they know you’d be a drag on their resources.
We feel like most units are willing to give anyone a fair look. They’ll take deployments or other circumstances into consideration. They’ll ask around your community for anyone who knows you, and especially anyone who knew you in the assignment where your career progression seemed to be a little slow. However, if you really want to go somewhere specific, you’re far better off not making them have to research and debate. Showing up with every possible certification you can get is always better.
Most squadrons do a good job of knowing who is ready for an upgrade and getting each person into the pipeline as soon as possible. In my opinion, if you feel compelled to ask for an upgrade, that’s frequently a sign that you’re not ready for it…and oblivious to that fact.
As a baby pilot, you should at least feel comfortable talking with your Flight Commander on a regular basis. As you gain seniority in your unit, you and your peers will be the Flight Commanders. He or she knows that you want to upgrade. If you feel like you’ve been stuck for a while, have a casual but private conversation with him or her. Ask how things are looking for upgrades in the squadron and if there’s anything you need to improve to make yourself eligible.
If your Flight Commander is unavailable (deployed, on leave, etc.) and you feel compelled to press the issue, then it’s okay to broach the subject with your DO or Commander. Again, be very tactful in the way you approach this. You are not entitled to any upgrade, ever. You may “need” it for your overall career progression, but that is not justification if you don’t otherwise deserve it.
You should express a desire to develop and excel. If you’ve been waiting for a very long time, you might express some mild concern or frustration. Don’t whine or complain though, because it will not help your case.
You should focus the conversation on discovering the skills, knowledge, or experience that you currently lack and need to develop to make yourself eligible to upgrade. You are not there to argue against the need for more of any of those or to try and rationalize your upgrade without meeting those criteria. You’re just gathering information so that you can go take care of what you need to.
For a USAF CV-22, landing on a Naval vessel is not an everyday task. It’s worth putting in the work to earn this certification, whether you’re trying to advance your career or just do something amazing with your life. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Rufus Hucks/Released)
Once you get some guidance from your leadership, it’s up to you to go follow it. If you need more flying, volunteer for the flying nobody else wants to try and make up the difference. If you’re lacking in knowledge, go hit the books…hard! If you’re lacking in skill, approach the FLs, IPs, and Weapons Officers in the squadron about it. Explain that you’re trying to improve yourself overall, and because you want to earn your next upgrade. I promise they’ll respect your humility and desire to improve. They will go out of their way to help you!
Whether you had to ask about it or not, I feel like most squadrons are very good about tagging you for upgrade once you’re ready. More than once, my DO approached me to let me know I was being considered for an upgrade before I’d even started wondering if I was in the running. Many times, upgrades happen when you’re ready.
If, after speaking to your leadership about what you were missing, you feel you’ve accomplished everything they mentioned without anyone noticing, it’s okay to bring it up again. This discussion also requires a lot of tact. Thank your superior for his or her past guidance and explain what you’ve done to follow it. Then, humbly ask if he or she thinks you’re ready for consideration, or if you’ve missed something else. Remember: you’re never demanding or whining.
One other way I’ve started this conversation is with my annual performance report. You should always get some input on what’s in this report. In many squadrons, you’ll have to write the first draft yourself. The very last line of this report is called the “push” line. It’s a place for your commander to specify what should come next for you in career development. I wanted to go to Safety School, so I just included a recommendation for that in my push line. My commander hadn’t known I’d wanted this, but once he saw it he made me the Chief of Flight Safety and ended up getting me a Safety School slot. I think it’s always better to communicate this kind of thing directly to your chain of command. However, if there hasn’t been a time to bring something up, this isn’t a terrible way to do it.
I like discussing the pilot side of career development because I feel like this is the whole point of being a pilot in the military. Sure, pilots need to also develop themselves as officers and leaders behind a desk. However, there are thousands of officers in the military. We are the only ones capable of employing Air Power against America’s enemies. In my mind, that is by far the most important skill for us to develop. This influences your ability to do your job well now and plays into your future assignments.
It also happens that learning to do new and impressive things with aircraft is a lot of fun. I’ve known pilots who get complacent in their aircraft, and it eventually starts to lose its luster for them. They stop thinking of it as fun and adventurous and start thinking of it as a cubicle with a view. What a tragic waste! By constantly working to earn the next upgrade, you can keep yourself sharp and continue enjoying your job.
If you work hard to be excellent at your current level, I believe that most squadrons will take care of you and slate you to upgrade when you’re ready. There may be situations where you get overlooked. In that case, it’s okay to approach your chain of command about it. Remember that you’re humbly asking what else you need to do to earn your spot. You’re not complaining, and you are not entitled to anything.
I envy those of you just starting out as Wingmen and Copilots. I’d gladly start over again in your place. Work hard, and enjoy the process of learning and mastering your aircraft. You’ll be rewarded with upgrades, but more importantly, you’ll be proud of what you’ve accomplished. Have fun with it and fly safe!
The military offers some fantastic career opportunities for pilots. It can also set you up for an enjoyable and lucrative civilian flying career later in life. One of the important parts of deciding whether to join the military or not is to understand the pay and benefits it offers. We’ll cover that here today.
Before we get going, I want to mention that military pay is public data. We’re going to look at pay using the 2019 pay tables on the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) website. Most civilian employers negotiate pay with new employees, after hiring them for the job. Most companies make individual salaries a big secret. Women frequently get paid less than men for the same job, in large part because of these secrecy games. (To be fair though, Google recently paid some money to male employees after finding that they’d been underpaid when compared with their female peers.) Thankfully, the military avoids this stupidity. When you look at someone’s uniform, you immediately know his or her name, what he or she does, and how much money he or she gets paid every year. There’s a lot to be said about the value of transparency when it comes to making career decisions and instilling a good work ethic.
The fundamental part of your check every month is your base pay, which is calculated by using your rank and the number of years you’ve been in service. Although poor performance can prevent promotions, you stand a very good chance of getting promoted on a regular timeline throughout your career.
The lowest pay grade for commissioned military officers is O-1. The Navy and Coast Guard call the associated rank Ensign, while all the other branches call it Second Lieutenant. In 2019, a brand-new O-1 (with less than 4 years of prior enlisted service, if applicable) makes $3,188.40 per month. At a full 20 years of service, this nearly triples to $9,243.60 per month for an O-5, Lieutenant Colonel (or Commander in the Navy/Coast Guard).
Flight Pay
Aircrew members also receive flight pay, also known as Aviation Career Incentive Pay (ACIP). This starts out at a miserly $150 per month but increases to $1,000 at the height of your flying career. Although the idea is that you should only receive flight pay during months that you perform flight duty, there are some allowances for pilots in non-flying assignments to continue receiving flight pay. The explanation of those rules gets a little involved, so we’ll save it for another time.
These two types of pay are nice, but they’re not the only money you’ll see in your paycheck. You also get allowances.
BAS and BAH
The government gives military members a Basic Allowance for Sustenance (BAS) and a Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH). These are (awesome) parts of your overall compensation as a military member. Since they’re “allowances” rather than pay, you don’t have to pay any taxes on them. You get to keep the full amount of your allowances, whether you spend that amount each month or not.
BAS amount is the same for all officers, regardless of rank or time in service. It is intended to pay for meals, but at $254.39 per month (as of 2019), it probably won’t cover all your needs.
BAH is intended to cover the average housing cost in the area where you’re assigned. The value depends on your zip code, your pay grade, and whether you have dependents living with you (take note that the “with dependents” rate does not increase based on the number of dependents you have). You can find values for a specific set of criteria on the Defense Travel Management Office website. It’s certainly possible to find housing for considerably cheaper than your BAH allowance, which is a nice way to make a bit of extra money. However, if you choose to live in base housing, you will automatically net $0 and this will not be an option.
Retirement Funds
We’ll cover military retirement funds in great detail in an upcoming BogiDope article, but an important thing to know is that the US Government will match your contributions to a retirement account, called a Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), up to 5% of your base pay each month. (There are a lot of caveats and fine print associated with this 5%. The Military Money Manual is a great place to get information on the specifics.) The TSP is essentially the military’s version of a civilian 401(k) plan. Only a great fool would voluntarily forego this benefit. You’re reading BogiDope, so we’re going to assume you’re not a great fool. We highly recommend that you contribute at least enough to get the government’s 5% match every month. If you don’t do that, you’re leaving free money (with compounding interest) on the table which could greatly benefit you once you retire.
Retention Bonuses
Later in your career, the military may try to throw a bunch of money your way to entice you to stick around. If you plan to stay anyway, this is a great deal. If you’re not sure whether you want to stay, it’s a trap. Right now the Air Force offers bonuses of up to $35,000 per year, and they may pay half of your total bonus up front, depending on what you fly.
So, what does all this look like? Let’s calculate the monthly pay for a brand-new O-1 attending pilot training at Laughlin AFB, TX in 2019. Chances are you’ll live in an on-base dormitory for this year and not receive BAH, but we’ll consider the possibility of living off-base just to make comparisons easier. We’ll assume you’re single for now. We’ll also assume that you’re wise and are contributing 5% of your base pay to your TSP so that you can receive the government’s match (and we’ll count that match as income — because it is, even if you can’t withdraw it yet). Here’s what we get:
USAF Second Lieutenant Pilot Income Example
Rank: O-1
Monthly
Annual
Base Pay
$3,188.40
$38,260.80
Flight Pay
$150.00
$1,800.00
BAS
$254.39
$3,052.68
BAH
$747.00
$8,964.00
Gov. TSP Match
$159.42
$1,913.04
Retention Bonus
$0.00
$0.00
Total
$4,499.21
$53,990.52
That’s not half bad for your first year out of college as a pilot with fewer than 100 flight hours to your name.
Let’s see how your income can grow by looking at what an O-5 with 20 years of service makes. We’ll assume he or she is making maximum flight pay, receives a $35,000 per year retention bonus, is married, and lives at Eglin AFB, FL.
USAF Lieutenant Colonel Pilot Income Example
Rank: O-5
Monthly
Annual
Base Pay
$9,243.60
$110,923.20
Flight Pay
$1,000.00
$12,000.00
BAS
$254.39
$3,052.68
BAH
$2,049.00
$24,588.00
Gov. TSP Match
$462.18
$5,546.16
Retention Bonus
$0.00
$35,000.00
Total
$13,009.17
$191,110.04
As with everything, this career comes with unique costs. A short list includes long work hours, frequent moves, and multi-month deployments. However, serving a higher purpose and doing a mission you love can make it all worth it. We see that a military career can pay very well. Not only does this O-5 make great money, but he or she is also now eligible to collect a pension check, every month, for the rest of his or her life. Under the new Blended Retirement System (BRS) that check will be equal to 40% of his or her base pay, or $3,697.44, every month for life.
Air National Guard/Air Force Reserve Pilot Pay Example
The previous figures are based on pay for a full-time Active Duty officer. Pay in the National Guard and Reserve components works somewhat differently. We’ll cover this is more detail in a future article, but here are the basics:
If you are on 30 days or more of continuous military orders, your pay and benefits will be exactly the same as they would be on active duty.
If you are a part-time Air National Guard (ANG) or Air Force Reserve (AFRES) pilot you will be paid for each individual day you show up to work.
There are several different types of orders with unique benefits, but as a basic formula to determine how much each day is worth, add your base pay and flight pay together and divide that number by 30 (days in the month). That amount is considered one period (1/2 day of work). Unless you’re intentionally only working half a day, you will be paid for two periods each time you work at the squadron.
For example, using the 2019 pay charts, an O-4 with over 12 years of military service and over six years of aviation service has a base pay of $7,596 and $800 of flight pay per month. $7,596 + $800 = $8,396/30 days = $280 per period. Typically, you’ll work a full day (i.e. two periods), so $280 x 2 = $560 per day. If you average 3-6 days in the squadron per month, your annual Guard salary will be between $20,000 and $40,000 without including any TDYs (business trips) or deployments.
Before we leave the topic of pay we need to look at a related subject: taxes. If you’re a single officer making nearly $54,000 per year, some smart saving decisions can lead to you having a tax bill of almost $0!
Since your BAS and BAH are untaxed allowances, your first-year taxable pay is only $40,060.80. The latest changes to tax law increased the standard deduction for income taxes to $18,350 for an individual and $24,400 for a married couple filing jointly. When calculating your tax bill, you just subtract this amount from your $40,060.80 to reach a value of $21,710.80. If you left things like this, you’d pay a few thousand dollars in taxes, but I’m hoping you’re smarter.
Although there are exceptions, most people going into military pilot training don’t have many dependents or a lot of debt (other than perhaps student loans). Couple that with the fact that pilot training is extremely intensive and requires a great deal of your time, and it’s obvious that you don’t need to spend much money during this year. Sure, you need to enjoy life and get a break from studying occasionally, but you’d be a fool to go buy an expensive car or a bunch of other toys.
If you’re smart, you’ll invest as much money into your TSP as the IRS allows. That limit is currently $19,000 per year. If you’re a young officer, I generally advocate putting those funds into your Roth TSP (post-tax contributions) so that you don’t have to pay taxes on your earnings when you withdraw funds for retirement. But you could instead potentially put those funds into your traditional TSP to almost annihilate your tax bill. Since your traditional TSP contributions are tax-deferred, you get to subtract them from your taxable income. If you contribute the full IRS limit of $19,000 per year, then your taxable income decreases from the $21,710.80 we just calculated earlier to a mere $2,710.80. That income is so small that it all falls within the 10% tax bracket, meaning you’ll only pay $271 in taxes that year, assuming you don’t get any other deductions. When compared to the nearly $53,990.52 you took in this year (accounting for allowances), you’re looking at an effective tax rate of 0.5%. That’s pretty amazing, especially when it means that even after contributing $19,000 to your TSP you get to spend up to $34,719.44 that year. If you’re more of a visual person, here’s the chart summarizing this:
Thrift Savings Plan Contributions Effect on Tax Rate
Rank: O-1
Total Yearly Compensation
$53,990.52
Pay, Minus Allowances
$40,060.80
Standard Deduction
$18,350.00
TSP Contribution Limit
$19,000
Taxable Income
$2,710.80
Tax Due
$271.08
Effective Tax Rate
0.50%
Money to Spend
$34,719.44
Unfortunately, our progressive tax system diminishes this effect as you increase in rank, but you can really smash your tax bill and maximize your savings early in your career.
If all you got out of military service was the pay we just discussed, it’d be a pretty great deal. However, there are many other benefits associated with military service. It would span multiple articles to discuss all of the additional benefits of military service, but here’s a list of what I consider to be some of the top ones:
Healthcare
Officers on Active Duty in the US military (and their families) get essentially unlimited free healthcare through a company called Tricare. If you’ve paid any attention to the news over the past decade, you should realize that this is a huge deal. The costs of healthcare have skyrocketed and can be enough to break some families. My airline offers private health insurance and quotes a maximum out-of-pocket cost in the event of a really terrible year where you have to pay every deductible, coinsurance, copay, etc. For the premium plan, this maximum out-of-pocket cost is $15,600.
I hope you never have a year bad enough to need that much medical care. Thankfully, it hasn’t cost my family nearly this much. I have a Bronze HSA plan with premiums of less than $100 per month. Our deductibles, copays, etc. could potentially get close to that $15,600 figure, but in three years of airline work my family hasn’t paid more than $3,000 in annual deductibles so far.
I feel like it’s fair to equate military healthcare to a dollar value as high as that $15,600 per year when trying to come up with a figure for total annual compensation. In reality, it won’t be nearly as valuable to a healthy family in most years, so you might use a smaller figure.
Paid Vacation Time
At many companies, you’re lucky to get two weeks of paid vacation per year. In most cases, you start out with a vacation balance of zero and have to “earn” your vacation days over time. The military is a much better deal: everyone gets 30 days of paid leave per year, regardless of rank or time in service. Technically, you do accrue this balance at the rate of 2.5 days of leave earned per month. However, many military members find they have a hard time using all of their earned leave.
Education Benefits
This one is tough to write about succinctly because each branch of service has its own programs. The main idea, though, is that the military will pay for you to continue your education while you’re on active duty. In the Air Force this benefit is called Tuition Assistance, or TA. They’ll pay for up to $4,500 per year, and a total benefit of $9,000, toward a higher degree an/or many certification programs. You incur a 2-year commitment every time you start a new class, but if you owe more than two years anyway, this commitment doesn’t hurt you. I used this program to earn a master’s degree for a very minimal out-of-pocket cost. I got it done in two years of nights and weekends, including free time while I was deployed.
While you can get money toward advanced academic degrees, there are also resources available for other types of education. Most military bases have libraries and education offices that can provide free language courses, IT certifications, and other good deals. A hard-working individual could obtain many thousands of dollars in valuable education benefits, in his or her free time, while serving in the military.
Post-9/11 G.I. Bill
Although it’s another education program, the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill is such a momentous benefit that it deserves its own discussion. Instituted by President George W. Bush, this program covers all tuition and fees for four years of college (36 calendar months) of education at any state school, as well as $1,000 per year for books. If you’re not on active duty while you’re in school, you also receive the BAH equivalent to what an E-5 with dependents would earn living in your area. The G.I. Bill will also cover costs for attending a private college, but in this case the total covered costs are capped. Go to the official G.I. Bill website for all the details.
You don’t have to use this benefit for college either. The G.I. Bill can go toward covering the costs of flight training, vocational training, or a variety of other programs.
The G.I. Bill is a fantastic deal, and it gets even better: you can transfer your unused G.I. Bill benefits to your spouse or children (including combinations of spouse, child, and/or children). However, you need to serve for a minimum amount of time to earn the full benefit (typically 6 years), and then you’ll owe an additional 4 years service, so do it as soon as you’re eligible. If you’re planning on getting out of the military sooner than that, do not transfer your G.I. Bill benefits.
VA Loans
Although we’ve demonstrated that military pilots get paid pretty well, it’s still a tall order to save up enough money for a down payment on a home. Some banks will offer you a loan with less money down, but charge you Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) for the favor. PMI sucks — it’s money you pay and never get back.
Thankfully, the Veterans Administration (VA) has a home loan program that will guarantee a loan for you with little or no money down. You pay a “funding fee” instead, but it’s usually a pretty good option. If you end up with a disability rating after you leave the military (and you probably will), they’ll even waive that funding fee.
My wife and I bought houses at two different assignments. In hindsight, at least one of those was a terrible decision. Military pilots tend to move so often that there is almost no way to avoid losing a lot of money on a home purchase. Unless you’re willing to study and put a lot of time and effort into House Hacking, I recommend you rent homes while you’re serving on Active Duty. However, if homeownership makes sense for you, a VA loan can be a great way to finance that purchase.
Credit Card and Other Debt Benefits (SCRA)
This advice is not military-specific, but it deserves immediate attention: do not EVER carry a balance on a credit card past the monthly due date. If you’re guilty of this dire sin, you need to read The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey and follow his baby steps out of financial ruin. The rapidly-accumulating interest from high APR credit cards will eat you alive.
If you’re one of the millions of poor souls who was raised without realizing how bad credit card debt is, the military can give you some breathing room while you tread Mr. Ramsey’s path to recovery. There’s a federal law called the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). Among other things, it requires credit card companies and lenders to reduce the interest rate on your pre-military service debt to 6% or lower. NerdWallet has a great post about this program. However, don’t use this good deal as an excuse to spend more! Use it as an opportunity to pay your credit card off and use it responsibly from that point on.
Part of Dave Ramsey’s advice includes never using credit cards again. While this is absolutely appropriate until you get your financial habits under control, it’s not something that you have to do indefinitely. If you’re disciplined enough to spend less than you earn, and you pay your credit cards off in full every month, it’s okay to use credit cards. If you choose your credit cards wisely and spend strategically, you can get loads of airline, hotel, and other valuable points for spending money that you would have spent anyway. For a primer on Travel Rewards, check out Episode 9 of the ChooseFI podcast.
You don’t need to be in the military to take advantage of travel rewards, but military members do get a huge advantage here. Most credit card companies charge an annual fee with their card. With the best cards, this fee can be very steep. However, most of these companies will waive their annual fee for military members. These cards are usually good values with the fee, but if you can get the fee waived for cards like the Amex Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve, you’re making money from day one!
Space-A Travel
Speaking of world travel, if this is your thing the military has some exciting opportunities. Military members are allowed to hitch free rides on most military aircraft — a perk called Space Available Travel, or Space-A Travel for short. The USAF’s Air Mobility Command has a good website for this Space Available Travel. While you probably won’t want to catch a ride to downtown Kabul, there are plenty of flights to great destinations all over the world.
Space-A travel isn’t as glamorous, reliable, or comfortable as commercial air travel. However, if you’re flexible, this is a ticket to a world of amazing adventure.
Free Gym Access
While it may not have a huge equivalent dollar value, it’s worth noting that just about every US military base on the planet has a great gym. Military members and their families get access to these world-class facilities for free. These gyms also tend to offer free classes in everything from basic fitness to cycling to CrossFit for those who prefer to work out with a group. In a world where obesity has become an epidemic and more people die from things like heart disease than combat or even traffic accidents, having easy access to a gym is something to love about military service.
There’s a lot that goes into calculating military pay and putting the myriad of benefits into perspective. We hope you found this overview to be informative and helpful if you’re considering a career as a military pilot. Although this article may seem exhaustive, the subject matter here actually only scratches the surface of the benefits you get from military service. Many of the links provided throughout can give you plenty of additional information about specific aspects of military pay and benefits. In addition, the staff at BogiDope is always working on new content and plans to cover some of these things in greater detail in future articles.
Flying Class One
This article is intended to give a comprehensive recap of what your time may look like at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) while conducting your Flying Class One (FC1) wether that be with the Air National Guard (ANG), Air Force Reserves (AFRC), Active Duty (AD) or through a university commissioning source such as United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) or Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). This article is written and is current as of October of 2023.
Pre-Departure
If you’re a Guard or Reserve selectee, a lot of your hard work on the forefront in regards to testing, applications, rushing and interviews leads to this trip. This is also likely the only obstacle that sits between you and OTS dates. If you’re an off-the-street hire from a Guard or Reserve unit, this very well could be your first time on military orders, so enjoy it!
Another note for off the street hires: If you’re able, get a Common Access Card (CAC Card) prior to your Flying Class One. Having a CAC card will make your life significantly easier getting on base and around Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
If you’re an Active Duty or ROTC bubba, this trip will look slightly different for you compared to the Guard / Reserve folks including a more structured trip, no rental car, most meals coming from a white cardboard lunch box or the DFAC, and a sprinter van that you’ll pile into for trips to and from the respective sides of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with the other cadets / selectees.
Day 0:
Day 0 starts on a Sunday with a flight from your home of record to Dayton, OH. Dayton’s airport is rather underwhelming, but everyone there is super helpful. The airport also gets a lot of government contractors and military personnel traffic, so they can help you if needed.
After you land, ROTC and AD candidates will more than likely have to either Uber or taxi, while the Guard and Reserve selectees can drive themselves with a rental car (if your unit sets you up in a rental). Regardless of how you get there, find your way from the airport to the historic Wright-Patterson Inn at 2439 Schlatter Dr. Bldg. 825, Area A Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433. The Inn isn’t anything to write home about, but it’s special in its own way. Once you check in and get settled, it’s good to reflect over the crimson red comforter, yellow tiled bathroom and old hotel carpet while thinking about all the other pilots that have gone through these same steps en-route to acquiring their wings!
Outside of the Wright-Patterson Inn.Inside a standard room at the Inn.
Try and call it an early night. If you’re in the pre-assigned Group A (you will receive this assignment via email the week prior) start fasting at 7 PM, and prepare for giving 12 vials of blood and a urinalysis bright and early in the morning by drinking lots of fluids. If you’re a part of Group B, eat as late as you want but it’s also wise to start drinking water in preparation for the next few days.
Overall disclaimers relevant for all days at your FC1:
Things worth bringing with you every day:
A pen to sign and fill out medical documents
Some snacks (something like peanut butter crackers does well at holding you over until lunch after giving blood or if some of your exams dig into your lunch hour)
A good book (there is no reception in the waiting room)
Sunglasses (at some point you’ll have your eyes dilated so sunglasses are a must)
Your prescription glasses
What to wear: They say to dress business casual if you are an off-the-street hire. Khaki pants or chinos and a collared shirt or button down works great!
Things to consider: Everyone at Wright-Patt is there to help you on your way to becoming a pilot. Although it’s a stressful time, ensure you treat everyone with the utmost respect. No one is out to get you.
Day 1:
Group A will head right across the street from the Inn to a large medical building called “Wright-Patterson Medical Center” for the aforementioned blood draw and urinalysis. (This building is located at 4881 Sugar Maple Dr, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433)
If I remember correctly, show time was 6:45 AM. Show up, check in, drink water and wait your turn. You’ll get called back and likely take blood prior to doing your urinalysis. The blood draw room is no bigger than 10×10 with nothing but a computer and two blood drawing chairs facing each other that have a bar attached to the front in case you pass out. If you’re as lucky as I was, you’ll be in that room with your buddy who’s in for a show when the Lead Medical Technician asks the new guy if he wants a shot. A kid no older than 19 years old and fresh out of AIT will say “Sure, but it’ll be my first time” and have shaky clammy hands while inserting the needle. Regardless of your fears, try not to pass out while giving blood because if you do that will likely lead to another conversation with another Doc. Finish your blood draw and urinalysis, then join group B at building 840 (address below) for the rest of your tests.
Group B will report to Building 840 at sometime around 7 AM. This building causes issues for some people to find. Building 840 is where you’ll spend most of your time throughout your FC1. The best piece of advice I have to find this building is to type “WPAFB Bldg 840” into Google Maps. This trick only works for Google Maps, not Apple Maps or other navigation apps.
Once you arrive, walk into the doors directly in front of the flag poles. This entrance will give you a straight shot into the gathering / waiting room. Head straight down the hall and right before you reach the Ophthalmology room (it’s labeled above the doorway), look left and there should be an open room with 30 black chairs, 2 TV’s, and a fridge. Find this room and you’ve found the place you’ll spend most of your time throughout the week.
Around 7 AM your Medical Technician Lead will walk in and start briefing you on standard operations. You’ll start with a packet or two of paperwork, then start the number of events sitting between you and an approved FC1. It’s important to note that you do start this process collectively under Group A or B, but it will not end that way. You’ll have buddies finish their FC1 by the end of day 2, while you or others may take the full 4-5 days to work through any pre-existing or discovered medical issues. Try not to compare your situation to others. An approved FC1 is an approved FC1, regardless of how long it takes.
You’ll go to and from this waiting room while being called back for exams. There is really nothing to do in this room, but it’s in your best interest to stay put so that you don’t miss a Doc calling you back. This is also the room with no reception so either talk among the crowd, watch a movie, read your book, or take turns playing PS2 on the back TV. You could establish yourself among the group by picking the movie to play on the DVD or VHS player (if you know how to work one of those things). The original Top Gun on VHS is guaranteed to be a hit among everyone there.
When lunch rolls around ROTC / AD bubbas will eat out of the white cardboard lunchbox in the waiting room fridge (seen in the photo above at the bottom of the left fridge), while Guard and Reserve guys and gals can head upstairs to the cafe and secure a panini, or go off base to get a quick bite. If you go off base I’d recommend getting something quick and bringing it back to eat in the waiting room so you don’t miss your name being called or an opportunity to knock out another requirement.
Day 1 will end at the time your Medical Technician Lead decides (normally around 4-5 PM). If you made friends in the waiting room, exchanging numbers isn’t a bad idea and neither is coordinating somewhere to meet for dinner. It’s doubtful you know anyone else in Dayton, OH to get dinner with anyway. Get dinner, try to call it an early night. Group B should start fasting no later than 7 PM and drinking fluids for your blood draw tomorrow morning.
Day 2:
Day 2 looks a whole lot like Day 1, but the groups are flipped. Group B goes across the street from the Inn for blood work and Group A reports directly to Building 840. Day 2 is chaotic because it’s almost every man for themselves from this point forward. Like yesterday, you start as a group then get singled out for your individual medical evaluations with no real order. This controlled chaos could lead to situations like you having not started your eye exams while your buddies finish everything and get their stamp of approval by Day 2.
Evaluations that are done throughout the days consist of the following:
Height, Weight, Sitting height measurements: These measurements are easy, self explanatory and out of your control.
Blood pressure and heart rate: No surprises here, this is standard just like any medical check up. Your FC1 can be an anxious time, so to help reflect good numbers on both your heart rate and blood pressure exams I recommend consuming no caffeine, creatine or supplements within 5 days prior to or during your Flying Class One.
Hearing: Since everyone prior to an FC1 has to go through Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS), you’ll know exactly how this exam goes. This evaluation is just like MEPS, but instead of being in a packed room this evaluation is done in a singular noise canceling box that’s no bigger than your standard closet. Mouth breath and try not to psych yourself into hearing the beep.
Dental: Your dental exam is similar to a standard civilian dental exam minus the teeth cleaning. They will take X-rays.
Medical records review with Doc: For this part you’ll be taken to a room to discuss with a Doctor all of your previous medical history. Now is not the time to shoot yourself in the foot and mention the Swine Flu scare you had in 2008 or an ankle sprain you had playing 7th grade Football for the first time ever. Truthfully answer any questions asked about what’s in your medical records, and you’ll make it out just fine. If you have something you’d like to discuss with a medical professional prior to this your Flying Class One, I would recommend looking into the BogiDope Military/FAA Medical Consultation which is a 45-minute medical consultation with BogiDope’s Aeromedical division. Our aeromedical professionals offer extensive experience and knowledge with military & FAA aviation medical requirements as well as the inner workings of medical waivers. All calls are 100% confidential and independent of the Air Force or FAA.
Optometry: This subject is multifaceted. There are going to be more eye exams done to you throughout your time at your FC1 than you even knew existed. Be prepared for a dilation, traditional vision exam corrected and non corrected to 20/20, color vision exam, lens topography measurement, eye laser measurement, the same depth perception exam done at MEPS, eye pressure test, a scan of the back of your cornea and more. Also if you cannot pass the non-corrected 20/20 vision exam or the depth perception the first time around, you’ll even be issued some sweet new spectacles from the Doc (photo below). I had friends fly through optometry in 1-2 hours while I took probably 7-8 hours over the course of 2 days. Everyone’s eyes are different.
The issued glasses look identical to this, just black frames.
Electrocardiogram (EKG): You’ll get taken into a medical room and get about a dozen electrodes stuck to you to measure things like how fast the heart is beating, the rhythm of the heart beats (steady or irregular), and the strength and timing of the electrical impulses as they move through the different parts of the heart. Once again this is an evaluation out of your control, so just breath.
Chest X-rays: They will take x-rays of your chest and chest cavity. You won’t hear or see anything about these results unless something out of the ordinary shows up.
Neuropsychological exam: This evaluation is done in a computer lab with about 25 of your other FC1 peers. If you’ve ever gone to an PSI testing center to take your FAA written exams, this looks alot like those locations. Outdated computers behind a beige fabric cubicle and a set of headphones from the 90’s hung up is an accurate representation for this room. This exam is all online and about 4 hours in duration but split up into four parts with a short break in between. These exams are a combination of a mental health screening, memory test, cognitive thinking test, overall general knowledge test and personality test. Although this exam holds no weight in the final decision of your FC1, it is still important. You also do not want to be the guy that gets questioned why your IQ portion of these exams was so low.
Final talk with flight Doc: This is your last step. You’ll visit the Flight Doctor one last time after completing all of the evaluations over the past few days. The Doc will start with a standard physical then dive into the results from all of your evaluations and exams. It is important to note if you are recommended for a waiver you won’t get told yes or no officially until your waiver clears the Surgeon General. After this conversation with the Doc you’ll have a good idea what your odds are of an approved FC1.
Day 3-5:
If you have a day 3 or 4 like I did, you’ll find fewer and fewer candidates left as the days pass. You very well could be the only individual left in the waiting room watching a movie alone. Press on through the “We see something we want to run more exams on,” and have hope you’ll get that final approval. Days 3, 4 and 5 if needed are allotted to finishing up any exams or evaluations you have not yet completed.
Whenever your time does come to an end at Wright-Patt or if you’re looking for something to do after being released for the day here are some solid recs:
Dayton, OH Recommendations:
National Museum of the US Air Force: This museum has enough airplanes and pieces of history in it to keep any aviation enthusiast occupied from open to close of business for 5 days solid. Imagine 4 large classic semi circle hangers packed full with all things aviation and space. Best part: it’s free. They do close early (5 PM) everyday so this can and should be a multi day stop for you. The only piece of advice I have when visiting is to bring your walking shoes and avoid the elementary school field trips.
SR-71 Blackbird on display at the National Museum of the US Air Force.F-117 Nighthawk on display at the National Museum of the US Air Force.
Texas Roadhouse Tuesday: For some reason a lot of the staff members at WPAFB go to the Texas Roadhouse in Dayton on Tuesday and call this activity “Texas Roadhouse Tuesday”. Coming from Texas I was skeptical, but rallied a group of other FC1 participants and went for dinner. This is a guaranteed good time and meal.
Golf: This Is hit or miss depending on the time of year you are in Ohio for your FC1. I went in July, and after a group of us passed our Flying Class One, we played a round of golf on WPAFB’s golf course called “Prairie Trace Golf Course”. You can rent clubs for $20 and split them with your partner, then get a cart and play 18 holes for $24. All-in, with the purchase of a sleeve of golf balls since none of us came prepared, this was a relatively cheap good time. The course is also well-maintained and the fairways play pretty straight for novice golfers.
Prairie Trace Golf Course at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Go to Cincinnati for a Reds Game: This is also dependent upon the time you are in Dayton, OH for your FC1, but if your orders align with a Cincinnati Reds home game the hour and twenty minute drive to Cincinnati might be worthwhile to catch a Major League Baseball Game.
All in all:
Your Flying Class One can be an incredibly stressful and nerve-racking time. For a lot of candidates everything up until now has been in your control. The Flying Class One strips you of any control and evaluates you on the basis of being “fit to fly” deemed on rigid pre-set standards. Relinquishing all of your control, trusting in the Docs and medical personnel at Wright-Patt, and taking a deep breath is my advice. During my 5th hour of eye exams and 7th Depth Perception evaluation, one of the Optometry Doctors reminded me that during your FC1 it is extremely rare for one exam or evaluation to disqualify you. It almost always has to be a collection of things. This was my first time hearing this. Going into my FC1, I always heard that failing your color vision or depth perception would be an automatic disqualification. This isn’t true, there were several people who had multiple tries at depth perception and my class even had a candidate fail color vision and get re-tested.
If you have any concerns of previous or ongoing medical issues, I would recommend reading the most recent revision of the Air Force Waiver Guide HERE and considering a BogiDope Military/FAA Medical Consultation call HERE.
If you have any questions feel free to direct them to me at Riley@BogiDope.com and if you would like another BogiDope perspective on your FC1 find it HERE.
Goodluck and Godspeed.
Decision Point
If you’ve been keeping up with this article series, you’re now familiar with the basic mechanics of getting into Navy Flight School, working your way through the syllabus and what your first tour in the Fleet is going to look like. If I’m totally honest, few people pursuing this path give too much thought to what’s beyond getting to the Fleet and flying your platform operationally. And it’s certainly not a bad thing to keep focused on what’s right in front of you as you grind through the process, as it’s common that five-to-seven years will elapse between getting your commission and obtaining a tactical qualification that marks you as vaguely useful to the USN or USMC. That’s a long, hard stretch that’s best consumed in day-sized bites.
So you’re in the majority if you’ve spent very-little time considering what lies beyond. In the spirit of BogiDope, however, I’m here to make you smart on what comes after and give you a few nuggets of wisdom to consider for the long game.
Generally speaking, the Navy has a very fixed path they want folks on. The Navy is obsessed with the idea of making command and advanced-rank competitive, so they want to push everyone to do everything so they will all be able to compete for the job of Chief of Naval Operations. On a quick side note – if you don’t actually want to be an admiral and/or command the entire fleet, you’re best served not admitting this right away.
At any rate, the path for junior aviators is all laid out for you: you’ll spend two-to-four years in training, then do a three-year tour as a junior officer in your platform. Afterwards, most pilots will head to a three-year shore-duty job as a ‘production’ tour, i.e. as an instructor in some capacity. These jobs range from basic flight school all the way through the FRS squadrons and the Navy’s graduate schools for combat aviation at the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center (NAWDC) in Fallon, NV – which has at least one relatively famous subunit known as TOPGUN (all caps, no spaces).
After three years as an instructor, the Navy has a little timing-buffer while they await the results of the promotion board to O-4. Ideally, they’ll send you back to the fleet in a slightly non-traditional role which we call the ‘disassociated sea tour’ where you’ll do something slightly different, or back to a squadron to serve as a tactics instructor if you’re a graduate of a weapons school. If your timing is ‘early’ (i.e. you were fast in the training pipeline), you may have a chance to go get a master’s degree; if you are late, you might be headed straight back to the Fleet as a department head. After this, the Navy has more firm paths to keep you on to make sure you’re eligible for squadron command.
If you are reading this carefully, you might realize that each one of these new jobs comes 18-36 months after the last one, mostly involving “sea” (or deployable) duty and may involve cross-country moves. This may not sound great to you depending on your family situation. The Navy hasn’t quite caught up with the times, and the force-structure for aviators still generally assumes each officer that chooses to have a family comes equipped with a dedicated, obedient, non-working spouse to organize everything in your life and periodically move your entire family cross-country while you’re working long hours or gone at sea from time-to-time. Don’t take this the wrong way—it’s entirely possible to be a hardworking Navy or Marine pilot and still have a spouse with a career and a passel of happy kids. Do not, however, imagine this is easy to pull off. It will go much better for you if you’re aware of, and actively managing, the challenges—and make sure anyone that’s looking to tag along for the ride has some idea what the ride actually looks like. Please. For their sake and for yours.
Right around the time you finish up your production tour, you will likely be approaching the end of your first service commitment. Currently, service obligations are six years for NFOs, eight years for jet pilots and seven for all other pilots, starting at the date of your winging. In other words, you’re likely to be ten-to-twelve years deep before you even get a choice to get out. This decision point can be tough, so you need to make sure you’re well-educated about your options.
Get out: At ten-ish years deep, you’ll have some skillsets the civilian market is interested in. Obviously, the airline route is lucrative and available, but the non-flying skills that made you a good Navy pilot to begin with will earn you plenty of interviews in all kinds of fields. If you get out, you ought to think about whether or not you’re going to affiliate with the Reserves. It’s possible to earn a military pension in the Reserves, but it doesn’t start paying out until much later in life—typically 60 years old. Some potential Reserve options are as follows:
Flying job in the reserves: These jobs are nowhere near as common in the Navy or Marine Corps as in the Air Force, given the relative paucity of Reserve units, but they’re available. Especially for tactical-jet pilots. If you’re wanting to try a change of scenery, the Army or Air National Guards can also be a great landing spot, allowing you to choose where you want to live and what you want to fly. These jobs tend to be more like part-time jobs than traditional reserve jobs. Mixing one of these with an airline job can be very lucrative. And a good way to keep having fun while flying, as most military pilots find the airline brand pretty boring.
Non-flying Reserve job: This will look like the standard one-weekend-a-month, two-weeks-a-year gig you’re probably familiar with. The Navy has ever-changing rules on when, and under what circumstances, they can activate and deploy you but suffice it to say that, at some point, you will have to stop your civilian-life and do Navy things again for a while. Probably for 6-12 months in a remote part of the world.
No reserve job: If you leave the Navy voluntarily and don’t join the reserves, that’s it—clean break. If you are required to separate from the Navy (e.g. you fail to promote to O-4 after two attempts), then the Navy hands you a decent wad of cash to compensate you for that retirement for which you’ll no longer be eligible. However, if you join the Reserves and earn the retirement after all, you’ll have to pay it back.
Stay in and stay ‘on track’: The Navy’s going to pitch you lots of on-track jobs. These are, for the most part, relatively arduous and/or involve lots of deploying. As a retainment-booster, the Navy frequently offers bonus packages (“Aviation Department Head Retention Bonus, or ADHRB) to aviators to incentivize officers to stick around. They’ll shell out for five years or so in sums ranging from insulting ($5k a year) to potentially interesting ($40k a year), depending on their need for different flavors of pilots each year. As a general rule-of-thumb, if the economy is stroking and the airlines are hiring, the Navy’s going to be doling out big bonuses. If not, they’ll try to cheapen the deal. If you take the ‘blood money’ and do your job well, you may find yourself on track for advancement, command and a long career in the Navy. Even if you don’t, by the time your bonus-related service commitment is up, you’ll be 15ish years deep into your career and probably considering military retirement carefully.
Stay in, but get ‘off track’: Taking certain jobs, particularly non-flying ones, or not taking the bonus when it’s offered to you may be viewed by the Navy as a lack of commitment to their goal of making you eligible for higher-rank and command. They likely won’t dole out the seemingly choice jobs and may get stingy with promotion opportunities. Recognize this fundamental truth about mid-career Naval Aviators: all of the advice you’ll be getting on your career will come from people like your detailer or your commanding officer who are all ‘on track.’ If you want to do something wild, like get an advanced education – working quasi-regular hours to support a more sustainable family-life – or even just stick to flying airplanes and keeping the paperwork numbers down, you’re going to have to search out those who have done things like that and figure out how it’s done. This is because the formal processes aren’t super helpful. Jobs like this do, in fact, exist, but they aren’t well-marketed. The best path to finding them is by buying a cold beverage for those you meet who seem to have found such jobs and picking their brain.
What’s right for each individual varies as much as the individuals themselves. The important thing is that you research your options so that, when you’re put to a decision, you’ve got an idea of where you’re looking to go. It’s never a bad thing to keep your options open, but most of the paths in the Navy have fairly strict on- and off-ramps so that, at some point, you’ll need to decide. If you take one thing away from all of this data, hear this: while you’re working your way through the standard path of Naval Aviation as a junior officer, make sure to take some time to talk career-paths with the people you meet along the way. And with your loved ones, as what they’re willing to do can be a key factor in your decision-making. These sources of practical knowledge will be your best references on current conditions and what options are really available. Investments made in knowledge are rarely bad ones!
Fleet Meat: What to Expect in the Fleet Replacement Squadron and Your First Fleet Tour
Once you get those Wings of Gold after what can be two-to-three years of continuous training, it’s time to go do the nation’s business for real, right? Well….no. Wrong. You’ve got at least several months of formal schooling ahead, followed by another one-to-two years of informal school before you’re actually useful. Consider yourself warned: you need patience to get through this whole thing, and if you don’t do well putting on a humble ‘student’ face, you need to do some attitude adjustment before you dive into the pipeline. Your next set of orders after Flight School will be to take those shiny-new wings and head to the Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) in the type of aircraft you’ve been assigned to “get your learn on.” Again. As an administrative note: while this process is broadly similar across both the Navy and Marines, this article will be Navy-centric and the Marine differences will be highlighted later.
The good news is, once those wings are on your chest, you are at least a little more valuable to the Navy as a whole. Students in the FRS (sometimes referred to as the RAG, or “Replacement Air Group”, which harkens back to the days of the unit’s function being to replace combat losses) are still unavoidably students. But “coneheads,” or “cones,” as FRS students are sometimes known, are no longer entirely faceless. I recall seeing a sign posted as a reminder in the scheduling shop of my FRS unit: “Remember, cones are people too.” You will see no such reminders before you get those wings. The FRS may even grant you a Friday off if you are trying to take the weekend to get married, for example. Before heady thoughts of three-day marital weekends start making you feel too much love from the system, recall that you’ll be wearing a flight suit and those wings are sewn on a Velcro patch. This is by design: it is not too hard to remove Velcro patches. Stay on your game.
The FRS, like other flight schools, starts with the basics: aircraft ground school & systems, simulators for emergency procedures and a few familiarization flights. Soon enough, regardless of your platform, you’ll be diving into tactics and reading a lot to make sure you know your crap. The information tends to come at you like a firehose, and you’ll be expected to drink up. You will not have time to master the first skill before you’re handed a second. This is okay; the Navy has done this before, and they’ve figured out which skills you’ll get better at with time. Go back and look at your notes for an early-phase flight later in the phase when you’re feeling overwhelmed; you’ll see that stuff you were sweating ten flights ago has already become second nature. At this stage, in platforms with both pilots and NFOs, the students are combined again. Sometimes you’ll fly with instructors, and sometimes you’ll have to work through the flight’s problems with fellow students.
And now, for the obligatory “Attitude” section. . . it’s huge. Still. Always. A good attitude will make people want to help you. A bad attitude will make people want to watch you fail. You will need help at some point from everyone: daily from your instructors and often from your classmates as well. It’s just too much data to absorb on your own. Do not make yourself the subject of discussion when the instructors get together around the ready room table! All of the instructors are fresh out of the fleet and have close ties to their fleet units. It’s not an exaggeration at all to say that your reputation as a good officer/aircrew begins the day you check in to the FRS. As you near graduation, unit commanders will be in frequent contact with their ‘moles’ inside the FRS, asking about which cones have ‘it’ and which cones are hazards to themselves in the aircraft. These communities are very, very small. Your professional reputation is built every day in the FRS.
Tactical jet and E-2 pilots will finish up their tour with another trip to the aircraft carrier. This time, loaded with confidence from their experience in the VTs, the daytime traps will probably be far more enjoyable. This joy will be sucked out of you and replaced with abject terror when they make you do it in the dark. Advances in technology have made this process far more automatic and less frighteningly manual than it has been in the past in some platorms, but it is still something to throw your aircraft at 135kts at a moving ship in the dark. Don’t get in your own head too much about it. Focus on the moment, land the aircraft, then forget the moment as soon as it’s over so you can focus on doing it again. This kind of compartmentalization is a key to be mastered for your future career.
Upon graduation from the FRS, you’ll be ‘patched’ to a Fleet squadron and will meet that unit wherever it is. The unit could be in a maintenance downtime phase, with few flying aircraft, or it could be downrange dropping bombs the day you get there. You theoretically have the knowledge to plunge right in at this point, but don’t get cocky; in practice, it takes another year or two before you have the chops to administer useful service to the country in your new platform.
Some communities are more intense about callsign culture than others, but it’s still a worthy topic of conversation as it points to a key component of fleet Naval Aviation culture. A callsign is a nickname, and many Navy pilots are forever known by them, almost to the point where people you’ve deployed with may not know your actual name. The primary function of having everyone known by callsigns (the French call it your “Nom de guerre,” or “War name,” which I like) is to remove rank from the cockpit. Yes, you will call your commanding officer ‘sir’ or ‘ma’am’ a lot, but not much in the cockpit. Things are moving too fast for rank to interfere with the right answer to a problem, and callsigns help break down the rank structure in a place where it is not always helpful. Unlike the Air Force, where your callsign is typically cool, the Navy callsign culture is to use your nickname as an axe to chop down your ego. Ready room culture is all about banter, which is both a bit of fun and a way to apply subtle corrections to people. It is not a great place for the overly sensitive, and a bit of thick skin is in order in a Navy squadron. Pro tip: if you really don’t like your nickname, pretend to like it a lot; they’ll probably change it for that reason alone.
Freshly patched Navy pilots and NFOs head to the Fleet for what is commonly referred to as the “J.O.” (junior officer) tour. This tour is the foundation for the rest of your career and typically the most revered. As a ‘nugget’, you will be stressed by the responsibilities that get thrown at you, but the vast majority of these problems are in the aircraft. Older aircrew have to deal with a lot more paperwork than you do. Enjoy it when you can!
There are various qualifications that are available to you as you hit the Fleet. You’ll be expected to progress along a tactical syllabus. Helicopter and tactical jet aircrew will work with increasingly large numbers of aircraft. All platforms will expect increasing mastery of complicated, dynamic and technically-specific tactical execution. A typical JO tour is 36 months and may involve one or multiple deployments, depending on operational tempo and timing. You will enter into it much like flight school – that is, ears open and mouth firmly shut; by the time you finish, you’ll be mentoring the nuggets. This is an exceptionally busy time in your career, and it is not easy to integrate what the Navy would regard as distracting additional stressors like getting married and having children, but it can be done.
You’ll also go through a series of ground jobs, which are additional duties you’ll be expected to handle while simultaneously keeping on top of your flying duties. Some of these jobs will include leading squadron junior Sailors, including the maintainers working on your aircraft. You are not expected to become a maintenance expert, and please don’t kid yourself and think you’re there to tell your two-decades-of-service Chief Petty Officer how to run their shop, but you can’t be in charge of those who change aircraft tires if you’ve never even seen your shop change a tire and don’t know what instructions they reference. You’re there to learn from your senior enlisted Sailors so that you’ll have some idea how things work later on in your career when you have more responsibility.
The rule of thumb as a Navy JO is that there are three areas on which you are judged: Your abilities in the aircraft, your abilities in your ground job and your social act as a ‘good guy/gal’ and facilitator of squadron cohesion. Do two out of three well and you’ll be fine. . . so long as one of those is to be good in the aircraft. In other words, if your paperwork skills are mediocre, you’d better be leading the charge setting up the squadron social activities and dismantling cliques; conversely, if your social life revolves around changing diapers, you’d be best served to slay it at your ground job.
Timing in general is something a lot of your career from this point forward will depend on. It is something you don’t have much ability to affect, but make sure you know all the details before you write something off as ‘fate’ due to timing. Top performance ranking paperwork is typically handed out near the end of an officer’s tour, either during the annual report cycle (January for JOs) or during a unit commander’s change of command, so the timing of your departure and that of your closest contemporaries has tremendous implications in the paperwork shuffle. Similarly, tactical qualifications may not be available to you if you’re too junior when the assets are available or too close to rotation to make the expensively-obtained qual worth the unit’s effort if you won’t even make that unit’s next deployment. You can’t worry too much about it, but you need to be aware of it. If the system believes you have serious potential, they will figure out a way to fix glitches in your timing that aren’t your fault, and the skipper has tools available you’re not aware of, presuming you’ve earned it with your performance.
While it is a long grind from the start to the finish of the training process, by the time the process is over, you’ll have earned the right to be proud of what you have accomplished. Take it one day at a time when it seems overwhelming and learn the day’s lessons well. You’ll find, in the end, that you’ve got a diverse collection of skills to call on to solve the challenging and interesting problems Naval Aviation careers throw at you. In our next article, we’ll briefly touch on the highlights of the early-to-middle parts of a Naval Aviation career to round out your picture of what you can expect before you dive in.
This article’s objective is to give you an overview of what Navy flight school looks like generally with an eye towards the attitudes and trends that may make a candidate successful while they’re there. I’ll assume you’ve been reading along week-to-week, and are all up to speed on the necessary steps to get to this point, so I won’t restate them. But for those of you inclined to skip ahead, I’d advise caution. The hardest part of Navy flight school, for many, is the plethora of steps required before they’ll let you show up in a VT (Navy training) squadron wearing a flight suit in the first place!
The Navy or Marine Corps has already invested considerably in screening candidates by the time they report to Primary Flight Training in either Pensacola, FL or Corpus Christi, Texas. They’re not out looking to drop people, but they won’t hesitate to drop someone whose attitudes and performance do not make the standards. They’re also in the instructional business, so your first screwup isn’t likely to be your last; you are a student and expected to make a few mistakes. That said, there’s no reason to give instructors any ammunition. You are expected to act like a professional: be in the right place at the right time with the required knowledge loaded in your brain. If you do that, and are humble and eager to learn, you will get plenty of breaks. People that get dropped at this phase are people who think they’ve already got it made and don’t need to put their heads down and work hard.
Flight school scheduling can be erratic. This isn’t intentional per se, but is an accurate reflection of what a Navy flying career is going to look like. In this regard it is, effectively, training you for the future. Sometimes you will be told you’re not even classing up for weeks or months, only to get a call the following Friday that you start on Monday. You’ll be told to be ready to fly a particular event by a particular time, but if the airplanes are broken or the instructors are overbooked, you may not even make the flight schedule. The Navy does not live in your proverbial chili with respect to what you are doing with your time when you are not on the flight schedule, or what you do when your 9am flight gets weather cancelled. Should you study in the downtime? Should you grab a thirty-rack of CL Smooth and head to the beach? It’s over to you. If you can’t figure out how to organize your time and show up ready to slay when it’s your turn to work, Naval Aviation isn’t too interested in your services in any case. Make sure you are mentally prepared for the random and frequent transitions from heinously overworked to ludicrously undertasked.
Primary consists of six-ish months of ground and flight instruction in a propeller-driven trainer aircraft, these days the T-6B Texan II. The T-6B is a lot more airplane than the light General Aviation aircraft you saw in IFS; it’s got a turboprop engine and ejection seats and will be more than adequate at this stage of your career to induce humility. Regardless of whether you’ll fly helos, heavies or fighters, everyone starts with Primary in the T-6. Primary flight school is also very simulator-heavy, so you can expect to rehearse nearly all your flights in numerous sims before executing them in the air. Your attitude (towards your events, your instructors and your peers) is more important than your immediate aptitude. The aviation environment is unfamiliar and unforgiving, and you will be expected to have to work through some difficulties. If you are one of those people that just steps into the cockpit and slays, you will still be judged almost as much by your attitude as your skills. Notice the trend here?
You’ll proceed by phases through familiarization, instrument, aerobatic, navigation and formation flights. Nearly all of your events will be scored and the grades will be tabulated into a “Naval Standard Score.” Your NSS is the number that will define your life once you’re in a specific platform. The gonkulator used to generate the NSS isn’t handed out like Halloween candy, but in general terms, the NSS is scored on a standard distribution curve comparing you to a large pool (years) of your flight-school predecessors. Typically, an NSS in the top 35% is required to select ‘tailhook’ and go on to jet training to fly things that stop abruptly on aircraft carriers. Policy varies from unit-to-unit and year-to-year on how much knowledge you will be given about your scores, so you may not even know what your NSS is until moments before you put in your request for a platform. This can be a bit scary if you have your sights set firmly on jets.
Another important point to mention here is that almost all (if not all) of your instructors in Primary come from the rotary-wing or patrol communities, so walking in and telling all who can hear that you only want to fly fighters “because helos are for taking out the garbage” is not likely to be a strategy for success. The instructors, however, are typically consummate professionals, and they recognize students as humans. Generally, you will fly most of your early flights with one instructor, an ‘on-wing’ as they’re known. It is not uncommon, after a few flights of you working hard and not being a douche, for the on-wing to ask a student to cut through the bullshit and just say what it is they actually want to fly. If the student is, indeed, looking for fighters, the instructor will often step up the pressure, but reward you with better grades. Whereas they may, perhaps, relax a bit if you mention you don’t feel the ‘need for speed.’
Tread carefully here, but be honest, and be prepared to back up your ambitions with hard work. Also, pay close attention to what phases of the syllabus at any one time seem to reward or punish students. You will, at some point, have to ration your own personal academic resources, so you might as well ask some more senior students whether the candy (an ‘above average’ score against the standard known as MIF) gets handed out by sounding good on the radio in the aircraft or by nailing a complex approach in a simulator.
In the end, the Navy’s formula for who gets what is quite efficient as a system, but can feel appallingly arbitrary to the individual cogs in the machine that are its Student Naval Aviators (SNAs). Come the end of your syllabus, you’ll become a ‘class’ with whomever else finished their last flights about the same time as you, and your class will put in their request for what they want to fly next. The leadership will meet, take a look at how many slots of what flavor are available that week and who is eligible for what, and make some hard calls. About the only guarantee is that the #1 pilot in a class generally gets their first pick. Otherwise, do as well as you can and politely ask for what you want. You just can’t tell when or who sees what from a flight school student and finds themselves in a position to change your entire career, which is why I keep harping on that ‘attitude’ bit.
Those selected for Naval Flight Officer (NFO) will complete an almost identical track, though will spend more (though not all) time in the back than the front of a training aircraft. NFOs do get the perk of spending more time in Pensacola than many of their pilot brethren.
The pipelines diverge somewhat for Naval Aviators after the Primary syllabus. Those selected for VFA/VAQ (tactical jets) or VAW (E-2) will report to either Kingsville, TX or Meridian, MS for Advanced, which typically takes 9-12 months in the T-45 jet trainer. Helicopter pilots head to Whiting Field, FL while multiengine pilots take on the T-44 (Beech King Air) down in Corpus Christi, TX. In case these places are unfamiliar to you, let’s just say that the Navy picked some amazing spots to keep people focused on flying rather than their social lives.
Advanced is much the same in organization as Primary, but the pace will quicken somewhat. You’ll work through the basics of the new aircraft, including lots of sim time, before introducing some more advanced items. Don’t confuse yourself—you’re not going to leave Advanced a tactical wizard or, indeed, with any real-functioning tactical knowledge at all. The ‘tactical’ scenarios are laughably rote and predictable compared to what ‘fleet meat’ deals with, but the point is to expand the amount of information you can process and react to while flying an airplane at the same time.
The fundamentals remain the same: Study hard, have a good attitude and be ready to flex. One of the key differences in Advanced is that the instructors will expect to you be able to deviate from the plan and make it happen. If you freeze up when Air Traffic Control tells you the approach you’d planned to fly is unavailable, you are going to struggle with the syllabus. Yes, it’s a bummer that the studious work you put in to knowing the plan in excruciating detail before the flight just got tossed out the window—but it is also the way things work on the daily in the Naval Aviation environment. Know the plan well, but know the contingencies equally well. And be prepared for all of it to occasionally get scrapped in favor of something entirely unexpected.
The syllabus may or may not be competitive and have a grade emphasis for further selection. As always, it reflects well upon you to score highly, as top pilots generally get a better shot at their first choice of coast, at least (East or West), come graduation. The types of people that make it into Navy flight school are almost compulsively competitive, so coming out on top will take a lot of hard work. Advanced Jets training, in particular, has varied historically. In the Old Days, when the Navy flew multiple flavors of fighter/attack aircraft simultaneously (F-14s, F/A-18s, A-6s, A-7s, EA-6Bs), the students tended to compete aggressively for grades.
In the more recent past, orders to Jets meant orders to an F/A-18 of some flavor – period – so there was more of a ‘cooperate to graduate’ mentality—insofar as that was really possible amongst the narrow cross-section of society that makes up prospective Navy jet pilots. At this stage of training, if you haven’t already figured it out, you will find that the ‘lone rangers’ struggle. There is just too much information to digest without leaning on the collective wisdom of your peers. Don’t put yourself in a position where your peers aren’t sure they want to help you out when you get swamped.
Pilots selected for tailhook aviation will culminate their training with a trip to The Boat. Landing the T-45 for the first time on a moving ship is a mildly terrifying experience, and more than a few pilots have suffered hiccups at this phase of training that either set them back…or held them up entirely. In case you were wondering, your first ‘trap’ aboard a carrier will be done solo, with no instructor in your aircraft, because it is a thing that ultimately has to be done on your own. Fortuitously, the Navy has long experience getting ‘nugget’ (new-guy) pilots aboard the ship in one piece.
You will be trained to the point where your higher cerebral functions do not need to be operating at optimum performance to get through it, because they are completely aware of the fact that those functions will be short-circuiting for a little while once you hear the “Charlie” (Come down and land) call. Once you’ve come down from the rush of the first trap, and scraped your face off the head’s up display because you forgot to lock your harness, you get the sensational roller-coaster reward of a catapult shot back into the sky. You’ll repeat this process a dozen or so times over a couple of days and, at this phase of training, you will only be expected to land aboard-ship during the daytime. Due to a combination of factors, including the looming replacement of the T-45s with a non-carrier-capable training jet, the Navy is actually experimenting with phasing out the actual carrier qualification (CQ) part of Advanced training, so there will soon be pilots that first see the ship at the controls of a Super Hornet or Growler.
Graduation from Advanced comes with a big, shiny-gold set of wings you get to wear. It’s a huge moment, and you should take a moment to savor it. Then, pack your car and put your ‘student’ hat back on, because the learning has just begun, and you’ll next be headed to a Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) to learn the type of airplane you’ll be flying in the Fleet.
All right, you’ve got your grand plans for commissioning and getting selected for aviation. You feel like you’re set and ready for takeoff. But first, there are a few hurdles you’ll need to clear.
So, what does the start of Navy flight school look like? In this article, I’ll walk you through the start of your journey, before the flying even begins, and mention a few land mines to avoid along the way.
The first thing I’ll address here, briefly, is one of the things that can be the biggest pain with regards to finalizing those orders to flight school: medical screening. This is a long topic that should be covered by someone whose expertise is medical (i.e. not me), but I’ll throw a couple of things out there as food for thought:
1) They are going to find something wrong with you. Don’t freak out.
2) The medical process’s function is to disqualify people right from the outset with minimum fuss. Don’t just take the first ‘no’ you hear. Investigate, get a second opinion, etc. And, finally, the golden rule: There’s a waiver for just about everything. The secret is to find the person who has the power to say yes, because nearly everyone in the process is empowered to say no. Find them, be nice to them, and complete any requests for information they have.
3) Make sure you let your desire to fly be known with the medical professionals you’ll encounter if there’s anything that could be a concern. Sometimes this won’t matter, but sometimes it might. The medical world is a bit more ambiguous than its professionals will admit; if they know you’re gunning for something, they’ll be empowered to help you out.
4) If you have mediocre vision, don’t panic. The Navy will do surgery on your eyeballs in many cases. Policy here changes from time-to-time; make sure you know the freshest instructions and policies. If you’re sufficiently cross-eyed that the Navy denies surgery, realize that Naval Flight Officers fly jets off carriers, too, and historically have much more relaxed vision requirements.
Presuming you pass the medical hurdles (typically late in your junior year for ROTC or USNA students), your first foray into Naval Aviation will be via the Introductory Flight Screening (IFS). IFS is a program that is going to put you in the cockpit of a light civil, like a Cessna 172, with civilian instructors for about 15 hours of instruction. The function of IFS is very simple: It is a cheap and fast way to weed people out that have no business being there. IFS isn’t particularly hard or even really scored; it’s more of a pass/fail type of thing. Because I just love bulletized lists, here’s a short list of ways you can fail at IFS and end your Navy flight career early:
1) Bad attitude. Study the things you’re told to study and be humble. If you clown around and don’t know your stuff, they’ll send you packing.
2) No aptitude. If you work hard, but it turns out you just can’t read maps or talk on the radio, it’s better for everyone to know this early. It happens. If you work through it, great, but some people just can’t. A trajectory change at this early point in an officer’s young-career is no real detriment to anyone.
3) Physiological or psychological issues. If you get really airsick all the time when you fly….honestly, it’s not a showstopper. If you really want to press through, it will likely get better…eventually. It isn’t unknown for people to hurl just about every day for their first year or so of flight training, and if those folks can grind it out–respect. You may, however, discover this is not fun and suddenly decide driving subs sounds much better than it used to. Some people also panic or freeze up when they’re in charge of an aircraft and life is whizzing by at several hundred miles per hour. Work through it if you can, but move on if you can’t.
IFS has flexed a little from year-to-year, but you can expect to complete it either in your senior year of college, shortly after graduation, or just before starting the first formal phase of flight school. It typically takes place at a civilian flight school near Annapolis, Quantico, or Pensacola.
A common question is whether or not a prospective Naval Aviator should devote time and resources to obtaining civilian flight time to make their flight packet more competitive and/or maximize their odds of doing well in flight school. I wouldn’t emphasize this too much, personally. If you have loads of time and money, sure—it won’t hurt. However, the Navy is going to want to teach you their way, and one of the functions of IFS is to give everyone a little bit of exposure (on the Navy’s dime) and level the playing field a bit. If you want to fly on your own, do it. If you already have some credentials, you may get to skip IFS. But, in general, your time and money might be better spent preparing yourself academically and doing whatever needs to be done to put your life in good condition to allow yourself to focus when the going gets tough and the scores start counting. Speaking of which…
API, in beautiful Pensacola, FL, is where the journey formally starts for Naval Aviators. It is a roughly six-week course that serves as baseline of basic knowledge for aviators. It has a secondary function of weeding out a few more of the less-suited. In addition to the academics, the staff at API will throw you into the pool for some aviation-survival-related training. For most “Student Naval Aviators” (SNAs), Pensacola will be the first stop in a military career. Marines, however, can expect a few months at The Basic School in Quantico, VA to learn basic Marine-isms and infantry skills prior to reporting to API. Overall, API shouldn’t be the hardest phase of flight school by any means, but it can be a problem if you don’t take it seriously. You will probably get assigned to Pensacola and put into “A-pool” for some time before you actually start API and, depending on how the numbers are, this dead-time could range from weeks to several months. Sow your wild oats then, if you must, so that once it starts you are totally focused. And look! It’s time for another bulletized list of how not to screw it up!
1) Don’t take the academics lightly. They’re not hard, generally, but they tend to feed and withdraw information in a very Navy way. There isn’t much room for creative expression; you will need to listen carefully to the (sometimes dry) lectures and study with your peers. The actual passing score depends on how the Navy’s doing on pilot numbers; it might be an 80…or it might be a 95.
2) If you avoided all math and/or technical subjects all through college, that bill is going to come due here. It’s not that you can’t get through without an engineering degree by any means, but you will see math and physics, particularly in the Aerodynamics classes. Do yourself a favor and freshen yourself up on these matters in your senior year if you got a B.A. in Underwater Basketweaving.
3) If you were an Aerospace Engineering major in college, throttle back, hoss. You know more than you need to. Give them what they ask for—don’t start drawing integrals on the board to prove how the overly-simplified multiple-choice question is wrong.
4) Be warned: If you are the kind of person who barely studies and somehow manages to clear the bar, those habits are not going to work for you here. The course is too short to bomb tests and recover. Much of it is painful, boring, rote memorization and multiple-choice tests. You can’t talk your way into a passing score.
5) If you panic when in water and weighed down with a bunch of gear on, this is a bad time to find that out. Get in the water before you go and improve your swimming skills if you already know you’re an ‘aqua rock’. Pool time should be a break when you’re at API.
6) There’s a bunch of “gouge” out there (“Gouge” is slang for various good bits of information that range from the very useful to the slightly nefarious). Good gouge would be getting your buddy, who just graduated API, to give you his materials and notes to study before you start. Nefarious gouge is more like copies of the test. If you cheat, and the Navy finds out, you will be cooked, quickly and permanently. Don’t do it. Talk with your fellow students and find the good gouge, but study the material straight out of the books, too. As the saying goes: Live by the gouge, die by the gouge. Don’t reinvent the wheel when you don’t have to, but don’t bet your career on a stranger’s ideas of what’s important and what’s not.
Near the end of API, you’ll attend “API Christmas,” where you’ll receive your initial allotment of flight suits, jackets, helmet, etc. Take your obligatory selfies and pack your things, because with the ground business complete, you’ll have orders in hand to report to a flying unit to begin the fun part of the process. Which will be our topic next week!
If you want to fly for the Navy or Marine Corps, your best bet is to get a commission. While non-commissioned (typically warrant officer) pilots are not unknown in the history of the USN or USMC, those programs have come and gone and never provided anything like the numbers of aircrew that officer commissions provide. Let’s get into where these commissions come from.
The United States Naval Academy (USNA). The largest-single institutional source of commissioned officers for the Sea Services, the “Boat School,” in Annapolis, MD, produces close to a thousand officers every year. Four years aboard and you’ll leave with a college degree and a commission.
Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC): On the campuses of some universities, ROTC unit can be found. These units typically offer scholarships of various sorts and, upon graduation with your college degree, you’ll also get a commission.
Officer Candidate School (OCS): If you already have a college degree in-hand, you can check with your local recruiter and try to find yourself a spot in OCS. Upon graduation of this 90-day course, you’ll earn a commission.
Accession from Enlisted: The Navy has various programs to put commissions on Sailors that are already enlisted. They typically (but not always) require the college degree. Commonly called “Seaman to Admiral,” they may provide a Navy-funded college education enroute. Some programs for enlisted, most famously the Navy’s Nuclear Power school, are also well-known backdoors for enlisted sailors to obtain appointments to the Naval Academy as well.
A Quick Note on Officer Transitions
I would advise some caution on the thought process of, “Well, I’ll just get into the Navy and figure out a way to fly from there.” From the officer perspective, if you get offered a spot that isn’t an aviation spot, it is difficult (though not impossible) to move from one community to another. For example, if the Navy sinks a bunch of money and time into you to learn how to drive subs, they’re not going to be super interested in throwing that away by letting you go fly jets—they’re looking for a return on their investment.
Additionally, transitioning after a few years of commissioned service thoroughly muddles your career timelines and, thus, you many not be competitive to advance very far in the new community—something which the Navy might care about more than you do. However, it’s not an absolute “no.” It depends on the needs of the Navy and the graciousness of your superior officers when you attempt to apply. If you can’t score a better deal, show up as a “Surface Warfare Officer” (SWO), go get your pin (earn your commission), and work from there. But be warned: this is a hard road without much certainty.
The same note generally applies once you’ve selected for a particular community. The Navy or Marines may, or may not, be interested in you switching from a Naval Flight Officer to a pilot or from a helicopter pilot to a fixed-wing pilot. It just depends on the numbers, which vary widely from year to year. In short – don’t count on it.
If you’ve already got a college degree in-hand, you are likely uninterested in doing it again. Call the local recruiter and see about a spot in OCS with an aviation contract. Realize that the recruiter is a salesman of a sort, with quotas to meet. The recruiter may know exactly how to get you just what you want and will lay it out for you. They also might be super-keen to fill a spot for some obscure job that isn’t flying airplanes. Make sure you know what you want and spell it out. OCS may or may not be offering up spots you’re interested in at any given time. A phone call to the local recruiting district to speak to an officer recruiter is the way to start this process and get the latest data.
If you’re fresh out of high school, or have only a little college time complete, look into ROTC or USNA. They both come with their own strengths and weaknesses, though they get you to roughly the same place. When you are a college junior, you will begin the process of requesting a community, and you’ll find out where you are headed during your senior year. Does this mean you could end up driving ships, even if you really want to fly? Well. . . yes, it does. Naval Aviation has a community culture of excellence, and they’ll pull from the top. You’ll earn your spot by doing well at whatever you do. This does result in a little mantra I learned during my time at USNA that I’ll share with you: “Polisci—wanna fly?” You will be judged by your GPA. The wannabe Maverick that pulls a 3.0 on the notoriously easy-on-the-report-card Political Science major is in a far better spot than his uber-motivated twin who scores a 2.5 in Aerospace Engineering.
Let’s break it down the way aviators often do: Goods…and Others.
The price is right. Just show up. They don’t even charge to apply. They even pay you (albeit not much…) while you’re there.
There are a lot of aviation spots out of USNA each year (~300) and many people go to USNA and, astonishingly, don’t even want to be pilots! Finish in the top-half of your class and you’ll likely be in good shape.
You will graduate with a huge network of classmates that will have military careers. This will come in handy if you stick around in the military a long time.
It’s a highly-respected institution and may enable access to things on the civilian side, like graduate schools and employment-related networking opportunities.
You might be one of those sorts that gets motivated by marching in parades with fixed bayonets while listening to a band blasting out John Philips Sousa.
USNA- Others:
The school is just flat hard to get into. You need a complete resume (good grades, sports accomplishments, extracurricular activities) to be competitive. Teaser… BogiDope knows some people that know some things about getting into USNA.
If you have some college already in the bank, you may not be excited about starting over and doing a full four-years. Having lots of college or AP credit in the bank won’t even ease your college workload very much in the event you do get in.
It’s a serious academic institution that is stacked with people that did well in high school. If book learning isn’t your thing, you may struggle to get what you need to get an aviation slot. They’ll make you take loads of subjects you may be keen to avoid.
Your freshman year is not going to be pleasant. It will be interesting, for sure, but not pleasant. “Plebes” at the Naval Academy have numerous, ah, ‘extracurricular’ requirements for their time that have little to do with becoming Navy or Marine pilots.
You may not be one of those sorts that envisions spending their Friday nights ironing uniforms to get ready to march in parades while listening to a band blasting out John Philips Sousa. You might envision your Friday night spent in your dorm room with a cold, tasty beverage and perhaps even closing the door while a member of the opposite sex is in the same room. Such morally hazardous activity is, of course, not permitted at USNA.
You get to pick your school. If it’s got a Navy ROTC program, you’re set.
Often have very pleasant (though not always totally all-inclusive) scholarship packages, including living stipends.
You graduate with the same commission, but do a lot less marching in the process.
The strain on your time from your ROTC military commitments is way less than at USNA, freeing up time for studying, socializing, or even getting six or more hours of sleep every night, if you so desire.
ROTC-Others:
Competitiveness for an aviation slot varies somewhat. Ask your prospective schools how many people competed for how many spots and if they got what they wanted. In general, like USNA, people tend to get what they ask for if they do reasonably well, but local conditions vary.
You won’t have quite the same depth of “rolodex” as your USNA peers.
You have fewer opportunities to march around with fixed bayonets in dark wool uniforms on hot summer days listening to a band blast out John Phillips Sousa (this may also be a “good” depending on your perspective).
If you don’t have the resources or high school GPA to head straight to a college program, you might consider enlisting in the Navy and working up to your commission from there. Naval Aviation has deep respect for those who’ve taken this road and its officer corps is, in all honesty, in need of folks with prior-enlisted experience. This path could take a whole chapter, so in the interest of brevity, I’ll hit the high points for now:
You’ll need a high school diploma or GED to enlist.
Picking a career field in aviation is likely to help your chances. It’s possible you won’t get that choice, though. Try to push for it. If you are a motivated aircraft mechanic or crewman and good at your job, you’ll likely have aviation officers lining up to sign your recommendation letters.
Watch the timelines. Some commissioning sources (USNA in particular) have hard caps on how old you can be when you start. Similarly, Naval Aviation will start frowning at you if you’re going to be in your mid-thirties by the time you see a cockpit.
Do well at what you’re asked to do. Nobody will want to hear about how bad you want to fly jets when your job is to paint bulkheads unless you are the best-damn bulkhead painter in your shop. Being good at “today’s job” needs to be your first priority.
Opportunities to show your stuff in academic environments mean a lot when you’re seeking a commission. In particular, one of the Navy’s hardest academic schools, the nuclear power program, is notorious for cranking out future officers.
The quotas for the enlisted-to-officer programs vary from year to year, but they’re always there. If selected, the Navy may fund your degree while paying you as an enlisted sailor while you are also earning time counting toward a military retirement, which is one of the most ludicrously good deals in the free world.
Is there a “best” way to become a Naval Aviator? I’m personally not convinced there is. The best aircrew share personal qualities more than they share commissioning backgrounds. Whatever path you take, the objective is the same: Report to Aviation Preflight Indoctrination at NAS Pensacola, Florida, ready to get down to the business of learning to fly.
In the spirit of this series, the function of this article is to leave the prospective Naval Aviator more informed about just what it is they’re considering getting themselves into. I’m going to go a little more into the platforms that we fly and the places that Naval Aviators live, though I will leave the ‘green’ (Marine Corps) details for a future chapter. We will, of course, talk the fun stuff (and there’s a lot of it), but honesty is also part of the deal here, in the spirit of education. So, first thing’s first, a couple of caveats:
It’s the military. Having a preference about what you fly is nice, but nothing is guaranteed. Needs of the service and the whims of the details will rule the day.
It’s the military. Having a preference about where you live is nice, but… you can fill in the blank here.
MOST IMPORTANTLY—If not being certain of scoring your preferred platform or duty station is a dealbreaker for you, you’re barking up the wrong tree. The desire to serve and be part of a group of talented, like-minded individuals is the only thing you need to be certain of. This, however, can be said of all of the services, so hopefully it doesn’t come as a shock.
Of course, knowing things is key to upping your odds of getting the things you want, and learning things like this is what the friendly folks here at BogiDope are all about.
In training, everyone starts out in NAS Pensacola, on the panhandle of Florida. This “Cradle of Naval Aviation” on the ‘redneck riviera’ boasts warm, sparkling waters and white sandy beaches. Sadly, you probably will only spend a short time here. After initial training, you’ll be farmed out to one of the basic and advanced training bases, located across the American south: Whiting Field (right next to Pensacola), Meridian, Mississippi, Corpus Christi, Texas or its nearby neighbor Kingsville, Texas. None of these fulcrums of American civilization are world-renown for very much, but, again, you’ll only be there a matter of several months to perhaps a year and change.
After initial training, you’ll head to one of the Fleet Replacement Squadrons (FRS) to go to school on your platform. The Navy tends to have two main bases for each platform, one on each coast. If you have a strong preference on where you’d like to live, consider this when requesting a platform.
Strike Fighters (F/A-18E/F and F-35C) center their worlds on Lemoore, CA (in the Central Valley) and Virginia Beach, VA.
Electronic Attack (E/A-18G) is entirely centered in Whidbey Island, WA, on the Puget Sound north of Seattle.
Airborne Command and Control (E-2C/D) reside in Pt. Mugu, CA (northwest of LA) and Norfolk, VA.
Helicopter Anti-Submarine/Sea Combat (MH-60S/R) units focus in Jacksonville, FL and San Diego, CA
Patrol and Reconnaissance(P-8, P-3C, EP-3E, E-6B) units are based in Whidbey Island, WA and Jacksonville, FL. The E-6Bs live in central Oklahoma at Tinker AFB.
Fleet Logistics (C-2A/ CMV-22) units hail from San Diego, CA and Norfolk, VA.
Certainly the most famous segment of Naval Aviation, the aircraft carrier is frequently the centerpiece of an American foreign policy effort. It is sometimes cool to be the center of attention, though I admit this honor depends somewhat on how well armed the enemy in question is. The carrier sails with host of different units aboard, including:
Strike Fighter (“VFA”): VFA squadrons come in three flavors. Most common is the F/A-18E Super Hornet, commonly referred to as the “Rhino,” a single-seat, multirole fighter. Slightly less common is the “Family-model Rhino”, the F/A-18F, which trades a few hundred pounds of gas for a second crew station for a Weapons Systems Officer (WSO, pronounced “Whiz-Oh”). The new hotness in the community is the F-35C Lightning II, a single-seat stealth fighter slated to replace some of the older Super Hornets in the inventory. These units are the hammer when the strike group commander needs something on land or sea blown up, and they’re the shield when the enemy launches aircraft to dispute the carrier’s presence. While the Rhino is an enlarged derivative of the older F/A-18A-D Hornet which came into service four decades ago, it’s received a fair bit of love over the years, and current models have extremely capable, cutting-edge sensors, data links and weapons. As an air defense platform, it carries a healthy payload of air-to-air weapons. Though the Super Hornet in a combat configuration isn’t going to win many races against other modern fighters, it’s known for its exceptional maneuverability in knife-fighting range. It can carry buckets of air-to-surface stores in the attack role: bombs of all flavors (dumb, laser guided, GPS guided, etc) and various missiles that target surface ships and land targets. But Wait-There’s More! Not depicted in any recent Hollywood films is the tanker role, whereby you load up with three to five external fuel tanks, one of which contains a long hose used to transfer gas to other fighters. This isn’t just a thing the Rhino is theoretically capable of doing—it’s a thing carrier pilots do all the time when aboard the ship. The F-35C is a fairly new (“5th-generation” is the in-vouge term) stealth fighter with a broadly similar mission set as the Hornet, but they get to skip the tanking and focus on the higher-end threats that give the Super Hornets a hard time.
Electronic Attack (“VAQ”): Electronic Attack units fly the E/A-18G Growler, a variant of the F/A-18F modified for the electronic attack role. Its two seats contain a pilot up front and an “Electronic Warfare Operator” (EWO, pronounced “E-woe”) Naval Flight Officer in the trunk. Their mission is to detect and suppress enemy air defenses so the fighters can strike their targets. The Growler does this with both electromagnetic energy (jamming) as well as kinetically with missiles designed to destroy surface-to-air threats. The Growlers have the same advanced radars as the Super Hornets and therefore have robust air-to-air capabilities as well, though as prized, rare, and important assets, they are usually screened from significant air threats by a few Rhinos. Nerd jokes aside, the technical capabilities of the Growler are what allow both Navy and Air Force fighters and attack aircraft to attempt the most difficult and contested missions. Since the Air Force lacks a similar dedicated electronic attack aircraft, the Navy owns this mission nationally, resulting in a few dedicated land-based Growler units (“Expeditionary” in Navy parlance) that deploy to land bases in support of Air Force operations. These units have good collections of Air Force exchange officers and one presumes they also deploy with Air Force-grade espresso machines as well.
Airborne Early Warning/ Command And Control (VAW): The VAW squadrons are equipped with the E-2 Hawkeye, a twin-turboprop aircraft that looks like it’s being terrorized by a UFO. That big dome on top of the airplane is, in fact, a large, long-range radar system. The E-2 has two pilots up front and three Non-Flight Officers (NFOs) in the back. Combine this crew with that huge radar and approximately one million radios and you have what functions as the nervous system of the carrier strike group. The Hawkeye crews detect and track the enemy at long range and manage the fight. Though you may not hear them talk about it right away, Navy fighter pilots will eventually admit that they’re slightly in awe of the guys that have to land that very wide, very manual E-2 on the ship in the dark.
Carrier-based logistics (VRC): The VRC squadrons haul the mail, parts and people to the ship and typically have small detachments assigned to carriers underway. They have two varieties: the older C-2 Greyhound (Like an E-2, but without the attached flying saucer) and the newer, and infinitely more expensive, tilt-rotor CMV-22. While the logistics mission isn’t always sexy, it is one of the best hidden deals in the Navy. You get to deploy with the carrier, but instead of hanging out with seven other sweaty dudes/dudettes in a tiny footlocker aboard a noisy ship in the middle of nowhere, you most often lay your head down in your four-star hotel. Such accommodations, naturally, include cold, tasty beverages consumed at some exotic foreign bar/restaurant serving food not cooked up by teenagers for mass consumption like your carrier friends. Fun fact: did you know that Navy pilots have to pay for their food aboard aircraft carriers? VRC pilots know this and chose the route of Per Diem instead.
Navy carriers also deploy with helicopters aboard, but they deserve their own section. . .
A little-known fact is that the largest pool of pilots in the Navy are helicopter pilots. Navy helo crews fly three different models of aircraft with three different missions:
Sea Combat (HSC): The MH-60S is the platform-of-choice for the Navy’s most versatile helo platform. A variant of the same Blackhawk helo found across the military’s aviation assets, the HSC squadrons do just about everything. They deploy with carrier groups and conduct search-and-rescue for downed aircrew in the water or on land. They can load up SEALs in the back, take them where they need to go, and support them once ashore with missiles, rockets, cannons, and crew-served machine guns. In the event the enemy’s tactics involve smaller ships and boats coming at you, the HSC crews can apply those weapons against those targets at sea as well. They also strip off all the weapons and do logistics work, moving palletized cargo and non-palletized people back-and-forth between ships at sea. The Navy even has some HSC units that are “Expeditionary” and deploy to land bases. Much like their Super Hornet brethren, the HSC pilots in their MH-60Ss are the jacks-of-all-trades.
Maritime Strike (HSM): Flying another Blackhawk derivative, the MH-60R, the HSM squadrons specialize in hunting subs and surface ships. They deploy aboard both carriers and “Small boys” (cruisers and destroyers) to lend their eyes, ears, and fists to their parent ships. They often operate in small detachments, sometimes only one or two aircraft, in a very independent and self-reliant mindset. HSM pilots get the unique joy of landing on the smallest, least stable flight decks in the Fleet, a skill set which has to be seen to be truly appreciated.
Mine Countermeasures (HM): Flying the venerable (and monstrous) CH-53E, these squadrons conduct counter-mine operations. They primarily operate off of land bases but retain the capability to operate off of surface ships as well. The Navy is trying to neck down the number of helicopter types it has in the inventory, and the CH-53s are supposed to go away, but the MH-60s can’t pull the same hardware and so the 53s soldier on for the time being.
Likely the least well-known segment of Naval Aviation, but with no-less critical roles to play in the massive scope of Naval Aviation’s point and purpose:
Patrol (VP): The Navy’s shore-based, long-range patrol aircraft are the ageing P-3C Orion and its newer cousin, the P-8 Poseidon, which is based off the very famous Boeing 737 airframe. These squadrons detect and track surface ships and submarines. The missions are long and the crews are large, with multiple pilots, NFOs and enlisted sensor operators aboard. Say what you want about the relative sexiness of the patrol platform compared to the carrier stuff, but carrier guys pee in bags and sleep in tiny beds on ships. VP guys win both those rounds for sure.
Reconnaissance (VQ): The EP-3E Aries II variant of the P-3 is a flying antennae farm that looks to collect and analyze enemy electronic signals. There aren’t very many of these around, so they are tasked in support of the most important missions. Augmenting, and eventually replacing, these units are the MQ-4C Triton, a large, unmanned Navy version of the USAF RQ-4 Global Hawk. Under the VQ umbrella are the small numbers of E-6B Mercury airborne communications aircraft, a version of the Boeing 707 airframe flying out of Tinker AFB near Oklahoma City.
The Navy maintains several other units doing training missions, transport, adversary and test & evaluation stuff, but all of these units will pull from a host community that’s listed above and accession into these units is many years down the road in a naval aviators’ career. It is, thus, a subject for a future article.
Getting a feel for what it’s all about? Got some thoughts about what you want to do and where you want to go? Next up, we’ll talk about how to get your foot in the door.
Naval Aviation - Cultures, Attitudes and Career Path
If you’re interested in figuring out if Naval Aviation seems like your cup of tea, you’ll be interested in what sort of folks do the job, as well as what kinds of attitudes and cultures prevail. This is a topic probably worthy of its own novel and has had more than a few written on it—shout out to CDR Ward Carroll and his excellent Punk’s War series of novels, which are a great view of the culture from someone that’s been there—as well as a few feature films. You may have heard of at least one or two… But let’s try to cut through the Hollywood and get to the real deal, shall we?
Here’s my take on the things that define the attitudes and drive the culture of Naval Aviation:
1. FLEXIBILITY. I’ll allude to this throughout these articles, and I’ll double down on it now: “Semper Gumby” is a lifestyle. There are times when this is awesome. If the day’s mission just doesn’t make sense based on the current circumstance, the pilot on the scene is not just empowered to flex, it’s expected that they do so. This enables the enterprise to quickly react and solve problems, and if you’re one of the folks out there that gets a rush when you get ‘thrown a curveball’ and successfully accomplish the mission anyway, this is your business for sure. Memorizing reams of manuals is nice, but to make flexibility work, you need to have a bunch of different skills and the ability to choose the right approach (which may not have been the planned or briefed one!) under pressure. There are times when it is less awesome, like when the higher-ups decide to go ahead and send your unit to sea a month early over Christmas because Nation X just did Y and your unit is on the hook to react. This sort of flexibility requires a certain sense of fatalism to deal with effectively. . . but it does tend to generate a sort of “We’re all in this together” feeling, even if it sometimes smells like gallows humor.
2. DECENTRALIZED LEADERSHIP. To make 1) above work, you have to empower your junior leaders. While any organization with as much communications technology as the military has will inevitably suffer from occasional bouts of intrusive leadership, the Navy’s history lends itself more than the Army or Air Force to empowering the independence of its decision makers. Ship captains of yore did not have time to wait three months for a mail run before deciding where and how to employ their vessels; they just received some vague instructions from the boss when they left port and were left to their own devices to figure out how to execute the commander’s intent. To learn how to work like that, the Navy tends to take a similar attitude toward its junior officers, telling them less of “how to do it” and more of “what needs to be done.” The idea is to give folks plenty of rope and it’s over to them whether they lasso the enemy with it, or their own neck. There is a lot of decision-making at the junior and middle-grade officer level. If you step up and start making good things happen, you are likely to be allowed to continue to do so. At least until you screw it up, anyway. This is cool for some people, and very scary for others—consider yourself warned.
3. TACTICAL EXCELLENCE ENABLES LEADERSHIP—AND OLD PILOTS FIGHT. One thing you won’t see very often in any military service is senior officers doing the same tactical functions as the junior pipe-hitters. As a new pilot, you’ll be expected to shut up and learn, learn, learn, ‘drinking from the firehose’ as we say. But as you get more senior, you will retain the requirement to be tactically excellent while piling on more and more responsibilities. This can be stressful, but it’s awesomely rewarding, because even senior guys are expected to get out there and do what they signed up for. Very few military career paths see senior officers with 15, 20, or more years of service out there with the proverbial sword in their hand, standing on the front line on Day 1 of the fight. Not only is this expected in Naval Aviation, it’s a requirement: the culture is such that we expect our senior officers not just to fight alongside the junior ones, but to excel. Thus, to lead a bunch of Naval Aviators, the requirement is that you be among the very best in the crowd. It isn’t a “can’t-miss” system, but it does tend to yield bosses you respect.
4. MICROCULTURE. As you can imagine, a culture of flexibility and decentralized leadership leads to a situation where there’s a lot of variability from unit to unit and platform to platform. When folks have the opportunity to innovate and change things at their level, standardization across units becomes a bit tougher. The Navy’s personnel system moves people around a lot, adding to the churn. You might check into a squadron and find it a total mess and then come to find it firing on all cylinders and winning awards 18 months later with a new CO and some turnover among the junior officers and senior enlisted leadership. Realize, as well, that there are huge gaps in culture and attitude from one platform to another, and some communities are better fits for different types of personalities.
Notice what I didn’t mention? Ego, overconfidence, excessive risk-taking? Sorry, fans of the 1980s, but these things are not the drivers of the culture. Are there confident people in Naval Aviation? By the bucketload, of course. Professionalism is the name of the game, and the best professionals tend not to be risk-taking egomaniacs. The hardware is too technical, the mission is too difficult, and the stakes are too high for those sorts of things to rule the day.
It’s not all roses, of course. Naval Aviation culture ferments some attitudes some folks don’t enjoy. The Navy revolves around deployments, and not every person or family can handle the constantly-changing workup cycle and deployment schedule. It’s also a system that assumes a certain thickness of skin, the idea being that a thick skin promotes an attitude of working through problems that is useful in combat. Banter is the name of the game, and generating humility among very confident people is what its function is. Note how similar the words “humility” and “humiliation” are and you’ll get the idea of how Naval Aviators seek to encourage humility among its members. Naval Aviation nicknames – “Callsigns” in aviation parlance – are typically references to something you screwed up, as opposed to Air Force nicknames which all seem to be super cool. Any Naval Aviator worth his wings is going to poke fun at the Air Force pilot they see at the Officer’s Club with “Buzzsaw” on his nametag. If you see a Navy pilot with a similar nickname, check to see that he still has all his or her fingers. Ready room banter (and the occasional sophomoric joke) are big draws for many, but less so for others.
If all of that sounds good—great! Here’s a super-quick summary of the path you’ll be getting yourself into. Worry not, I’ll expound upon it all in later articles.
Step 1: Get a commission. The United States Naval Academy (USNA), Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), and Officer Candidate School (OCS) are the main sources. Enlisted-to-officer programs exist too. You’ll be expected to have a college degree.
Step 2: Initial Training. You’ll go through a lengthy (two to four year) training pipeline from the time you pin the ‘butter bars’ on your shoulder until you have a set of golden wings on your chest. That’s a long grind, and sometimes it will feel like every day is the final exam, because it very well might be—prepare yourself. When you wing, you will incur a service commitment of six to eight years. It doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out that walking down this path is going to be a serious, decade-long (at least) commitment.
Step 3: Junior Officer Fleet Tour. The cornerstone of the freshly winged aviator’s career will be in their first deployable tour in their platform. The learning is not going to stop, but by then end of this (typically three-year) tour, you’ll have a lot of qualifications, a lot of experience, and probably some cool stories to tell to your grandkids.
Step 4: Junior Officer Production Tour. After your fleet tour, you’ll likely head to a shore tour, and it’s very likely this will be as an instructor somewhere, teaching future aviators at anywhere from the basic to the graduate level.
After these steps, you’ve likely discharged your initial commitment, and you’ll be up for promotion and more responsibility. This is the time where you make the call about staying in or getting out. One thing I’ll point out here: the Navy does have reserve flying units, but they are nowhere near as numerous as their Air Force/ Air National Guard brethren, and they are all staffed by aviators that have completed Steps 1 through 4 above—there’s no direct accession to the very airline-friendly reserve components as there is in the Air Force.
Hopefully you’ve now got a sense of what Naval Aviation is all about. Next up, we’ll talk details about the “what” and “where” of it before we start going into detail about what those steps above really look like in detail.
You know, many people consider “A Day in the Life” to be The Beatles greatest work? I, personally, struggle to agree with that… Don’t get me wrong! It’s got some GREAT moments. Some of the most vintage Beatles-moments ever put to record, frankly. But I think that the song, at times, can seem a bit scattered, sometimes overwhelming and even, occasionally, downright melancholy. But the combination of all of its elements has convinced a good many people – most of whom arguably understand music better than I – that it is truly “the Fab Four’s” magnum opus.
In this way, it is a stunningly accurate metaphor for a life in Army Aviation. New aviators leave Flight School with a fire in their belly and an excitement that’s bordering on mania. They report to their new units hungry to learn, grow and get better. And then…over time…people have bad days. Maybe bad weeks. Even bad months. Their flying is off, they’re distracted, maybe they have an in-flight incident that scares the crap out of them, or the NON-flying part of their job is weighing on them…
And they are reminded that this is a real job that occurs in conjunction with real life. Becoming a pilot in the Army was not, in fact, the triumphant conclusion that brings the audience to its feet. Rather, it was a (albeit very exciting) prelude to the actual story. A pre-intermission scene. Once the popcorn’s been purchased and the people are back in their seats, there’s a whole new movie to watch with new characters, new crises, new climaxes and the actual resolution can be decades down the road.
This discourages some. Demotivates them. But for those who dig in, don’t give up on the day-to-day and work hard to become the best officers and aviators they can be…it’s nirvana. Much like “A Day in the Life,” it all strings together to become a magnum opus. A triumph. Regardless of whether they’re in for 10 or 30 years.
Now let’s talk an Army Aviator’s “Day in the Life.”
First and foremost among the commonalities is that both Active Duty and Guard/Reserve pilots have the same annual training requirements. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating, because it comes as a shock to some. Electing to be in the Guard/Reserves does not, in fact, give you a hall pass to get out of becoming a proficient, highly-capable aviator. You can’t just coast. There’s just as much expected of you as your Active Duty comrades.
The post-Readiness Level (RL) progression goals of each aviator should, thus, also mirror one another regardless of component. Once an aviator has attained RL1, they should strive to become proficient enough to be able to become a Pilot-in-Command (PC). This is true whether a pilot is a RLO or a WO. The PC-progression program can vary widely as it is unit-driven, but generally speaking, a pilot will need to prove proficiency in both technical and tactical operation of the aircraft under varying conditions. PCs, ultimately, are the primary trainers in a unit (the Army is currently re-structuring slightly and creating “Unit Trainer/Evaluators,” but we won’t dive into that here).
Active Duty units will almost always allow this to happen sooner than Guard/Reserve units. This is because they will generally have a younger, less-experienced group of pilots than the part-timers and, thus, need the PCs. Simply put, Guard/Reserve units hang on to their pilots. Active Duty pilots, in contrast, will move from unit-to-unit, duty station-to-duty station.
Warrants
The lives of Active and Guard/Reserve WOs are remarkably similar. Excepting, of course, that the latter have a fraction of the time to complete their required training, both flight- and non-flight-related. But Warrants Army-wide will almost immediately go into a Line Company upon arrival at their units to begin their metamorphosis into an Expert of Flight. This is their purpose. This is their reason.
Upon completion of RL Progression, they will be given an “additional duty.” This is the job that takes their time when they aren’t flying and, most often, allows a lot of time for aircraft/aviation study, mission planning, etc. Some additional duties are: Unit Hazardous Material Officer, Supply Officer (a time-consuming venture that should be considered a compliment), Aviation Life Support Equipment Officer (maintains, helmets, flight vests, etc.) and “Fridge-Fund” Officer (the person that keeps the fridge well-stocked – a low effort, SUPER high-reward job for the WO that does it well), to name a few.
The young Warrants’ primary objective week-in and week-out is to get on that flight schedule and go get those repetitions. Those that prove their ability to adeptly manage the requirements of their additional duty and their flying will be the quickest to make PC and get a track.
RLOs
As I alluded to several weeks ago, post-RL progression flying for RLOs has to be a close-second in priority. We’ll call it “1b.” This is because a RLO has to learn a lot to do their non-flying job well and that non-flying job takes a lot of time. Whether on Battalion (BN) or Brigade (BDE) staff, or acting as a Platoon Leader (PL), the RLO is responsible for a lot of people, equipment, information, planning products, maintenance, etc.
But I specifically called it “1b” to ensure that you understand: it’s NOT “Priority #2.” It’s definitely 1b. A young LT has to work hard to ensure they are in the books and getting in the aircraft as often as they can to become a proficient aviator. It’s a tough balancing-act, but it’s the one you elected when you decided to become a RLO.
Again, a majority of a new RLO’s time is going to go to their non-flying job. As a LT, it’s not a large majority, but a majority nonetheless. The higher one climbs in rank, the larger that majority becomes. I’ve said it before…the path of the RLO is NOT to become the best, most experiences, highest-hour pilot. It’s to become a really freaking good pilot while setting conditions for your Warrants to become the best, most experienced, highest-hour pilots.
I’ll only add a couple of administrative notes here, as everything listed under “Commonalities” pretty well covers the scope of what Active Duty pilots’ time is given to. As I said, Active Duty pilots will generally progress to become PCs earlier than their Guard counterparts. For those who are crushing both flying and their additional duty, particularly WOs, becoming a PC within a year of arriving at your first unit is absolutely possible. For the majority of pilots, it will happen somewhere between 18-24 months after arriving.
RLOs will, most often, begin in a Staff job at their new unit until a spot opens up for them at a platoon. This could be anywhere from 1-12 months. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS DEVELOPMENTAL OPPORTUNITY. You’ll fly less than at a platoon (once per week-ish), but you’ll have opportunities to learn how the Army works. This will get you way ahead in your capabilities as an Officer in the Army. Once you’re at a platoon, the flying increases (twice per week…ish). This is, without a doubt, THE IDEAL TIME to become the best pilot you can. You will have more opportunity to give your flying/piloting a concerted focus as a Platoon Leader (PL) than in any other position in your career.
The other administrative “good-to-knows/good-to-remembers” are those idiosyncrasies tied to be Active Duty. Depending on the culture of your BN, you may be expected to go to PT every morning. You’ll have to follow Army leave policies anytime you want time off or want to go anywhere. In essence…the Army owns you, and all of your time, so you will sometimes be required to put in a LOT of time. This isn’t a traditional 9 to 5.” And you’ll be away from home far more often than those in the Guard/Reserves, both in terms of deployments and training exercises.
But for that, you’re getting paid really well, working towards a retirement and you have fantastic job security. Pros and Cons. Consider them when deciding what path you’ll take.
Regardless of whether you elect to become a RLO or a WO, once your RL Progression is complete (with or without being put on orders, as mentioned in last week’s article) your focus with respect to the Army becomes Additional Flight Training Periods (AFTPs) and Drills. Each pilot in a Reserve Component is allocated 72 AFTPs per Fiscal Year (FY). For the U.S. Government, the FY begins 01 OCT of each year. So, put plainly, you have from 01 OCT of a given year to 30 SEP of the following year to execute 72 AFTPs.
Just to be clear, nobody is required to complete all 72. But they are there for you. Each AFTP is a minimum period of four hours. For completing that four-hour period, a soldier gets paid one day of Active Duty pay minus housing and sustenance allowances. It also earns you one point towards retirement. Retirement as a Guardsman is a whole article of it’s own, so I won’t go into it here.
A soldier can complete two AFTPs consecutively on a single day and, most often, that’s exactly what pilots do. They will come in one day/week, if possible, and execute two AFTPs while conducting a flight and/or flight-related training. So the equivalent of two days of pay for one day of work. For some individuals, this can be tricky to work out in conjunction with their full-time employment, so maybe they come in once every-other week. I could go an, as the variety of combination are just about endless, but you get the idea.
Some aviators who are commuting a long distance to get to their unit will even sign up to fly for two or three days leading into, or directly following, a drill weekend. This enables them to only make that commute once/month. This, obviously, can have a detrimental effect on one’s sharpness in the aircraft, as it means there are long pauses between flights (recency helps to avoid the buildup of rust in one’s flying).
The moral of the story is, it’s incumbent upon the individual to figure out what works for them. This can take trial and error, but so does everything else in life. And once you get into your rhythm, it’s totally manageable.
Now on to Drills – all soldiers in the National Guard are allocated 48 Inactive Duty Training periods (IDTs) per FY. An IDT is, effectively, identical to an AFTP (same pay, same retirement point, same four-hour minimum, etc.). As the National Guard-gig is traditionally advertised, this means one weekend per month – two IDTs on Saturday, two on Sunday (4 IDTs x 12 months=48 IDTs). But often, for aviation units, it just doesn’t happen this way, as the conduct of good aviation training may require more than two days.
So aviators will often find themselves attending drills that start Friday morning or Friday evening and then run through the weekend. Given that each soldier is only allowed 48 IDTs, something has to give. If this is the case, there will be months in which no drill occurs, as the IDTs for that month were dispersed elsewhere throughout the year.
Regardless, this means these pilots are doing their “Army jobs” only two-to-three days per month, on average. So you can imagine that drill weekends can feel really busy, and the learning curve can feel really steep. A lot of administrative work, training – both flight-related and not – and planning has to happen in a really condensed period. As stated above, soldiers in the Guard, with only a few exceptions, have the same annual training requirements as their Active Duty counterparts. Just less dedicated time to complete it.
But the tradeoff? The Army only owns you a few days per month. Because even when you’re going in on AFTPs, it’s to fly/conduct flight-related training only. This fact, for many, is priceless.
So it’s up to you to choose! Which lifestyle better suits your goals, plans and ideals?
I led off with some blunt honesty. This life can be freaking hard sometimes. But as anyone who’s flown in the Army will tell you, it is so worth it. You will never experience anything like it doing anything else anywhere else.
I hope you’ve enjoyed your introduction to Army Aviation! Keep an eye on the website as we’ll be rolling out coaching/mentoring, unit locations and contact information, and job postings in the coming weeks. Some eCourses to help you in the application/interview process to get into your desired unit will be following thereafter.
It’s our goal to teach you, guide you and help you get the job you want, where you want. We at BogiDope are incredibly excited to help any and all of you to fulfill your wish to become a pilot in the baddest aviation community on this Earth – United States Army Aviation.
You’ve learned a lot about becoming an Army Aviator in the last couple of months. Though the last two weeks did focus on aspects of being a pilot post-flight school, the focus was still “becoming.” But I’d wager there are a fair amount of readers wondering what it all actually leads to.
In order to answer this question, it’s fair to first give you a short rundown on what to expect when you finally arrive at your receiving unit. The truth is, attempting to spell it out in definite-terms is difficult (read: impossible). The variances in experience are wide-ranging and entirely dependent upon the state of the receiving unit. This being said, I can at least give you some notion of what to expect upon your arrival. The key component to thrive once you arrive, in every case, is that you remain flexible.
Something that absolutely every single Army pilot should do, however, is to contact anyone they can from their receiving unit. This is INCREDIBLY easy to do for pilots in a reserve component, as they almost always already know people in their unit. After all, their unit specifically selected them for and sent them to flight school. For the Active Duty-types, it can be slightly more difficult. However, in many cases, a member of your receiving unit will reach out while you’re still at Rucker. If you never get such a call/email, find the contact information for anyone you can at your receiving unit and start reaching out.
With those important administrative notes out of the way, let’s dig in!
Regardless of whether an individual is on Active Duty or in a reserve component, the following generalities apply:
Upon graduation from Flight School (and completion of any follow-on courses one might land) the young, enterprising Army Pilot will be given time and money to move. In military speak, it’s called a “Permanent Change of Station” (PCS). You already had to complete one when you moved to Ft. Rucker. Anyone intent on flying Active Duty will become intimately familiar with this process. You’ll be doing it every 3-4 years (although the Army is currently attempting to implement changes to make it less-often, if desired. Fingers crossed…).
I won’t dive too deeply into PCSes, as it’s a confusing and smoky topic for which one can find information on myriad federal websites/databases. But be advised…the time to contact your receiving unit is NOT in the middle of a PCS. That would be the equivalent of making an important, incredibly-informational phone call while holding your breath underwater and working on a Calculus exam. In short, it would be uncomfortable. And you’d miss something. Don’t do that to yourself.
Following the move and, for the Active Duty-types, associated “PCS Leave” (time-off to sort out a living situation and settle-in), the fun begins. Again, those ugly “Needs of the Army” rear their six heads. For a young aviation officer, the “place to be” is an aviation line company. This is where the aircraft are. This is where the pilots are. This is where the missions are. This is, in sports parlance, “The Show.”
But there’s a chance that you show up and there are no slots available for you in a line company. You may end up in a maintenance company, in a staff job or even in a support company. And instead of flying the missions, you’ll be supporting them. You’ll still fly! Just…not as much, and certainly not as much during training exercises. If this happens to you, DO NOT become bitter/lose motivation and squander the opportunity to learn and excel in something that’s entirely different from what you’ve been learning. The experience gained in any one of these jobs will absolutely pay dividends once you move to a line company and further along in your career. So take advantage.
Sometimes that flight line just might be empty…
There’s also a chance that, upon first arriving at your unit, you won’t be able to start flying for a while. This could be because your unit is either deployed or recently-returned from deployment, meaning no aircraft are available. It could be because the unit’s participating in a major exercise, so you simply can’t be the focus until the exercise is complete. It could be that there’s a training logjam because so many fresh-aviators are reporting from Flight School in short order.
Whatever the reason, many-a-new pilot has, again, taken such circumstance as permission to be bitter or upset. And then, when the bell finally does ring, they’re un-studied, unknown by anyone in the unit (except, maybe, as a bitter newbie) and, ultimately, unprepared. It’s not a promising beginning.
So as I led-off with, be flexible. And see every potentiality as an opportunity to learn. Actively seek-out duties/details that will enable you to try something new, meet new people and get to know some facet of how Army Aviation and the Army as a whole work. Be hungry. And don’t ever, EVER stop studying aircraft and aviation knowledge.
And then, whether it takes a year, or it begins the moment the soldier arrives at their unit, all of these pilots’ main focus will become Readiness Level (RL) Progression. This is the training regimen that an aviator undergoes with their unit to become a mission-capable pilot. New pilots begin at RL 3, meaning they can only fly with Instructor Pilots and they have to prove a proficiency at base maneuvers. Once they’ve done this, they advance to RL 2, at which point they can begin more advanced maneuvers and learning/practicing real-world mission-sets. Once they’ve proven proficiency in these things, they are RL 1, which means they can fly with Pilots in Command and are not limited in what exercises/training they can take part in. Don’t get me wrong…there will be a lot of other things that are important to learn. But RL Progression, for a new pilot, has to take priority so that they can start doing actual training missions and working towards evolving from a new pilot to a good pilot.
As I’ve stated before, the Active Duty route means that you will have no idea where you’re headed after Flight School until you’re almost done with it. In most cases, student pilots on Active Duty will discover what their first duty station will be sometime during Advanced Airframe. For some people, the day they learn where they’ll be reporting is a triumphant, euphoric day. For others, it’s…frankly, devastating. When the menu contains bases in Germany, Korea, Hawaii, Alaska and about everywhere in between, there are some exciting options…and some less-exciting options. Be prepared for every possibility.
The aircraft one is flying narrows the field of options – pilots flying the C-12 only have a few bases where they could be assigned, for instance. While Blackhawks pilots can literally land at any and every base the Army owns. Even some it doesn’t. And what determines where one goes? A point to whomever raised their hand and said “NEEDS OF THE ARMY” first. You got it.
When you first arrive at your unit, there’s a chance that you could get thrown into a duty or detail for a few months. This could be because, as stated above regarding aircraft availability, your receiving unit is currently deployed somewhere. It could be because there are simply no slots available for a few months until someone PCSes or leaves the Army. It could be some combination of 800 different reasons. Either way, again, make sure to take advantage of the opportunities that such a circumstance presents. To include the opportunity to continue settling-in and getting to know your new home.
This transition is seems, on the surface, much less stressful than the Active Duty transition. But, for entirely different reasons, it is not. Yes, these pilots are moving BACK TO someplace with which they’re almost always very familiar. There was no mystery as to where the road leads following Flight School, what unit they’d be a part of, etc. And, often, there is a familial cushion to which the soldier is returning. All of these things can be incredibly advantageous.
But now the individual is no longer on Uncle Sam’s payroll. After the comforts of a regular, very decent paycheck, some individuals now have to find a job. Or potentially return to a civilian job that doesn’t pay nearly as well. Or, even if they have a job with a solid paycheck, they now have to figure out how to manage being an Army Aviator in conjunction with that job. Because it’s no longer the good ol’ fashioned “one-weekend-a-month, two-weeks in the Summer” deal that most people think the Guard/Reserves are. There are flight minimums to meet, aircraft and night-flying currency to maintain, oh, and where does one fit in all of that studying that’s so important? Plus the RL Progression described above!
To alleviate at least some of this burden, many units will try to put new pilots on orders for a period (often 30-90 days) to complete their RL Progression in a concentrated, uninterrupted manner. But to be able to do so depends on funding availability, which can sometimes be a rub. HOPEFULLY you’ll have already gathered, prior to moving back from Alabama, whether such funding will be available so that you can start planning. And if no one from your unit has mentioned it to you, make sure to ask.
Regardless of the availability of orders, transitioning to part-time piloting (with the same minimums and requirements as the full-timers) and full-time any-other-job-ing is intimidating. But if you elected to go down this path, you hopefully have no illusions about the fact that it will be difficult. And, what’s more, you have to know that it’s doable. The majority of the pilots in your unit are doing it. So talk to them. Ask for tips, tricks, advice, words of wisdom, etc. And, eventually, you’ll figure out how to make it work for you.
So now you have some image of what comes immediately after Flight School. Next week, I’ll briefly discuss what “a day in the life” looks like for both RLOs and WOs. And with that, your introduction to Army Aviation will be complete.
If you have questions, concerns or comments before then (or anytime), please feel free to reach out via email or on any one of our social media platforms (Instagram @BogiDope, BogiDope Facebook group, LinkedIn, etc.). We have an ever-growing network of coaches and mentors with a vast range of experience who are happy to help in any way they can.
Photo Credit to Defense Visual Information Distribution Service
Welcome back.
So just as the information about Functional Tracks needed to be split into two weeks, realistically, the introduction did as well. This is because I wanted to give a special emphasis to explaining their purpose and the importance of selecting, pursuing and ultimately thriving in a selected functional track up front. This week, I want to just clean up with some administrative “good-to-know”s and “good-to-do”s to assist you in learning more and, ultimately, selecting a Track when the time comes.
As I mentioned in last week’s introduction, ultimately, networking is king. It allows you to get real, up-to-date info. on the job and, likely, to see it being done. If you’re a qualified pilot in the Army, untracked and considering your options but haven’t started spending serious time with tracked-pilots to get insight into the scope of their jobs, you’re doing yourself a disservice (I sincerely hope there are none of those reading this). Start talking with the tracked pilots. If you’re a prospective Army Aviator who’s currently enlisted, find a way to get in contact with some tracked aviators and pick their brains. There are at least a few pilots at every Army installation where Active Duty types could be stationed and there are pilots in the National Guard in every state of this Union. If you’re not yet in the Army, find a local Army National Guard recruiting office and ask the recruiters to get you some contact information for pilots. We’ll even have a map listing all of the units in the Army Guard and Reserves up on the site in the next few weeks to help you out. So begin reaching out to units. That networking will also go a long way toward getting your foot in the door for a unit, should the Guard be your desired service component
Now to soothe those who stress about decisions… It’s worth noting that becoming “dual-tracked” is a very real probability, particularly if one displays passion and a good work ethic (just as becoming qualified in more than one aircraft over the course of a career is a very real possibility). When a pilot has tracked AMSO, for instance, and has displayed a capacity to absolutely crush that job, they will likely also be given the opportunity to become an IP or an MTP. Upon returning to their unit, they will still be assigned a slot for ONE of these two jobs, which is where their primary focus should ultimately be placed. But dual-tracked WOs are a massive boon to their units, as they are the experts in their assigned job but are also able to step in and assist in ensuring the other functional areas in the unit, and their associated programs, are strong.
So regardless of what Track you ultimately decide to pursue, be the type of person/pilot that will be selected to become dual-tracked and, in all likelihood, you will. Go ahead and add that fact to your career-calculus. If you’re a decision-stressor, let it bring you some sweet relief. The fact of the matter is, if you prove yourself to be a dedicated worker and a team player, Army Aviation really can be your oyster. It’s up to you to figure out how best to crack it.
If this is the first article you’re reading, do yourself a favor and at least read last week’s article first.
These are the “Aircraft Whisperers.” The ones who gently pat a bird on its nose and politely ask it to work, then take it for a flight to make sure it keeps its promise. The ones you can give a tail number to and they’ll say, “Oh yeah, that aircraft has a slight shudder at 70 knots but don’t worry, she’s smooth as butter after that. Oh, and she likes the smell of sunflowers.” I can’t stress enough how vital each individual Functional Track is to the successful conduct of Army Aviation operations, and I wouldn’t dare say one is more important than the others because that would simply be untrue…but broken aircraft can’t fly. This is a statement both of how crucial it is to have quality maintainers – and for officers, both O- and W-grades, to take good care of those maintainers – but also how crucial it is to have quality MTPs. A batch of good MTPs can make the lives of their Platoon Leaders (PLs) and their Commander (CDR) infinitely less stressful, as they will be the hub cap on the wheel of the unit maintenance program. They’ll ensure that there will always be aircraft available for training and operations to be conducted and that aircraft downtime is minimized/optimized. Though this, by no means, should be an excuse for PLs and CDRs to just turn a blind eye and hope for the best (the maintenance program belongs to them), it means they can expend less energy and time checking in on the little things knowing their MTPs have it covered.
As with the IP Track, the formal training to become a MTP is dependent on the airframe for which a pilot is training, though they’re all roughly eight weeks at Fort Rucker (+- a week). Once a Warrant has completed the training, they will return to a line company and begin the real process of intimately getting to know the Company’s maintenance program (in the Guard, a Warrant who’s aspiring to become a MTP will likely already know the program intimately), the Company’s aircraft, and putting themselves in a senior-MTP’s pocket. Like most things in life, it’s very much a “train to gain the title, work to gain the know-how” scenario. I would also encourage those opting for the RLO-route to start building a relationship with your Company’s MTPs the MOMENT you get to your first unit or doing it while a cadet if you’re in the ROTC and drilling with a unit. As a PL, you WILL be ultimately supervising the maintenance program, ensuring the maintenance flow won’t lead to log-jams where no aircraft are available, etc. The MTPs will best show you what right looks like and teach you how to do that job, as they’ll be the ones with their hands actively in it all of the time.
Beyond monitoring and assisting with the flow of the maintenance program, MTPs conduct Maintenance Test Flights (MTF). Following aircraft maintenance, a MTF is required to ensure that the given maintenance fixed what it was supposed to fix and that the aircraft is fit for flight/mission capable. The prospect of conducting MTFs is an uncomfortable one for many, given that the individuals conducting it are taking an aircraft that hasn’t been certified “completely flight worthy” and certifying it as such by playing with its limits. Obviously, the process has a massive amount of steps built in to prevent an aircraft taking off that really shouldn’t, but still…some balk at the idea. And that simple fact is what drives many away from wanting to be MTPs. But MTFs are a quintessential part of the job and they’re also where MTPs can build up a TON of hours in the aircraft, as there are always aircraft in need of MTFs so they can get back out of the hangar and into the air. And then, beyond MTFs, the MTPs are additionally conducting missions and training flights along with all of the other aviators in the unit. It adds up and it adds up fast.
The career progression of a MTP is also akin to that of an IP. After serving at the CO and BN-levels, a MTP can become a Maintenance Test Flight Evaluator (ME). Becoming a ME doesn’t require a formal school or training pipeline, rather, a MTP will undergo an evaluation (a lengthy and VERY in-depth evaluation) that will determine whether they are experienced and capable enough to conduct evaluation flights on other MTPs. Just as all pilots have their annual flight and knowledge evaluations, MTPs and IPs have additional evaluations and tasks annually to ensure they’re still fit for those jobs.
Oftentimes people who love working on cars, small motors, etc., thrive as MTPs. It’s a job that gets you out of an office, onto a hangar floor or flight line and occasionally oily, which makes some people absolutely eat it up. And some people sincerely love the thrill of conducting power-off autorotations, which (hopefully) won’t be conducted anywhere other than a MTF (or a no-crap dual-engine failure). If that sounds like you, talk to a MTP.
So I’ll be flat: the four Tracks already mentioned are the primary tracks on which most aviators’ careers will hinge. Even if a pilot takes on one of the following additionally, it will generally be after having already become one of the aforementioned. Where this isn’t the case, one of those already described will still undoubtedly be in a pilot’s future. However, there are other jobs in Army Aviation that are considered Functional Tracks and that will be regarded with the same expectations (will become a Warrant’s bread-and-butter and will serve to give a RLO a more in-depth understanding). These Tracks are: Aeromedical Evacuation (MEDEVAC) Pilot, Experimental Test Pilot (XP) and Army Special Operations Aviator (ARSOA).
MEDEVAC – For those who aren’t already aware of what this is, simply put, it’s a HH-60 Blackhawk that acts as an airborne ambulance. This means the ‘Hawk has a very specific internal set-up for the care and treatment of casualties while in-flight. The mission set is very straightforward, as they will almost always flight point A to B as fast as possible to pick up casualties as requested. They will have trained medical personnel in the back who are able to then care for those casualties in-flight while transporting said individuals to the nearest medical facility. For the altruist, this calling will undoubtedly strike many chords.
For RLOs, this is a career choice right up front. It happens when a cadet makes their list of branch selections in the Army (this will be covered further in a future article). If they have a specific desire to be a MEDEVAC pilot, they select “Medical Services” as their top choice of branch. If they wish to fly any mission non-MEDEVAC, they put “Aviation” at the top of the list. If they are selected Med Services, they will attend the Med Basic Officer Leaders Course (BOLC) upon commissioning while their Aviation-branched contemporaries will attend Aviation BOLC. Furthermore, a RLO who is selected into Med Services WILL learn to fly the Blackhawk at Flight School, no other platform is directly associated with Med Services (except the LUH-72 Lakota if one is in the National Guard). Following the completion of flight school, it IS possible for H-60-qualified RLOs to transition from MEDEVAC to non- and back.
For Warrants, the path in-and-out of MEDEVAC is much more fluid. Depending on the needs of the Army, a Warrant could simply flow into-and-out-of a MEDEVAC unit (sometimes against their will if on Active Duty and -60 qualified). Though doing so means that a Warrant will need to learn a different mission set and certainly learn some MEDEVAC-specific information, their primary focus will still become one of the four Functional Tracks that have already been described.
XP – This is sincerely a world apart from the rest of Army Aviation. The community is not large and individuals can spend their entire careers doing this, if desired. As with everything, the opportunity to get into this field is entirely dependent on the needs of the Army. This is to say, if slots are open, individuals can essentially go straight from Flight School and transition into the XP program. OR, if people aren’t retiring or leaving the program, an individual who really wants to do this may never see a slot open up in their entire career and thus never get the chance (though such cases would be rare).
Obviously, these individuals are the ones testing new equipment, airframes, etc. to confirm or deny their suitability in fulfilling Army Aviation’s mission. Given the impending shift to a tilt-rotor fleet, I reckon XPs are incredibly busy right now. Even putting that aside, the constant upgrades and modernization of the Army’s fleet surely keeps them earning their paycheck.
Acceptance into the XP program is followed by attendance and completion of the 11-month U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, MD. If a RLO is accepted, it’s a career-term and they are transferred to the Army Acquisition Corps. A WO who gets into the program will have a minimum 24-month commitment to the pro
gram following completion of the Naval Test Pilot School.
ARSOA – I’ll be short, there’s too much here to attempt to go into any depth at all. This deserves an entire article unto itself and will undoubtedly get one. Entering the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) is intense, rigorous and uncomfortable, and for those reasons is entirely voluntary. Some are able to assess immediately following Flight School graduation, some are asked to spend some time at a conventional unit before they assess and many will simply never make the cut. These are truly the best pilots in the world, no matter which of their “customers” you ask.
But as stated before, even when a WO becomes an ARSOA, they will fill one of the first four Functional Tracks that were described at the unit level. They’ll just need to be capable of becoming absolute experts at everything all of the time…more or less.
As with everything written in slightly-longer-than-short form, these two articles have given you a very broad foundation, a springboard, if you will (if you won’t, suit yourself, I’m not your dad) from which you can do some further study and research. Because there is so much more to each of them. And there is information to be found, with relative ease, all over the internet regarding every one of these Functional Tracks (to include ARSOAs…entire documentary episodes have been dedicated to ARSOAs). But above all, reach out and talk to aviators working in these Tracks. They’ll be able to tell you the whole story more than any article or website.
Hopefully the prospective aviator has a sense, at least, after reading these articles, of which tree they may like to bark up first. Each track has its charms, and each certainly has its drawbacks, but finding the one that best suits your nature and goals will go a long way to making your career in Army Aviation satisfying and fun. This will enable you to, in the words of those toilet-paper loving bears, “Enjoy the Go.”
A few weeks ago, the “Flavors of Army Aviators” article briefly summarized the contents of this week’s. But the topic itself is broad enough – and important enough – to merit its very own, concentrated article. As a matter of fact, it’s broad enough and important enough in its implications for an aviator’s career that I’ll be splitting it into two articles. This way, hopefully, prospective pilots (or qualified-but-untracked pilots) are able to start charting their career-wish-lists with at least a decent foundation-of-knowledge to guide them. With this foundation should also come a relative understanding that enables one to do some self-study to find more information.
Before we dive too deeply into the Functional Tracks individually, it would certainly be worthwhile to reiterate their purpose in Army Aviation and the way the track program generally operates:
As was explained in the article about the Warrant and RLO career pathways, Functional Tracks are the cogs that make the metaphorical wheel of Army Aviation roll effectively in both combat- and training-environments. Each one, ultimately, supports the Commander (at whatever level) in developing, maintaining, updating and modifying Aviation programs to best suit the unit and its ability to effectively carry out and complete its mission. As such, given that Warrant Officers are the experts of their given trade, the true emphasis for becoming “tracked,” (meaning specializing in one of these functional areas) falls squarely on the WOs’ shoulders. RLOs can absolutely track as well (and are even encouraged to, especially in the Guard), but their given career path means that their entire focus CANNOT be on any specific functional role. Rather, it MUST be broadly smeared over all of them.
Selecting a Track does not happen during flight school or upon arriving at your unit. It happens once an Aviator has attained Pilot-in-Command (PC) status – which will also most often happen slightly earlier for WOs than for RLOs. This is because, upon arriving at a unit, a WOs entire focus – their daily breath – is given to becoming an expert at piloting their given aircraft. A young LT, on the other hand, will be learning property accountability, the unit maintenance program, the unit training program AND how to be a good pilot along with other Army administrative necessities. I keep emphasizing these differences to cement the notion that, although RLOs can attend Track courses, a RLO will never serve in the role of a “track lead/head” (SP, ASO, etc.). For a WO, however, a functional track becomes their favorite aspect of Army Aviation and the one to which they devote most of their time. They are the ones that must have all of the answers to all of the questions – or at least know where to find them.
So deciding what Track to pursue is important. It becomes a key cog in a WO’s career. And allows for a more in-depth understanding of an aspect of Army Aviation for a RLO. Take time to get to know all of them upon arriving at your unit so that you can consider which track would genuinely be satisfying for you, personally, to throw yourself into. As for this moment, enjoy this introduction to the Functional Tracks in Army Aviation:
There’s a relatively common saying within Army Aviation, mostly tongue-in-cheek (MOSTLY), that “Safety is the speed bump to success.” This isn’t a dig at the concept of being safe, rather, it’s a dig at the Safety track. Because if a Safety Officer is good at their job, they will ask a lot of questions – many of them hard ones – about operational practices and procedures. They will slow everything and everyone down if they recognize the signs and symptoms that lead inevitably towards an incident. In this regard, they can frustrate planners and doers who “just want to get the job done.” But Safety Officers are the keepers of the Commander’s Safety Program. As such, they represent the best intentions of any good Commander, who will believe that no job is worth rushing into haphazardly and potentially harming soldiers by utterly preventable means.
Another common phrase one will hear upon entering the Army as a whole is “Every soldier’s a Safety Officer.” The meaning of this should be readily apparent: it’s everyone’s responsibility to ensure that they and those around them are performing their tasks in as safe a manner as circumstances and mission demands allow (read: the safest manner possible). The notion is absolutely correct, but even among a tribe of the most safety- minded soldiers, without specific training in recognizing problems before they arise, things would inevitably be missed. In order to further reduce risks to the safety of soldiers, the Army created its Safety Programs and developed the Safety Officer position. Obviously, combat and training/preparing for combat are variable animals, so eliminating all risk is an impossibility. But with a good Safety Officer and a Command climate that stresses the importance of working and training safely, a unit is able to establish an incredibly safe environment without a real reduction in productivity or efficiency.
All of that is to say “Safety is important.” I would hope people wouldn’t try to state otherwise, but emphasis breeds memory.
The training itself, the Aviation Safety Officer Course (ASOC…the Army gets pretty imaginative when naming things) is a six-week resident course at Fort Rucker. This is regardless of airframe, as the Aviation and Ground Safety Programs in the Army are entirely independent of specific aircraft. This course, however, covers only the very fundamental aspects of administering an Aviation Safety Program. It’s upon completion of this course that doors are opened for more specific and, ultimately, more lucrative training programs. Just completion of ASOC earns a graduate American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Professional Accreditations in both Aviation and Ground Safety, for instance. I state this specifically with respect to the opportunities that become available to trained Safety Officers upon exiting the Army (or if seeking full-time employment while in the Guard or Reserves).
Once trained and acting in the role of Safety Officer at the unit, the ASO will work in the administrative tasks of assisting the Commander in developing Safety policy, goals, objectives and the corrective actions associated therewith. They will ideally float around the unit assessing safety issues and developing solutions therefor. But the ASO’s job does not exist solely in the realm of administration. Safety Officers are also the ideal individuals to fly out and assess the suitability of tactical locales such as Forward Arming and Refueling Points (FARPs), newly-designated landing areas and Tactical Assembly Areas (TAAs).
Importantly, ASO’s will also be involved in Accident Investigations, whether Aviation or Ground. These investigations cement the importance of their jobs into their minds. A Safety Officer who has been doing the job long enough will generally be filled with the kind of fervor for their work that only such a tragic task can supply. As emphasized multiple times above, Safety is important. And it should be non-negotiable. Thus, being detail-oriented and meticulous in your work are key factors for someone intending to enter the Safety track.
For any interested parties, a more comprehensive list of tasks that fall under the ASO’s purview, along with more information about the Safety Programs as whole, can be found inDA PAM 385-90 (Army Aviation Accident Prevention Program). It is an absolute wealth of information (though, fair warning, also a typically-dull Army-read).
The very general scope of the Instructor Pilot’s job is probably one with which most readers are familiar or, failing that, most could at least take an accurate stab at. And you’d be, broadly, correct. Instructor Pilots teach in the aircraft. And out. And, in the case of some, at literally every conceivable (sometimes even inconceivable) opportunity. And when they aren’t teaching, they’re studying. They are the unequaled masters of the practical application of their airframes in both tactical and non-tactical environments. It is the Instructor Pilot’s job to ensure that the aviators in their unit are capable and practiced at accomplishing whatever tasks are necessary to complete their mission and return home safely.
The Aircrew Training Manual (ATM) and the -10 (Operator’s Manual) will be the foundational-, hobby- and toilet-reading for an IP (as, frankly, they should be for student pilots and pilots in Readiness Level (RL) progression once they arrive at their units). Given the primary task of an IP, a cool head and confident know-how are utterly crucial to success. Instructor Pilots will often get put into situations by the pilots with whom they’re flying that are, in a word, uncomfortable. The reality is that not all pilots who graduate flight school are capable in the aircraft. Furthermore, even experienced and capable pilots can have a bad day during an Annual Proficiency and Readiness Test (APART), whether it’s due to nerves or any other numbers of factors. So having both the confidence AND the ability to make an unsafe situation in the aircraft safe is crucial. And I feel like it goes without saying…but I’ll say it anyways: no small amount of patience is also crucial. Every Aviator in the Army has dealt with IPs who are on both ends of the spectrum of patient instruction. I doubt there’s a one who has had a good experience with an IP who lacks patience. It makes for an uncomfortable, annoying and often downright hostile cockpit. This is not a winning combination.
The Instructor Pilot Course (IPC) varies in length depending on the airframe in which the pilot will become an IP. But there are many aspects of the job that are not aircraft-dependent, most of them administrative. As an IP gains in seniority they can attend further training to become an Instrument Flight Examiner and/or a Master Gunner. Eventually, an IP can become a Standardization Officer (or Standardization Pilot/SP) in a Company or Troop (CO), then a Battalion or Squadron (BN), then a Brigade (BDE). The SP is the chief technical and tactical advisor to the Commander and the individual who primarily runs/oversees the Commander’s Aircrew Training Program. In this, they are part of the Command Team at their respective level (CO, BN, etc).
Given this information, it should be clear just how crucial the SP and the IPs are in the function of an aviation unit in the Army. Without them, there is absolutely no mission capability and, thus, no mission accomplishment. Without them, an aviation unit is utterly moot.
One last note: SP/IPs are most often the pilots that finish their Army careers with absolutely prodigious flight hours. Because of all of the time they spend flying junior aviators, conducting APARTs and generally running the Commander’s Aviation Training Program, they spend a lot of time at the controls. Flying is literally the bread and butter of their job. It adds up. Quickly. So for the individual wanting to fly, fly, fly…And as long as there are humans flying, there will be a need for experienced and qualified Instructor Pilots in both the public and private sectors.
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Welcome back. The wait for the past week to learn about the rest of the Army Flight School pipeline is wildly appropriate, as many flight students will go into a holding pattern while they wait to begin training in their advanced airframe. I mentioned it last week, but such “bubbles” are relatively common, and this portion of Flight School is the most common time to experience one of potentially significant duration.
But fear not! Your time will not be squandered! If you’re on a lengthy hold, you’ll be given a job to fill your days. If you’re on a shorter hold, you’ll just land the occasional duty or detail. Either way, this timeframe is a great opportunity to study the Emergency Procedures (EPs) and Operating Limitations of whatever your Advanced Airframe will be (Chapters 9 and 5, respectively, of your Aircraft Operator’s Manual, commonly referred to as “5s and 9s”). You WILL be taking a test on these the first day of class for your new airframe, so don’t wait to get started on learning them.
For you Guardsmen and Reservists, you realistically could start studying these whenever you want, given that you’ll know your Advanced Airframe before you even go to Flight School. Proritize, naturally…you have to graduate Common Core first. So the 5s and 9s for the LUH will be more important while you’re in that phase. But if you’re a multi-tasking machine, well…knock yourself out. Whether you’re on hold for four months or two days waiting to start your advanced airframe, the time will finally come, and you’ll formally be introduced to the aircraft that you’ll fly in real-world missions.
This may feel a bit like Groundhog’s Day when you first start. The primary exception, obviously, is that after a couple of academic and introductory weeks, you’ll be flying an “adult aircraft” with INCREDIBLE performance capabilities. But your journey with your Advanced Airframe will begin much like your journey in Common Core did; you’ll start with Systems academics, learning about the various hardware and software within the aircraft that make it go. Thereafter you’ll be learning the various mission sets of your aircraft and how to properly implement it.
These academics, just as in Common Core, set the tone for the rigorous academic expectations that you have to manage throughout your career in aviation. Don’t forget…everything a student has learned to this point is fair game for oral-knowledge quizzes, pre-flight table-talk with your IP and check rides (with the natural exception of 5s and 9s for the LUH). Aeromedical, aerodynamics, weather, VFR/IFR flight rules…all of it. It is an ever-growing library of knowledge. As I stated before, the expectation is that you become a Polymath-lite. So figure out a study-structure that works for you and stick with it. Work to ensure that your knowledge does not lapse in any category.
Given the very different mission sets and requirements of the various Advanced Airframes, the length and content during this portion vary widely. Maintenance and weather also play a role, with the type of aircraft defining how big of a role that is. But generally speaking, those flying Blackhawks will complete Advanced Airframe fastest, followed by C-12s, Chinooks and then Apaches. A general outline for the flight portion of training in all airframes, however, can be simply defined:
Students will conduct basic flight in the aircraft. This will involve mostly traffic patterns and the simple maneuvering of the aircraft associated therewith. Additionally, students will conduct emergency procedures so ensure they’re capable of executing should the need arise.
Advanced flight maneuvers to include terrain flight, combat-maneuvering flight, etc. (COMPLETELY different for the C-12 crowd).
Night-flying, with the lion’s-share of time dedicated to flying under goggles or, for the Apache crowd, with the Night Vision System (NVS).
Mission-specific flying, which means lifting and moving crap for Chinooks and Blackhawks and shooting stuff for Apaches.
As with Common Core, every portion of Advanced Airframe training will culminate with a check ride. And suddenly, you’re an Army Aviator, ready to move out into the force and begin doing it all for real. Understanding that this overview is VERY brief and non-specific, the Army Aviation coaches that will soon be available on BogiDope have a very wide spectrum of experience. They are great resources for anyone seeking more aircraft-specific information. So take advantage! Sign up for a consultation session or package as soon as they become available!
But before moving into the force, students have to complete the second portion of WOBC/BOLC. This is a joint course, with RLOs and WOs participating together. Whereas BOLC/WOBC-A focused a lot on basic soldier skills and introduced basic aviation concepts, BOLC/WOBC-B focuses on Army Aviation Doctrine, career management, leadership and the administrative responsibilities of officers.
The length of the course has varied, but 2-4 weeks is a solid bet. It’s all in a classroom format and, admittedly, can feel incredibly tedious after everything else students have done. But the instructors adamantly remind students that they still are under the same academic expectations they have been throughout the entirety of Flight School. This is to say: it’s still possible to flunk out. So although it may seem a Herculean task, don’t let yourself get too lax and blow it this late in the game. Study. Do the work. Finish the job.
So this section is a bit out-of-place chronologically. That’s because it’s definitely an exception, not a rule. There are, on occasion, opportunities for students who are in training bubbles throughout Flight School to attend other Army schools. This is dependent on slots being made available to the United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence (USAACE). After that, it’s dependent on students having enough time in a bubble to enable their attendance.
But there are flight students who have been able to attend Air Assault, Airborne and even Ranger school, among others, while on hold between flight training. For many, such an opportunity is preferable to the alternative option while “in the bubble” of getting assigned to a long-term duty or detail. Again, don’t get your heart set on such an opportunity. There are myriad factors WAY outside of a flight student’s control that decide whether such a thing is even plausible.
But it’s worth mentioning for a couple of reasons. Firstly, a student who is about to enter a bubble can absolutely ask their leadership/cadre whether any such slots are available and express their interest in such an opportunity. There’s always a chance that something’s available that hasn’t been widely broadcast. And you’ll never get to enjoy an opportunity that you don’t know exists. So ask!
Secondly, for those with families, it’s worth having discussions early about such potentialities. Attendance at one of these courses would mean leaving Ft. Rucker, and your family, for a time. Having the conversations early about what opportunities would be of interest/worth it and what the family plan would be in the event something came up will help to avoid the rushed decision-making and half-cocked planning that accompany short-notice opportunities.
So give it some thought. But only as a “likely won’t, but potentially COULD happen.”
As I’ve stated multiple times, Flight School is challenging. Every individual will no doubt encounter parts of training that challenge them more than others. But it’s all very doable. There have been thousands-upon-thousands who have done it, and at least some of them are less intellectually-gifted or naturally-talented than you. Ultimately the most important things, as with all of life, are working hard and not giving up.
Working hard, in this case, means studying diligently throughout all of Flight School and keeping your fitness up when no-one is there to force you. If you do these two things, even if you feel like a fish-out-of-water in the aircraft, you will graduate. Your instructors and administrators all recognize that it’s their responsibility to teach you to fly. So even if you struggle at the controls, if you prove that you’re willing to work hard to learn and improve, they will match or exceed your work in trying to help you improve.
Graduation day will suddenly come and go, and you’ll be off to bigger-and-better things. And those bigger-and-better things are the topics of the next few weeks.
So you did it. You decided whether you’d be a RLO or a WO, you decided which route to take to get there, you earned a flight slot and you moved yourself (and whatever loved ones you bring with you) down to Ft. Rucker in L.A. That’s Lower Alabama, in case you confused it with some other place… And now you “Learn to Fly,” as The Foo Fighters so cordially invited you to do (feel free to take a moment and listen to that spectacular anthem, if you’d like. I’ll wait…). But make no mistake, this is not anything CLOSE to the final destination, even if it feels like it’s the culmination of years of hard work. It is, in fact, quite the opposite: it’s just the beginning.
But it’s an exciting beginning! Because this one involves the actual flying…after some more of the Officer-related training and the moderately uncomfortable experience that is SERE School. The next two weeks will be a brief overview, chronologically, of the entirety of the Flight School experience. And, given everything that entails, I want you to believe me when I say “brief.” This will be meant to give you an idea of what to expect as far as structure and timelines, but it’s hardly more than a glance into the actual meat of the different phases.
So now that your expectations have hopefully been set, welcome to Flight School.
This four-week course is a logical follow-on to what an Officer has already learned in the process of becoming a RLO or a WO, regardless of the route by which they accomplished that. An administrative note really quick: BOLC/WOBC is CURRENTLY four-weeks long. But that changes regularly. It’s been anywhere from 4-7 weeks. A fair portion of it is simply refreshing and re-testing skills that have been learned and tested in the process of gaining a commission: Land Navigation, Basic Tactics, Weapons Qualification…Army stuff. Soldier stuff. Officer stuff. BUT with a pinch of aviation mixed in. So RLOs and WOs will be learning a lot of the stuff you, the reader, have been learning over the course of this series of articles: the different aircraft and their mission sets, the mission of Army Aviation, as well as basic unit structure in aviation, Combat Vehicle Identification, Combined Arms doctrine (in a VERY bite-sized amount)… Like I said, the basics of officering in Army Aviation.
Most often, immediately following completion of BOLC/WOBC, students will then spend two days (though, for many, it may require a couple more) undergoing Helicopter Overwater Survival Training (HOST), more commonly known as “Dunker.” This involves a morning of academics and then a basic swim/water survival test (in uniform, so practice this if you’re a weak swimmer), the successful completion of which culminates in the actual “ditch” iterations on day two.
There are videos all over the place about this that are far more informative than trying to describe it, but in short: you strap into a box that simulates the fuselage of each Army aircraft, it gets lowered into water and flipped upside down and you have to then successfully escape and swim free without aid. And you’ll then do it all while blindfolded. Some people are incredibly intimidated by this. Don’t be…the instructors WANT you to succeed, so they’ll help you figure it out. Beyond that, it’s actually a ton of fun.
After completing Dunker, students often encounter a “bubble,” or a wait period between classes, while they’re awaiting SERE. Such bubbles can be encountered regularly throughout Flight School as students complete one training syllabus and await their next training window. These bubbles will often be filled with additional duties, details or whatever else will keep them somewhat engaged while Uncle Sam keeps paying them. The longer the bubble, the more likely that “filler-job” will be something that is 8-10 hours/day, 5 days/week. So be prepared for this.
This is the course that is the most daunting to many, up front, when beginning the process of becoming an Aviator. Sure, people often wonder whether they’ll be any good on the controls of a helicopter – hoping they’ll just “be a natural” but worrying the opposite will be the case. Others stress about whether they’ll do well in the rigorous circuit of aviation academics. But the rumors swirling around this course are many and they are varied. Which tracks…the majority of what’s covered in the course is classified. And all of these rumors assure one that they will be uncomfortable. Often VERY uncomfortable. It’s not so much a concern for whether they’ll pass the course…it’s more a concern for how much pain they’ll need to endure BEFORE they pass the course.
And with good reason! SERE School does, indeed, get pretty uncomfortable at some points. But it’s like any uncomfortable thing; it’s uncomfortable and then it ends. So don’t sweat it. Just do the thing. And don’t give up.
As to the nuts and bolts of the class, well…it’s not my place to divulge any of that, frankly. Like I said…it’s classified stuff. So I’ll leave it to an actual Army Public Affairs-approved message related to SERE to give you any information that’s been approved for release to the public at large. Yes, there are many places where you can get more information, but much of that is likely out-of-date, skewed by the author’s desire to make themselves seem like a Spartan at Thermopylae, or flat-out false. So if you’re interested in the basic construct and a general outline of what the course covers, follow this link.
Be aware that various training logjams or circumstances HAVE led to students completing SERE after they’ve already completed all of their flight training. This makes absolutely no sense to me, but it happens occasionally. Don’t expect it, but just know that there’s a small possibility it could happen. I don’t know of ANYONE who would wish that on themselves or the ones they love, though, so if it happens to you…I’m very sorry.
NOW we start to fly. Almost…first it’s a few weeks of straight academic work to prepare the pilots-to-be for when they’re no longer pilots-to-be, but have emerged from their cocoons as genuine pilots. To begin, Aeromedical academics cover an IMMENSE amount of material in a relatively short amount of time. The students learn, in short, about all of the physiological and psychological phenomena that occur during all forms of flight (in open-skies, in the clouds, during the day, at night, etc.). The goal being to enable the students to be more aware of things to avoid once they’re pilots AND respond more quickly/correctly if they encounter certain symptoms while flying, e.g., hypoxia, spatial disorientation and other potentially lethal problems.
Thereafter, coursework begins to instruct students on the mechanical and digital systems they will be using when they begin flying their first aircraft, which will (now) be the LUH-72A Lakota. In addition to this, students will be assigned in pairs (“Stick-Buddies”) to Instructor Pilots (IPs), most of whom are civilian contractors: old, retired Army dudes, some of whom flew in Vietnam. Students will begin practicing engine starts in a simulator so that they have some concept of what they’re doing when they first climb in the actual aircraft. These first four weeks of academics set the tone for what will be ongoing throughout the duration of Flight School: you fly half of the day, you go to class the other half, and you figure out when to study and do your homework somewhere in between. Academic topics cover absolutely everything: aerodynamics, weather, Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) flight rules, airspace, communications, FAA regulations, and on and on. A Flight School graduate will be a certified Polymath-Lite, though it’s incumbent on the individual to ensure that they maintain this gained knowledge – and, hopefully, add to it – following IERW.
Primary-
Okay, NOW we start to fly. Really this time…after a couple of days simply doing engine starts in the aircraft to make double-sure students have been paying attention before trusting them at the controls. But at long last, the day of each student’s “Nickel Ride” comes; the first day flying in the aircraft and handling the controls. Don’t put a lot of weight into how “naturally” it comes to you or what other students in the class say their IPs said to them following their brief stint on the controls. Just enjoy the ride.
The flight portion of Common Core is broken into three phases. First it’s “Primary” (hence the bolded word above). It’s usually around eight-weeks, depending on weather and other external factors. This is the intro to the very basics of learning how to fly an aircraft, mostly in a traffic pattern, and complete maneuvers related thereto. It’s not complicated flying…except that, for the majority of the class, it’s their first flying, or at least their first-flying in a rotary-wing aircraft. So it will FEEL really complicated. Every day, prior to flying, students will also have IPs keeping them honest in their study habits. They will be asking questions related to the academics, emergency procedures, aircraft limitations and anything else students have been exposed to. This is to encourage students to take their personal study seriously, but also to prepare them for the rest of their Army – and aviation – careers, as every Check Ride from Primary through Retirement will involve such quizzing.
The first half of Primary culminates, as do all of the actual flight portions of Flight School, with just such a Check Ride to ensure a student can safely do the very basics. If successful, students then roll into their first “Solo…” which isn’t a true solo in the sense of being alone in the aircraft; your Stick Buddy will be riding along with you. And they will be praying that all of your flaws, which they’ve been mentally tallying, don’t come screaming to the fore.
The second half of Primary is a natural progression, with more difficult (but still basic) maneuvers in both forward and hovering flight, responding to emergencies, as well as a continued focus on improving the flight skills gained during the first-half. Understand that you, and literally everyone else, will have days on which you’re nailing every maneuver and riding high, and days on which you can’t even get strapped into the aircraft right. It’s natural, it’s expected, just keep working hard and keep going. Don’t get discouraged. The second Primary Check Ride (P2 Check Ride) is the final event of Primary, spring-boarding students into:
Instruments-
This phase of IERW begins in simulators. The phase itself is another eight-ish weeks. In the Lakota, simulator time is SIGNIFICANTLY reduced from what it was just four or five years ago in the TH-67 Creek. This is due, simply, to the LUH-72 being a fantastic Instruments platform. So simulators will only be 2-3 weeks.
The entirety of the Instruments phase is dedicated to teaching Army pilots how to fly in the clouds, when they can’t see, and still get where they need to go. It prepares Army pilots, upon completion, to be able to certify as Commercial-Instrument pilots, as they will gain the skills and knowledge necessary to maneuver in FAA Airspace. Foci include Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flight planning, proper holding procedures, reporting in accordance with FAA regulations, using Army and FAA publications, and so on. Naturally, the ongoing Academics, which still consume half of the students’ day, will mirror and add to this capability.
This phase is incredibly strenuous for some. It’s very cerebral, as students have to be able to consume a LOT of information and remember it well enough to be able to practically apply it as well as retain the knowledge gained during the prior portions of both Flight and Academics. Everything to which students have been exposed is, and will forever be, fair game for knowledge checks/quizzes/examinations. Some individuals who absolutely thrived during Primary may stumble pretty severely during Instruments. It’s the nature of the animal and certainly tests people’s will and perseverance.
But as always…just work hard and don’t give up. And you’ll be fine. Students will, naturally, be required to pass a Check Ride to get out of the simulator and into the aircraft, and pass another at the end of the eight-weeks to complete the Instruments phase.
Basic Warfighter Skills (BWS)-
This phase has gone by many names, but regardless what it’s called it is, easily, the most fun flying one does during all of Common Core. It’s where flight students learn how to fly and operate like Army pilots. The phase is only 4-6 weeks (the last 2-3 of which are free of academics!) and introduce flying with Night Vision Goggles (NVGs). These weeks are focused on introducing the different types of terrain flight. So students will learn to fly, and spend the entire phase flying, anywhere from 50’ above the trees to 200’ above the trees.
They’ll also learn to navigate using a map, compass and terrain association, in the event that all aircraft navigation systems were ever to take a crap and there was no other option. Students will be on aerial treasure hunts, essentially, as they will be given grids to plot on a map and they will need to navigate to those grids and find the specific Landing Zone (LZ) associated therewith. As I said…it’s a fun phase.
There will, additionally, be a focus on learning to land on slopes, learning to operate in confined areas (i.e. postage stamps of grass in the middle of a forest), and other such skills that are involved with actual Army Aviation operations. One such skill, as stated above, is NVG flight. It’s a profile that takes some getting used to, ESPECIALLY considering the altitudes and the maneuvers that are the focus of this phase. But it doesn’t take long for students to become reasonably comfortable operating “under Goggles.” There will be a specific portion of academics dedicated to NVGs to teach students about how to use them to the greatest effect in conducting night-flight operations.
And suddenly you’re done! Two BWS Check Rides, some more academic exams, an Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT, soon to be the new ACFT)…and you’re Common Core complete! I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HERE how important it is to make sure you are regularly exercising throughout all of Common Core. Too often, individuals have completed the entirety of Common Core, failed their APFT and been kicked out of Flight School. They did ALL of that work and experienced ALL of that stress for YEARS to try and become a pilot…and it’s gone. The Army will find another home for them…based off of the needs of the Army.
…but for everyone else, only 20-ish weeks after starting, Common Core is over. Now each individual student’s performance in Academics, Check Rides, BOLC/WOBC, APFTs, etc., throughout every phase completed to this point will be taken into account as an Order of Merit List (OML, or class placement) is created. And then selection day comes. For Guardsmen and Reservists, this is a very low-stress day; they already know what aircraft they’ll be flying. For the Active Duty officers, on the other hand, this day can be a source of immense stress. You will select your aircraft based off of your class placement. So if you’re not in the top 30-40%, there’s a good chance you will not be choosing your aircraft, the Army will be choosing it for you.
If your heart is absolutely set on one aircraft, there’s a chance you’ll be disappointed even if you’re the class’s top performer, unfortunately, and this is…wait for it…based off of the needs of the Army (get used to that phrase). This NEVER happens with Chinooks, but there have been entire classes who have been relegated to Apaches or ‘Hawks because the Army had a dire need. This is an exception, however, not a rule. So although I’ve stated it a dozen times over the weeks, it’s worth saying again: work hard. Do your best to be your best. Only then will you be giving yourself your best shot at controlling your fate.
Next week, I’ll do a follow-up article to cover the last portions of Flight School: training in your “Go-to-War” aircraft, WOBC/BOLC-B and potential extracurriculars. Until then…
Well as I’ve said, the majority of pilots in the Army will be entering Army Aviation by one of the means covered last week. But there will be a significant portion of those reading this who will elect to become RLOs. Funnily enough, despite the fact that the majority of pilots are Warrants, there are twice as many routes to become a RLO (and, subsequently, a pilot) as there are for those following the Warrant path.
This being said, it’s worth noting…none of these routes are “direct aviation” routes like “Street-to-Seat,” or, to some degree, the traditional Aviation WOC route. Rather, they’re all commissioning routes and one must then assess to become a pilot. This means that when a soldier elects to become a RLO, regardless of the commissioning route they choose, they must perform well enough to be able to select Aviation as their Branch of Choice. Though I’ve heard variances on the numbers, the general rule is that commissionees in the top 10% of their class will get their Branch of Choice, as well as those somewhere around the 80th Percentile in their class.
The Army does this, ostensibly, to ensure that the talent pool is relatively even across the Officer Corps among all Branches. But I’ll tell you what I’ve told many aspiring Army pilots who’ve asked me how they can ensure that they will get their Branch of Choice: work hard and excel. Don’t make any plans to just coast and have things turn out as you most hope. Don’t PLAN on being somewhere around the 80th Percentile if you want to fly in the Army. Because that is almost always a plan to be, ultimately, disappointed. Very, very disappointed.
The other note I’ll make, and I talked about this a bit in last week’s article (and I’ll speak a bit MORE to it in the ROTC section below), but there is incredibly valuable experience to be gained by spending time as an enlisted soldier before commissioning. The greatest value is probably the most obvious: a RLO with prior-enlisted experience actually knows what life is like in the boots of their enlisted subordinates. This goes a long way in helping an officer to be immediately effective as a leader when they arrive at their unit (remember what a RLO’s real job is…?)
This applies in Aviation just as well as it does in any other Branch. There are absolutely other advantages to prior-enlisted experience, but this single factor weighs heavy enough to earn solo mention here. You may recall I mentioned a soapbox in last week’s article…
Okay! Without further delay, let’s talk RLO routes!
Actually, even if you try, I won’t stop. Though, admittedly, there’s not a lot of information I can give regarding West Point that you can’t find (and more reliably) elsewhere. There are entire books written about what life at West Point is like. And article databases, and biographies, and countless speeches given by West Pointers once they’ve got stars on their chest about their days at West Point…like I said, there’s a lot of places to find reliable info.
I, personally, did not go to the Academy. So I can’t realistically give someone an insider’s perspective. But I’ve spoken with a lot of West Pointers, and from everything I’ve gathered in conversation with them (and through reading different books and articles, hearing different speeches, etc., etc.), the USMA is the exception to what I stated above; I don’t feel like someone who commissions from West Point necessarily NEEDS prior-enlisted time. It wouldn’t hurt, certainly. In fact, it would undoubtedly be HELPFUL in their time at the academy as well as thereafter. However…these cadets have to live it and breathe it day-in and day-out for four (sometimes more) years to become officers.
Obviously that’s not to say West Point graduates are any smarter or better than RLOs who have commissioned by other means. And it’s not to say that, generally speaking, a West Pointer will be a better soldier or officer than someone commissioning from a different source. It IS saying, however, that they’ll arrive at their first unit well-and-truly Army-ed. They’ll have a pretty good idea of what the Army is like…even if their experience is a small, nuanced corner of the Army.
To all of this, however, I have to add the obvious disclaimer: it’s entirely personal opinion. I generally try to not fill you (the readers) with too much of that, but in this case, where my personal experience is exactly zero…personal opinion based off of hearsay (or hear…read?) is all I’ve got to offer. If you’re considering West Point and want something more concrete (and absolutely more valuable), like I said, there are a lot of sources of first-hand info. By Summer’s end, there will be an E-Course available right here on BogiDope to help you through the application process for West Point if this is the route you decide to pursue.
So I gave a warning above that there would be more preaching in this section. That’s because this is the only means in the United States Army whereby a person can potentially become a Regular Line Officer without having any kind of real experience in the Army. If I had a nickel for every ROTC cadet I’d spoken with who said, brain-to-mouth, out-loud, “I thought about going to Basic Training, but I didn’t have time for that,” I’d have far too many nickels. That statement is obviously a strange perversion of thought…an individual wants to be an Officer – to lead soldiers – but they “don’t have time” to complete even the most base-level training that every soldier has to accomplish.
So don’t be that person! If you want to lead soldiers, live life in their shoes for a while. Okay, preaching done.
The ROTC is another topic that most people are probably SOMEWHAT familiar with: those uniformed cats marching around your college campus once a week, or doing pushups at football games. But the basic concept is, a cadet is able to integrate their training to become a RLO into their college education. It shouldn’t be a surprise that this is a HUGE well from which the Army draws new Officers, as the convenience it offers a prospective Officer is unmatched. There’s stigma surrounding ROTC commissionees (just as there are stigma about West Pointers…and about junior officers in general), but a person with the general qualities that I’ve mentioned throughout all of these articles (hard-working, team-player, etc.) will have no issue integrating into a unit, regardless of the course from which they commissioned.
The general outline of a cadet’s life while in ROTC is, in addition to the required coursework for whatever degree they’re pursuing, they’ll take a 3-credit course every semester wherein they will learn basic Battle Drills, Tactics, Troop Leading Procedures, and progressively more Officer-stuff (mission/operation planning, logistics and the like). They will also be required to enroll in a weekly 4-hour lab wherein these soldier and leadership skills will be practiced. And then there’s Physical Training (PT) at least three mornings every week.
Furthermore, during the summers there will be opportunities for Army Skill Schools (Airborne School, Air Assault School, Mountain Warfare School, among others), internships, foreign trips, as well as obligatory training events following a cadet’s Sophomore and Junior years. Attending extracurriculars, performance at obligatory schools, grades in actual coursework, what degree is being pursued (STEM is a big focus for the Army), Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) scores and more will all be taken into account when cadets are ranked among their classes. These rankings, ultimately, will decide whether a prospective officer chooses which Branch of the Army they’ll serve in, or whether the Army chooses for them.
Just to be clear, all of this is also the case for West Point, as well, though I’m sure there are even more things factored in of which I’m unaware…
So as I stated above…don’t take your chances on being one of “the lucky ones.” Work hard and earn your right to choose your destiny. Here, again, any prior-enlisted experience serves one well, as that experience will mean less time and energy needs to be focused on the very basics of Army-ing – you’ve already done it – and that time and energy can then be given to ALL of the other factors that play into earning your right to choose what you want to do in the Army.
OCS is a route that actually comes in many flavors of its own. The route for Officers entering Active Duty is to attend the Federal OCS at Ft. Benning, GA, for a period of 12 weeks. This route can also be taken by soldiers wishing to commission as Officers in the National Guard/Reserves, if they so choose. The 12 weeks are very intensive, as they cover the material learned by the West Point and ROTC commissionees in a matter of 12 weeks, where they do nothing but train, train and train (though they do get most weekends off, I’m told). It IS possible to go directly to OCS after Basic Training (which is called a 09S contract), but the majority of those attending OCS will be soldiers who already have some enlisted-time under their belt.
Such is also the case for the two National Guard-specific OCS programs. The first is set up more along the lines of the Traditional Guard model: a cadet will attend OCS one weekend per month for between 16-18 months, in addition to completing two two-week training periods. The majority of training will occur at a State (most often home-state) Regional Training Institute (RTI). The second is called the National Guard Bureau (NGB) Accelerated OCS. More akin to the Federal model, it’s an incredibly intensive eight-week program (no weekends) that takes place only twice a year; at Ft. Meade, SD in the Summer and at Ft. McClellan, AL, in the Winter.
As with the Academy and the ROTC, performance in academics, assigned-leadership positions, tactics, physical fitness, etc., will all play a role in determining one’s standing in their class. Important to note, however, is that for Guardsmen and Reservists, if they already have an aviation unit that has accepted them (sometimes called sponsoring), they will be pilots in that unit regardless of their standing in the class. This is actually the case with the ROTC, as well. The unit CAN change their mind if word reaches them (from either the ROTC or OCS) that an individual is generally a turd and not worth hanging on to but just managed to squeak by and commission. So please…don’t be a turd. For your own sake.
I will actually write an article in the future that digs deeper into the process commissioning into Aviation in the National Guard/Reserves. There’s a lot of valuable information that simply can’t be crammed in among all of the other information in this article. If you’d like the information before then, sign on with a mentor who’s commissioned into Guard Aviation. For more information about the requirements that must be met in order to attend OCS, follow either of the hyperlinks above.
This option is only available to enlisted soldiers in the Active Duty. I’ll qualify that statement: there are options available to those commissioning into the Guard or Reserves…but they are NOT AT ALL the same thing as the Active Duty Option. They are simply different methods of contracting with the ROTC. The Active Duty Green-to-Gold program (follow the hyperlink and click on the “Information Booklet”) allows a soldier, if selected, to attend college full-time for two years to earn their first Baccalaureate or Graduate degree while continuing to receive their military pay, allowances and benefits for whatever enlisted pay grade they were serving in when selected. They will also be eligible to receive their GI Bill benefits. Their only requirements is to also complete the third- and fourth-year ROTC classes along with their coursework for whatever degree they’re pursuing. Depending on an individual’s enlisted rank when starting this program…that’s the potential for getting paid a TON of money to go to school and not having to pay a cent for tuition. Pretty sweet gig…
There are two other options for Active Duty enlisted soldiers, the scholarship and non-scholarship options, which are similar to the traditional ROTC-route, but with some additional pay and benefits. Nothing remotely similar to the financial benefits of the Active Duty Option described above, but still…tack these on to the many perks (and potential perks) of serving prior-enlisted time.
Beyond that brief description, there’s really not much to say because, after being selected to participate in the Green-to-Gold program, the rest is essentially what’s described in the ROTC section above.
Realistically, every one of these commissioning routes (other than probably Green-to-Gold) could warrant an entire article itself. And they will most certainly get one in the future. But this surface-level glance should be enough to point you in a direction.
The past two weeks have answered the “how” of being selected to become an aviator in the Army. Next week will add to that “how,” as I will give an overview of Initial Entry Rotary Wing (IERW), or, as it’s more commonly known, Flight School. You know…the part where you actually BECOME a pilot.
The following weeks will add to the “what” that you gained in the first two articles. Specifically, the topic of conversation will be what life entails once one has become a pilot in the Army. First, I’ll dive into what will become the primary foci of a WO once they become a Pilot in Command (PC): Functional Tracks. I’ve mentioned them before, but you’ll get a deeper look over the coming weeks weeks.
Thereafter, I’ll give you a look into what “a day in the life” looks like after getting an aircraft rating and being received by your unit. This will be for both Ws and Os and will cover Active Duty, Guard and Reserve service. It will, hopefully, further add to your arsenal of tools as you make decisions about which of these many combinations will best suit your goals.
In the meantime, and I can’t stress this enough, nothing beats speaking with a real-life Army Aviator to ask questions, get up-to-date information, and get real insight. So as I’ve stated before, consider signing on with a mentor on BogiDope.com. Army coaches/mentors will be available to you starting next week!
So now you know the different paths you can take to become an Army Aviator. And although figuring out how to join the club isn’t exactly as difficult as finding Narnia, the next logical thing you’d like to know more about is the different gateways to accomplish that goal. Luckily for you, Army Aviation is also not like Fight Club. Pilots absolutely LOVE talking about being pilots and will gladly tell you about the process of becoming a pilot. Having a mentor, as with everything else in life, will go a long way in preparing you for, and potentially getting you into, the cockpit. So do yourself a favor and get in touch with someone who has “been there and done that.” In fact, in order to simplify that process, there will shortly be a few mentors available right here on Bogidope.com.
And, as a disclaimer, don’t fret if those with whom you speak make it sound incredibly difficult and painful to become an Army Aviator. It’s not. It requires hard work and dedication, sure, but people love to make their own accomplishments sound like something only an Avenger could see through. In reality…it’s not that hard. Be willing to work and be a team player, and you’ll be fine regardless of which pathway you elect to get into Army aviation.
So as I touched on last week, the first decision one must make is whether they intend to become a Warrant Officer (WO) or a Regular Line Officer (RLO). No need to go further into detail about what each entails here, but if you haven’t read last week’s article, I highly recommend starting there. Once that decision is made, the next decision is by which means you intend to accomplish that, as there are several ways to become either a WO or a RLO. In order to give each gateway enough of an introduction, I’ll cover the WO routes in this week’s article and those for a RLO next week:
Also referred to as the “High School-to-Flight School” program, this is as direct a path to get into the front seat of an Army aircraft as there is. The basic premise is: an individual who is accepted into this program attends Basic Combat Training followed immediately by Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOCS) and then Initial Entry Rotary Wing (IERW), more commonly referred to simply as Flight School. Theoretically, this means a soldier as young as 18-years old could be in the cockpit of an Army aircraft, and that has almost assuredly happened. I mean…it DEFINITELY happened during WWII and maybe even Vietnam, but I’d wager it’s also happened more recently. The process sounds really simple and straightforward, and, comparatively, once accepted into the program it is. The challenge is actually getting accepted into the program.
But this program has been expanded somewhat as the Army (just like all of the other Service Branches) has struggled to hang on to pilots. So Street-to-Seat is actively utilized by the Active Army as well as the National Guard and the Army Reserves to replenish the supply of flyers. What this means is, there have likely never been more Street-to-Seat slots than there are now. However, precisely because it IS the quickest way into the cockpit, the talent pool is often highly competitive. So that 18-year old climbing into the pilot’s seat? Absolutely the exception, not the rule. Possible, yes! BUT…
Oftentimes the people applying for this program already have college degrees in some form of STEM or aviation field, experience owning a small business, a fair amount of flight time/experience including, often, specifically Rotary Wing (RW) time…the list goes on. It’s these experiences and traits that, ultimately, qualify them for the program. It’s for this reason that the vast majority of WO aviators in the Army are individuals who have served time as enlisted soldiers and, often, as aircraft mechanics or something else aviation-centric.
Ultimately, what I’m trying to say is, if you want to attempt the Street-to-Seat route, make sure you’ve built your credentials in a way that genuinely makes you competitive for the program. Don’t bank on simply being charming enough or having a winning enough smile to be the exception to the rule. Go to school (specifically a STEM degree would be helpful), get training in a civilian airframe, get some real leadership experience, whether it’s in a business or elsewhere…do all of the above, even. Make yourself the best candidate that you can.
I promise I’m not trying to push one route over another. If you’re wanting to be a pilot, you find the route that’s best for you, and that will get you there, and you take it. HOWEVER, and I’ll stress this even more next week, there is A LOT of value in spending some time as an enlisted soldier, both in your own development as a soldier and in your appreciation for what the enlisted corps does. Especially in aviation.
And, frankly, the fact that this is the route whereby the vast majority of Army-flyers become pilots speaks volumes about its veracity as a viable route for any interested parties.
The Traditional WOC route is also very straightforward. One enlists in the Army, with the initial Military Occupational Specialty (MOS…your Army job) being truly a “choose-your-own-adventure.” Sure there are absolutely advantages (which I’ll touch on shortly) to finding a job that is in the orbit of Army Aviation. But if someone wants to try something else out in the Army that interests them, it won’t detract from their ability to fly later. Particularly if, like I mentioned above, that someone is a hard-working team player who strives to excel. I know soldiers who have become pilots after serving anywhere from 2-14 years enlisted. From Specialists (SPCs) to Sergeants First Class (SFCs). People who served as infantrymen, Drill Sergeants, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technicians (bomb suit people), Army Rangers, tank drivers, Green Berets…the whole gamut. Some got some flight experience prior to the Army, some enter Flight School with their only flight experience being the takeoff before they fall out the back of an airplane. Or riding in one to get to Iraq or Afghanistan. So, truly, this route allows for a BROAD variety of experiences.
Once a soldier has had their fun doing whatever they’ve wanted to do in the Army and decides they want to be a pilot, they report to their Commander and their unit’s administrative folks that they’d like to assemble a flight packet, go down to Alabama and learn to fly. This is where that “hard-working and being a team player” bit comes in, because that Flight Packet will look a lot better if the people working on it have a desire to see a soldier succeed. Furthermore, a soldier’s prior evaluations and military experiences will be included in that flight packet and play a role in whether the selection board decides to send an individual to Flight School. This is also when the Aeromedical Evaluation will take place, the soldier will take the Army’s flight aptitude test (called the Selection Instrument for Flight Training, or SIFT), etc. There will be an e-course on building a flight packet in the not-too-distant future.
Once the packet is selected, the soldier will go before an Aviation Board (generally comprised of several Flight Warrants, maybe a flying-RLO or two) and they’ll be asked questions to determine their suitability as an Army Aviator. This Board and the SIFT are the two places where having experience specifically in an Aviation-related MOS can absolutely be helpful, simply because the prior-exposure to Aviation gives a soldier a leg-up in the realm of Army flight. However, unlike with the Street-to-Seat program, it is by no means critical to have this kind of experience or knowledge if someone has a history of excellent work in the Army and comes highly recommended by their superiors, peers, etc.
I will add, however, that particularly in the Army National Guard or in the Reserves, being an enlisted soldier in an Aviation unit gives one an opportunity to work closely with the very pilots who will eventually select the next batch of WOCs. In this regard, if flying is your goal and you’re planning on going the Traditional WOC route, seriously consider becoming an aircraft mechanic, a flight operations specialist or something that puts you in the atmosphere of aviation within your state. Many an impressive young mechanic in the National Guard has been asked if they’d like to attend Flight School before they even had to request the opportunity. So digest that while you decide what you’re doing to do.
Following selection by the Flight Board, a soldier will then attend WOCS (which deserves an entire article itself) and from the there the journey to becoming a pilot mirrors that of the Street-to-Seat WOC. So as you can see, depending on the individual and their desires, the Traditional route does take longer than High School to Flight School. Sometimes a decade longer. But I daresay there are very few who have done it that wouldn’t say that the extra time was absolutely worth it.
As I stated before, this is the route by which most pilots in the Army become such. And it’s for this very reason that Army Aviation is able to thrive. With such a broad, almost infinite-range of real experience to rely on, an Aviation unit is never wanting for creativity, differing perspectives and new ideas. These Warrants will become the primary mission planners, the primary flight-trainers, the primary influences on all aspects of a unit’s flight program, indeed, the very bedrock on which a unit in Army Aviation is built.
So I’m not pushing one route over the other…but I will always encourage tactical patience and gaining experience. …kind of feels like I’m pushing one over the other, doesn’t it?
To the truly determined who is willing to work hard, there is always a way. There are undoubtedly innumerable cases of individuals who have applied for the High School-to-Flight School program, been turned down, enlisted and then later became pilots through the traditional WOC route or by commissioning as a RLO. There are more yet who didn’t have the means to build a resume for Street-to-Seat and spent a decade or more as an enlisted soldier working hard to earn letters of recommendation to become WOCs. There are even those who didn’t join the Army with any intent to become a pilot but, after spending time on the ground in Afghanistan or Iraq, really got envious of the people flying above them or flying them around and decided that, when they got home, they were going to Flight School.
I say this to state, if you want to fly from the beginning, make a plan (a real one, not a “I’ll apply right out of high school without any experience and it’ll just work out and if it doesn’t they don’t deserve me” plan). Work hard to execute that plan. If you want to fly for the Army, you’ll get there as long as you’re willing to put the work in. It really is that simple.
As stated in the intro, next week will be a dive into the different routes whereby an individual can become an Army pilot as a RLO. Fair warning, this means it will also undoubtedly be an opportunity for me to climb up on that shiny soapbox…
The Army is the only one of the Service Branches in the military of these United States that has pilots who are not O-Grade officers. In fact, the majority of pilots in the Army are not among the ranks of Regular Line Officers (RLOs). Most pilots are among the group of strange and mysterious creatures, seen so rarely elsewhere in the Army and the military as a whole, called Warrant Officers. They’ve got a commission just like the RLOs, but their purpose and job is completely different. Warrants’ purpose as soldiers is to be THE experts in their craft. A Logistics Warrant is the master of supply, an Artillery Warrant is the best reference-point for all things “arty,” even Special Forces ODAs have Team Warrants who are the undisputed experts in warfare and second-in-command of their teams. In Army Aviation, the Warrants are the backbone and the knowledge-base of everything to do with flight.
The role of an Officer in Army Aviation also takes a different shape than elsewhere in the Army. This is due, in part, to a different unit structuring than is to be found in other branches of the Army, but also to the requirements of the operation and maintenance of the myriad equipment that is VERY specific to Aviation. With that said, the basic tenets of officership (and leadership) are still the same as anywhere else, both in the military and out, and of utmost importance. This will be further addressed below.
The simple fact of having Warrant aviators gives Army Aviation an entirely different face than the air wings of the other service branches. Furthermore, this divergence in rank of those who fly the Gold and Black skies opens the means and pathways whereby an aspiring aviator can climb in the front seat of an Army aircraft. The purpose of this article is to provide insight into the differences in the general life and career of an RLO versus a Warrant in Army Aviation and to help all interested parties in deciding what path they’d like to pursue as they break into that realm.
This article WILL NOT dive into the weeds of the different entryways to be taken in becoming either an O- or a W-. That topic is dense enough to require an article of its own, which will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. This one will focus simply on the differences in tasks and purposes of Officers and Warrants in Army Aviation.
First-thing’s-first, an Army Officer is meant to lead soldiers. This isn’t a cracker barrel generalization that should indicate that officers are, in any way, better than other soldiers, smarter than other soldiers, more capable than other soldiers or anything resembling such notions. It means that individuals who commission as RLOs in the United States Army have volunteered for the obligation to do everything they can to ensure their soldiers are set up to succeed at their jobs. This, in turn, leads them to successfully accomplish any mission, whether in or out of combat. Conspicuously, there is no description or messaging in any Army or Department of Defense Doctrine stating that an Officer should be more concerned about the progression of their own career than they are about those whom they have been entrusted to lead. Career progression is not the job of an Army Officer. It’s a by-product of doing the actual job of an Army Officer: leading and taking care of soldiers. These truths apply regardless of which branch of the Army an officer enters, whether Infantry, Aviation or whatever.
Furthermore, the fact of Army Officers NOT being, in any way, better than their soldiers is manifested in the fact that they do not eat in separate areas, they don’t sleep in separate areas and, in fact, an officer will sleep in the dirt along with their soldiers when working a field problem – or in real combat – if the fight requires it. But an officer sleeps less and eats last. Again…remember the actual point of the job as stated above. Among the most widely-known exemplars of what an Army Officer should be (thanks, in large part, to the Band of Brothers series released by HBO at the beginning of the millennium) is Richard “Dick” Winters, pictured above. If you wish to become an Aviation Officer (see: Army Officer), just be sure to set your mind right for that for which you’re actually volunteering.
There, now I can step off of this soapbox…
Actually, the view is better up there…
Okay, so now we’re at an understanding of the fact that an Aviation Officer is, first and foremost, an Army Officer. And with what that means. Now, more specifically, it’s time to gain a very brief understanding of what an Aviation Officer does that is specific to aviation. I won’t dive deeply into the general career path of an aviation officer, rather, I’ll try and inform the aspiring of some things to which they should pay particular attention and of which they should be aware.
An officer needs to have a good understanding of the aviation maintenance program in their company, their BN and in the Army in general. Though the officer doesn’t need to know how to accomplish specific maintenance tasks, the maintenance program is overseen at the officer level. One who oversees a program can’t do so well without digging deep enough to understand the basic foundation/function of the program itself.
Likewise, an officer needs to have an equally good understanding of the standardizations (STANZ) program. This is the aviators’ Annual Training Program (ATP). Their semi-/annual requirements in the aircraft, in the simulator, in the classroom, and in the realm of aviation knowledge/general understanding. Ultimately, this program (like the maintenance program) belongs to the commander of the unit, which is, with few exceptions, an RLO.
The exact same can be said for the unit’s safety program, which is roughly the size of a humpback whale and as easy to digest, as well as the unit’s Training Program, of which the same could be said…. What you should be realizing as you read this is, ultimately, a commander, at whatever level (Company, Battalion, etc.) will own all of the policies and programs that operate within their unit. Luckily for these officers, they have their Warrant Officers to help/advise them with all programs related to flight (more to follow) and their Enlisted Personnel to help/advise them with aircraft maintenance, non-flight training, the unit Physical Fitness program, etc.
All of these programs, all of these policies, etc., lead back to the Aviation Officer ultimately doing what this section led off with: “everything they can to ensure their soldiers are set up to succeed at their jobs so as to successfully accomplish any mission, whether in or out of combat.”
Oh, and they fly, too. With the expectation that they’ll get good at it. If you’re joining the Army just to fly, this is not the route for you. However, as you’ll see, the Warrant route likely won’t be either.
As stated in the introduction, Aviation Warrant Officers are the masters of their respective aircraft as well as their chosen tracks in Army Aviation (more on this momentarily). For the individual who wants to fly in the Army, and then fly more in the Army, followed by more Army flying, the path of the Warrant is the way to go. Don’t get me wrong, a young RLO in the Army can get a lot of flying in…but as they move into staff positions, take higher commands, etc., their flight time will almost inevitably decrease. A Warrant’s likely won’t. It’s the Warrants that retire from the Army with over 8,000 hours on the stick. Now, this generalization DOES find many exceptions, particularly among the ranks of Guardsmen/Reservists, where RLOs often get a good amount of flight time despite promotions and specific duty positions due to the flight programs, funding, and requirements that exist to ensure flight readiness among a largely part-time force. But, as a rule, Warrants will still outfly their O-grade counterparts.
A large part of being a Flight Warrant is choosing a specialty track/functional area. These are areas/programs within Army Aviation into which Warrants (O’s, too, but the focus is Warrants) will dive deeper as part of their becoming the undisputed masters of their craft. In the coming weeks, there will be an article giving a more in-depth description of these four tracks, but a brief list will suffice to give insight into those tracks:
Standards – Instructor Pilots and Standardization Pilots, those who serve as primary advisors to the Commander respecting the flight program and ensure all pilots are successfully trained in both the technical and tactical aspects of the profession of Army Aviation. They ensure pilots are meeting the requirements inherent thereto.
Maintenance – These are the pilots who advise the Commander in the operation of the unit’s maintenance program to ensure that aircraft maintenance is being done correctly (in order to ensure safe flight) and that the maintenance program will always allow for aircraft to be available for training.
Safety – These individuals will become intimately familiar with the Army’s safety programs as a whole, and with Aviation safety programs as an (albeit incredibly important) sub-category thereof. Naturally, the aviation-related programs will be the greatest focus. Safety Officers often gain further certifications/accreditations through OSHA and other nationwide programs over the course of their careers.
Mission Survivability – The Commander’s primary advisor in the analysis of a given mission and the proper application of Aviation assets in defeating a given threat. These pilots are the tactical wizards and have the best understanding of aircraft capability, enemy threats and their capabilities, and how to successfully accomplish a mission under the most favorable conditions possible given any set of circumstances.
As stated in the section on RLOs, a given officer is required to have at least a base knowledge of all of these things, as, ultimately, all of these programs BELONG to the Commander. But the system has been established so that, by design, the Commander will have absolute experts to advise and educate them and the soldiers in their unit far beyond the scope of that base knowledge. This absolutely shouldn’t make a commander (or any RLO) feel justified in not gaining more than a base knowledge, but they may rest assured that whatever answer they don’t have about a given topic, they’ve got a Warrant Officer who can help them find the answer.
There exists a tongue-in-cheek belief among soldiers in the Army that Warrant Officers are also the ultimate and expert duty-dodgers and slackers. Their unique standing in the Army rank structure means that soldiers rarely fall directly under the purview of a Warrant and they are thus seen as being uniquely in a position to avoid work, responsibility, etc. This could not be further from the truth. There are certainly outliers, as is the case with any given group of people, who are unprofessional, lazy, or whatever, but the majority of Warrants are the ultimate professionals. They take the title of “Subject Matter Expert” seriously and strive to live up to it. Furthermore, their professionalism and passion mean that Warrant Officers are fantastic at cleaning up those among their ranks who are less so.
If being flight-focused is your calling, the path of the Warrant is likely for you. But be advised…it’s not just a “flying club.” You will be expected by your Commanders and by your fellow Warrants to work hard, to become an expert, and to excel.
I sincerely hope this article hasn’t come across, in any way, as crusty or hard-nosed. That is not my intent. My objective is to give all interested parties a realistic look at what being an Army Aviator entails. There are those, unfortunately, who have joined Army Aviation (particularly the Guard or Reserves, given the standard “part-time” conceptualization) thinking that they were getting into the aforementioned flying club. Or thinking that they were somehow graduating to “a higher plane” in the Army where the troubles and difficulties of being a soldier are decidedly fewer in number or entirely nonexistent. This isn’t the case. Army Aviation is still a part of the Army. Aviators are still soldiers, first and foremost. Far from reducing the number of challenges presented to average soldiers, being involved in the tactical and technical operation of the most advanced rotary-wing aircraft in the world adds a whole new slew of challenges and problems to the mix.
But it’s absolutely worth it. For the individual who is driven, passionate and hard-working, Army Aviation is unbelievably good medicine. There are many who have entered into Army Aviation, whether as RLOs or as Warrants, who have become disenchanted by the expectations and responsibilities for which they’ve unwittingly enlisted. But to the vast majority, those who entered knowing it wouldn’t be easy and welcoming the challenge, the smell of jet fuel, the thrill of landing on mountain tops, fighting fires, shooting from an aerial platform, and the relationships formed are all rewarding in a way that no other profession could possibly hope to match.
This to say that there really is no “bad option” here. The question to the individual is simply “what better matches my goals and personality? The Path of the RLO, or that of the Warrant?”
Here’s your scenario: you’ve studied, and taken the Air Force Officer Qualification Test (AFOQT). Now you are patiently waiting to receive your scores and understand where you fall in the order of merit. This article will help you understand where you can find your AFOQT scores, give you a rough gauge of your competitiveness based on your scores, and explain the process for taking the test a second time. Let’s jump right in.
How Do I Check My AFOQT Score?
AFOQT answer sheets are graded at Air Force Personnel Center (AFPC) headquarters, Randolph AFB (San Antonio, TX). The answer sheets are delivered via traditional mail, so the turnaround time is largely influenced by the geographical distance from your testing center to San Antonio, TX.
Check AFOQT Scores Online
Once your scores are processed, you will go to the AFPC website to check your score. Note – I could not open this with Google Chrome due to AFPC security settings. I had to use Safari (other browsers may work as well).
From there, you will need to enter your social security number and last name and select your testing center from the list. This page will provide you with your Pilot, Navigator, Academic Aptitude, Verbal, and Quantitative subscores. If you are working with a Line Officer Recruiter or you are an Air Force Academy or Air Force ROTC cadet, your recruiter or your cadre will be sent a copy of your scores when they are processed.
If you are applying with a Guard or Reserve unit, you’ll likely need to retrieve the scores yourself and include copies of the score printout sheets in your application.
How Long Does It Take To Get AFOQT Scores Back?
Most applicants report waiting anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks to receive scores. Feel free to reach out to AFPC directly if it takes longer than this. You can call the Air Force Personnel Center at 1-800-525-0102.
How is the AFOQT Scored?
The AFOQT includes six subscores:
Pilot
Navigator (also known as Combat Systems Officer or CSO)
Air Battle Manager (ABM)
Academic Aptitude
Verbal
Quantitative.
Each numerical subscore represents a performance percentile compared against a reference group of test-takers. For instance, a subtest score of 90 would indicate better performance than 90% of the test-takers in the reference group. The subscores do not represent the overall percentage of problems that were answered correctly.
AFOQT Minimum Scores
The Air Force has established sets of minimum AFOQT passing scores which must be achieved in order to apply for a commission. These requirements differ depending on the position being sought and are listed below.
Pilot and RPA Operator AFOQT Score Minimums
Pilot: 25*
Navigator/CSO: (no minimum)*
ABM: (no minimum)
Academic Aptitude: (no minimum)
Verbal: 15
Quantitative: 10
*Previously, Pilot/RPA applicants were also required to have a minimum Navigator/CSO score of 10 and a combined Pilot and Navigator/CSO subscore total of 50. These requirements have been removed according to the latest version ofAFMAN36-2032. However, many Guard and Reserve units still utilize these requirements.
CSO AFOQT Score Minimums
Pilot: (no minimum)*
Navigator/CSO: 25*
ABM: (no minimum)
Academic Aptitude: (no minimum)
Verbal: 15
Quantitative: 10
*Previously, Navigator/CSO applicants were also required to have a minimum Pilot score of 10 and a combined Navigator/CSO and Pilot subscore total of 50. These requirements have been removed according to the latest version ofAFMAN36-2032. However, many Guard and Reserve units still utilize these requirements.
ABM AFOQT Score Minimums
Pilot: (no minimum)*
Navigator/CSO: (no minimum)*
ABM: 25
Academic Aptitude: (no minimum)
Verbal: 15
Quantitative: 10
*Previously, ABM applicants were also required to have a minimum Pilot score of 10, a minimum Navigator/CSO score of 10, and a combined Pilot and Navigator/CSO subscore total of 50. These requirements have been removed according to the latest version ofAFMAN36-2032.
AFOQT Minimum Scores For OTS
Pilot: (no minimum)
Navigator/CSO: (no minimum)
ABM: (no minimum)
Academic Aptitude: (no minimum)
Verbal: 15
Quantitative: 10
What are Good AFOQT Scores?
There’s no magic set of AFOQT score thresholds that will guarantee you a pilot slot. Applicants at the upper end of the spectrum are sometimes not selected, just as applicants with unimpressive scores sometimes snag slots. The rest of your application is obviously very important. That said, it’s in your best interest to maximize your score.
We’re often asked, “What AFOQT scores do I need to be competitive?” I call this the “how do I compare” statistic. The following AFOQT score figures are based on a fairly small sample size of 46 Pilot selectees from some of the Officer Training School selection boards for fiscal years 2013 through 2017.
In this example, we averaged the scores (in each category) for the individuals who were selected to pilot training. It’s important to note that these statistics don’t actually represent one individual person. Instead, it’s simply an average. So here is what we found (keep in mind this is a small sample size and it always depends).
OTS Pilot Selectee Average AFOQT Scores (based on individual subscores)
Pilot: 90.8
Navigator/CSO: 89
Academic Aptitude: 79.3
Verbal: 78.3
Quantitative: 73.6
AFRC 16-01 Pilot Selectee AFOQT Average Scores (based on individual subscores)
Here is another “how do I compare example” from an official Air Force Reserve site (sample size unknown). Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) publishes official statistics following most of their unsponsored rated selection boards. The following are the average AFOQT subscores for Pilot selectees from the first board of the fiscal year 2016 (16-01).
Pilot: 91.5
Navigator/CSO: 76.2
Academic Aptitude: 64.4
Verbal: 60.3
Quantitative: 61
Ok, that’s enough statistics for one article. Don’t get wrapped up in the comparison game. You have to do your best on every part of the test and that’s all you can control.
It’s important to note that your Grade Point Average and PCSM score (which utilizes the AFOQT Pilot subscore in its calculation) are also important aptitude factors that are reviewed as parts of your application. But as you can see, you don’t have to score above the 90th percentile in each component to get a Pilot slot. In fact, since the AFOQT Pilot score directly affects your PCSM score, often that’s the one that truly matters.
In my experience, a 90+ Pilot score with sub-50s in every other subsection is more competitive than 80s across the board. They’re hiring you to fly, not write a novel, so make sure you focus on knocking the Pilot sections out of the park!
It’s impossible, however, to predict exactly how much weight each member of a selection board will put into aptitude scores and it’s easy to drive yourself crazy comparing yourself to others. Keep in mind that board members are aware that standardized testing is not a perfectly accurate measure of potential military aviator performance and that other factors about character and work ethic are sometimes better indicators of potential for success. Make the rest of your application as outstanding as you possibly can and the selection board might give you the benefit of the doubt if your scores don’t seem competitive.
How Many Times Can You Take the AFOQT?
AFMAN36-2032states that two AFOQT test attempts are authorized without the need for a waiver, but the retest must occur at least 5 months (150 days) after the first testing attempt. The regulation also indicates that a waiver to retake the test within this waiting period is possible if justification is sent to the AFPC Testing Office for approval.
Taking the AFOQT a third time is a possibility with a waiver, but approval requires an applicant to provide substantive proof of pursuing relevant education since the last test attempt, such as completing a related college course or gaining significant flight experience. Those who have not yet taken the Form T version of the test but have taken Form S twice are also permitted to take the test one more time but must submit a request to the AFPC Testing Office to gain approval.
It is important to note that the scores from the most recent test attempt are the ones that count, even if they are worse than the original ones. Prepare well and be sure that you will make an improvement if you retest.
Next Steps After Taking the AFOQT
If you’re not happy with your AFOQT test scores, don’t beat yourself up. You can retake the test 150 days after your first attempt and just having the experience of knowing what to expect the second time is sure to make a positive difference.
Discipline yourself and create a regimented study routine. By the time you’re eligible to retest, you’ll have gained a wealth of knowledge and will be able to approach your retake with confidence. Just be sure that you put in the effort and truly commit to studying. If you do worse on your retake, you’re out of luck because the most recent scores are the valid ones. Be absolutely sure that you’re significantly more prepared so that you don’t waste your retake.
If you’re satisfied with your AFOQT results, then congratulations — you’ve completed one of the most important (and stressful) components of your application out of the way! If you haven’t already taken the TBAS, you can now do so and receive a PCSM score. If you’ve taken the TBAS before, your PCSM score will now be available since it utilizes the AFOQT Pilot subscore in its calculation. Breathe a sigh of relief and start making sure the rest of your application is top-notch. Aptitude scores are important, but the “whole-person concept” is a reality and the selection boards want to see that you’re a well-rounded person. Acing the AFOQT is a huge help but it doesn’t guarantee selection. Your scores should augment a well-crafted application rather than attempt to make up for an otherwise subpar application.
Other Frequently Asked Questions
How Long Are AFOQT Scores Valid?
AFOQT scores are valid for life.
Can AFOQT Scores Be Waived?
A waiver is within the realm of possibility in extreme instances, but do not count on getting a waiver for your test. Be prepared and take the test with confidence!
Wrapping Up
We hope you have learned a ton and are motivated to achieve your goal. It might seem overwhelming but it’s just another step in the process. The path to the cockpit is a long journey. Keep taking strides to attain your dream and continue to put one foot in front of the other.
Note: This article was written using multiple different sources. These sources include the Pilot Candidate Selection Method website, prep books for the AFOQT test, USAF AFPC Official AFOQT Form T Prep Course and multiple phone calls to understand the process.
