Getting In the Door: Commissioning Sources 

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.  

1. 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. 
2. 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. 
3. 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. 
4. 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.

Table of Contents

1. Which One is Right for You?
2. Goods and Others
   1. USNA
   2. ROTC
3. Commissioning from the Enlisted Ranks
4. Conclusion

Which One is Right for You? 

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. 

Table of Contents

Goods and Others

USNA-Goods:

1. 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. 
2. 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. 
3. 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.
4. It’s a highly-respected institution and may enable access to things on the civilian side, like graduate schools and employment-related networking opportunities. 
5. 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.