[WAZ]

Howdy all,

My name is Zach Wusk. I am a 24 y/o working at NASA in Houston, Texas. I am originally from Yorktown, VA, where I grew up with F-22s roaring overhead. I have degrees in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, and most of my background is human performance research. Working closely with astronauts and hearing their stories has encouraged me to chase my dream of being a fighter pilot.

I come from a family of pilots (Grandpa flew F-4s and F-106s, Uncle flew F-16s, and Dad flew for NASA), and I have done a fair amount of GA flights with my dad, but no official work towards my PPL. I enjoy fitness of all sorts (CrossFit/HIIT workouts, Olympic lifting, half marathons, triathlons) and I have always been a very competitive person.

As someone with little prior knowledge of the ANG, this website has been extremely helpful. I am currently working towards getting my AFOQT/TBAS scheduled, but running into some issues with the local recruiter. He said I could not schedule the assessments until I was listed as a potential candidate for an officer position (but I need to scores to apply to the open UPT slots?). I am working on getting a POC for the local ANG wing to see if there is someone else I can talk to (If others have had trouble with this and know a better solution, please let me know). Hopefully I can get this sorted out and start applying.

I would love to connect with others on here, especially if there are any in my boat or who have successfully come from a similar background.

Cheers,

Zach

• This reply was modified 10 months, 2 weeks ago by  WAZ. Reason: Formatting issues

[WAZ]

Hey @SLAP ,

Thanks for the response. I am aware that the lack of my PPL makes it more difficult; I have started studying for ground school and plan to keep working towards my PPL while I get all the other pieces together.

I reached out to the local AFROTC group. They gave me a POC to help schedule the AFOQT, but it has been 2 weeks and no response. The local joint reserve base doesn’t answer their phone, so my next step is to just show up to talk to someone (since the local recruiter was not helpful).

My dad retired last year, but flew King Airs. He also got to be backseat in T-38s for a few different projects as a flight test engineer.