I was just wanting to get some opinions on a situation that my friend is in. Any replies would be greatly appreciated. My friend is currently in AFROTC and has a navigator slot. He is scheduled to commission in April/May. Right now the AF is allowing cadets to get out of the program since they are overmanned. He's from South Florida and likes most of the locations the Coast Guard has to offer. He wants to be a pilot and was thinking about trying to get a pilot slot in the AF after being in for a few years, however, he heard about the blue-21 program and is considering switching over. This would mean declining his commission for an attempt to get a guaranteed aviation slot with the CG. His feelings are indifferent about the two services. If he chose to do the CG, he would have to get a PPL before he graduated since he is a business major. The 25% minority thing is covered. Here are some of his questions. 1.What are the likely chances of him getting selected given the fact he has competitive scores/How competitive are the boards? 2.Why is OCS 18 weeks and what can he expect/ any personal advice/info? 3.Is he insane for thinking about walking away from a commission 4 months away? (what would you do?) I know that most of the answers to these questions depend on a number of variables, but any help you can give would be awesome...I guess I'm just looking for some different opinions and any advice I can give my friend. Thanks in advance. TGW
Hello all. First time poster here. Saw a couple erroneous statements in the previous posts and thought I'd jump in here and correct them. Elder: Surely the text below your avatar is a joke right? US Coast Guard C-130 Demonstration Team. I've been an AD pilot for 24 years, most of it in the CG, and I've never heard about this distinguished team of aerial performers. Hmmm...oh well, I digress. Boy, this one jumped right out at me. I happen to be a member of the aforementioned group (i.e. the "butt load" group). I agree there are a lot of us. In fact, a large number serve today as Ops, XOs, and COs at many of our Air Stations. They bring a lot of experience to the table. If you ever get a chance to meet/fly with one I recommend you share your "butt load" view with them - I think they'd get a real kick out of it. By the way, here's how you emphasize butt. Nor will you. Refer to the link and read the text you included in your own post. Now how the hell is a Damage Controlman going to answer your question? These are enlisted guys that maintain and repair ship and shore facilities. I suggest you ask a DCA (stands for Direct Commission Aviator). Again bum gouge. The majority of DCA's entering the CG are O-3s. In fact, check the results of the latest DCA Board (here's the link). 16 people were selected, 3 were Ensigns. That works out to 19%...hardly a majority. Not even close! Did you forget that earlier you said there was a butt load of prior Army guys? "Half and half" implies 50%-50%. Where is the butt load in this equation? You need to get one. They'll educate you on the finer points of percentage computations.
Hey SlickAG, what year are/were ya at A&M. '02 here. My old man just retired from the CG, O6. Uncle just got admiral. This next board is my final chance before I get "old". Someone asked about the career progression. My old man had a weird career, class 77, went helicopters, did 4 years as the cheif test pilot on the HH60J program, then went back to 65's. I forgot why he went to DC to work at HQ, but he didn't have to. Basically he flew his whole career all the way up to his last command..and there he x-trained into hercs. Lots of flying, and fairly short deployments compared to the other services. And yeah I remember a BUTT load of ex army guys.
I have a question hopefully one of you can answer. I am a LTjg in the Navy currently in pilot training, about tog et my wings in the next month. I did primary at Whiting Field,where I finished number 2 in my selection class and selected Navy Jets(T-45) out of there. The ironic thing was it was my third choice behing E-6 and P-3. So Once I go to Kingsville I started the program there and after 3 months of flying there I got my transfer to the E-6 pipeline. Now I am here at Vance AFB flying the T-1(Beechcraft 400) and currently in the top 2 of my class here, and will wing in a month and then go fly the E-6B Tacamo. With the overmanning of the Navy esp in the P-3 and some in the E-6 community they are overing us the "reserve option" and some other little things that aren't very good options. I was curious how hard would it be to transfer into the Coast guard to fly one of your fixed wing aircraft(since all my training has been fixed wing)???? I dont think the Navy would have a problem leting me go, since thy're overmanned!! Any input would be great. thank you for advice in advance!
The CG's DCA program is used to meet fleetwide pilot requirements that can not be met using the CG's flight school pipeline. Historically, the "gap" that needed to be filled was in the RW community. This is also true today. I can't even recall the last time the CG brought in FW DCA's (my guess is that the current problems in the commercial airline industry have increased the CG's FW pilot retention rate). One of the items that must be submitted in a DCA packet is a Certified Copy of Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty (DD-214). Here's a link to the Direct Commission Officer Programs Check-off Sheet. This sheet is part of the DCA packet that goes before the selection board.
Balance51, I do know one DCA that did come in as a fixed wing pilot but it was pretty much a fluke. He was accessed under the assumption that he would be flying helicopters but as they were giving him an assignment they needed to fill a shortfall Copilot falcon billet in Cape Cod and since he had just left a fixed wing unit they asked him if he would be willing to take that instead. There really isn't much chance for getting a fixed wing slot through a DCA accession. In fact I think a recent solicitation message, or the DCA website itself (can't remember where I read it) says they are only accepting rotary wing applications at this time. Elder, I am interested in the C-130 demonstration team. Do you have shows often? Where do you think you will perform next? I would really love to see you perform. I'll just ditto what USCGaviator had to say and move on as far as all of the items he noted goes. For a CG pilot you are surprisingly out of the loop on Direct Commission Aviators.
It was the CG's Direct Commission Aviator site. Here's the link: * CG's Direct Commission Aviator Program
