• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

Advice - Routes to OCS

PMPT

Well-Known Member
Hi guys,

I am in a bit of an unusual position. I am pursuing an air contract at OCC, have passed MEPS but am still waiting to go to Pensacola. I originally trained as a lawyer and am currently on the NY Bar. I hate being a lawyer and so am trying to join the military to get away from doing this and to learn how to fly.

My recruiter has been scheming and has said that current selection rates for law contracts are extremely high and that I would be very likely to get picked up on an air contract. He said that I should then with relative ease (?) be able to 'drop' my law contract and pick up an air contract at TBS as students drop them and go ground instead. He said this move was largely intended solely as a means of finding the path of least resistance to OCS.

While I appreciate him brainstorming, is this 1) a load of bull; and 2) an incredibly bad idea, if I want to fly and hate being a lawyer, surely going in on a law contract and hoping to drop for air is not exactly as smart a way to go about it as going in with an air contract to begin with?

Just wanted to get your input on the matter. I don't want to stare a gift horse in the mouth ... but by the same token don't want to wind back up in the exact thing I was trying to escape from in the first place.

Thanks,

PMPT
 

LFDtoUSMC

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
Picking up an air contract at TBS is a possibility, but not a guarantee. As a single data point, but representative of manpower requirement as a whole, my TBS company was told we would have 5 to 10-ish (I think...) competitive air contracts available. So a bunch of people took the ASTB and had flight physicals completed. Well, a few months later those air slots magically disappeared and we had 0 competitive air slots. The manpower requirements are always in flux.

Also, there is always the chance of the always feared night land nav stick to the eye (insert other disqualifying injury leading to the NAMI whammy) from OCS to Wings. So understand going in that you may end up in a ground job. I would advise to hold out for an air contract if that is what you really want. If your age starts to become a hindrance, then maybe do something to get your foot in the door. Just my thoughts. Good luck.

Oh yeah, try to get as close to a 300 PFT as you can. No reason not to.
 

Renegade One

Well-Known Member
None
My recruiter has been scheming and has said that current selection rates for law contracts are extremely high and that I would be very likely to get picked up on an air contract. He said that I should then with relative ease (?) be able to 'drop' my law contract and pick up an air contract at TBS as students drop them and go ground instead. He said this move was largely intended solely as a means of finding the path of least resistance to OCS.
Your recruiter reminds me of the two old brothers at "Duke and Duke" in Trading Places: "The best part is that whether the contract gets what he wants or doesn't get what he wants…the recruiter still gets what he wants." I'd be wary…

My general advice is "never contract for something you DON'T want in order to maybe get what you really want."
 

PMPT

Well-Known Member
I know, I was mostly kidding. Had hoped that was clear from my oenological diction, but I suppose not haha. Thanks for the advice with regards to the Navy though.
 

PMPT

Well-Known Member
Your recruiter reminds me of the two old brothers at "Duke and Duke" in Trading Places: "The best part is that whether the contract gets what he wants or doesn't get what he wants…the recruiter still gets what he wants." I'd be wary…

My general advice is "never contract for something you DON'T want in order to maybe get what you really want."

Yeah, that's my general thought-process as well. I absolutely hated being a lawyer and going to law school was basically the biggest mistake I ever made in my life. I unfortunately got laid off (oil and gas market) NYE so am sadly having to consider all my options to scramble about ... if I was still in work, I'd have no real big issues with waiting around a bit longer. It seems like a hell of a big risk to take though ... and may well land me back where I wished to escape in the first place.

Thanks to all the guys who responded to this thread.
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
Yeah, that's my general thought-process as well. I absolutely hated being a lawyer and going to law school was basically the biggest mistake I ever made in my life. I unfortunately got laid off (oil and gas market) NYE so am sadly having to consider all my options to scramble about ... if I was still in work, I'd have no real big issues with waiting around a bit longer. It seems like a hell of a big risk to take though ... and may well land me back where I wished to escape in the first place.

Thanks to all the guys who responded to this thread.

The USN can probably get you in faster.
 

Slingblade

Huge Member
pilot
I wouldn't go in as a law contract if air is what you want. I didn't want to wait to go to OCC and went as a ground contract being told the same thing by my recruiter that I could just get it at TBS. It worked out in my case as there were 4 air contracts available for 7 of us competing. Top of the bottom 3rd at TBS is how I got it. Out of those 4 I think only two of us went on to be winged aviators. Looking back on it I don't think I would have taken that gamble knowing what I know now. I was just lucky I guess. With that said we had a law contract guy who really liked the experience at TBS and wanted to go enjoy more of it at IOC as an infantry officer and they did not let him out of his law contract. This was about 15 years ago but I'm sure it's similar. If it's easier for you to get into OCS as a law contract it's not because the Marine Corps likes lawyers......it's because they need lawyers. My advice is don't roll the dice on something that is that important to you. Use that extra time to get ready physically for OCS and as someone mentioned early get that PFT as close to 300 as possible.
 

PMPT

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't go in as a law contract if air is what you want. I didn't want to wait to go to OCC and went as a ground contract being told the same thing by my recruiter that I could just get it at TBS. It worked out in my case as there were 4 air contracts available for 7 of us competing. Top of the bottom 3rd at TBS is how I got it. Out of those 4 I think only two of us went on to be winged aviators. Looking back on it I don't think I would have taken that gamble knowing what I know now. I was just lucky I guess. With that said we had a law contract guy who really liked the experience at TBS and wanted to go enjoy more of it at IOC as an infantry officer and they did not let him out of his law contract. This was about 15 years ago but I'm sure it's similar. If it's easier for you to get into OCS as a law contract it's not because the Marine Corps likes lawyers......it's because they need lawyers. My advice is don't roll the dice on something that is that important to you. Use that extra time to get ready physically for OCS and as someone mentioned early get that PFT as close to 300 as possible.

That's pretty much what I figured. If they're hungry for lawyers, I question whether it will be as easy to simply 'drop' as my recruiter tells me it will be. Thanks.
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
I quite like the Marines` culture ... but just out of interest, are you saying that the Navy can get guys down to NAMI faster than the USMC can?

USN doesn't send guys to NAMI first, OCS then NAMI, while people do get the NAMI whammy the ones I saw drop before starting flight school were those that the recruiter had to pull out all types of stops to get them cleared, childhood asthma, surgery to repair joints, surgery to repair other items, etc...
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
That's pretty much what I figured. If they're hungry for lawyers, I question whether it will be as easy to simply 'drop' as my recruiter tells me it will be. Thanks.

I am surprised the USMC is hurting for lawyer candidates, in the USN it is not easy with all the competition, so maybe he just has a quota to fill and you are it? either way if you go into the USMC as a lawyer hoping to be a Pilot you are setting yourself up for potentially a big let down.

let me ask you this, if you had a client that committed a crime and the prosecutor said "sign this deal for 6 years in prison, but once you get to prison we will change the deal so you only have you serve 3 years" would you have him take that deal?

*the example of prison in no way is meant to say the USMC is like prison, it is only used to make a point*
 
Top