Army WOFT... Should I do it?

[LazersGoPEWPEW]

In the Company of Heroes or Night Stalkers by Mike Durant
CW2 by Layne Heath
Firebirds by Chuck Carlock
Chickenhawk by Robert Mason
Anatomy of a Division by Shelby Stanton
To the Limit by Tom Johnson
Most of these are about Vietnam, I have really found anything about or by really recent actions by Army Aviators, Roberts Ridge is in Night Stalkers.

If you want to know a little about Basic and Wocs,here is one about a guy that went through Basic and Benning and then OCS, the stuff about Basic was similar but the OCS stuff is pretty off from WOCS. This guy went to a state OCS.
To Benning and Back by Monroe Mann

In the realm of fiction W.E.B. Griffin's Brotherhood of War (especially the Majors and the Aviators)

You can wait and see if I ever get mine finished

Fixed.

I second Chickenhawk. Still one of my favorites.

 

[eddie]

Fixed.

I second Chickenhawk. Still one of my favorites.

My favorite part in that book is when a Huey crashes, and all the supply sergeants rush to list all of their "missing" stuff in that helo's manifest. Very Catch-22.

 

[HeloBubba]

I have read all of the above plus this:

Huey - by Jay and David Groen

 

[JTB7]

Sorry for the bump on an old thread but was reading this and it sounds too good to be true.

http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/warrant/WOcivilian.html

Their recommendation and your application packet will be forwarded to the USAREC Selection Board. Once the USAREC Selection Board has adjourned and the results are approved, the recruiter will be notified of the results. If selected, you will have 10 days to go to the MEPS where you took your physical and enlist into the Army as a Warrant Officer Flight Training Candidate. You will not leave that day, you will be given a report date from 3 weeks to 12 months later.

You are notified if selected for the WO flight training then enlist? I thought it was always a recruiting gimmick to get people to enlist and not give them a chance to go through flight school.

This week a bunch of guys who had selected 47s (but hadn't started class yet) were told to reselct, their choices were 64s or 58s. We are somewhere around 400% on 47 drivers.

And the least selected birds are the apache and the blackhawk?! The apache is badass! I thought that would be the #1 picked helicopter....Is this abnormal?

 

[phrogdriver]

I'm sure this question is born out of ignorance of their respective missions on my part, but how is 'Artillery' more of a direct combat role than 'Combat Air Support'?

The comparison going on in my head is bombing/strafing/whatevering a target in close air support of ground units vs. lobbing shells at said target.

I think you're thinking of "Close Air Support," unless the Army has a different term for it. The combat exclusion applies to ground combat units, not air, which may or may not make sense, depending on how you look at it. Arty may be in the rear a lot, but they also end up spending a LOT of time as "provisional rifle companies," at least in the Corps. The only way a pilot should end up in ground combat is if he/she gets shot down, at which point the goal is not fighting, but evading. Besides, those arty shells are heavy!

 

[Lawman]

And the least selected birds are the apache and the blackhawk?! The apache is badass! I thought that would be the #1 picked helicopter....Is this abnormal?

Most guys factor in more than badass factor when they select, especially if they are married. You can go anywhere with Hawks, and thats a big attraction to them. Down side to that is you can go anywhere with Hawks. Which includes Korea, Drum, Steward, etc but places like Germany, Hood, Campbell are usually attractive especially if your trying to line up your duty station with House 6's desire to be close to family. Same is true with Chinooks, a lot of the duty stations are considered some of the better posts in the Army. So when you start factoring in people who are planning their duty stations over the sex appeal of the aircraft, people thinking about going coast guard or a home guard unit after they do their 6, etc etc you end up with Apaches being the last of the picks.

Dont get me wrong there will still be guys from the top of the class that go guns from the get go.

 

[resctech]

Lawman pretty much hit it on the head as far as selection. The last two classes, there were only a couple of 64's, the 58's and 47's were even fewer, so they went quick. They were all gone in the first 3 or 4 picks. As far as the enlistment, you enlist as a candidate, and once you finish WOCS you're discharged and swear in on a new oath. I'm not real familiar with the Street to Seat "pipeline" other than boot camp and then on to WOCS for aviation.

 

[JTB7]

Lawman pretty much hit it on the head as far as selection. The last two classes, there were only a couple of 64's, the 58's and 47's were even fewer, so they went quick. They were all gone in the first 3 or 4 picks. As far as the enlistment, you enlist as a candidate, and once you finish WOCS you're discharged and swear in on a new oath. I'm not real familiar with the Street to Seat "pipeline" other than boot camp and then on to WOCS for aviation.

Thank you lawman and resctech.Was the UH-60 Blackhawk the only chooper left after the first 3 or 4 picks?

appeal of the aircraft, people thinking about going coast guard or a home guard unit after they do their 6, etc etc you end up with Apaches being the last of the picks.

Are apaches hard to transfer over? Or is it just strait up flight experience in a chopper? I assume that the Blackhawk would be easy to tranfer over to the USCG becuase they have similar aircraft.

 

[Lawman]

Thank you lawman and resctech.Was the UH-60 Blackhawk the only chooper left after the first 3 or 4 picks?



Are apaches hard to transfer over? Or is it just strait up flight experience in a chopper? I assume that the Blackhawk would be easy to tranfer over to the USCG becuase they have similar aircraft.

The main problem (and this is just what little Ive heard) is a lot of the guys that want to go from military to civy helo jobs have trouble if they arent from the 58 or 60 crowd. First problem is that if the guy your interviewing with is more likely to be a former 60 guy since there are more of them. Second problem is if your going from something as heavy in power as an Apache to something like a Bell 206 the guy used to flying a tight power to weight ratio easy to overtorque helicopter is going to be prefered over the guy coming from a more "forgiving" aircraft. Plus you fly an aircraft that your used to the idea of you and your copilot not being the only two people on board to consider when choosing how you fly an aircraft. If you were to come from a background like flying Hawks on mainly dignitary or medivac missions your probably a little more prepaired to the idea of flying around some Oil rig workers than a guy who did nothing but orbit around and yank and bank a gunship all his years in the Army.

Then there's the whole stigma of being an "Apache Guy" but thats honestly more just player hate from what Ive seen. Hawks hate Apaches, Apaches hate Hawks.

 

[Clux4]

I thought Kiowa guys hate Apache guys.
Alpha males!!.....because rivalry is fun.

 

[resctech]

Yep, all that was left after the first 3 or 4 picks was Hawks. In the present, if your AD and want a choice, you gotta keep your grades up. Even though 58's give you hours in a 206 airframe, 58's as well as 64's, lack IFR time, for now. That may be a problem for some guys and their second career choices.

 

[Lawman]

I thought Kiowa guys hate Apache guys.
Alpha males!!.....because rivalry is fun.

Everybody hates Apache guys.

 

[Coota0]

Then there's the whole stigma of being an "Apache Guy" but thats honestly more just player hate from what Ive seen. Hawks hate Apaches, Apaches hate Hawks.

How do you get a one armed hawk driver out of a tree?

Wave.



While I've heard of classes that were almost all 60s, I've also heard of classes in which the bottom of the class all got 64s. Allegedly the powers that be are trying to even out the selection a bit, there will never be as many 47s and 58s in selection as 64s and 60s, just because the Army has fewer Kiowas and Chinooks.

 

[mad dog]

Should you do it? Looks pretty cool to me. A popular video that circulated around AROTC when I was doing that.

Dang!

Now THAT is a HOT helo video...AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" makes it even hotter!

Thanks for posting it!

 

[Uncle Fester]

As long as we're resurrecting threads, and since Army Aviation books were mentioned:

Apache and Hellfire by Ed Macy, a British Army Apache guy who flew in Afghanistan, including the mission where they flew out a KIA Royal Marine on the sponson during a fight. Interesting books on the gunship world and how the Brits do things.