NFO to pilot?

[Kyle McWhirter]

Some official news from my recruiter today...

The Navy lowered the vision requirements from 20/30 to 20/40 (correctable of course). I had him write up the paperwork for me when I first heard the rumor here on AirWarriors. So hopefully I can get redesignated from NFO to NA before OCS which is rapidly approaching. If anyone else is in the same boat...call your recruiter asap! All it requires on your part is a letter explaining why you want to redesignate.

 

[Ed Williams]

Kyle, hopefully all will work out and you will be able to hop into the front seat and get a better view. You can be my wingman any day!
ed

 

[Kyle McWhirter]

I shouldn't have spoken so soon.

My recruiter called yesterday telling me my refraction was not up to par in one of my eyes. Oh well...I gave it a shot. good luck to any other nfo 2 pilot redesignators.

 

[Dave Shutter]

Some news on this topic...

My recruiter and I talked today, sorted out some confusion about what he meant when we last talked (SNA was never closed out either BTW) and that the Navy just opened up 30 slots for NFO to Pilot transfers, making the fact that they waiver the BI score by 1 pt. for NFO very relevent to me. But what would happen would be that he would sign me up as an NFO (if he could of course) and the tranfer would be something I'd do on my own after the fact. There's a new officer at my station who is an NFO and I'm going to talk with him tommorrow about the criteria, he apparently has friends that have done it before.

...of course this is all info from my rec', so you might want a can of salt or two with it...

This is all intriquing of course, but I'm thinking that those 30 slots are Navy wide. How many NFO's out there do you think would apply for it? I think a lot would. I think I'm just better of re-testing and re-applying for pilot.

...one of these days John...

Kyle...I know your all signed up as an SNFO on your way to OCS, but is your re-fraction something that can be PRK'd later down the road? You're going to be in the Navy for a while after all.

D

Edited by - Dave Shutter on 06/13/2001 23:34:01

 

[ASUPilot]

Dave,

Without fail, absolutely re-test and then re-apply for SNA! Go on your terms for the program you want! I too have friends in both training pipelines (SNA & SNFO) and SNA is the way to go if you want to fly! The SNFO transfer to SNA is just too risky!

Hayden
ASUPilot

 

[vt9Jack]

In response to only putting 'pilot' on your selection card (not putting NFO as your second) I would highly recomend against that.

Leaving college, GO GATORS, I put Pilot, NFO, and SWO on my card in that respective order. My grades in college weren't what they could have been and I was not competitive for a Pilot slot. I was awarded an NFO slot. My CO at the time, a great guy, lobbied CNET for the next three weeks and got me a transition before I ever got to API. Everytime I come back from a solo in the mighty warfighting machine that is the T-2C I write my former CO an email and thank him for what he did for me.

Now that the sappy story is over, the point is put pilot if you are PQ-and put NFO as your second. There are much worse things than being an NFO.

jec


In response to a post from Dave (two posts below). I was a Poli/Sci major with a lot of B and Cs. I finish intermediate strike training in less than a week. Not that this is a huge accomplishment, but sometimes when 'they' gamble on a Playstation Junkie it pays off.?.

Edited by - vt9jack on 07/20/2001 12:43:32

 

[gunnerdd972]

Hey Vt,
About your grades not good enough, does ROTC have anything to do with that? I am not in ROTC applying for OCS though. I thought that if my ASTB scores where good enough for SNA then how would my college grades have anything to do with my selection?
Any info would be of help from anyone, my package goes off next week.

GM2(SW) Hosehead

Edited by - gunnerdd972 on 07/11/2001 23:14:10

 

[Dave Shutter]

quote:..if my ASTB scores where good enough for SNA then how would my college grades have anything to do with my selection?

Your college grades are are huge part of your selection! The ASTB tests your abilities at Math, english, mechanics and the other subjects but your college grades say a lot more about you. If you got great grades as a Physics major while doing tons of sports, clubs, volunter service and working then you could probably perform well in a demanding academic program like Nuke. If you took Poly-Sci, have absolutely nothing else to show for your time and squeeked by with C's, then you look like a PLAYSTATION warrior and little else. Would you gamble a million dollar training slot on that guy?

Just an example...

D

 

[Tahoe]

quote:
show for your time and squeeked by with C's, then you look like a PLAYSTATION warrior and little else. Would you gamble a million dollar training slot on that guy?


Hey!! I happen to like Playstation!! (wish I would have had one in college)

 

[vicki]

I went to Captain's Call at API last Thursday, and there currently are no SNFO to SNA transfers being given b/c of the NFO shortage. CPT Weideman did say that he expects the transfer to open up again around the beginning of next year or so. Hope this helps.

 

[Jeff29]

That is very interesting in light of the fact that a NAVADMIN message just came out stating that the program had been reopened.

There is a link to the message on this page:
http://www.bupers.navy.mil/pers2/aviation/aviationnew.htm

 

[Jeff29]

When SNFO to SNA transfers are being given at API, does anyone know how common they are?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[Dave Shutter]

I imagine Vicki will have the gouge on that soon enough as she gets API rolling. As resilient as she's been in the past, I bet this new Anthro' thing will be little more than a speed-bump for her on the way to Primary.

What have you decided to do? Did you talk to the guys in KC? I talked to them today and there's apparently a new O-gram out there that says waivers up to 31 regardless of active duty prior time served (you originally needed a full 4 yrs pior to be considered up to 31 but now it's apparently available to people with less time; like me! big grain of salt) That's great news for me if true, because my month-for-month waiver will expire this Sept.

Good luck and let us know what's up

Mari: as for the tranfers for winged NFO's to re-designate, a new recruiter at my station (E-6 NFO) says the Navy put 30 slots on the table for winged NFO's to transfer to SNA this year. That was a few weeks ago and I'm sure they're going like hotcakes!

D

Edited by - Dave Shutter on 07/18/2001 01:51:04

 

[Jeff29]

Dave,

Could you give me the contact info for those guys in KC again. If that's true, it'll make my year. I got my up-chit from medical signed off on Monday, and have got every thing else in my application completed. This age thing is the only thing holding me back.

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[Dave Shutter]

Jeff:

NRD KC can be reached at 1-800-892-5992. The rec' I talked to is out on leave for a week but that's okay, because their equally cool processor should be there. Hit 0 to get him and ask about the latest O-gram pertaining to age. He told me 'O-gram Jul 01' states: age waivers up to 31 "considered" for prior active-duty with no specifics mentioned on ammount of time served. Prior active duty is pretty cut and dry, you either have it on record or you don't and you said your engineering program was considered active duty so there you go. This all pertains to OCS applicants though and I'm not sure if the same rules apply to transfers, have you discussed any of that with the Aviation detailers???

Good luck

D

Edited by - Dave Shutter on 07/18/2001 14:05:13