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Ground to air?

M

mattman215

New Member
Im 19 and a junior in college i want to fly very very badly however i need prk surgery to be eligible. Im applying plc and need to go to the 10 week occ this summer however i dont have time to get the prk surgery done in time. I was told that i can get sent under a ground contract and than my senior year in college get my prk surgery and switch to air. my question is has anyone heard of this before, can i switch contracts, and is it very likely that if i go ground to occ and than try to switch to air that i will get an air contract?
 
The switch is not difficult to make. I was a ground contract through both of my PLC stints, and pretty much up to a few months before I commissioned. I know that PRK will med down you for like 6 months (at least that's what happened to a buddy of mine between OCS and TBS... non-air contract). As far as getting the switch, all you will need to do is take the ASTB, get a flight physical and submit a contract change. You are not obligated to take the oath, even after you complete OCS, so there is always time (however, I think there may be a limit on how long you can wait). Going for the combined PLC program will give you about a year to get everything settled before you get your degree and be looking to commission. Don't put it off for too long... I had mine hanging over my head for quite some time. Best thing you can do is knock out all the time consuming stuff as soon as possible (ASTB, flight phys) and hit up the paperwork when you have time, since most people are usually trumped for the air slot because they don't qualify due to the ASTB, phys. Talk to your OSO as soon as you can and he should be able to give you more concrete info.
 
mattman215 said:
Im 19 and a junior in college i want to fly very very badly however i need prk surgery to be eligible. Im applying plc and need to go to the 10 week occ this summer however i dont have time to get the prk surgery done in time. I was told that i can get sent under a ground contract and than my senior year in college get my prk surgery and switch to air. my question is has anyone heard of this before, can i switch contracts, and is it very likely that if i go ground to occ and than try to switch to air that i will get an air contract?
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I was told yesterday by my recruiter that there were no ground slots left for 201. I'm not sure if he was just talking about his district, so I don't know how true the rumor is.
 
AJB37 said:
I was told yesterday by my recruiter that there were no ground slots left for 201. I'm not sure if he was just talking about his district, so I don't know how true the rumor is.
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Looks like that's the case everywhere. I believe the only way you can go to 201 now is either on an Air or a Reserve contract.
 
Cron said:
Looks like that's the case everywhere. I believe the only way you can go to 201 now is either on an Air or a Reserve contract.
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Yeah I was worried about that. I hope I can still get my air slot after I get my NPQ from 199 taken care of... the 18 week program is real fun.
 
My oso has actually been asking the ground guys to switch to air (on more than one occasion as well) apparently we need'em.
 
my best friend got PTAD orders cut to work at the OSO in Chicago while waiting for TBS. He said (this was back in June 08) that right now its the mission to find air contracts.

In fact, he was saying that for guys in your position that the Marine Corps will pay for it too if you wait for after your commissioning (not 100% on this).

However, in my few experiences and from what others have said, I would never go into something expecting the perfect result in the end. If things don't work out the way you want, be prepared to accept alternatives.
 
yes i was informed there were no ground either but than my oso said sense i need prk he will jut send me as a ground and when my prk gets done and appproved ill just switch to air
 
I have a similar question along the lines of ground to air...
Is it at all within the realm of possibility to get into flight school after commissioning and serving as a Lt in a ground MOS for a tour? Or are flight school slots only open for newly commissioned officers?
 
sisa said:
I have a similar question along the lines of ground to air...
Is it at all within the realm of possibility to get into flight school after commissioning and serving as a Lt in a ground MOS for a tour? Or are flight school slots only open for newly commissioned officers?
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"Within the realm of possibility?" Yes.

Likely. No.

There is a fleet accession board yearly that considers applications from company-grade officers to become pilots or NFOs. There are only a few slots for each, e.g. this year's board only named 3 SNAs. Also, those officers may end up somewhat behind their peers once they end up in a fleet squadron.
 
^^What phrogdriver said.
The board is very competitive. Don't even waste your time going ground if you know you really want to fly.
 
Another possible way is to go through ocs, tbs, and ifs as a snfo, and then upon reporting to pensacola, switching to sna. The co of MATSG-21 basically said that if any nfo's wanted to be pilots all they had to do was ask and everything they needed would be taken care of (within reason of course) but it seemed like getting PRK wouldn't be a big deal. A few of my friends are in the process of switching from nfo to sna and they say it takes some time, but they hook you up.
 
lacasera said:
Another possible way is to go through ocs, tbs, and ifs as a snfo, and then upon reporting to pensacola, switching to sna. The co of MATSG-21 basically said that if any nfo's wanted to be pilots all they had to do was ask and everything they needed would be taken care of (within reason of course) but it seemed like getting PRK wouldn't be a big deal. A few of my friends are in the process of switching from nfo to sna and they say it takes some time, but they hook you up.
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Keep in mind that, while this is the case now, it could change. The process of starting OCS and making your way down to Pensacola, isn't something that happens within just a couple of months (read: wait to start TBS, wait to start IFS, wait to get PRK/wait for waiver approved/wait to redes/wait to start API). FWIW, this is sound advice for someone on their way to P'cola that wants to redes from SNFO to SNA, but not exactly the best way to go for someone that isn't even commissioned yet.
 
Cron said:
Looks like that's the case everywhere. I believe the only way you can go to 201 now is either on an Air or a Reserve contract.
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I am reasonably sure Mattman being a junior is going to PLC-combined not OCC so there is probably a different statistic on whats left there.
 
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