I’m in the process of becoming a Naval Aviator. I’ve heard that most officers are in command of 10-20 troops right out of OCS. Is this true of aviators? What type of command opportunities can an Aviator expect to encounter over his career?
In the Navy you'll usually be about 16 years before you are given the chance for command-at-sea, including in aviation (only exceptions I know of are SWO minesweeper types). This is different from, say, the Army helo squadrons that are commanded by O-3 captains who own the birds and have NJP authority over their personnel. But no one that I know of in any service has
command of anyone right out of OCS.
Maybe you're asking whether you'll be assigned to lead people, in which case the answer is "after flight school," which could take up to four years when I went through. When you get to your first squadron you'll get a "ground job" in admin or maintenance or something and lead the sailors working in that division/shop. But your first and most important job will be learning to master flying and employing your weapons platform.
In my community (P-3s) it was very clear: if you were a rockstar in getting qualified and flying but sucked at your ground job, you were a rockstar.
If you sucked at getting qualified and flying but were a rockstar in your ground job, you sucked.
Obviously you want to try to do everything well, but priorities. YMMV.