Possible assignments out of cockpit following first operational tour

[USNMark]

search turned up a good thread or two on the subject...sounds like pilots really get screwed around sometimes as far as b billet. Do the other services do things this way as far as the flyers are concerned?

Naval Postgraduate School, graduate school at the school of your choice, foreign service, law school, recruiting, FAC, _____ fill in the blank, that doesn't sound like getting screwed around. Sounds like a great way to make yourself competitive for promotion and get some kick-ass experience doing something else. Call me crazy, but I have other interests than just flying--though it is my greatest passion. Oh plus there's that crappy reality that you can't fly forever..
Unless Generals and Admirals are getting stick time now...

 

[Birdog8585]

Unless Generals and Admirals are getting stick time now...

BGen Walsh flew down here to P-cola over the summer in an FRS Hornet. Said he was getting his currency back up to speed for his new billet - Assistant CG of 2nd MAW.

 

[CWJones411]

How competitive are FAC slots?

 

[phrogpilot73]

How competitive are FAC slots?

For the most part, if you want a FAC tour - you'll get a FAC tour. A lot of aviators run away screaming in horror, even though it was one of the most rewarding tours I had.

If you want a FAC tour with ANGLICO, Tanks, or LAR they are much more competitive than an infantry battalion.

 

[bunk22]

Naval Postgraduate School, graduate school at the school of your choice, foreign service, law school, recruiting, FAC, _____ fill in the blank, that doesn't sound like getting screwed around. Sounds like a great way to make yourself competitive for promotion and get some kick-ass experience doing something else. Call me crazy, but I have other interests than just flying--though it is my greatest passion. Oh plus there's that crappy reality that you can't fly forever..

Keep dreaming, most of those you listed, as of now, is a good way to get passed over. Have to play the Navy game if you want the rank. I'm not talking flying either.

 

[phrogdriver]

2nd Bunk's assessment. There's doing what you want and doing what the MC/Nav wants. Pursue your interests all you want for your own personal fulfillment and job satisfaction. Just be aware that spending too much time outside your MOS may make you less competitive.

That said, there are very few actual "career suicide" billets--as long as you go back to the expected career track as soon as you're eligible to do so. There's a good powerpoint presentation on aviator career progression I'll have to find and post/link. The gist is: get MOS credibility your first tour, go to a "B" billet, then go back to the fleet, go to school (PME school, not grad school), go to the fleet, repeat until a CO or retired.

 

[Clux4]

These days it is more like MiTT, BiTT or PiTT for the first half of your fleet tour then who knows what you will do when you get back.
Didn't CMC not come out recently to say that promotions boards will look more favorably at Marines that are unable to check the right boxes due to operational tempo.

 

[USNMark]

There's doing what you want and doing what the MC/Nav wants.

Well, of course, and I should have included that big condition (the needs of the USMC/USN) in my post. Most of my submissions to this forum should include the disclaimer (or is it liability... annoyance?) that I'm not yet a naval officer and as such, I'm apt to leaving out key points by accident and/or making an ass of myself--the latter more often than the former. In all honesty you gentlemen are right, I didn't know that specific bit about staying close to your MOS when leaving/going to "B" billet. Damned smart direction to follow

 

[phrogdriver]

These days it is more like MiTT, BiTT or PiTT for the first half of your fleet tour then who knows what you will do when you get back.
Didn't CMC not come out recently to say that promotions boards will look more favorably at Marines that are unable to check the right boxes due to operational tempo.

There aren't THAT many of those billets going to pilots.

The CMC is talking about guys who are either stuck in fleet squadrons so long they miss the chance for advantageous B billets/schools or those who do deploying IAs outside their MOSs. He's not saying, "do whatever you like--promotion boards won't care."

 

[MonkUSMC]

I know this is 2 years old but it's a sticky so yeah.

Since I'll be a prior and looking at an Afghan deployment in the near future and also Motor T, would any of those be a factor when getting assigned a B-Billet? Like lets say I wanted to do a second assignment in a Motor T based company, is this possible coming straight out of the flight tour? I understand that 3502's are gone now and they've been rolled into the Log-O.

I know I am looking way far ahead of me but I just want to get an idea while it is still in my head.

Thanks gentlemen

 

[phrogdriver]

I know this is 2 years old but it's a sticky so yeah.

Since I'll be a prior and looking at an Afghan deployment in the near future and also Motor T, would any of those be a factor when getting assigned a B-Billet? Like lets say I wanted to do a second assignment in a Motor T based company, is this possible coming straight out of the flight tour? I understand that 3502's are gone now and they've been rolled into the Log-O.

I know I am looking way far ahead of me but I just want to get an idea while it is still in my head.

Thanks gentlemen

That depends on a lot. Looking at your profile, you're a Marine in Orlando. I'm guessing you're a reserve motor T Marine???

If you're enlisted now and you go officer, none of the billets you had as an enlisted Marine will have any impact on your need or choice of B-billet as an officer. That is, unless you have some crazy skill, like Pashtun linguist or something.

You will get commissioned, do flight school, do your first fleet tour, and be in the mix for a B-billet or not per all the posts above, just like every other 1stLt or junior captain.

 

[Clux4]

I know this is 2 years old but it's a sticky so yeah.

Since I'll be a prior and looking at an Afghan deployment in the near future and also Motor T, would any of those be a factor when getting assigned a B-Billet? Like lets say I wanted to do a second assignment in a Motor T based company, is this possible coming straight out of the flight tour? I understand that 3502's are gone now and they've been rolled into the Log-O.

I know I am looking way far ahead of me but I just want to get an idea while it is still in my head.

Thanks gentlemen

You most likely will not get a Motor-T Company for B-Billet as a pilot. Those are for young Log-O's to cut their teeth with. I am not even sure you could do that in the MWSS.

Phrogdriver beat me to it. Pretty much the same thing.

 

[MonkUSMC]

That depends on a lot. Looking at your profile, you're a Marine in Orlando. I'm guessing you're a reserve motor T Marine???

If you're enlisted now and you go officer, none of the billets you had as an enlisted Marine will have any impact on your need or choice of B-billet as an officer. That is, unless you have some crazy skill, like Pashtun linguist or something.

You will get commissioned, do flight school, do your first fleet tour, and be in the mix for a B-billet or not per all the posts above, just like every other 1stLt or junior captain.

Yes I am a reserve Motor T Marine in Orlando, sir. Thank you for the information, this clears things up a bit for me in my options for my B-Billet.

 

[usmarinemike]

Soooo...I've been thinking about some things and some are in this thread. What is the typical career track for a Marine aviator career "craft" wise? It's not all that important to me since I've ten years anyway, so I'll pretty much try to do whatever I want, but if I did decide to do the 20 YCS thing, what would get me there? I just know that some MOSs in the Marine Corps are pretty stovepiped if they want to ever make it past O-4. Is aviation this way or is there more latitude? If not, what does your career look like up to the O-6 level?

Also, is there a difference in aircraft communities as far as what your career looks like? For instance, I've seen a good mix of people as FACs, but every pilot at TBS when I was there was a Cobra guy and a huge amount of the Marine IPs in primary are C130 types. Is this for a reason, or just a fluke? If there is a difference in communities, uh, what do jet guys go do?

 

[phrogdriver]

Soooo...I've been thinking about some things and some are in this thread. What is the typical career track for a Marine aviator career "craft" wise? It's not all that important to me since I've ten years anyway, so I'll pretty much try to do whatever I want, but if I did decide to do the 20 YCS thing, what would get me there? I just know that some MOSs in the Marine Corps are pretty stovepiped if they want to ever make it past O-4. Is aviation this way or is there more latitude? If not, what does your career look like up to the O-6 level?

Also, is there a difference in aircraft communities as far as what your career looks like? For instance, I've seen a good mix of people as FACs, but every pilot at TBS when I was there was a Cobra guy and a huge amount of the Marine IPs in primary are C130 types. Is this for a reason, or just a fluke? If there is a difference in communities, uh, what do jet guys go do?

20 YCS is NOT hard to do. Making it to O-5 will require coloring a little more inside the lines. Getting command even more so. That chart for ideal career progression they show you is no joke. You can still buck it and succeed, but your chances will get hurt. A complete retard who follows the ideal career guidance has a better chance of making rank and command than a stud who doesn't. That doesn't mean do it or don't do it--just fair warning.

You don't see jet guys in Primary because it's generally not something they're allowed to do unless there's a surplus of jet guys, e.g. when the Harriers were repeatedly redstriped, they sent some guys to be Primary IPs. You see a high concentration of C-130 guys in Primary because if they get orders to MATSG-21, that's all they can do, unlike the helo guys, who get split between Primary and Advanced.

There are billets that are filled as "any pilot," "any r/w pilot," or "any f/w pilot." A lot of the "any pilot" jobs get rotated amongst the various monitors as vacancies come due. Why more of a particular platform might end up in a certain place is usually just a Law of SMALL numbers thing--your sample size is pretty small, so any effect seems major. Sometimes something as simple as a particular squadron coming back from deployment right when the monitor has a couple of hotfills can make a big impact.