As background, Navy son is 2 weeks away from finishing primary at Corpus Christi(T-6) and will write down his rank order for airframes. He views entire process as a win/win, which is great but looking for ways to break down the thought process. I can tell he feels a bit stuck here. I’m retired Fed LEO so no help here. Upon arrival to Pensacola two years ago, he commented, how could I go through all this and not put jets first. He no longer feels that cut and dry. Currently, he did say most instructors and bosses are P8/Helo guys, so not able to pick the brain of jet pilots, which would be really helpful. I can only say to write down order based on gut feeling, I will not recommend because he must own this decision. Any advice to help him along decision making at this Late juncture would be much appreciated and will pass along. Thank you from the “Dad”.
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Advice for son’s selection
- Thread starter Harley43
- Start date
FormerRecruitingGuru
Making Recruiting Great Again
May be the unpopular opinion here but perhaps your son is old enough to figure this out on his own?
No pun intended, but no need for you to be a helicopter parent.
This 100%. And also understand that school-house flying will be different than fleet flying for every airframe. Sometimes that's a positive and sometimes that's a negative.
Also a good mind-set. I had to go through this over the course of the morning of selection day. I had made my choice and was happy with it, but on the morning of, I was asked if I wanted to change my choice. If the Navy hadn't forced me to second-guess my decision, I wouldn't have thought twice about it, but the fact they were asking made the process more stressful (especially in such a short amount of time to make the decision).
At the time, my parents were out of the country and unreachable and my on-wing (who I had a good relationship with) wasn't around. The squadron CO wasn't much help and I ended up talking to my previous ROTC CO (NFO) on the phone to help talk through the decision (there's a long story on why I had a relationship with him where he took the time to talk).
At the end of the day, he had asked me a couple of questions to help talk me through the process, but he never pushed me one way or the other. Making it my decision and not taking someone else's advice makes any second-guessing go out the window down the road. And to this day, I have ZERO regrets on what I chose.
I certainly take your point, but see above. Sometimes it helps to talk through a life-altering decision with someone. And since the stud has the time, it's okay if Dad is seeking another resource on the side, on his own.
I put jets and got helos, and within 1 year of being in the fleet, I couldn't be happier. It's hard to say whether I was meant to be a helo bubba or if I just adapted and became inculturated to the low-and-slow world, but I'd say 99% of people fall in the like-to-love range of what they get, and those who really don't have a few options to change that down the road.
It's not the ultimate decision that it sometimes feels like to SNAs, and he's probably got a sense from his IPs about the different lifestyles and personalities, oh and missions, of each platform. I gathered enough to know P3/P8 wasn't for me; it's perfect for others. What drives people to dislike service is usually more service-related or bad leadership oriented than specific to their aircraft.
I'd be more worried about a young aviator getting married on a whim than picking the "wrong" platform.
It's not the ultimate decision that it sometimes feels like to SNAs, and he's probably got a sense from his IPs about the different lifestyles and personalities, oh and missions, of each platform. I gathered enough to know P3/P8 wasn't for me; it's perfect for others. What drives people to dislike service is usually more service-related or bad leadership oriented than specific to their aircraft.
I'd be more worried about a young aviator getting married on a whim than picking the "wrong" platform.
Did you actually read the post?
FormerRecruitingGuru
Making Recruiting Great Again
As someone who sort of recently selected out of Primary (April '22), I can say that it is certainly a difficult decision that does have an impact on what your career will look like (not from an upward mobility sense, just that certain platforms go to certain places/do certain mission sets). With that said, your son has to figure out what is important to him. Here are some variables: The platforms itself, the mission set, locations, and the people/community culture. None of those are bad to have has first priority.
I thought about going to the boat via the E-2 route (I'm a behind the scenes type of guy), but I talked to a lot of E-6 guys, loved instruments, and loved the instructors and it made more and more sense to go as I did the syllabus. Plus, I don't mind the location (my parents live in the Midwest) and I studied some nuclear policy in college, so I think the mission is interesting too. I also had some jet friends talk to me and they showed me I liked the idea of going to the boat more than going to the boat if that makes sense.
If your son wants to pick a jet dude's/dudette's brain, he should see if there are any NFO to Pilot SNAs in his squadron. I am sure they'd rather to talk someone about their time in the jet over the intricacies of an approach turn stall. Knowledge is always out there.
I thought about going to the boat via the E-2 route (I'm a behind the scenes type of guy), but I talked to a lot of E-6 guys, loved instruments, and loved the instructors and it made more and more sense to go as I did the syllabus. Plus, I don't mind the location (my parents live in the Midwest) and I studied some nuclear policy in college, so I think the mission is interesting too. I also had some jet friends talk to me and they showed me I liked the idea of going to the boat more than going to the boat if that makes sense.
If your son wants to pick a jet dude's/dudette's brain, he should see if there are any NFO to Pilot SNAs in his squadron. I am sure they'd rather to talk someone about their time in the jet over the intricacies of an approach turn stall. Knowledge is always out there.
I don't think that helping a son/daughter work through an important decision constitutes being a helicopter parent.
I think that it is normal and healthy as a parent to be a sounding board, to ask questions, to help him/her figure out answers to their own questions: what is most important to you? (locations, missions, big crew vs small crew vs no crew, lifestyle - boat/no boat etc, future ambitions - airlines or no, etc) .
I have a son who is starting NIFE soon, and when the time comes he may or may not ask for advice. I certainly won't tell him "you should select X"
But I also won't tell him "you're old enough to figure this out on your own, lose my number"
actually, who am i kidding? i'll tell him Jets
I think that it is normal and healthy as a parent to be a sounding board, to ask questions, to help him/her figure out answers to their own questions: what is most important to you? (locations, missions, big crew vs small crew vs no crew, lifestyle - boat/no boat etc, future ambitions - airlines or no, etc) .
I have a son who is starting NIFE soon, and when the time comes he may or may not ask for advice. I certainly won't tell him "you should select X"
But I also won't tell him "you're old enough to figure this out on your own, lose my number"
actually, who am i kidding? i'll tell him Jets
A little off topic, but Balloon Pilot wings are still for sale online at the NEX website. If only those were still around. You can also buy five star shoulder boards online at the NEX and I no kidding saw NAMs for sale online at Walmart.
Ditto.
Also, @Harley43 is a retired Fed LEO [probably an 1811], so he’s doing what comes naturally…investigating.
Everybody hit the high points already, but I’ll anchor on a few that were important to me during my selection: mission set, boat versus not boat based squadron, and the kind of flying I’d be doing in my operational squadron.
He’ll be at his initial location for the FRS and then potentially his first tour, but there are options of moving around after that. The points I mentioned won’t change unless he is in a community that has both expeditionary and boat based squadrons (Growlers or Helos).
For me, I really enjoyed more dynamic flying during flight school (low levels, aerial intercepts, etc). That pushed me towards jets, and I would’ve been happy with either fighters or Prowlers/Growlers. I ended up picking the Prowler/Growler community because I grew up on the east coast and wanted something new, but the type of flying is really what influenced my initial decision.
He’ll be at his initial location for the FRS and then potentially his first tour, but there are options of moving around after that. The points I mentioned won’t change unless he is in a community that has both expeditionary and boat based squadrons (Growlers or Helos).
For me, I really enjoyed more dynamic flying during flight school (low levels, aerial intercepts, etc). That pushed me towards jets, and I would’ve been happy with either fighters or Prowlers/Growlers. I ended up picking the Prowler/Growler community because I grew up on the east coast and wanted something new, but the type of flying is really what influenced my initial decision.
