Hi Everyone,
I've been doing a fair amount of reading on this site but haven't posted yet. I hope I can get some of your thoughts on my situation.
I'm a 22-year old Air Force ROTC cadet in my fifth and final year of my civil engineering major in college. For the duration of my sophomore, junior, and senior year, I was on an ROTC scholarship that covered most of my tuition and books. I hold my private pilot's license with just over a hundred hours. This past spring, I was selected to attend undergraduate pilot training when I graduated/commissioned. My entire life, my dream has been to fly for any of the military services, fixed wing or helos, and I was very happy when I learned the AF would give me this chance. To my dismay, when I went TDY to Wright Patterson AFB for my flight physical, I was found medically disqualified for a certain eye virus that the doctors refused to grant a waiver for. I returned home and visited several civilian ophthalmologists (one of whom is also USAF reserve flight surgeon) on my own to get a second opinion. The reservist doctor was able to clear my condition up with a run of steroid drops, and both doctors wrote letters for me to send to wright pat, recommending that in their personal medical opinions, I didn't present a flight risk and should be found medically qualified to fly. Ultimately, I was able to get my ROTC cadre to send these letters to wright pat, but the doctors at wright pat refused to give me a second look, and continue to refuse to do so to this day. My commander suggested that I go in as a non-flyer, and then try to get a second medical exam after a few years in the AF (which would require me to reapply to and be accepted for pilot training to get the exam). Furthermore, I wrote personal letters to both the president and my state representative, only to receive no reply.
In the meantime to look at my options, I contacted a USN recruiter to look into flying for the Navy. Based on taking a preliminary look at my records (GPA, leadership exp, etc.), he thought I may be a competitive candidate for OCS and the flight program. At that time, he didn't ask about any previous military experience, and I didn't mention any.
A few weeks ago, I sat down with my commander and told him that I had been considering asking for a release from my contract (on the condition that I would pay my scholarship money back). He looked into cross commissioning for me, but not surprisingly the AF said they were undermanned and wouldn't let me cross over. I also asked him to find out what my chances of having to enlist vs paying back the scholarship would be if I asked to be disenrolled. He did, and about a week ago, HQ came back claiming that I would be likely be called to active duty as an EM if I was to disenroll. They said that this was the "default" for contracted cadets. I found that hard to believe due to the fact that I personally know more than a few cadets from my ROTC detachment who voluntarily disenrolled couple of years ago, and were not required to enlist.
After learning this, I called my Navy recruiter (who was looking forward to me taking the ASTB), and explained the situation. He completely understood why I did not immediately make it known that I was in AFROTC, and told me that he would have liked to have had me apply for OCS.
At this point, I feel as though I have no other choice but to accept a commission with the Air Force. I don't wish to commission, but I definitely do not want to be forced to enlist. My class has been given our assignments, and assuming nothing changes, I will have to attend the air force's space officer course at Vandenberg if I am to be commissioned. It may sound like a pretty neat job to some people, but sitting in a windowless building at a computer desk watching for space debris or incoming missiles just isn't me, no matter how many times people say I "might like it". Yea, I get the whole "officer first" thing, but for me its always pretty much been wings or bust. To be honest, I'm not sure I can spend four years going to work with a fake smile on my face, pretending to like my job, just so I can get good OPR's.
I think one of my only options remaining is to do my time in the AF and then ask for an interservice transfer to either the Navy or one of the other services to fly. But from what I have found through this site and other sources, interservice transfers can be anywhere from relatively simple to obtain to extremely difficult to obtain, usually being the latter. For all I know it could never happen. In short, I'm not exactly thrilled with having to roll the dice on a lateral transfer when I think it would be in the best interest of the AF to just let me go and pay them back. I've also been thinking about contacting different Navy ROTC detachments to see if any of them have a senior level cadet who might be willing to do a 1 for 1 swap with me. Its the longest of longshots and I'm pretty sure has never been done before, but at this point I'm willing to try anything.
I can tell that my commander isn't especially eager to let me go, and he's less than willing to fully look into other options for me. As of now, one of my few mentors throughout this entire ordeal has been my parents, mainly my dad who spent over 15 years flying for the Army and Coast Guard. He was one of the first people to remind me about the possibility of Naval or even Army aviation.
Looking back on my whole situation, I think I made a big mistake contracting with the Air Force, not to mention taking a scholarship. In hindsight, I think I would have been happier with the Navy even if I wasn't flying. Living in NV, I've always enjoyed visiting the Naval Air Stations and ports in CA. The atmosphere always seemed to be a little more exciting than that of the Air Force.
I've been doing a fair amount of reading on this site but haven't posted yet. I hope I can get some of your thoughts on my situation.
I'm a 22-year old Air Force ROTC cadet in my fifth and final year of my civil engineering major in college. For the duration of my sophomore, junior, and senior year, I was on an ROTC scholarship that covered most of my tuition and books. I hold my private pilot's license with just over a hundred hours. This past spring, I was selected to attend undergraduate pilot training when I graduated/commissioned. My entire life, my dream has been to fly for any of the military services, fixed wing or helos, and I was very happy when I learned the AF would give me this chance. To my dismay, when I went TDY to Wright Patterson AFB for my flight physical, I was found medically disqualified for a certain eye virus that the doctors refused to grant a waiver for. I returned home and visited several civilian ophthalmologists (one of whom is also USAF reserve flight surgeon) on my own to get a second opinion. The reservist doctor was able to clear my condition up with a run of steroid drops, and both doctors wrote letters for me to send to wright pat, recommending that in their personal medical opinions, I didn't present a flight risk and should be found medically qualified to fly. Ultimately, I was able to get my ROTC cadre to send these letters to wright pat, but the doctors at wright pat refused to give me a second look, and continue to refuse to do so to this day. My commander suggested that I go in as a non-flyer, and then try to get a second medical exam after a few years in the AF (which would require me to reapply to and be accepted for pilot training to get the exam). Furthermore, I wrote personal letters to both the president and my state representative, only to receive no reply.
In the meantime to look at my options, I contacted a USN recruiter to look into flying for the Navy. Based on taking a preliminary look at my records (GPA, leadership exp, etc.), he thought I may be a competitive candidate for OCS and the flight program. At that time, he didn't ask about any previous military experience, and I didn't mention any.
A few weeks ago, I sat down with my commander and told him that I had been considering asking for a release from my contract (on the condition that I would pay my scholarship money back). He looked into cross commissioning for me, but not surprisingly the AF said they were undermanned and wouldn't let me cross over. I also asked him to find out what my chances of having to enlist vs paying back the scholarship would be if I asked to be disenrolled. He did, and about a week ago, HQ came back claiming that I would be likely be called to active duty as an EM if I was to disenroll. They said that this was the "default" for contracted cadets. I found that hard to believe due to the fact that I personally know more than a few cadets from my ROTC detachment who voluntarily disenrolled couple of years ago, and were not required to enlist.
After learning this, I called my Navy recruiter (who was looking forward to me taking the ASTB), and explained the situation. He completely understood why I did not immediately make it known that I was in AFROTC, and told me that he would have liked to have had me apply for OCS.
At this point, I feel as though I have no other choice but to accept a commission with the Air Force. I don't wish to commission, but I definitely do not want to be forced to enlist. My class has been given our assignments, and assuming nothing changes, I will have to attend the air force's space officer course at Vandenberg if I am to be commissioned. It may sound like a pretty neat job to some people, but sitting in a windowless building at a computer desk watching for space debris or incoming missiles just isn't me, no matter how many times people say I "might like it". Yea, I get the whole "officer first" thing, but for me its always pretty much been wings or bust. To be honest, I'm not sure I can spend four years going to work with a fake smile on my face, pretending to like my job, just so I can get good OPR's.
I think one of my only options remaining is to do my time in the AF and then ask for an interservice transfer to either the Navy or one of the other services to fly. But from what I have found through this site and other sources, interservice transfers can be anywhere from relatively simple to obtain to extremely difficult to obtain, usually being the latter. For all I know it could never happen. In short, I'm not exactly thrilled with having to roll the dice on a lateral transfer when I think it would be in the best interest of the AF to just let me go and pay them back. I've also been thinking about contacting different Navy ROTC detachments to see if any of them have a senior level cadet who might be willing to do a 1 for 1 swap with me. Its the longest of longshots and I'm pretty sure has never been done before, but at this point I'm willing to try anything.
I can tell that my commander isn't especially eager to let me go, and he's less than willing to fully look into other options for me. As of now, one of my few mentors throughout this entire ordeal has been my parents, mainly my dad who spent over 15 years flying for the Army and Coast Guard. He was one of the first people to remind me about the possibility of Naval or even Army aviation.
Looking back on my whole situation, I think I made a big mistake contracting with the Air Force, not to mention taking a scholarship. In hindsight, I think I would have been happier with the Navy even if I wasn't flying. Living in NV, I've always enjoyed visiting the Naval Air Stations and ports in CA. The atmosphere always seemed to be a little more exciting than that of the Air Force.
