Clear some things up for me

[laurlaur]

Hi Everyone,

My boyfriend is considering joining either the air force, navy, or marines to become a pilot and i'm a little bit scared because i have practically no knowledge about the military. We're becoming pretty serious and i'm wondering what the level of risk is for this type of job. He told me that the miliary pilots have a lower risk of injury than someone doing another duty such as ground combat, but how much lower is this risk? I'm also wondering what the average time of deployment is and how often he will be deployed. I know he will be joining for a good cause, but I'm sure all of you can understand my concerns. If any of you have any other information to provide me besides the questions that I have asked it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[cwyx]

Well im just a pilot hopefull, but ive talked to a friend of mine who was a marine Lt.Col, helicopter pilot who served in the first gulf war and iraqi freedom, about the subject. He was the commanding officer of the purple foxes and said that hes lost plenty of good friends in crashes and what not. I think it would be dangerous to assume that he will be out of harms way completely. As soon as you get that mindset is when you let your guard down and accidents tend to happen. Not that i would know from personal combat experience, but what my friend said makes alot of sense. If being away from family and friends is gonna cause problems, then maybe the military isnt the best career choice.

If your boyfriend thinks hes gonna be out of harms way as a pilot, he should look at the thread titled "the realities of air combat" on this site. scary stuff.

 

[Brett327]

Well im just a pilot hopefull, but ive talked to a friend of mine who was a marine Lt.Col, helicopter pilot who served in the first gulf war and iraqi freedom, about the subject. He was the commanding officer of the purple foxes and said that hes lost plenty of good friends in crashes and what not. I think it would be dangerous to assume that he will be out of harms way completely. As soon as you get that mindset is when you let your guard down and accidents tend to happen. Not that i would know from personal combat experience, but what my friend said makes alot of sense. If being away from family and friends is gonna cause problems, then maybe the military isnt the best career choice.

If your boyfriend thinks hes gonna be out of harms way as a pilot, he should look at the thread titled "the realities of air combat" on this site. scary stuff.

Experiences vary. I've been flying for >16 years and never gone through a mishap in my squadron, nor have I had any buddies killed - but I've been lucky. P-3s and Prowlers have been forgiving in that respect. Nobody is going to be able to give you the kind of definitive answer you're looking for. There is risk, but that's life and you can't ask your BF to live in a bubble for the sake of security and your own peace of mind.

Brett

 

[insanebikerboy]

My practicum prof (an O-4 NFO) at the Academy said that officer fatality rates for pilots/nfos are the highest out of all of the officers in the military.

So, instead of just having a "he said so" reason, I looked up some numbers and Brig. Gen. Charles D. Youree Jr, USAF (ret) actually ran some numbers. It wasn't clear if this was just his career experiences or across all of the military, but he listed fatality rates for pilots as being around 17%, while non pilots had a fatality rate of about 4%.

Don't intend to scare you about Naval Aviation but flying is inherently dangerous (that dang gravity thing) and I think it'd be better that you know it up front, or at least that's my $.02.

 

[Zilch]

17%? Damn, that's almost one in five, I didn't realize it was nearly that high.

 

[FMRAM]

My practicum prof (an O-4 NFO) at the Academy said that officer fatality rates for pilots/nfos are the highest out of all of the officers in the military.

So, instead of just having a "he said so" reason, I looked up some numbers and Brig. Gen. Charles D. Youree Jr, USAF (ret) actually ran some numbers. It wasn't clear if this was just his career experiences or across all of the military, but he listed fatality rates for pilots as being around 17%, while non pilots had a fatality rate of about 4%.

Don't intend to scare you about Naval Aviation but flying is inherently dangerous (that dang gravity thing) and I think it'd be better that you know it up front, or at least that's my $.02.

When were these statistics gathered and published? I have a gut feeling that it was during the Vietnam War...

 

[Brett327]

When were these statistics gathered and published? I have a gut feeling that it was during the Vietnam War...

Yeah, concur. Even so, a raw percentage is meaningless. 17% of what, and over what time period?

Brett

 

[insanebikerboy]

Yeah, concur. Even so, a raw percentage is meaningless. 17% of what, and over what time period?

Brett

Yeah, that was the question I had, in the paper I saw he never specified if it was over just his career or if it included nowadays too. Unfortunately I can't find what I had read a few years ago so I Googled for it and this is the closest I can find. http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041010-094332-2659r.htm

Not exactly a fatality rate paper but it uses some of the same info put out before.

 

[Thisguy]

Hi Everyone,

He told me that the miliary pilots have a lower risk of injury than someone doing another duty such as ground combat, but how much lower is this risk?

Something to think about: Statistically, construction is a more dangerous profession than being a police officer, but in our minds, we think being a cop would be more dangerous because someone could try to kill you.

To say flying is less risky than getting shot at on the ground makes sense, until you consider the mishaps that may occur without combat even being involved. Our ASO showed me a video from '98 when a Prowler landed on top of an S-3 (may have been diff aircraft, I can't remember)...not cool.

Basically, there are more risks in the military (and every day life) besides someone trying to kill you.

 

[PU Grad]

The average death rate of the military in Iraq is less then the average death rate is less than here in the US.

2859 American Deaths over 3 years and 8 months.
~100000 Americans in Iraq

gives an average of 7.80 deaths/year/1,000 people.

From CIA fact book:
USA = 8.26 deaths/year/1,000 population.

 

[badger16]

You are obviously going to be concerned about your BF but you can't base all your decisions on "what are the chances of...?" because you can't know for sure...there is danger in everything you do, but if you have any sort of lust for life you don't let chances run your life, you instead look at the truly important things, like is this something that I have a desire to do, or is it just something that sounds fun? base your choices on your desires not on if you will be safe in doing them.thats just my .02 cents though and I'm single so i don't have anyone to answer to.

Hope this thread is helping you. good luck

 

[Cate]

PU Grad - The demographics aren't comparable. If you could find statistics for, say, healthy men and women ages 18-50 in the US, your statistics might apply. Right now, you've got one group of reasonably healthy, reasonably young men and women whose most immediate threat is death in combat, and you're comparing them to a significantly less healthy population of people of all ages who face death from old age, heart disease, cancer, SIDS, birth defect, swimming pool drowning, elderly driver, boating incident, bear attack, hang-gliding accident, and infected pedicure, among others.

And on that note - laurlaur, your boyfriend could decide to find a civilian job instead and then get plastered by a midtown bus the moment he steps outside the door. Every job has some level of danger, and even the safest job has the potential for freak accidents. If this is something that he really feels passionate about, it's up to the both of you to communicate and work through your anxiety about his safety.

 

[helo_wifey]

Its not even something that my husband and I discuss. We have talked about what will happen if something happens to him, but honestly, I'm too busy trying to manage my career as well as handle stuff at home while he's away to worry about it. Its part of the job, and accidents happen, but you can't let fear decide things for you. Like everyone else said, if this is his passion, and what he wants to do, then you're going to have to work through it.

 

[Fly Navy]

17%? Maybe since the beginning of World War II.

Naval Aviation is typically regarded as the most dangerous thing an officer can do in peacetime. Take it for what it's worth.

 

[zab1001]

Just make sure you have someone with a set of keys to your place/room to snag your laptop incase you eat it. Mom/wifey doesn't need the added stress of what's REALLY on your hard drive...