The E-6 can be picked out of primary. It is lumped under "Maritime" on the selection card along with the P-3. I selected it by putting Maritime as my first choice and then putting the E-6 first, and P-3 second. You do not have to get "Jet grades" (50 NSS or above) to get the E-6, but since there are so few slots, it really helps. There are some guys that had mid 40's. You stay at your primary base to finish intermediates in the T-34 and then go to Vance Air Force Base for advanced in the T-1A (don't even get me started on Air Force training). From there you go to the FRS at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma city where you fly lots of sims, the 737, and finally the E-6, and then walk down the street to your fleet squadron, either VQ-3 or VQ-4.
The deployments are pretty short. It depends on which squadron you go to, but they can be either 2 or 3 1/2 weeks long followed by a 3 or 5 week home cycle. Both squadrons deploy to Offut AFB in Omaha, VQ-3 deploys to Travis AFB in San Fran, and VQ-4 deploys to Pax River NAS. Every deployment includes a few days of "randoms" where the crew flies to somewhere interesting and different. Lots of crews fly overseas for stops or for exercises.
The mission is pretty interesting, but boring from a pilot's point of view. The E-6 is a communications platform that transmits launch orders to ballistic missile submarines and missile silos. It involves a lot of orbiting and autopilot flying. The missions can be long...sometimes the better part of a day.
There are some perks to flying the E-6, though. It is the only 4 engine heavy jet in the Navy's inventory. That certainly doesn't hurt your future options. You get to fly to lots of interesting and different places and will get to go overseas at least a few times. It is the only plane that the Navy flies that refuels with the boom, so you get lots of close formation practice with 2 planes whose total combined gross weight can be around 700,000 pounds. You get to work with a large crew (around 18-20 people) who depend on you to get the mission done and get them on the ground safely. You don't have to ever wear helmets (mine is in my closet, my kids think it is cool) and you can get up and walk around or sleep whenever you get tired. The inflight meals and airliner accomodations certainly don't hurt.
The big downside.....Oklahoma. Enough said on that. It is great if you are a college football fan.
Sorry this is so long...hope it answers your questions.
