FAC and NPS?

[PhatFarmer35]

I reamber reading a while ago on another website about being able to spend a ground tour as a forward air controller and then going to the Naval Postgraduate School right after that during your ground tour. I know a FAC tour is a year but would it take about a year to get a masters degree at NPS? And is it possible to do both during a ground tour?

Thank you.

 

[skidkid]

There is no link real or implied between FAC and NPS. You can apply for NPS when yu meet the criteria they are looking for from any billet. You will not be able to attend NPS full time as a fAC, youa re still in a deploying unit and have responsibilities to meet to the Battalion.
With that being said is it possible to work on a Masters while on a FAC tour, Yes it is. The Grunts have a much shorter work day than an Infantry battalion (not the huge maintenance effort) but again you might be in the field for a week or on a very short tether for a deployment.
If you want NPS jsut apply and see what happens. If you want one of the more rewarding tours an aviator can have be a FAC for a year.
I hope this helps I ahve the FAC inbfo but NPS never really interested me (must be the lack of trigger time)

 

[PhatFarmer35]

Thank you for replying.

Can you apply for NPS at anytime during your career as long as you qualify, or can you only attend NPS during your ground tour? I was a little confused about that, I heard that you can attend NPS or NWC for a year as long as you qualify and you are selected to attend, but you would have to make that year up. This is true?

Thank you.

 

[phrogdriver]

You can go if you're selected and have met the Corps' PCS requirements. Usually you have to have been at your present station for 2 years before taking orders somewhere else. You could go after another ground tour, but that would put you out of the cockpit for a long time, which would probably make you less competitive for promotion. Generally aviators should try to alternate fleet and non-fleet tours.

By NWC, do you mean Naval War College? That's for O-5s. That's a big career plus, but a long ways down the road to worry about.

 

[PhatFarmer35]

If I wanted to go to a civilian graduate school for a year or two, would I be able to do that during a ground tour or are only colleges like NPS allowed?

Also, during a ground tour, would it be possible to be a FAC and as soon as the FAC tour is over, go to a graduate school, either civilian or military?

 

[Brett327]

You can go if you're selected and have met the Corps' PCS requirements. Usually you have to have been at your present station for 2 years before taking orders somewhere else. You could go after another ground tour, but that would put you out of the cockpit for a long time, which would probably make you less competitive for promotion. Generally aviators should try to alternate fleet and non-fleet tours.

By NWC, do you mean Naval War College? That's for O-5s. That's a big career plus, but a long ways down the road to worry about.

Can't speak for the Marines (or shoes for that matter), but it's not unusual for a Navy O-4 to go to one of the War Colleges, even prior to DH tour.

Brett

 

[phrogdriver]

Generally majors go to one of the Command and Staff courses. A LtCol select might get war college, especially if he was scheduled to pin on during that year, but otherwise, I personally don't know of any Marine majors at any of the war colleges, not to say that it's never been done.

There are some special programs allowing study at civilian universities. Most of them are fellowships for senior officers. There's a billet for ltcols at the JFK School of Gov't at Harvard, for example. The only one that springs to mind for company grade officers is the Olmstead Scholarship for studying abroad. Suffice it to say, these are pretty rare.

You can put in for special programs at any time. The usual career gouge is to do it right out of a fleet flying billet, so as to minimize time out of the cockpit. Doing it next to a FAC tour would be doable, but I'd ditch the FAC thing altogether if I was doing grad school.