Flight School with Families

[Praying4OCS]

First of all, I did a search with no results on the particular questions I ask.

As the subject states, my question is regarding Flight School (API, Primary, Int., and Advanced) with families. A little preface....I was selected for Pilot from the November aviation board. I will be attending OCS for the May 10 class. I am currently enlisted and stationed in San Diego with my wife and kids. My concern is the fact that since I will be going to Newport (13 weeks), then Pensacola (6 weeks) and possibly be moving every 6 or so months afterwards until I make it to my first FRS the Navy does not pay for PCS (move) orders. Truth be told I have discussed this with my wife along with my desire to go jets and agree that it might be better that I geobach anyway to focus on school to get the grades. I guess what my question is, what are the thoughts and recommendations in regards to families while in school? What did you guys do with your families? Will I have time to fly and see them for weekend at least once a month? What are my options? Any thoughts, recommendations and even constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated.

V/R

 

[Rubiks06]

Bring them with you. As long as they understand that you are going to be studying a lot and not going to be able to spend every waking minute with them they should understand. I went through primary at whiting and advanced at whiting my family was here the whole time. My daughter was born right before forms in primary and again i still had no problems. As far as how badly you want jets. I would not have your wife live away from you because you want to focus that much more on jets. Most likely you'll just end up pissed that you are away from your family and you probably wont study that much more anyway. You will have free time and if you do get jets your looking at spending almost two years seeing your family once a month. Eventually you are going to deploy and you will be spending a lot of time away from the family as it is. Enjoy the time you have now. Hope this helps.


EDIT: As far as i know they are still having married guys stay at whiting for primary unless they request other and if you get sent somewhere else for advanced it is a PCS move.

 

[TheBubba]

Bring your family. I got married in the middle of primary and our son was born in the middle of advanced.

Sure, it adds a new dimension to flight school, but its one less thing to worry about.. your family is right there instead of somewhere else.

The other thing is that family gives you a distraction for flight school. I know there were times when I needed to ge my mind off of what happened at the squadron, nd being able to go home and hang out with my wife and son did just that.

As far as taking time once a month to see your family, don't know if that can happen. At least on the NFO side of the house, taking leave on weekends was not really feasible. That and most times, you'd only get on day with them... a fly home Friday afternoon, fly back Sunday afternoon thing.

My advice is definitely bring your family.

Cheers,
Bubba

 

[FLYTPAY]

Having your family live away from you has no bearing on if you get jets at all.....have them with you. You are going to have t spend alot of time learning to fly instruments. That is the basis of flying a jet.....even on a perfectly clear day, in the landing pattern, delivering weapons, and even flying parade form.

 

[Praying4OCS]

Thanks for the advice guys. Now, I plan to take my family with me. You guys are right, it would be more of a distraction and worry to not have them there. I'm thinking for OCS and API she can go stay with my parents for a few weeks and then her parents for a few weeks. This way they get to spend time with there grand babies before she leaves.

Also, if I were to get jets, the training is Primary then Advanced, right? Primary is 22 weeks. How long is the rest? What are the possible training locations for the jet pipeline?

 

[bunk22]

I instruct at VT-6 and it seems about 50% off students are married with probably half of them with kids (pure guess on my part from what I've seen).

Also, if I were to get jets, the training is Primary then Advanced, right? Primary is 22 weeks. How long is the rest? What are the possible training locations for the jet pipeline?

Don't think it's jets anymore but tailhook......meaning you will go to Meridian, Mis or Kingsville, Tex and then get either jets or E2/C2.

 

[TheBubba]

Thanks for the advice guys. Now, I plan to take my family with me. You guys are right, it would be more of a distraction and worry to not have them there. I'm thinking for OCS and API she can go stay with my parents for a few weeks and then her parents for a few weeks. This way they get to spend time with there grand babies before she leaves.

Also, if I were to get jets, the training is Primary then Advanced, right? Primary is 22 weeks. How long is the rest? What are the possible training locations for the jet pipeline?

That could work if there's no wait. If there's any significant wait between OCS and API, you may want to rethink that. Just cuz there's always the chance you could sit in the pool for months on end.

 

[Cordespc]

I guess what my question is, what are the thoughts and recommendations in regards to families while in school? What did you guys do with your families? Will I have time to fly and see them for weekend at least once a month? What are my options? Any thoughts, recommendations and even constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated.
V/R

Have them cryogenically frozen until you get to your first fleet squadron. Trust me, you'll save yourself a lot of headaches, and ensure you have plenty of study time to pull those jet grades.

 

[ea6bflyr]

PM sent.

 

[FLYTPAY]

Don't think it's jets anymore but tailhook......meaning you will go to Meridian, Mis or Kingsville, Tex and then get either jets or E2/C2.

You now select tailhook out of Primary......then you select jet or E2/C2 somewhere in the first half of T-45 training.

 

[Praying4OCS]

You now select tailhook out of Primary......then you select jet or E2/C2 somewhere in the first half of T-45 training.

Is tailhook the advanced training? So it would be API (6 weeks), Primary (22 weeks), then Advanced (Tailhook). How long is tailhook?

 

[SingDixieGoNavy]

I got married half way through primary, and my down time disappeared. I Had more time to unwind without running out shopping or dinner or other random things with my wife. That said, I think I got more study time in after I got married, simply because I wanted to get my studying done and get some time to see my wife. Having my wife here kept me from dicking around and just wasting my study time. It is definitely doable. As for the PCS issue, all the married guys I knew coming to pensacola got pcs'd with follow on orders to whiting.

 

[phrogdriver]

I will add...bring your family. Dealing with their diestractions at training will be easier than their distractions away from you, e.g. if there's a family or household emergency you can do nothing about except take emergency leave.

On a separate note, why is the national average age of marriage going up, but the military age of marriage seems to be going down? When I was in flight school, it seemed that the only married guys were the older prior enlisteds, but now a third or half the studs have families. Some even have kids while in training. I don't mean to be a hardass, but it seems like bad life planning is going on.

 

[KBayDog]

...it seems like bad life planning is going on.

Please explain.

 

[phrogdriver]

KBay, you're a prior, so you were specifically one of the groups excluded from the negative observation.

I am of the school that believes one should get some life experience under one's belt before one, marrying, and two, having kids. By life experience, I mean being in a non-structured environment--not in school, whether college or military. It gives a little big-picture perspective for one--in high school and college, a person tends to believe that everything is huge drama, and that he is the only person to have ever been in love, broken up, etc, etc. Being on one's own for a bit allows one to step back and see the forest for the trees. Going through college, getting married immediately afterwards, entering the military, and having kids in quick succession does not.

The other thing is that going to one's primary MOS school is supposed to be one's full focus for the duration of the training. No leave other than block leave, etc. One cannot possibly give the training the emphasis it deserves if he's monitoring the cell phone waiting for word about his 8 month pregnant wife. Then, when the kid does come, there's 10 days paternity leave, etc. That's for a male. A pregnant female will be delaying training even more, luckily most are a little more sane than that. Actually the female students are less apt to be married than the males--good on them.

Marriage during school, maybe. Having kids during flight school is asking for trouble IMO. Would waiting a few more months before pumping out the fire team really hurt anything?