I am going to be a freshman in college in the fall and I'm going to a school with an Air Force ROTC. I had planned on joining, but recently decided to try and fly in the Navy or Marines, which is what I've always wanted to do. I would obviously go to one of the officer schools that the Marines and Navy offer. My dad recently talked to a Marine Hornet pilot from VMFA 323, callsign Yogurt(I don't know his name), stationed at Miramer and he said that if I wanted to fly jets, stay away from the Air Force and go the Marine route. He said the Air Force tells you a lot of things you can't do and the Marines tells you a lot of things you can do. He said it was relatively easy to get a hornet spot in the Marines. He didn't say anything about the Navy. I was wondering if anybody had any advice or thoughts on this as I am really unsure of what service to join. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Is the Marines the best route for flight?
- Thread starter Gomer157
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jcrens8392
Registered User
The Marine's do offer flight contracts which the Air Force does not (at least I don't think so) that allow you to be guaranteed a slot in flight school before you are obligated to serve. The only difference, however, is that I think they make up for it with Marine OCS in that if you don't really want to be a Marine you probably won't fair well at OCS unless you already run a first class PFT.
I decided when I came back from OCS Jr's that I wasn't going back to seniors unless I was motivated to become a Marine (not just a pilot). If at some point I would have realized that all I wanted was to be a pilot then I would have changed to the Air Force or something a little less demanding (I've heard from some AF guys/gals that AFOTS isn't too tough.)
It's also possible (though unlikely) that your flight contract could be taken away for some reason or another. A buddy of mine got his taken away 2 months before his commissioning but still went through with it because he wanted to be a Marine, not just a pilot.
Ultimately I think that if you keep in mind the following you should make a wise decision. If you want to get your ass kicked and do things you never thought you could do and come out in the end feeling damn proud and that your the hardest MF'er on the planet then go for the Marines. If you just want to fly military aircraft then go for another service.
Hope this helps.
I decided when I came back from OCS Jr's that I wasn't going back to seniors unless I was motivated to become a Marine (not just a pilot). If at some point I would have realized that all I wanted was to be a pilot then I would have changed to the Air Force or something a little less demanding (I've heard from some AF guys/gals that AFOTS isn't too tough.)
It's also possible (though unlikely) that your flight contract could be taken away for some reason or another. A buddy of mine got his taken away 2 months before his commissioning but still went through with it because he wanted to be a Marine, not just a pilot.
Ultimately I think that if you keep in mind the following you should make a wise decision. If you want to get your ass kicked and do things you never thought you could do and come out in the end feeling damn proud and that your the hardest MF'er on the planet then go for the Marines. If you just want to fly military aircraft then go for another service.
Hope this helps.
kevin
Registered User
first of all, the ar does guarantee a flight spot through ots the same way navy does through ocs (at least i think). secondly, all the marine pilots now were getting jets due to numbers. that may change next week. you have 4-5 years to go- trying to predict how hard it will be to get jets in any service is about as pointless as trying to predict the weather in the midwest. good luck.
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