Loss of Flight Contract

[NapalmRat]

This is kind of a broad, extending question. If my eyesight goes to a point where I am no longer air qualified, OR I fail flight school, OR I opt to forego my flight contract in favor of a ground contract, what would happen?
I'm pretty sure the Marine Corps automatically selects my MOS, correct me if I'm wrong. I take the ground contract of 3.5 years, right? Does anyone know anything about how the MC would select my MOS? Needs of the MC aside, would they base it on college degree?
I'm not saying I'd forego my air contract, but my eyes are freaking retarded and hate life. That and I'm freaking retarded so I dunno how well flight school will go.
Thanks for any info.

 

[jamnww]

This is kind of a broad, extending question. If my eyesight goes to a point where I am no longer air qualified, OR I fail flight school, OR I opt to forego my flight contract in favor of a ground contract, what would happen?
I'm pretty sure the Marine Corps automatically selects my MOS, correct me if I'm wrong. I take the ground contract of 3.5 years, right? Does anyone know anything about how the MC would select my MOS? Needs of the MC aside, would they base it on college degree?
I'm not saying I'd forego my air contract, but my eyes are freaking retarded and hate life. That and I'm freaking retarded so I dunno how well flight school will go.
Thanks for any info.

Ok, yeah kind of broad so the best thing to do would be to do a search for threads with the most current information.

Eyesight goes bad - before you wing then chances are you will lose your contract, after you wing they will work it out with you...ie surgery or what not.
Fail Flight school - put in another wish list of about 5 MOSs then they try to match your wish list with needs of the Marine Corps...if they can work it out they will...
DOR ("forego your flight contract") - this is what you need to search for as policies may have changed but up till I checked into API DORs were assigned an MOS solely on the basis of needs of the Marine Corps.


In any case if you lose your air contract you will revert to a ground contract, 4 yrs from the date of commission / check in at TBS. Don't try to plan for the worst, always work for the best...

 

[Herc_Dude]

I had a few buddies down here who either had medical issues come up or didn't make it through API. They will work with you to do their best to have you doing something that you would want to do. From what I observed, if you did well at TBS and made a good impression on your SPC, you could use him as a contact as well to help pull the correct strings to get you into a MOS that you want. There are a lot of factors involved and it might come down to the needs of Mother Green.
If you are thinking of dropping your flight contract, I highly reccomend doing it before TBS so you can compete with all the other Lts for MOSs. When I was at TBS not too long ago, flight contract drops had their MOS selected after all the other ground contracts had theirs ... solely on the needs of the Corps. If you go ground your contract will be the same as all other ground MOSs.
If you want to fly, just push hard and do your best. Take everything one step at a time. Keep your focus on your goal while working hard on getting that next check in the box.
As for basing your MOS on your degree, the only case I can see where that might be a factor is if you are fluent in a foreign language (ie Arabic) or something of that sort. You might have a better shot at Human Intel than someone else. Other than that I doubt it will be a factor. Maybe someone else has better information on that.
Best of luck. Take it all one step at a time.

 

[Zilch]

If you DOR, you may find a large cache of dead, smelly trout on your doorstep one day on behalf of everyone who wanted flight slots and were turned down for some reason. Just sayin'. :icon_tong

 

[MasterBates]

Don't forget about the one that they will hide under the carpet in your trunk..

 

[NapalmRat]

Haha, alright. I'll take the advice everyone's given, and my overwhelming fear of trout, into consideration and hopefully get winged after I go dominate TBS.

 

[usmcecho4]

I really does depend on what is wrong with your eyes. I'd say a good 30% of my TBS flight school compatriots walked out of the API flight physical with a set of glasses and continued to train. If you passed the flight physical to get an air contract odds are you will continue to pass your flight physicals.

Semper Fi,
usmcecho4

 

[SuperStallionIP]

As long as you are correctable to 20/20 you're fine. Focus on completing TBS and avoiding the legendary "stick in the eye" when tromping through the woods in zero percent illumination. Always comic relief to see the shop class goggles that dudes bought for that. Funny stuff.

 

[Junior]

Always comic relief to see the shop class goggles that dudes bought for that. Funny stuff.

Most of the aviation contracts in my company wore safety glasses for night land nav. I wore them without a second thought. But they won't protect you from all of the thorn bushes or old fighting holes. Walking in total darkness fat, dumb, and happy and the next instant being in thin air falling 4 feet is a wierd feeling.

 

[SMILE4BULLETS]

As funny as they (safety goggles) may look, my friend had an accident not too long ago. He was finishing up FEX III or something and a branch whipped back right into his eye. Now his cornea is f'd, and he's probably going to have permanent vision damage. His advice to me, as a SNA, was to always wear the goggles....once you get in the field of course.

 

[thull]

in the midst of my SNA app a while back, I was working with some shingles and a steel binding strap whipped into my eye and tore it a bit. freaked me out, luckily healed in about four days (hurt like a mother) then another two weeks for full perfect vision to get back. good wake up call tho...you never know when a pair of stupid looking safety glasses (or cool looking sunglasses even) will save your eyesight/career/future...

 

[ArkhamAsylum]

DO NOT drop your ground contract prior to, or during, TBS. Unless things have changed since 2005, you are strictly at the mercy of HQMC for MOS selection. All the guys I knew who did this ended up with supply (one graduated in the top 10 of his TBS company).
If you DOR (Drop on Request) from API/flight school, you have very little say in your MOS, though the options are a bit limited due to the likelihood that you'll be a 1stLt by then and can't get into some billets, such as infantry.
If you attrite (fail) flight school or are NPQ (not physically qualified), then you'll get a little more mercy for MOS selection, and most guys I knew in this situation got some kind of Intel.

 

[SMILE4BULLETS]

i heard that you can just quit whenever...haaaaaaaaa

 

[jamnww]

i heard that you can just quit whenever...haaaaaaaaa

You can, you just won't like the results...

 

[McCollum11]

Always comic relief to see the shop class goggles that dudes bought for that. Funny stuff

They now issue ESS Glasses and Goggles. Per my SPC all air contracts have to wear the glasses anytime we are in the field.