MAWTS-1/WTI

[warriorxwarrior]

I'm a Marine Option doing a presentation for my NROTC unit on MAWTS-1 and the WTI curriculum and was wondering if anyone could help fill me in since I'm having trouble finding information on the subject.

As far as the WTI curriculum, I'm seeing that there are 3 weeks of academics and 4 weeks of flight phase with a combined arms FINEX at the end.

Things I'm looking for include: how application/selection to MAWTS-1 works, who is eligible (pilots, NFOs, air crews, etc...), how long WTI is (I'm assuming 7 weeks), some subjects taught during the academic phase, the general rundown of WTI, etc...

Thanks and Semper Fidelis!

 

[CommodoreMid]

Not a Marine WTI type, but that seems really specific for a midshipman level brief. At this point y'all should be concerned about not failing out of flight school if you get there, or even how not to suck at your first squadron, not how to be a WTI.

 

[81montedriver]

I could go into detail of the WTI syllabus but it would only be Herc specific. Each T/M/S has their own specific syllabus and exactly what it wants to teach their PWTI's. Now the general goal is to make tactical experts for each squadron who will then pass on their knowledge to the rest of the pilots and or NFO's in the squadron. These individuals will typically work in ops or aircrew training who have a large say in how that training occurs and who gets priority. Not to mention that on deployment, they are the go to guys or gals as to platform employment.

Aside from that, there is a significant portion of the academics that is classified so you'd be SOL getting that stuff.

 

[warriorxwarrior]

I didn't really explain but our Marine Officer Instructor, a LtCol, wants us to pick a specific area for a brief and become "SMEs" (subject matter experts). I figured much of what is taught is classified, but any tidbits would be useful. thanks.

 

[wlawr005]

Maybe you should pick a less classified curriculum. WTI is gonna be 90% weapons and tactics that nobody on here is going to delve into.

 

[Jim123]

Somebody out there oughtta be able to throw him a bone without getting into sensitive info.

Stuff like how long are the workdays? How much does each student usually study in the evenings? How much prep time goes into the mission briefs? How many flight hours and simulator hours during a typical course? General overview and focus points of curriculum- good guy doctrine, bad guy doctrine, allied doctrine, focus on individual tactics vs section on up through big wing tactics? How to work with the good guys on the ground? General idea of FINEX scenario- is it WWIII, a drawn-out counterinsurgency, contingency operations, all of the above, or... ? How does one become an instructor at the schoolhouse creating new WTIs? What did the Corps do before there was WTI and what historic events have led to it being elevated to what it is today?

 

[Pags]

Somebody out there oughtta be able to throw him a bone without getting into sensitive info.

Stuff like how long are the workdays? How much does each student usually study in the evenings? How much prep time goes into the mission briefs? How many flight hours and simulator hours during a typical course? General overview and focus points of curriculum- good guy doctrine, bad guy doctrine, allied doctrine, focus on individual tactics vs section on up through big wing tactics? How to work with the good guys on the ground? General idea of FINEX scenario- is it WWIII, a drawn-out counterinsurgency, contingency operations, all of the above, or... ? How does one become an instructor at the schoolhouse creating new WTIs? What did the Corps do before there was WTI and what historic events have led to it being elevated to what it is today?

In fact, I'm sure there's a dude at MAWTS who has this as a collateral duty. Here's a link to MAWTS' phone book. I'd call some of the numbers and see if anyone can point you towards the PAO.

https://www.trngcmd.usmc.mil/mawts1/Web Pages/Squadron-Phone-Numbers.aspx

 

[jmcquate]

Not a Marine WTI type, but that seems really specific for a midshipman level brief. At this point y'all should be concerned about not failing out of flight school if you get there, or even how not to suck at your first squadron, not how to be a WTI.

Flight school is even a little advanced for a mid. I would suggest a brief on preparing for Quantico, Bulldog (if that's what they still call it for NROTC) and TBS. In my opinion, that's what would be most useful.

 

[squeeze]

I'll echo what the other guys said about it being a bit complex and specific for a Middie project, but here's some first-hand unclass basics

Academics is the first 3 weeks. You start with "commons" that cover the basics of the 6 functions and include all students. After that, you break into "generics." TACAIR goes and takes classes together (things like weaponeering and threats and such). Then you focus on your T/M/S specifics. Intermingled in there are some planning labs for the flight and sim events. There are several sims covering multiple mission sets as well as an EP sim to warmup after a couple weeks out of the plane.

After all that, you jump into the flight phase which lasts till the end. You will basically fly missions involving all 6 functions of Marine Aviation usually with an OPFOR and GCE support. There are a lot of cool missions with external support that you don't get in the fleet. Red air, threats, targets, etc... Very cool stuff. That's all I'll say on that.

Flight phase culminates in a FINEX that lasts 2-3 days with an event driven scenario that makes you be flexible - could be ASE, SCAR, AR, CAS, TRAP, etc...

The days are brutally long once you're done with academics. You work Mon-Sat crew day to crew rest every single day. It is very stressful and very tiring. On Saturday nights you drink excessively, often at Platinums, and try to relax on Sunday (golf, pool, whatever) because it starts again on Monday.

Going through it you learn a lot, but you don't truly appreciate it until you get back to the fleet. It humbles you a lot and teaches you to say "I don't know" far more often. Once you get back, you are usually assigned as the Pilot Training Officer in a squadron - responsible for developing the squadron training plans to achieve whatever level of readiness is required for whatever you're TEEP'd for (or whatever the CO wants).

Selection for WTI is based largely on timing and ability. If the powers that be think that a guy can make it through and his timing allows, they'll put him through the ringer to get the required pre-req quals for the course.

 

[Crowbar]

WTI is a 7 week, 6 days a week, 12 hours a day face raping that gets you a patch, an MOS (7577), and supposedly makes you more valuable to your community and the Marine Corps in general.

What squeeze said. It's been three years since I went, so details on some things are fuzzy. There is usually some sort of flight leadership qual(s) you have to have that vary by community. For us, in addition to normal squadron designations, we had to have already passed two MAWTS certs before the course, so the instructors and students knew each other quite well long before we got to Yuma. Something I remember is that academics went common, generic, specific, but flights went the opposite direction. We started with aircraft specifics, initially doing flights that are hard for us to do at home. Then we put together Tacair strike packages, and then played with everybody for the last couple of weeks. Most communities can do sims in Yuma, Miramar, or Pendleton, but we didn't have that ability. Our "Warm up" flight was one of the hardest flights we did out there because we had to do so much. We had to refresh every T&R code we could in 3 hours. Somewhere in the mix we visited all the Command and Control (C2) entities to see how they worked, went to China Lake, and got a smattering of briefs from outside agencies. There are flight leadership roles for each event and everybody gets their chance to brief in front of the entire auditorium at least once. There are also various LNO billets that get filled for the big events and you may get one of those. The idea is to replicate how an actual MAGTF would plan an actual mission on a large scale.

Non-aviators also go to the course. C2 and air intel also send students, as well as FAC/Air Officers going through the Air Officer Course.

Bads?
-You get your shit pushed in constantly.
-The "BOQ" suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks.
What? Only two bads? They're bad enough.

Goods?
-The result of getting your shit pushed in constantly is that you get pretty good at what you're there for.
-Make new connections.
-You'll probably spend an extra year in the squadron after you finish. That might go in the "Bads" depending on your squadron.
-The "BOQ" is walking/stumbling/fireman's carrying distance from the club.
-River City Grill.


This article does a pretty good job of summarizing the course and its objectives:
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/art...uma-home-base-key-Marine-Corps-tactics-course

 

[Slingblade]

-You get your shit pushed in constantly.

-The result of getting your shit pushed in constantly is that you get pretty good at what you're there for.

Pretty much sums it up.