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MOS Selection - Air to Ground
- Thread starter kaidogg
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The short answer is YES. I won't say its routine, but let me explain some.
At TBS, towards the end - usually AFTER the 9 Day war (or how ever many days it is now), your company will do its MOS selection. This is based upon your class standing (via 1/3rd quality spread). So, the number 1 guy/girl in your TBS class will get to pick first. I would say there is generally at least one open slot for each MOS the Marines have - even NFO and Pilot slots. By the time they get to the last guy in the company, guess what - he/she gets the remaining slot - whatever that may be.
So, for some reason, you have an air contract (NFO or Pilot) from PLC or OCC and you finish high enough in your TBS class, you may be able to select whatever ground MOS you want.
One note of caution, be cautious of the quality spread and trying to "game" the system. For example, if there are 99 people in your company, and you are ranked number 34, then great. That means you will get to pick 2nd. However, if you end up being number 33, then you will pick 97th!!! My recommendation, don't game the system. Go to TBS and do the best you can. If you finish high enough you will probably get what you want.
FYI, in my TBS class, the first 0311 (infantry) slot went to the number 30 guy (out of 110). Everyone else had an air contract, or picked one up during selection.
Good Luck,
AArider
At TBS, towards the end - usually AFTER the 9 Day war (or how ever many days it is now), your company will do its MOS selection. This is based upon your class standing (via 1/3rd quality spread). So, the number 1 guy/girl in your TBS class will get to pick first. I would say there is generally at least one open slot for each MOS the Marines have - even NFO and Pilot slots. By the time they get to the last guy in the company, guess what - he/she gets the remaining slot - whatever that may be.
So, for some reason, you have an air contract (NFO or Pilot) from PLC or OCC and you finish high enough in your TBS class, you may be able to select whatever ground MOS you want.
One note of caution, be cautious of the quality spread and trying to "game" the system. For example, if there are 99 people in your company, and you are ranked number 34, then great. That means you will get to pick 2nd. However, if you end up being number 33, then you will pick 97th!!! My recommendation, don't game the system. Go to TBS and do the best you can. If you finish high enough you will probably get what you want.
FYI, in my TBS class, the first 0311 (infantry) slot went to the number 30 guy (out of 110). Everyone else had an air contract, or picked one up during selection.
Good Luck,
AArider
I would stay away from the air to ground route at TBS if you are looking for something specific. If you don't care about being an adjutant or a logo or comms or whatever they give you, fine, the drop it, if all you want is to be on the ground side. But if you are shooting for something specific i would strongly caution you against it. we had about 4 or 5 people drop air contracts and switch to ground. most of them got what they wanted but they didn't want anything hard to get like intel or infantry, they got supply or logo or comms. The one guy who wanted intel who dropped his nfo contract in the hopes of getting it was korean and scored a 3/3 (highest score) on the defense department language exam, went to MIT and was a bio major, and even though he requested any intel slot available they gave him air traffic control, which was way down on this list.
I had been thinking about dropping my air contract to a ground but i kept hearing too many horror stories and as the CO convinced me, people all around you would literally give you their kidney for the chance to fly, and here you are dropping your guaranteed opportunity to do so. I wouldn't recommend dropping it at TBS< bottom line. Go to pensacola, let the military pay for some great flight training, and if you decide it's not for you, you can switch to a ground MOS before you get winged. but make sure you actually know what the air wing is really like before you decide to drop your contract.
keep in mind TBS MOS selection is a very political and very luck of the draw affair. in many cases it has realtively little to do with your actual performance at the school. Don't count on TBS to be able to guarantee you anything in terms of MOS, unless it's an air contract of course.
I had been thinking about dropping my air contract to a ground but i kept hearing too many horror stories and as the CO convinced me, people all around you would literally give you their kidney for the chance to fly, and here you are dropping your guaranteed opportunity to do so. I wouldn't recommend dropping it at TBS< bottom line. Go to pensacola, let the military pay for some great flight training, and if you decide it's not for you, you can switch to a ground MOS before you get winged. but make sure you actually know what the air wing is really like before you decide to drop your contract.
keep in mind TBS MOS selection is a very political and very luck of the draw affair. in many cases it has realtively little to do with your actual performance at the school. Don't count on TBS to be able to guarantee you anything in terms of MOS, unless it's an air contract of course.
The company is evenly divided into thirds (eg: 100 man company - 1st third = 33, 2nd third = 33, etc..) Everyone in the company lists their MOS choices from 1-25(?). I think it's 25 total for men and 19 total for women (women cant select combat arms). Then, the SPCs/XO/CO go through and assign an MOS based on your standing and how they think you'll fit in the role. The thirds work in to give the Marine Corps a quality spread. The first person in the first third goes, then the first in the 2nd goes, then the first in the 3rd. So for the example company it would look like this for two rounds: 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 2-2, 2-2, 2-3, 3-1, 3-2, 3-3. get it? It's based on 1) the needs of the Marine Corps 2) your standing and 3) your personal preferance. Sometimes the companies have SNA/SNFO slots to give out, sometimes they dont. To qualify for these slots (and thus, allow you to list 23 vice 21 MOSs), you MUST have a valid flight physical and qualifying ASTB scores. Without these, you can't list 7599 or 7580 on your choices. Depending on the company, 0302 is usually easy or hard to get. The MOSs with the largest numbers are usually things like Comm-O, Adj, Supply and the like. Combat Arms usually don't have that many slots save for infantry.
Clear as mud?
Clear as mud?
wildflyin69
Grad of OCS 187 Charlie Co. 3rd Plt.
And here I am worrying about my color vision for the flight physical, with PRK. I think everytime somebody takes an air contract just to dump it for ground, the pool I'm in just gets smaller and smaller....<growl...>
EA-6B1
PLC Jrs 1st Inc. Kilo-3
I see what you mean, wildflyin. I don't think they should be allowed to do it, honestly. There's nothing ethically right about it. They're just using that air slot to get in with preconcieved notion that they're going to drop it. But I'm not the Commandent, so I can't make those decisions. I'm not sure he does either, it's just easy to blame the head, right? 
Before going to OCS, my OSO suggested I "go air, you can always go ground later." So I did (though I'd never flown), graduated PLC-air and have learned a bunch since. Now I would much rather a ground contract and go intel. However, a new OSO tells me that the switch won't be easy to obtain at TBS next summer. Has anyone heard of a 'new policy' at TBS that won't allow an air to ground switch?
Either way, I don't think I'm going to hell.
Either way, I don't think I'm going to hell.
Taxman2A
War were declared.
First off, you can drop your air contract at the beginning of TBS with no repercussions (that I saw).
That being said, if you do drop your air contract you will just compete for any MOS's available. It is difficult to predict how many MOS's will be in a certain company, as it corresponds to needs of the Marine Corps as well as start up dates for those MOS schools. I can tell you that Fox company this year had 30 logistics spots, while other companies had fewer than 10, some fewer than 5... If you end up in a company with 30 LogO spots, you will almost definetely get logistics if you want it. If you end up in a company of 5 LogO spots, you still have a decent shot, but you had better think up some decent 2,3,4, and 5 choices as well.
That being said, if you do drop your air contract you will just compete for any MOS's available. It is difficult to predict how many MOS's will be in a certain company, as it corresponds to needs of the Marine Corps as well as start up dates for those MOS schools. I can tell you that Fox company this year had 30 logistics spots, while other companies had fewer than 10, some fewer than 5... If you end up in a company with 30 LogO spots, you will almost definetely get logistics if you want it. If you end up in a company of 5 LogO spots, you still have a decent shot, but you had better think up some decent 2,3,4, and 5 choices as well.
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