I've been hanging out on these forums for a little over a month, more or less keeping my mouth shut and absorbing knowledge. I feel I've acquired a pretty good grasp on the general principles of how the whole training process works. However, there is something I'd like a little help putting into perspective. After using Search, I've found a lot of info on this topic, but nothing answering my specific question.
I fully understand that not everyone gets their first choice of platform. By choosing this career I think a person is making the statement that they're here to serve, not be served, so it's the nature of the game. While researching this topic I found a TON of comments from winged aviators along the lines of "I had the grades for jets, but ..."
To phrase my question in the most simple terms:
While it's technically possible for the top few studs navy-wide on a given selection week not to get their first choice of platform due to 'needs of the navy', how frequently does something this extreme actually happen?
I'm not looking for statistics or figures, just responses like 'I saw this happen to so-and-so', or 'I've never heard of this happening'. I'm trying to get a sense whether people who make comments like this were actually in the top 5% of their class and got "shafted" or were qualified statistically but not necessarily 'competitive' (like getting a 4/3/3 on the ASTB, or whatever the aviation minimum is), or somewhere inbetween. I've got a lot of steps yet before this is actually relavent to me (OCS, IFS, API, actual Primary), but I've got my Big 4 and other memorization down and don't really have much to do but my day job and pt, so I felt I could take some time to satisfy curiosity.
I'd would just like to finish of by saying that I in no way mean to imply that any of the people who have made comments like "I had the grades for jets, but .." are bitter, in fact, most seem to have embraced their assigned platforms like true professionals.
I fully understand that not everyone gets their first choice of platform. By choosing this career I think a person is making the statement that they're here to serve, not be served, so it's the nature of the game. While researching this topic I found a TON of comments from winged aviators along the lines of "I had the grades for jets, but ..."
To phrase my question in the most simple terms:
While it's technically possible for the top few studs navy-wide on a given selection week not to get their first choice of platform due to 'needs of the navy', how frequently does something this extreme actually happen?
I'm not looking for statistics or figures, just responses like 'I saw this happen to so-and-so', or 'I've never heard of this happening'. I'm trying to get a sense whether people who make comments like this were actually in the top 5% of their class and got "shafted" or were qualified statistically but not necessarily 'competitive' (like getting a 4/3/3 on the ASTB, or whatever the aviation minimum is), or somewhere inbetween. I've got a lot of steps yet before this is actually relavent to me (OCS, IFS, API, actual Primary), but I've got my Big 4 and other memorization down and don't really have much to do but my day job and pt, so I felt I could take some time to satisfy curiosity.
I'd would just like to finish of by saying that I in no way mean to imply that any of the people who have made comments like "I had the grades for jets, but .." are bitter, in fact, most seem to have embraced their assigned platforms like true professionals.
