What are my chances? Getting commissioned and into flight school.

[exNavyOffRec]

back when I was a high school senior in the 2000/2001 timeframe, I talked to a recruiter and he said there was no chance I'd ever get into naval aviation, suggested I enlist (ie his job) and I walked out. Needless to say, he was very wrong. Don't worry about that. OCS is your jam if you aren't turning 27 (or 27.5 or whatever it is) anytime soon. I personally doubt you would have much trouble as a VT Mech E grad as long as you aren't snuffing lines of coke on the weekends and you have been a contributing member of society.

What you experienced doesn't surprise me those guys aren't told anything useful about officer programs, it is like walking into a nail salon and asking the woman how to do an engine change.

Maybe it is my time as an enlisted recruiter and what we weren't told that led me to be as open as I could as an OR.

 

[robav8r]

ok guys.... take it easy on him.

Nope, not how this site or Naval Aviation works. Study hard, do your homework and ask questions after you have educated yourself. Life is hard - wear a cup.

 

[CAVU]

Be sure that you walk into an Officer Recruiters Office or if it is simply a recruiters office tell them clearly that you are interested in becoming an officer AND flying. There are a couple of sad stories out there in that regard. looks like your area is serviced by a combined military recruiting office in Christiansburg. Start with Navy and knock out the ASTB and if the scores support Aviator/NFO they will want to have you take a physical. Those two items can be viewed by all armed services: AF, AR, N, and M. You'll have a good conversation with the officer recruiter and figure it out from there. Ain't nothing goin' happen until you call them, make the appointment and go in. Yep, it will be challenging and negative this and that. Just keep pressing forward. Let us know how the visit goes.

 

[chadsalt]

[QUOTE

Be sure that you walk into an Officer Recruiters Office or if it is simply a recruiters office tell them clearly that you are interested in becoming an officer AND flying. There are a couple of sad stories out there in that regard. looks like your area is serviced by a combined military recruiting office in Christiansburg. Start with Navy and knock out the ASTB and if the scores support Aviator/NFO they will want to have you take a physical. Those two items can be viewed by all armed services: AF, AR, N, and M. You'll have a good conversation with the officer recruiter and figure it out from there. Ain't nothing goin' happen until you call them, make the appointment and go in. Yep, it will be challenging and negative this and that. Just keep pressing forward. Let us know how the visit goes.

Yea I'm going to get on that first thing Tuesday after Memorial Day. I think if I study hard I can do really well on the ASTB.

 

[chadsalt]

Nope, not how this site or Naval Aviation works. Study hard, do your homework and ask questions after you have educated yourself. Life is hard - wear a cup.

I'll take that into consideration next time, it's better to learn the hard way than not learn at all.

 

[CAVU]

[QUOTE
Yea I'm going to get on that first thing Tuesday after Memorial Day. I think if I study hard I can do really well on the ASTB.

Don't be shy about having a notebook with you with any material you've printed out off the internet. Write down all of your questions in your notebook and go in to get them answered. Get the recruiter's card. Don't be surprised if they ask you if you might be interested in nuclear power as I suspect your aero curriculum has included two calculus courses and two calculus based physics courses. They get big points for nuc power and doctors, amongst a few other in demand recruiting goals.

 

[chadsalt]

haha definitely more than two. But yeah I am making it very clear to the recruiter that I am only interested in flying, because if I cant fly military aircraft then I can develop military aircraft with a defense contractor.

 

[707guy]

Life is hard - wear a cup.

Solid...

 

[Uncle Fester]

...But yeah I am making it very clear to the recruiter that I am only interested in flying, because if I cant fly military aircraft then I can develop military aircraft with a defense contractor.

Well it's your life, but I wouldn't write off Nuke until you give it a good long look. I've worked for a big defense company for a few years, and I can tell you, nobody's going to take a new grad and have you doing what you seem to think you'll be doing. Even with this internship. They value experience a lot more than a degree, and the military is one of the few ways to break out of the "need experience to get a job, need a job to get experience" Catch-22.

So yeah, you could stick with this internship and eventually work up to the kind of work you want to be doing. But going on active duty for a few years and coming back with a good resume, clearances, some bank, and even more education for free, is going to get you there a lot faster. You don't have to have been a pilot to work in Aerospace.

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

Being a Nuke with a TS/SCI and possibly a Master's Degree at the 5-7 year mark will make you competitive for any sort of technical firm, including aerospace. I have two friends, both aero engineering who served as sub and surface nukes respectively and upon completion of their 5-7 years (one went on to shore duty for 2 more years, the other got out at the 5 year mark) and got hired at places like Boeing, Lockheed, etc.

I wouldn't pursue Naval Aviation strictly because it will punch your ticket to the aerospace community when you're finished.

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

back when I was a high school senior in the 2000/2001 timeframe, I talked to a recruiter and he said there was no chance I'd ever get into naval aviation, suggested I enlist (ie his job) and I walked out. Needless to say, he was very wrong. Don't worry about that. OCS is your jam if you aren't turning 27 (or 27.5 or whatever it is) anytime soon. I personally doubt you would have much trouble as a VT Mech E grad as long as you aren't snuffing lines of coke on the weekends and you have been a contributing member of society.

You walked into to an ENLISTED office what did you expect?

 

[MIDNJAC]

You walked into to an ENLISTED office what did you expect?

no, guy was visiting my high school, in the principal's office no less, and I (as many 18 year olds) had no idea what the difference was back then.

 

[chadsalt]

I wouldn't pursue Naval Aviation strictly because it will punch your ticket to the aerospace community when you're finished.

I'm not pursuing Naval Aviation to punch a ticket with aerospace community, because I know there are plenty of other routes. There is only a small percent of people that are aerospace engineers with Naval Aviation experience. However, I must say that you and Uncle Fester would make good recruiters because you gave very insightful points and I am now thinking of that as a good option if I don't get selected for flight school.

 

[Spekkio]

You walked into to an ENLISTED office what did you expect?

Few people outside the military understand the difference. I think I found out maybe a day before I started inquiring that you could enter as an officer, before that I thought you got promoted to 2nd LT/ENS at some point from within.

I walked into an enlisted recruiter office first because that's the only information I could find off of the Navy's website in my area. They laughed at me for wanting to go officer and said I needed a 3.7 GPA. I said I had a 3.8, their jaw dropped. They shut up and faxed my info to the O.R.

I have had more than one nuke tell me they enlisted with a degree because they were told that's the best way to become an officer (oops: you need to be within 12 months of EAOS for a nuke to apply to OCS, and can't go STA-21 out of prototype with a degree).

 

[MIDNJAC]

I will say that we had a decent amount of very junior Nuke E's going through the STA-21 program when I was in college. Like folks that had entered as an E-2 (maybe E-3, I don't know if that is even a thing in the Nuke world?), had done one set of orders at prototype, and then got picked up.....seemed pretty unusual compared to most other rates in the Navy.