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USAF E to USA WO


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Hello,

 

I am 27, male, married with two kids, active duty in the USAF at the grade of E-4. I have a AS via my Community College of the Air Force degree and in a Nov15 will have my Bachelors in Political Science (focus is in international relations) with a 3.69 GPA. I have no flying background of any kind. I have 1.3 years left on my 5 year enlistment (4+1 year extension).

 

I want to become an Army aviator and fly helos with my dream job being medevacs! My desire stems from wanting to serve my country but more importantly I want to be able to help our troops out who are the ones actually doing the fighting.

 

I have been poking around this site and here: http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/warrant/WOEligibility.shtml#a

 

I have read USAREC Message 13-004 paragraph 8(d) which really leads me to believe I can go from USAF AD to USA WO rather seamlessly IF everything related to my application and board gets approved.

 

I wanted to ask two questions, first, does anyone have any experience going from AD USAF (another service) to USA WO (aviation) and could you tell me a bit about the process? Second, I have read on this site that normal Army recruiters may not be much help, does anyone know who I could contact as solid first step to get the ball rolling?

 

Thank you

 

Very Respectfully

 

-BrightShadow

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm active duty Air Force and was picked up in May for rotary aviator. I ship to basic in August. It took around 17 months from the time I started my package to being selected. It is a pain in the ass trying to go from blue to green. It's going to be worth it though because this is something I've always wanted to do.

 

Use the checklist on the usarec site. Complete everything on that checklist and submit via email to the usarec team. The only thing I needed from the recruiter was to take the sift and pt test. Best way to get started is to get a conditional release (368) and letter of intent from the usarec team. Route that up your chain it has to be signed by an O-6. And then load those into vMPF.

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Hello,

 

I am 27, male, married with two kids, active duty in the USAF at the grade of E-4. I have a AS via my Community College of the Air Force degree and in a Nov15 will have my Bachelors in Political Science (focus is in international relations) with a 3.69 GPA. I have no flying background of any kind. I have 1.3 years left on my 5 year enlistment (4+1 year extension).

 

I want to become an Army aviator and fly helos with my dream job being medevacs! My desire stems from wanting to serve my country but more importantly I want to be able to help our troops out who are the ones actually doing the fighting.

 

I have been poking around this site and here: http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/warrant/WOEligibility.shtml#a

 

I have read USAREC Message 13-004 paragraph 8(d) which really leads me to believe I can go from USAF AD to USA WO rather seamlessly IF everything related to my application and board gets approved.

 

I wanted to ask two questions, first, does anyone have any experience going from AD USAF (another service) to USA WO (aviation) and could you tell me a bit about the process? Second, I have read on this site that normal Army recruiters may not be much help, does anyone know who I could contact as solid first step to get the ball rolling?

 

Thank you

 

Very Respectfully

 

-BrightShadow

 

You can pm me if you like. My friend went to the May board and got selected. I'm putting the finishing touches on my packet for the sept board.

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I'm AD AF as well. I was just picked up on the May board. Like Blue2greenWOFT said you don't really need a recruiter for much until you are selected. I was able to schedule my own SIFT and PT test without ever talking to a recruiter. This whole forum is great resource so look through as many posts as you can. If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me as well.

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Hey man, I'm also prior AF Enlisted. I got picked up on the May 2014 board. I'm just starting Aeromed this week.

 

My experience is a little different than the others here; I went to my local recruiting office first. They had already put a few active guys through, so they helped quite a bit. Even still, I had to do a ton of research because there were a few changes to policy.

 

As others said, get with your command and start routing that 368. At the same time, use the USAREC site to get the letter of intent started. Once you have both of those you can start the process to get a contingent release from AFPC; that's accessed through the vMPF if I remember correctly.

 

If you don't have all of your LORs yet, make sure you push hard to get those asap.

 

PM if you have any other questions/concerns.

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A major question I have has to do with AFPC. I am in contracting and have 15 months left on my enlistment and the WO programs states you have to have a minimum of 12 months left on your enlistment on the day the board convenes to apply (if less that 12 but more than 6 you can get a waiver). My question is this, If I am not going to be able to make a board when I have more than 12 months left, should I reenlist to avoid the waiver? My point being this, if I reenlist I take that job slot from the street recruiters quotas, so wouldn't AFPC deny my conditional release since I would then represent 4+ years to them?

 

Also, I have been told my the WO recruiter to take the SIFT, get my classA flight physical done, then do everything else for the application, send it to her and THEN I will get the letter of intent and be able to pursue the conditional release. This seems backwards from what you all have experienced. Thoughts?

 

Thanks for the responses by the way!

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Can you extend?

 

Have fun getting the sift scheduled and a class I physical without a conditional release or LOI. it took me a couple months for flight med to schedule me. Eventually the med tech just said okay obviously you are serious about this so we will schedule it. Remember the physical has to be sent to ft Rucker to be approved. It might take a couple months from the time of your physical, AETC gets to look at it, comes back to flight med, and then you fax it to ft Rucker.

I don't know how hard the process is from the civilian side but their selection rates are a lot higher. I think the last two active boards were 25%.

 

The conditional release takes some time as well for the commanders to sign off and then goes to seperations at afpc. You should be able to get that stuff now. If not I guess ask a recruiter downtown. They won't even talk to you without a conditional release.

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It sounds like you'll need to extend according to this "...Reenlistment or extension documents are needed if your personnel records do not reflect at least 15 months or more remaining on your active duty contract. This must be completed before submitting application." http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/warrant/WONonArmy.shtmlParagraph 6.

 

I would definitely talk to a recruiter about what's going on though. Preferably one who's had some recent experience putting in WOs.

 

Regarding the LOI, that is very different from my experience. All I sent the WO recruiter was the info required and I had the letter within a few days. I find it very hard to believe that is process now. That is A LOT of money/time spent before you even have the OK that the AF is going to let you go. If the AF says no, then you've wasted a lot of people's time. I would consider a respectful follow up with her regarding the situation, and asking her if that's normal even for the AF folk.

 

Either way get that 368 routed ASAP. My recruiter used that as a golden ticket to get all of my stuff scheduled, even though the AF doesn't give a crap about that form. You'll need official notice from AFPC before you're actually considered 'conditionally released'.

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Another quick note, I was contracting as well when I switched and I was worried about not getting released since we are (were?) critically manned. I found out through the AFSC functional chief that conditional releases for 'commissioning opportunities' go straight to AFPC manpower for approval disapproval and then the AFSC is advised they're losing a body. Just food for thought if you do have to extend.

 

However, re-upping for 4 might be a different story since your reenlistment code could show a code not authorized for this program until a year into your reenlistment . Don't quote me, it's been sometime since I've dug into the regs, but it's something to talk to personnel and AFPC about.

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A major question I have has to do with AFPC. I am in contracting and have 15 months left on my enlistment and the WO programs states you have to have a minimum of 12 months left on your enlistment on the day the board convenes to apply (if less that 12 but more than 6 you can get a waiver). My question is this, If I am not going to be able to make a board when I have more than 12 months left, should I reenlist to avoid the waiver? My point being this, if I reenlist I take that job slot from the street recruiters quotas, so wouldn't AFPC deny my conditional release since I would then represent 4+ years to them?

 

Also, I have been told my the WO recruiter to take the SIFT, get my classA flight physical done, then do everything else for the application, send it to her and THEN I will get the letter of intent and be able to pursue the conditional release. This seems backwards from what you all have experienced. Thoughts?

 

Thanks for the responses by the way!

There are only TWO things I NEEDED a recruiter for.

1- to sign my conditional release in the recruiter block

2- to take my APFT

 

EVERYTHING else you can do on your own without a recruiter.

I would start the conditional release now that was one of the documents that took the longest (1-2months)

LOI was simple. I emailed a chief warrant recruiter and they emailed me back in a day or so

Your GT conversion request has to be signed by your CC so you want to route that with your conditional release

The class I physical I got knocked out in one day and it only took about a week to come back from Rucker

Study for the SIFT you can schedule that on your own

Like the others said I would try to extend before reenlisting

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Gents,

 

The feedback has been awesome! All of the different experiences are helping me really achieve good situational awareness on the process. I'll post back here about how things go. Also I have already extended once (you can only extend once for your own convenience) and I'll have to check with personnel if I can extend again with commissioning as a reason. Otherwise I'll have to reenlist.

 

Just a thought, what if I submitted for my conditional release now and once I had it in hand THEN reenlisted? Would that work do you think or would AFPC have the wickets set up to nullify my previous conditional release once I reenlist? Trying to outsmart the system.

 

Also, sorry to be responding so late each night, we are nearly in full 'end of fiscal year' panic mode. Very busy at work...

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  • 1 month later...

I took the SIFT this morning and got a 67! Super pumped, I take the APFT tomorrow morning and in the next few days I plan on setting up my physical. I have talked to AFPC about reenlisting and then doing a conditional release and the separations folks said no worries.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Got Selected today. For all the the Airmen (big 'A') out there looking to go Army Aviator, you can do it! I got picked up from Contracting with no deployments, as an E-4. Best advice I can give is to just do it. When I first started, the local recruiter told me to not even try, that the Army didn't want/need an admin Airmen with no deployments and that the competition would be too stiff for me to be considered. If someone tells you this just say 'thank you' and keep going.

 

I'll post on here in a few months how the post selection process goes to when I actually get to WOCS. If you have any questions about what my application process was like send me a PM or just ask on here. Most of the info is on the recruiting website, but the Air Force has several extra steps that need to be taken etc.

 

Thanks to everyone who answered questions I had etc. and I look forward to meeting and working with you in the future.

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