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National Guard SMP Pilot


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need some advice from the community.



I am looking into pursuing the National Guard SMP program when I start college next year with a mechanical engineering major. The intent is to receive a letter of recommendation from my base commander which would enable me to obtain a slot in flight school after college.



Since it is the National Guard, will commissioned officers fly as much warrants with the same time commitment? Or would they take on an administrative role while the WO's are out flying? I have a friend who is a Blackhawk pilot in the NG and he flies around three days a week as his full time job. My concern is holding an engineering job while flying for the NG as an officer.



Or are my concerns completely wrong? Any insight is highly appreciated!


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You should definitely go for it. Guard aviation is a great way to fly part of the time, generally as much or as little as you want to. Possible deployments if you like that kind of thing too. As a LT you won't be doing much office work but that may change as you progress in rank. You may not be able to stay in the guard as a commissioned officer past the rank of CPT, due to the lack of open jobs for O's, so many CPT's revert to warrant after they command a line company. YMMV.

 

Balancing a full time civilian job with a guard job can be very difficult, you'll have to find a very sympathetic boss to make that work. Most long term guard members work in government/police for that reason - it's much harder for your boss to fire you for missing work to go play guardsman if you work as a public servant in some capacity. Private companies have no such restrictions.

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FWIW I wish I pursued it between college and grad school. I would have had plenty of time the last 3 years of grad school to go in a few times a week to fly. I understand it to be a decent time commitment, but school is the best time to balance that -- granted ME is an intensive major.

 

Have you looked into warrant options for while you are in school?

 

Mike

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