06butters

I talked to an ANG recruiter and he gave me some vague rambling answer that boiled down to they don't want prior USMC commissioned officers. Gave me a really weird gut feeling to be convinced to NOT join rather than vice versa. Plus the age limit is 30, I'm almost 31, and I know slots are competitive, so I'd likely have to join a unit, get a waiver, and fight for a few years even to get the chance at a flight slot.

Any creative suggestions for jobs for commercial pilots with low flight hours besides CFI, especially in the Montana area? I'll be going to flight school for MT national guard this fall and am trying to figure out how best to leverage the commercial license I'll get into a civilian job after training. From the flight schools and FBOs I've talked to, heli CFIs and commercial pilots aren't particularly in demand in the area.

BLUF: Looking for advice on the most effective and cost efficient route to go through ARNG flight school AND become an airline pilot. Should I try to get my ATP before or after IERW? My background: USMC Comms Officer (0602) about to EAS. I've always wanted to fly and had a flight contract in the Marines, but got "needs of the Marine Corps"ed into a ground contract. I've been working with the MT ARNG and will get boarded for a flight slot in June. I'm working on the assumption I'll get selected. I do want to fly military, but have recently been looking at airlines and the eventual paycheck and benefits are very enticing. ATP flight school has a fast track where I could get into a regional airline cockpit within 9 months, so I could theoretically get through that flight school and start getting airline hours before I even ship to Ft Rucker. However, from what I understand, IERW gets you an FAA commercial rating which means my PPL course would be waived if I waited to start the airline course until after IERW which would save me about $6k. Plus some the IERW flight hours would count towards airline course hours. Plus it looks like some airlines (Horizon in particular) offer incentives for helicopter rated pilots. Anyone with experience out there??

As IRR, who did you route your DD-368 request through? My IRR knowledge is limited, but I've been told there's no real chain to route requests like that through.

How hard was the AFS waiver to get? I'm looking at possibly needing one, and/or a time on contract waiver depending on what board I go for. Hopefully you get a look on the May board. Sounds like second time around is the lucky one.

Thanks for the info. That helps a lot. What do most guys do for civilian jobs? I was looking at life flight or Parks Service and it looks like a lot of their flying jobs require about 2000 hours Pilot in Command time.

BLUF: Trying to get as much info on flying in the National Guard as possible. I've been spinning up a packet to apply to an AD WOFT board as a sister-service (USMC) IST. I'd like to weight all my options, so I'm looking into flying for MT National Guard. I know virtually nothing about how the Guard functions, so I got in touch with the WOSM and she answered some questions. There were a few things she didn't know so I wanted to reach out to this community and see what I could learn. Hopefully this will help others weighing their options as well. 1) Any personal experience or opinions in general? Has anyone in here gone AD to Guard or vice versa? 2) How does flight time work? Do you only fly during drill weekends or can you fly when you have spare time as well? 3) Does Guard rate flight pay? What about BAH/BAS? 4) For retirement, as I understand, pay is a percentage of whatever you would rate on active duty based on yearly points. Are there any restrictions on medical benefits? 5) Are there any current signing bonuses for aviation? 6) Are there any opportunities to attend AD training for things like 160th SOAR?

Still finalizing my packet for the WOFT board. I know I'm putting the cart waaaay before the horse here, just been digging around trying to get as much situational awareness as possible. I'd be happy to fly anything, but I've always though medevac would be a good gig.

I scoured through units' Facebook pages until I found names mentioned, then FB messaged them. Super stalker stuff, but they've all been extremely nice and understanding.

Does anyone have a good idea what 12th CAB actually looks like currently? I know they were cutting down to a HQ element supporting rotations. Is there much of an opportunity to fly out there now, or is it mostly staff work?

I'll echo the administrative nightmare sentiment. I've been going back and forth with my S-1 formatting this conditional release for six months. Hoping to have it signed off by HQMC for the 22 Nov packet submission deadline for the 13 Jan board but doubt it. If I have everything else squared away by 22 Nov can I submit my packet then add the DD368 as a "correction?"

That's exactly what I needed, thanks.

Anyone know how often a WOFT class usually picks up (WOCS notwithstanding)? Once a month, every other month...? Especially how that usually works around the end of the calendar year. Trying to do some hypothetical back planning.

Any suggestions for beefing up a packet? I assume good essay, LORs... Any idea if a board might look at a Marine more/less favorably compared to other branches (tougher initial training/we're all crayon eaters?)

So you're saying there's hope.