06butters

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.

I've seen a few posts with info on interservice transfers and going from CO to WO in the Army, however not a lot about doing a CO to WO transition as an interservice transfer, so I wanted to create a thread for this niche. I'm trying to make the jump from USMC commissioned officer (ground, no wings) to Army aviation WO. I've dug through the Army's recruiting website, talked to a WO recruiter, and talked to a few members of this forum. Just wondering if there are any lurkers who have successfully undertaken this feat who have good AARs. Also if anyone knows what the selection rate is for this kind of thing, I'd love to know. I was looking at the MILPER for this past January's board, but that doesn't give a sense of application to selection rates.

Interesting, what's the difference that creates that requirement?

As someone attempting to transition to Army aviation, I'd love to know what your specific complaints are. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to gripe in public.

Sir, Mind if I ask if you made the November board? I'm a USMC 0-2 looking to go the same route, but I was under the impression, like "parking," that we could only go up on January boards.