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The most hated pilots out there, unfortunately. Our crew chiefs didn't like the one we had, and our pilots didn't like him either. A 21 year old with zero experience in life, the ego of a billionaire businessman, the tenacity to try to be "Mr. knowitall", AND flying a multi multi million dollar aircraft with fifteen people strapped in..... That will kill a crew.

 

Poor fella made the mistake of fooling around on his wife and newborn while we were up at Emitttsburg, MD supporting Bush at the time.

 

21 years old and stupid! I don't care if you are flying a Blackhawk helicopter.

 

 

 

I'm sure they are not all like that though.

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There was a 19 year old on my WOCS class, he's 20 now and in the Apache course. One of the most mature and squared away people I know, and none of the "attitude" spoken about before. These are the people that this program works for. Age does not necessarily equal maturity.

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Hardly. I didnt have a need to be jealous of some guy that was hated by his entire unit, was a fruit cake, cheated on his wife, and wasnt that great of a pilot anyhow.

 

Thankfully most of the pilots i flew with were awesome people!

 

He was the cream of the crop.

 

To the original poster, try your hardest and dont give up. Respect those ahead of you with experience and learn from them!

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But recruiters never lie...

 

A good path to the 75th? [sh*t - we don't have any more Option 40s for a while, but my quota is low!] Go be a 19D! Rangers love scouts!

 

9 months later I talk to the SFC 75th recruiter visiting Ft. Bliss, and get turned away because they weren't taking anyone from an "armor" MOS. But I ain't mad. I sure as f**k at bitter...

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There was a 19 year old on my WOCS class, he's 20 now and in the Apache course. One of the most mature and squared away people I know, and none of the "attitude" spoken about before. These are the people that this program works for. Age does not necessarily equal maturity.

 

And I'm sure he's the exception. It's rare to find a 20 year old who has more maturity and wisdom than someone 10 years older.

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And I'm sure he's the exception. It's rare to find a 20 year old who has more maturity and wisdom than someone 10 years older.

That's exactly what the application and selection processes are designed for. There is a reason not that many are selected at that age but the ones that are probably fall into the mature category.
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That's exactly what the application and selection process are designed for. There is a reason not that many are selected.at that age but the ones that are probably fall into the mature category.

Exactly.
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Get used to call for fire as a gun guy. Calling in artillery from an aircraft is a ballet.

 

It can be interesting enough on the ground... Though I doubt one would bounce around the cockpit of a helicopter trying to determine range with a set of M22s and the old H(in)*25.4/mils=meters method.

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That's exactly what the application and selection process are designed for. There is a reason not that many are selected.at that age but the ones that are probably fall into the mature category.

You'd be suprised what slips through the cracks.

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Get used to call for fire as a gun guy. Calling in artillery from an aircraft is a ballet.

 

Maybe at NTC but I'm unable to recall anyone in OIF/OEF calling for arty. CAS or GMLRS maybe but mortars and arty just don't get as much play in the COIN fight. Anyway, with a TADS it's pretty easy to play FO though most pilots prefer to use their onboard weapons as it's faster and more accurate.

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Calling for indirect in general, or just from a helicopter? We used 155s and 120s almost daily in Wardak, Laghman and Logar.

I think he means from an aircraft. I've seen it a handful of times, even in Iraq though it was usually for training. With the restrictiveness of ROE and FIRES authority it's almost impossible for an aviator to call for fire in today's environment. That FIRES request typically has to be passed to a lateral upper level battle space owner and we all know ARTY and even CAS is too colateral for today's sensitive political environment.

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... even CAS is too colateral for today's sensitive political environment.

 

Yep, I was talking CFF from an aircraft. Not much need for that in a COIN fight.

 

This quote reminds me of many times in Iraq early in the war when we'd take incoming IDF and the F-16s would launch out on full afterburner and drop a 500 pounder right outside the wire. Massive retaliatory fire doesn't make the locals love having you around so that eventually dried up in favor of less kinetic responses.

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Yep, I was talking CFF from an aircraft. Not much need for that in a COIN fight.

 

This quote reminds me of many times in Iraq early in the war when we'd take incoming IDF and the F-16s would launch out on full afterburner and drop a 500 pounder right outside the wire. Massive retaliatory fire doesn't make the locals love having you around so that eventually dried up in favor of less kinetic responses.

 

It also changes with time, do that when I was in Afghanistan in 2011 and you would have blown the hell out of an alarm clock. I do have alot of respect for Russian weapon engineers, Anything you can dig up out of the ground after 20 years, hook a car battery to and use with some degree of efficiency is impressive.

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  • 6 months later...

Instead of starting a new thread, I figure I'd piggyback off of this one considering I'm in a similar boat.

 

I'm currently 21 years old, 5 semesters away from graduating with my bachelors, 3.9 GPA with about 65 credits in college, 4.5 GPA in high school. I'm also currently an E-4 with 3 years TIS in the Air National Guard as a medic with several certs from EMT to Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support to rescue (Structural Collapse Level 1, Rope Rescue Level 1, etc). I have a solid source of Letters of recommendation I can get through my chain of command (NCOIC, OIC, CC, first sergeant) and am looking at trying to get in touch with some higher ranking flying warrants at the guard base in town. I'm relatively proficient with standardized testing (97 AFQT, 131 GT on ASVAB while in high school) so with some studying I think I can score decently on the ASVAB again and the SIFT. My APFT is right around 280-285ish currently.

 

Anyways, I'm curious as to what you guys already in the community think is going to happen regarding army aviation in a few years as we move further into the drawdown. Obviously, the WOFT program isn't going to go away, but I'm a little nervous regarding what it may become. My dilemma is to whether I should stick out these last 5 semesters of school and then put in a package or just go for it this summer and try to do the online route for school after the pipeline. I know that a degree is essentially mandatory at this point for promotion. I know the smart thing to do would be to graduate and then apply, but in the last month or so, the flying bug has hit me hard and I want to feel like I'm doing something with my life. I appreciate any advice you guys have, thanks in advance. Also, this forum is awesome, it's been a great resource for me.

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