Basket of Knowledge

[Stump]

Hello,

 

So for the past couple of hours I've been reading all through this sub forum because I am extremely interested in a WOFT entrance into the Army. It has kinda been a goal for me the past couple years and as I get older and start to complete more milestones in my life I am beginning to focus on it. I've done some googling and basic knowledge stuff the last couple years. I assume I've already come across this place before, because when I went to sign up my E-mail was already in use. Anyways, I just wanted to thank those of you who have provided valuable information to me already about getting a packet in and actually obtaining my goal to fly for the Army as a Warrant Officer. Shout out to Shindig, I'd only be so lucky to become a carbon copy of you.

 

Since I am going to be around here asking questions just to fill my brain with information I may or may not need later, I would like to formally introduce myself and give you guys some of my background in a brief bullet point summary.

 

Personal stuff

• My name is Pearson and I am 18 years old.
• Currently living in Ramstein, Germany as a civilian dependent.
• Love exploring Europe, only been here for two and a half years though.

Present and recent history

• Studying Aviation Business Management at E.R.A.U. worldwide (So I can stay in Germany a little longer) and will be moving to the Daytona Beach campus next year.
• Currently pursuing my PPL and will have it by the time I am stateside.
• If accomplishments and test scores matter to you this earlier on - graduated HS with a 3.93 GPA.

Goals

• I hate running, but I hate failing more so I will be working towards a 300 APFT score over my time in college.
• Goal for college is a MBA from ERAU, and while I'd like to put in my packet for WOFT once I receive my BS but my father (A retired CW4 and now GS-15) does not support that (read: Will stop paying for my college).
• Also in college is a goal is to graduate top 5% of my class.

Career

• I don't think I would make the military a career, but if I really loved it I will.
• Top priority is to use my networking skills to land me a job working at a contracting company as either a pilot or in the management field.
• If I get the corporate/contracting job straight out of college I will probably choose that over WOFT
• If I don't get the job, I will go to WOFT and spend the six years in and decide if I want to get out - if I do then I will get the corporate job.
• If WOFT doesn't work, go to OCS and become an officer. (Not doing ROTC during college)
• Officer route still feeds back into corporate and contracting work.
• If I don't get a flight slot from OCS then move on to airline pilot.

 

I am off to bed, if you have any more questions or anything interest you let me know and I'll respond in the morning.

 

Again, thanks for all the solid information on here.

 

 

Pearson.

[ElJay]

Is your father an aviator?

 

Pretty neat resume for an 18 year old. Good luck going forward. Will your PPL be in helicopter or fixed wing?

[Stump]

Is your father an aviator?

 

Pretty neat resume for an 18 year old. Good luck going forward. Will your PPL be in helicopter or fixed wing?

 

My father was a maintenance officer when he was in.

 

PPL currently will be fixed wing but when I get back to the states I am going to get my helicopter rating. My father is also currently getting his PPL as well, as he shares the love of aviation.

[mike0331]

So your father won't pay for college if you apply for WOFT? You realize if you are accepted you will have the post 9/11 GI bill for once you get out? Follow your dreams dude. My parents have 5 ivy degrees between them and weren't a huge fan of me joining the military, and I still joined the USMC at 17, and they still love me and helped me out when I needed it.

Sounds like you have a solid plan, just make sure it's your plan and not someone elses. This doesn't mean don't take their advice, but take it with a grain of salt.

Mike

[Stump]

So your father won't pay for college if you apply for WOFT? You realize if you are accepted you will have the post 9/11 GI bill for once you get out? Follow your dreams dude. My parents have 5 ivy degrees between them and weren't a huge fan of me joining the military, and I still joined the USMC at 17, and they still love me and helped me out when I needed it.

 

Sounds like you have a solid plan, just make sure it's your plan and not someone elses. This doesn't mean don't take their advice, but take it with a grain of salt.

 

Mike

 

I do realize that I will have the G.I. bill but I also watched as my dad struggled to go through college to get his bachelor's degree after 30 years of being out of school. I do know I could do online and night school courses while I am in, but I want my focus to be directly on one thing and not worrying about anything else so that I can truly get the best education and experience.

[mike0331]

That's fair. Have you thought about guard/reserves while going through school? I did USMCR my entire undergrad, got deployed for a year in the middle. I know in my home state just serving in the Army or Air Guard qualifies you for a tuition and fee waiver for school, and some housing money. Since I was a reservist (Marine Corps is federal, not state like the guard), I didn't get any real benefits until after my deployment... but that is bankrolling law school for me right now.

Mike

[Stump]

So the last couple of days I have really been struggling with the fact that I am not in charge of the way my life is headed. (If you think it is ironic that I want to go into the Army, where I know I do not have control over certain aspects of my life - I am fine with that because I know I can't control that. I do know I can control my career route and that is what irritates me.)

 

It isn't that I don't want to go to college. I just want to do my first year (I will actually have about two years worth of schooling done in my first year because of being credited for AP classes I took in high school) and then apply to WOFT.

 

The reason I want to do that, is that if I am going to be going to WOFT after I get my Masters I still end up with the same job. On top of that, I am sure I can maintain at a very minimum a light load of college classes once I am settled into being a WO. The current path is I will have my Masters degree somewhere around my 23rd or 24th birthday. I then put in my packet and once accepted I have a six year commitment and I will be 30 before I can EAS.

 

The path I want to go has the possibility of me being able to EAS when I am 25 with at least a bachelor's degree and then I can have my Master's by the time I am 27. I know there are always the issues of life throwing a wrench into my plans, but no risk is no reward.

 

While this sounds rational to me, I am not sure if I am being affected by cognitive dissonance. I don't want to bring this up to my dad to discuss again until I know for sure that this can be done and I my head isn't dreaming out a fantasy.

[steve0]

You are implying 30 is old. Haha. Not even in yet and you are already looking to get out as soon as possible

[Stump]

You are implying 30 is old. Haha. Not even in yet and you are already looking to get out as soon as possible

 

I'll be honest here - when I was a kid I thought I was going to make a career out of the military. I also had this false view of the military and I thought it'd be the greatest thing in the world. But every single person I know will admit that while a couple years in is a great experience, the military life is not for everyone. Both of my parents and my grandfather have all spent 20+ years in the Army. What I've heard them say about their experiences and when I look at other soldiers - I do see the damage of the green weenie. They get out, and I see the failures in the V.A. healthcare.

 

I'll take pure honesty over false illusionment - I am not joining the military solely to serve my country. I see an opportunity to get quality training for aviation and have valuable characteristics instilled into me. If I love my time in, I'll re up.

 

30 years isn't old per say, but by then I want to have a career settled into. A foundation to have a family and live a comfortable life. While I think I could shave a few years off the clock by being able to get in the WOFT now, I sat down with a lot of people tonight to hear their advice. I've got a clear and relatively easy (compared to others) situation that I can take advantage of by just going to school. I will probably revisit the idea when I get my bachelors.

[mike0331]

The thing with making the military a career, is nobody knows what they will do. Plenty insist they will be doing 20 years, most get out ASAP. On the other hand, plenty who sort of fell into an enlistment make it a career. There is everything in between. If you do end up making a career out of it, starting earlier has its benefits.

You do have some inside insight into the problems with the armed forces given your family, I'm sure. But the thing you have to realize is "the outside" has its fair share of problems as well. The military remains a pretty stable career path with great benefits, and long term benefits at that, for your given time of service.

Thus far I have only been an enlisted Marine infantry reservist for a little over 6 years before getting out, though in addition to training I have been on active duty for a work-up and combat deployment. I enjoyed being a Sergeant much more than a Private, as you have more of an ability to fix what is broken and take charge of some of the general military stupidity. That said, the military is a big machine of which you will only be a cog. While you have some control over your situation throughout your time in, ultimately there will be times where you just need to go with the flow, and sometimes that flow is insanely stupid.

Anyway, I always thought I'd do 20, but I happily got out when I was 24 and my time was up, albeit with some reservations. Two years later I know I miss the good parts of it and want to get back in after law school. The benefit is I already have 7 years at 27 years old, and after training and 1 contract in aviation, I'll be within sight of 20 years.

I expect Army aviation as a warrant to be pretty damn different than Marine infantry as an enlisted guy. Frankly, ENLISTING in the USMC for the first time where I am at now would be a much more miserable experience than when I did it at 17, and was sent to boot camp at 18. Some of the BS was just easier to deal with as a "kid." I expect a little more control in aviation, but I also won't be surprised if I'm 100% wrong.

Good luck in whatever you choose, and there is nothing wrong with being a little selfish about what you want. There is a well known prospective Marine forum that is full of bad advice from crusty old guys who scoff at the notion of choosing your MOS. They claim you should be serving your country and go with the needs of the military, and they look down upon those advocating for themselves and the MOS they want. Meanwhile, most of these guys never saw combat, and all of those they scoff at are signing up in a time of war. It's BS. Don't kid yourself, you ARE serving your country, and Uncle Same will get his. Nothing wrong with covering your own ass on the way in and taking an eyes open measured approach.

 

This doesn't change that you need to live for you and not your parents. Sorry for the rambling post, I needed a break from Land Use studying.

 

Mike

[Stump]

So a recent update:

 

Due to the vast amount of information I have collected from this forum, I have come up with a fully laid out plan that I presented to my father to discuss with. He has decided that I have sufficiently applied myself to make a pretty big decision about my life. I am looking to pursue WOFT via the NG next year and will be looking at the late summer time frame to shipping out to BCT pending a successful packet.

[mike0331]

That was fast. Others can chime in here, but I think most likely what you will have to do is enlist in a guard unit, then submit your packet once you return from BCT/AIT for what would presumably be in aviation related MOS. From what I have read, Street to Seat is reserved for active duty applicants. It seems, however, that some guard units may be able to drug deal you around this by pre-approving your packet (what I am trying to do as prior service). If you know definitively where you are going to be living, it is a good time to start trying to make inroads to people at that unit to get on their radar.

 

Best of luck

Mike

[Stump]

That was fast. Others can chime in here, but I think most likely what you will have to do is enlist in a guard unit, then submit your packet once you return from BCT/AIT for what would presumably be in aviation related MOS. From what I have read, Street to Seat is reserved for active duty applicants. It seems, however, that some guard units may be able to drug deal you around this by pre-approving your packet (what I am trying to do as prior service). If you know definitively where you are going to be living, it is a good time to start trying to make inroads to people at that unit to get on their radar.

 

Best of luck

 

Mike

 

Yeah, what I have found so far is that a lot of states are over strength in aviation and they have plenty of AD people switching to the guard to keep them over strength for a while. I've emailed four or five different WOSM from different states (I could pretty much live anywhere stateside) and waiting to hear back from them.