Anybody here serve? Anybody an Army aviator?

[Foosinho]

I'm getting really nervous about what I'm going to do for work if my job goes away this spring, with the slumping economy. It's re-invigorated my interest in serving in the military, so much so that I'm even considering joining the National Guard even if I can find gainful employment.

I really think I'd like to become an Army WO and fly helicopters. When I was in the USAF ROTC back in college, I was in it to fly airplanes, and when my vision DQed me, I did consider switching to the Army before I elected to "sow my wild oats" in college. I'm a bit older now, a lot more mature, and still enthralled by the idea of flying in the military. And I know I could be very very good at it: I had the highest flight aptitude score ever seen by my detachment in college, and have probably thousands of (unlogged) flight hours in simulators from 5 years of programming flight sim software for the Air Force as a contractor.

If anybody has thoughts, suggestions, insights, I'd love to hear them. I'm working now at meeting Army fitness standards by this summer (a tough row-to-hoe, since I've been letting my desk job be an excuse for growing a spare tire, but I'm working hard), and the biggest obstacle might actually be getting the wife on-board. But if the alternative is unemployment...

[spejic]

Have you given thought to being a UAV pilot? There's a certain charm to flying combat missions by day and going home to dinner at home every night. The Air Force recently changed their hierarchy so that UAV pilots are no longer in dead-end jobs but have their own job title and can be promoted through the organization just like pilots. It's a real growth area.

[Scarecrow]

Foos go talk to the guys over at AFRL, they can give you some info on Global Hawk and other UCAVS to be a pilot for.

When I was in the Navy, then the Army Reserve I worked on I level support for all types of aircraft. Had my Aircrew wings for the Army. Being a helo pilot is not easy. In fact it is likely harder then being a fixed wing pilot. For one you have very different controls, 2nd, you are a slower moving target and you are going to be going into a more volatile situation.

I do think that if you want to join, you should. You have been at WPAFB so you have an idea of what some of the military lifestyle is like. Although given that it is Air Force I use that military term loosely. LOL. I worked there 3 years as a contractor at SYG, then AE. I ran PIXS website for those 3 years.

Anyway, take a good long look at what it is you really want to do, where you may get deployed, and how it affects your current life. I will say this, do not enlist, get a commission.

[Foosinho]

When I worked as a contractor for AFRL over at WPAFB, I worked on the Predator platform doing pilot interface research. I've been to Indian Springs outside of Vegas to see training operations. So, I'm pretty familiar with UAVs (and with future direction the USAF wants to go with UAVs - supervisory control), and I do get the appeal of sleeping in your own bed every night.

But I don't think it's going to scratch the itch, if you know what I mean. Being in the airframe has a definite appeal.

I'm not worried about being able to do it. Like I said, I've got a real intuitive aptitude for flight, and picking up machine operation. I've not no rotary training, but I guarantee you that if you plopped me down in a real helicopter sim, I'd do alright for myself. What I'm more worried about is getting accepted into the program. And convincing my wife.

Now, I know that if I were active duty Army, I'd most likely end up at Ft Rucker after I got all the way thru the training. That might not be acceptable to the wife. After all, she made me move from Dayton to Columbus because Dayton was too far from her family. I know there is a National Guard helo unit here in Columbus (they fly Black Hawks, too!), but I don't know if there is a Reserve unit in Ohio I could join up with.

BTW, part of the appeal of helicopters is that I would have a new tradable skill. I could fly for one of the area hospitals, or for the CPD. I'm really looking at this as a possible career change.

I'm too old, with too much education, to be a PFC. I think that's a waste of my abilities and capability. (TBH, if the economy is bad enough I may join up even if I'm not getting a pilot slot. I'd have to get an age waiver to go to OCS for the Reserves, I think, but I think I'd be a capable armor officer.)