OK, here's the deal with getting to be a FAC and FAC(A). All the stuff above is good gouge. Every Marine Batallion rates an Air Officer, 2 FACs, and 2 JTACs.
Air Officer- The senior 7502 FAC that serves as the aviation advisor to the ground commander. He mainly works in the FSCC (fire support coordination center) coordinating the calls for air with the grunts. He is commanders go-to guy for ALL air stuff.
FAC- A pilot who controls airstrikes and coordinates other air evolutions from a forward area. He can be ANY kind of pilot, or NFO. Personally, I think that FAC(A) types do the best job as FACs, but there are many competant FACs from every community. The current MAWTS-1 Air Officer department head is a CH-46 guy and a hell of a good FAC.
JTAC- This is a joint term for a person who controls airstrikes in a CAS envrionment. As far as the USMC goes, all Air Officers are FACS. All FACs are JTACs. But not all JTACs are FACs. A JTAC (in our context) is simply a combat arms officer or SNCO that has been trained to perform the terminal control function of CAS.
Every infantry unit (BN and higher) has an Air Officer. They advise their commanders and work air issues up and down the "air chain of command" so to speak. The BN Air Officer (typically a senior Captain) will talk to the Regimental Air Officer (typically a Major) with regards to requests for air or issues that he needs help with. The Regimental Air Officer will talk about these same issues with the Division Air Officer (typically a Colonel) or one of his Assistant Air Officers (typically Majors). The higher up the totem pole you go, the less "crawing around in the mud calling airstrikes" that you do and the more "big picture" planning is involved.
All of these (including MEU Air Officer/Assistant Air Officer, etc.) are sometimes referred to informally as "FAC tours" even though many of them are not really perfoming FAC duties. They last 12-18 months normally.
JTACs, ideally, are more constant. An 0302 1stLt can become a JTAC (in addition to being a platoon commander, etc) and do this his whole career, probably up until he makes Major, as long as he can stay current. I won't go into the whole currency debacle, but essentially if you don't call an airstrike for 2 years, you lose your qual and have to start all over.
The entire CAS system has changed greatly in the last several years. It is still evolving to adapt to the joint environment and to accomadate new technology such as ROVER III, STRIKELINK, PSSOF, and a host of other gucci items.
IMHO, the air force has hijacked the system and layered it with beauracracy and sea lawyer horse-sh!t. I won't go into specifics, mainly because it would take longer to explain that I have available blood pressure to raise, but suffice it to say that the air force views CAS as a way that the grunts can help the air force win the war. That is NOT the way the USMC views it. We are here to provide fires (just like arty, mortars, or anything else) in support of the ground scheme of maneuver. We work for them.
More directly to your situation, you should pick whatever airframe you think will mnake you happy. The only way to garuntee that is to always be number 1. Rest assured that you'll like whatever you wind up with eventually. My rationale was simple. If I get helos I have a roughly 10% random chance of getting Cobras or Hueys. There are 6 available airframes in helos: AH-1, UH-1, CH-53D, CH-53E, CH-46, and MV-22. They are not evenly distributed. If I get jets I have about a 80% of getting Hornets or Harriers. There are only 3 airframes: AV-8B, FA-18, and EA-6B. There are fairly few EA-6B slots per year.
Not to disparage any airframe, but I wanted to be a "trigger puller", so I went jets. I got lucky and got an airframe that does a lot of CAS, which is what I wanted to do.
As far as getting a FAC tour goes, fear not! The Marine Corps will be more than willing to accomadate your wishes when the time comes, I'm sure. It'll be about two to 3 years into your first fleet tour when you need to think about it. What it sounds like to me is that you want to be a FAC. Just tell your XO and monitor (MAG actually controlls those slots) at that time. Try to steer clear of MEU Assistant Air Officer (another Captain job). I did one of those, too (I'm currently a Division Air Officer) and it's mainly staff work.
You can be a Regimental Air Officer or Division Assistant later in your career if, like me, you'd rather do this than go to DC and live in cubicle hell. I wound up becoming the Division Air Officer when my predecessor picked up command of a squadron and I was his assistant. Lots of big picture sceduling of air and advising the General about air. Not much time "on the hill" if any.
I don't know where you're at in the pipeline, but work hard, do your best, ask for what you want, and take what you get. That's all you can do. If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong. Good luck!
s/f,
