Has college helped you in your flying/officer career?

[makana]

No, college is not the ultimate preparation for flight school or to be a pilot but like everyone has said here, it prepares you to achieve your goals, self discipline yourself, gain some maturity, improve your writing skills, but most of all it opens your mind (hopefully) to alternative ways of thinking. Specifically, like FlyNavy said, it allows you to think at a higher level. If you have graduated college and are still asking this question, then you didn't get what you were supposed to have gotten out of it. "The stupid piece of paper" is just official proof that you did it; the real achievement is intangible. Just to echo Red2, you should be able to look back at your college years when you are done and be able to see things differently.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

The one thing that I know I can grab from what I have learned since the last day I was in college (Friday), is how much I llloovvee weekends.

Just wait till you get to experience duty on a three or four day weekend, notably, on that Saturday. Yea, duty rocks! Nothing like a 24 hr period of CDO to suck your life away.

 

[kmac]

Speaking of which, I was/am on duty this entire weekend. Yay me. It made for a hell of a time at the squadron party last night when I was the only one NOT allowed to drink! Blah! And then some 0-4's started asking if I'd be the duty driver. What's up with that?

But to the question of college, I'm very confident in my engineering background. Probably the biggest benefit is that I can tell when someone is forcing me to throw out the bullsh*t flag. I'm not actually saying that everything in a naval aircraft makes sense, but I do know when a description of a system or concept is completely false. Now of course, this relates to just the technical side of the job. On the flip side, I have seen numerous grammatical errors and misuse of words in everyday writing (or NATOPS for that matter). In fact, I like to think of our NATOPS being written by either an engineer or an English major. The engineer knows the system but can't write about it; the English major can write but has no technical knowledge of the system.

I would argue that applicable intelligence to any particular aspect of a job is superior to the learnings of any one major. Except mine.

 

[Kycntryboy]

Just wait till you get to experience duty on a three or four day weekend, notably, on that Saturday.

*shivers* eeewwww... you guys feel that cold draft?

 

[bunk22]

Speaking of which, I was/am on duty this entire weekend. Yay me. It made for a hell of a time at the squadron party last night when I was the only one NOT allowed to drink! Blah! And then some 0-4's started asking if I'd be the duty driver. What's up with that?

That's awesome that the FNG gets the weekend duty. Now I know to tell the wife that the FNG had duty as opposed to being a COD pilot who doesn't drink or at the very least can't handle his liquor

 

[webmaster]

I was a criminal justice major so unless they make me Legal-O (to which I’d slit my own wrists)

Which squadron are you going to? I can give them a call and make SURE you don't get to be the LAWDOG... lol (I got bagged with that job, it sucks while trying to upgrade... I got my parole after 18 months)

Nice user title and avatar, now get out of the rack and drive the bus b!tch...

 

[fighterfemme24]

In response to the initial question, I think its not so much the actual course material you are being educated on, but for me I see it as an acquisition of time management skills. It also helps with getting work done under pressure for timed exams and procrastinated papers. Its not so much who is better or smarter in the end... I think its more about are you coming straight from home having your mom pack your bags, or from kind of getting a feel for life on your own and dealing with the pressure all alone.

 

[PropStop]

Nice user title and avatar, now get out of the rack and drive the bus b!tch...

When hell freezes over and pigs go ice skating!

Actually, I'm not a rack person, I'm da' chef. For a recent 8hr tac flight i brought in my griddle and whipped up some blueberry pancakes, along with some sausage i'd cooked up at home and heated in the oven. Oh yes, and don't forget the starbucks coffee (I can't drink the substance that comes out of the plane's coffee-raper), 12 pack of pop, mini-doughnuts, and cup cakes!

My goal is to make hollandaise sauce at 25K' for Eggs Benedict - from scratch.

Yeah, who's your 3P baby?!

Maybe i should just aspire to pass my 3P board...