Interservice Transfer

[daroldcc]

I was just wondering if anyone had some information about interservice transfers in ANY of the reserves components. I already called a few recuriters from different states, but no one has gotten back to me.

Here is the scenario. Let's say you are passed the max age for Air force or Navy/marines for pilot (you are 32). You sign up to go to OCS in order to branch aviation. The army gives you a age waiver and you get a pilot slot. You fly for 6 or 7 years which will make you 38 when your time is up.
After your service requirement is complete, can you go to the Navy/marines or the Air Force to fly at this age? I know what the active duty Air Force says about IST from the randolph website. They say that helo guys stay helo and fixed wing stay fixed wing. But they say it may be different for the reserves. Can anyone tell me if this is possible or perhaps where I can get some information.

 

[46Driver]

After you have your wings, the age requirement is non-existent, so yes you can do an interservice transfer.

Unless you are a prior Marine, your odds of getting into a Marine aviation unit are non-existent. Forget about getting Marine reserve fixed wing if you are a helo pilot, 4th MAW will not allow it. Too many of my buds with thousands of T-34 hours and civilian RJ time have tried to get into the Marine reserve C-130 and C-12 units were denied - despite those units being short of pilots.

Air Force has had some bad experiences with helo pilots as well so that option is going away as well.

 

[daroldcc]

So you are saying that after my time is up, providing there is a demand for pilots, I could go to the navy reserves and fly f-18 or f-14 or whatever, or am I limited to Helo's?

 

[46Driver]

The competition is brutal for slots like those. The Navy or Air Force is going to look for fleet pilots with prior fighter time, than prior fixed wing time. As an Army helo pilot interservice transfer, your odds are not good of getting a fighter slot. You will have a better chance of going helos, but those slots are very limited in numbers - your only realistic option is going to be an Army reserve or Army national guard helo unit. The bright side of that is the Army does not promote you out of a unit (if you are a warrant officer) and you can actually stay flying until you are close to mandatory retirement.