Everybody panic!
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Naval Aviator -> Special Forces
- Thread starter jakehefelen
- Start date
Is it safe to say that most of the (couple) guys that made the SEAL/Recon/Whatever to aviator switch probably didn't start out their career thinking "I'm gonna kick in doors with the SEALs for a few years and then transition to being a fighter pilot"? Seems like the few times something like that happened it was probably a matter of the SEAL (or whatever) hitting a point in his career and deciding they wanted to go to the aviation side of the house, and he just happened to have the timing on his side to make it work. I may be off base here, but I find it hard to believe that guys that made that transition dreamed it up when they were in high school... So pick one and go after it full force and if some crazy opportunity hits you somewhere along the way and you want to go for it (which you may no longer want) go for it. Chances are this is a young guy and his goals/views will change with a few more years and a little more maturity.
It's not so much that your personal goals change or whatever. If someone has done both, usually it was doing one thing as enlisted, another as an officer. The only guy I know personally who's done something like this was an E in the Teams, then got commissioned and went Hornets. For the vast majority of specialized jobs like SpecWar, Aviation, etc, by the time you've completed your training, you're too senior to go to another community, or for them to want you for a transition even if you're willing to dump all that training and start over. See the recent thread about a Submarine officer who wanted to look into going Air.
Yup had a guy in my squadron, did the same. Creepy was an "E" SEAL and then came back as a pilot, flew Hoovers. We hardly saw him when we were in Fallon. He always found some SEAL bubbas he knew to hang with.
I have an easy solution: Find a lake or beach near your house, fill a backpack with rocks, and run there as fast as you can. Once there, roll around in the water until you are soaking wet and covered in mud, then lay on the shore staying awake for at least one night without eating or drinking. The next day run home as fast as you can.
If you thought that was fun: go enlist and be a grunt. If you thought that sucked: finish college and try and fly planes.
Problem Solved.
By the way, I would change your goal from "spec-ops oorah ninja warrior killing machine" to maybe just infantry - and see how it goes from there. That is like aspiring to be a marathon runner when you haven't even tried out a 5K too see if you like running. In other words, you have no clue if you would like infantry tasks - so how can you know you would like special forces? Movies don't count, they can skip past all the hours of mind-repressing pain and mind-numbing boredom and cut right to the "fun stuff."
If you thought that was fun: go enlist and be a grunt. If you thought that sucked: finish college and try and fly planes.
Problem Solved.
By the way, I would change your goal from "spec-ops oorah ninja warrior killing machine" to maybe just infantry - and see how it goes from there. That is like aspiring to be a marathon runner when you haven't even tried out a 5K too see if you like running. In other words, you have no clue if you would like infantry tasks - so how can you know you would like special forces? Movies don't count, they can skip past all the hours of mind-repressing pain and mind-numbing boredom and cut right to the "fun stuff."
ZekeBathory
Doe-eyed Hopeful
I like to save them all that running and exercise. You wanna be a SEAL? Take a shower with no hot water. If you can't hack that, stick to your video games.
Dammit! I was hitting Halo 3 in the hopes of un-retiring and being a FrogSpecialForcesPilot. FSFP. The miltary has those right? FSFP?
Obviously you haven't tried to sit through one of the Lord of the Rings movies.
Bingo...when I got to the SEAL Teams I had every intention of retiring as a Master Chief (I sometimes wish I had). The opportunity to go to flight school came relatively late in my enlisted career. However, it one of those "grass is greener on the other side of the fence" scenarios.
The comment that your priorities and outlook changes drastically with a little maturity was spot on. It's amazing what turning 30 and having kids will do for your perspective of the future.
That said, it was always the big joke in the Teams that the ultimate accomplishment would be a SEAL/Pilot/Gynocologist. Two out of three ain't bad.
"You ever see a pussy by itself? Not for me."
JTB7
Member
http://www.forcerecon.com/Capt-Garrett-T-Lawton.htm
Yes, he was a FAC.
I started a thread about becoming both(as an officer) and the only way is to enlist with a UZ 0321 contract(or enlist as an 0311 and tryout for recon during SOI), serve for 4 years/or get accepted to MECEP. Then become an officer and fly after that.
Big Biff
Got Em
MARSOC tryouts are open to all MOS's right now. However after the Marine Corps spends the half a million to million to get you to full blown operator status, I don't think they are going to let you go MECEP without getting their money out of you via deployments.
JTB7
Member
http://www.marines.mil/news/messages/Pages/2007/Messagesa64.aspx
I saw three 0321s that were selected. They were all SGTs. They probably had a couple deployments but my point is you can be selected for it while an 0321.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure to try out for recon you must go through SOI, no matter what your MOS is, and if you fail the indoc or training then you are put back to 0311. So why enlist in another MOS in the first place if your intentions are to be a 0321?
No. To try out for recon you don't have to go to SOI.
Big Biff
Got Em
MARADMIN Due out later this year...
Hot off the presses
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/04/marine_marsoc_040609w/
Included (courtesy of marinetimes)
? MarSOC is open to all MOSs. Although female Marines are assigned to the command and perform support functions, only male corporals and above are sought to become spec ops Marines. Lance corporals are not part of the target population, but they are accepted in some cases.
Edit: And if my weary memory of Okinawa serves me correct, Recon itself was open to all MOS's for fleet marines as I remember during the Stop Move/Stop Loss fiasco and was stranded on the island for an extra 5 months, I had two friends try the recon indoc (disbursing and legal) just to get off the island. Of course passing the tryout and indoc is a totally different story.