No really dumb questions...
For starters...I can only speak for NAS Whiting Field w/API in P-cola. Navy & Marine students (I believe) ALL attend API at NAS P-cola. ALL Coast Guard students do. Navy & Marine students can go to primary at NAS Corpus Christi or NAS Whiting. They also can attend primary at Moody, Vance, and maybe one other AFB in San Antonio. Air Force students (I believe) attend whatever their preflight indoc course is called at an AFB, where, I don’t know. Air Force students can also attend primary at VT-3 at Whiting Field, which alternates Navy and Air Force commanding officers. I don’t think as a Navy or Marine Corps officer you have a whole lot of say in where you go for primary, but I may be wrong.
So who am I? I’m a Coast Guard instructor...in HTs. Here are my experiences. When I attended flight training as a student, it was the Navy, the Marines, us, and a few Allied country types. And the CG's been in P-cola since 1917, so get used to us. It’s not much different now, though the Air Force is thrown into the mix at VT-3, and may be coming to helo advanced as the Air Force starts to implement the V-22 into their Special Ops...but they aren’t here yet. Pretty much what you’re going to find is that only one of you is the sharpest knife in the block, and it probably isn’t you, and even if it is, don’t get full of yourself...somebody else has better stick and rudder skills, or is better at instruments, or whatever. The person it is may be a Marine, may be a Coastie, may be a Navy type. May even be (heaven forbid) a foreigner! Coasties make up about 10% of the student pool at Whiting, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. We wing about 60 aviators a year. About 40 of those fly helos, the remainder go to Corpus for advanced multi. Nobody goes tactical in the CG, no matter how good your grades, but you know that going in. Marines make up about 30% of the student pool, Navy folks most of the remainder with somewhere around 10% international students. So who’s the smartest? Doesn’t matter what color cover you wear. 10% of the students make Commodore’s List or Commodore’s List w/Distinction in helos. About 30-35% of those folks are Coasties. If you didn’t think much of us before, you might after. Believe me, I heard all the jokes when you guys were soiling diapers, so spare me. My best buds from flight school are a couple Marines and a couple Navy guys. A lot of folks from both services try to transfer to the CG after their commitment is up.
As far as looking down on other services...waste of energy, and waste of time...you’ll need both, so I suggest leaving it alone. My Marine on-wings and Navy on-wings look upon me with some skepticism when we meet...I’m used to it. They also rapidly realize I know what I’m doing and that I know more about their services than they do, not to mention what I know about my own and that I’ve forgotten more about all sorts of flying than they’ll figure out for years. It comes from working hard. That’s where your reputation comes from. Each day you add a brick to your rep...it’s up to you if it’s cemented solidly in place or built in some sort of half-assed way. The best instrument instructors (and this is a broad generalization) are Coasties and Navy guys, but the worst instrument instructor in the HTs is pretty darn good. The best tactics guys are Marines and Navy guys from certain communities. The best form guys are Marines. There are many exceptions to all of those and the one thing you can count on in a multiservice squadron is difference of opinion. But, when you realize that the CG gets a lot of pilots with prior Army, USMC, Navy, & Air Force time, it’s all a wash. I’ve spent my whole career in the CG, but I’m more than capable of flying tactics at the level required in the Training Command. Your ultimate FRS...different story, I can't fight a Cobra, but those guys can’t do a no-reference hoist over a shrimper at night in 35’ seas, either. Flight training is about generalization...fleet aircraft are about specialization, to a point.
As to the rest, cman’s post is pretty much on the money. It comes down to how hard you work, how well you do. A large number of you will not get jets. Some of you won’t get wings. Many of you will fly helos. Some of you will not get your first airframe choice. If any of those things above happen to you, remember, that’s why they’re called “Orders”, not “Suggestions”. Don’t foul where you eat by griping about your unfair treatment if you get some airframe you didn’t have your heart set on. Every community is proud (and rightly so), so don't be a fool and gripe if you don't get what you want. I didn’t get the orders I wanted out of flight training and at the time I thought it was unjust, though I kept my mouth shut...but with the perspective of years, what I ended up with was probably better.
I’ll tell you something I heard in flight training myself. “There’s not a bad job in Naval Aviation...” True. If you ever think that’s false, you should probably seek an alternate form of employment. This work is too difficult, too important, is occasionally fatal and pays too little for you to be miserable doing it, and whoever else may be counting on you to carry out your mission isn’t expecting you to be contemplating your existence while you consider what coulda, woulda, or shoulda been. What coulda been is you could be back home drinking cheap beer with losers from your high school who will never do anything. After a fleet tour, they'll all wish they were you, and you'll be thankful you aren't them.
So show up, be sharp, work hard, and if you get to helos...above all, have fun. I’ll be gone before any of you get there, but HTs were a great place when I was a student, they’re a great place now.
