Currently serving Army EOD officer here and I'm wondering what a possible path to being a pilot could be. I'm starting my fourth year and while I love EOD it is a bit of a dead end as the only real commands left would be an EOD company. I love EOD and wouldn't trade my time for anything but I want a full career in the military and I just can't do that in Army EOD. I've gotten into flying with my dad who owns a small Cessna and now the only career I want in the military is to be a pilot. I haven't been able to find much information about the possibility of entering another branch even after looking through the regulations pertaining to transfers. I'd like to fly fixed wing so I'd want to transfer to the AF, Marines or Navy. I know they are extremely different communities, lifestyles and missions but I want to fly and if I only have the opportunity in one place so be it. Does anyone have any information on entering a new service? Due to career timelines an inter-service transfer (which is not even available for unrated pilots) isn't possible so could I enter another service and be busted back to O-1 and enter service through OCS?
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Paths to aviation officer as current serving Army officer?
- Thread starter Bears88
- Start date
exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
The USN program authorization specifically prohibits current or prior officers from other branches apply to OCS, you have to go the IST route by talking with the aviation officer community manager.
I see. Am I mistaken in saying that IST from EOD into aviation would basically be impossible? Is this also the case for the Marines and AF?
You could slip to the AF or Army Guard and go for a flight slot. Once in the switch back to active duty (especially in the Army) is easy. That said, with the army as short as it is on pilots I’m sure they’d let you switch from Engineers to Aviation.
I'm more interested in fixed wing and I haven't heard great things about Army aviation. Would a transfer to the AF Guard for a pilot slot work then immediately transfer to active?
You'd have to rush a Guard/Reserve squadron as if you were rushing a fraternity. There's a lot of hoops you'll need to jump through to show the unit you're worthy of a slot. It's not a short nor easy process. There is also no guarantee to go full-time after you cross over. Right now the entire AF Reserves are having to cut some full-time guys due to money. Expect to be a part-time Traditional Reservist (TR).
Have you flown a helo yet? Highly recommend you go find a local flight school for an intro ride or two. Otherwise you're like my mom trying to buy a new car and only wanting to buy a Subaru because her friend has a Subaru. "Mom, have you test driven anything besides your friend's car?" "No..."
Nothing wrong with Subarus (CVTs aside...), but there's a lot of other stuff out there. Army also has FW, albeit a little trickier to get into.
What are your long-term goals? 20 year active duty retirement? Are you flying for fun and going to transition to a non-flying job after the military? Are you looking to be a pilot post-military? Airlines? Each service has their own winging commitment, be sure to read up on each.
That's OK. I haven't heard great things about Army EOD either.
RedFive is accurate regarding the Air Guard. I am sure it happens, but I have never heard of people being sent to flight school to fly fixed wing for the Air Guard. All of their pilots seem to come off active duty or from another service...already qualified as a pilot. Admittingly, my experience is with an Air Guard that flies F-15s and will soon be getting F-35s. You might have better luck with C-17s or something less competitive. This is not meant to question your abilities, but to inform you that making it to pointy nose aircraft in the Air Guard from your current situation may require intermediate steps.
So, this isn't entirely accurate. All Guard/Reserve squadrons have two different types of pilots they hire...
Option A are guys like me who are already rated and don't need flight school. Lots of sub-categories here will determine what type of training, if any, a rated guy will need in order to start flying with the squadron. Not important for this thread.
Option B are folks who need to attend flight school. Typically these are "off the street" guys with no military experience. It's also common to hire an enlisted maintainer, loadmaster, boom operator, etc whom the squadron is already familiar with. While I've never personally seen anyone in OP's position, he would need to pursue this path of hiring. I don't think it would be a big deal, the squadron simply wouldn't need to send him to OTS. It wouldn't be an IST, he would resign his commission in the Army and (ideally) commission in the ANG/USAFR the next day. His gaining squadron would have a flight school date setup for him, but he'd probably need a day job or savings to get him by until then. He could do weekend drills while waiting for flight school, of course, and a good squadron (with money to spare) would set him up as the office bitch to help him pay the bills temporarily, but it's not something you can rely on unless the squadron specifically spells that out for you.
Anyways, it's totally doable for OP. But it's not easy and he would have to really figure out what his goals are before going down this path.