For the past year and a half I've been given the run around by Air Force recruiters. Boards delayed, appointments not made, phone calls ignored, general negligence and finally culminating in my recruiter EAS-ing a month before my paperwork deadline and passing me off to another recruiter that didn't give a shit and was also getting out in another month. All this while having everything done on my end waiting to get boarded, only to find out that my new recruiter wouldn't send me to board because I only had pilot selected and that I needed to "consider the needs of the Air Force." Uh, no thanks, I put in my time and I'm not going to sign more of my life away unless I get what I want for my career.
Active Marine Lance, 26, about to pick up Corporal with just under 4 years in the METOC field. Also about to go on a 9month deployment and even though I was trying to get everything done before I went on deployment so my package could still go to board after I left (which my old recruiter said was fine) my new one pretty much told me, "sorry, I'm getting out, wait until you get back from deployment."
On a whim I called a Naval Officer recruiter and left a brief message requesting some information. She returned my call a few days later. A very nice NC1 that listened to my whole story, my qualifications, test scores, and career goals before finally saying I was essentially a shoe-in candidate. If I could get her all of my paperwork she could get me up for a board within a couple months for aviation, even though I'll be on deployment. I was astounded. I'd never been used to such a fast turnaround. It was always 6 more months and even if you get selected it was like another year for a class date. But apparently the Navy is hurting for pilots just as much as the Air Force but unlike the Air Force the Navy is actually reflecting it in its recruiting.
So now I'm doing research about Navy OCS and reminding myself that after boot camp I never wanted to see another Drill Instructor again, but if screaming and playing mickey mouse games again for 12 weeks is what it takes get into the cockpit then that's what I'll have to do.
