To dream the impossible dream ...Army to Navy helo pilot

[Larrykorea]

I'm sure this one is going nowhere, but it's a question I'd like to ask. What are the chances of a 1LT Army helo pilot (National Guard, presently still in flight school) being able to go active duty as a Navy helo pilot?

This concerns my son, not myself. He tried to go active duty and applied for NFO a couple of years back. Navy Officer recruiter seemed quite willing at the time, but the NG wasn't willing to release him. This was prior to him starting flight school.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Larry

 

[Sly1978]

I'm sure the Navy would be willing to look at an application, but I don't imagine that the NG would be all that anxious to let him go now that they've spent the money to start teaching him to fly for them.

My 2 cents? Don't get too caught up with the "greener" grass on the other side of the fence and enjoy the opportunities he's being given already.

 

[HighDimension]

The audacity of hope..

 

[highside7r]

My 2 cents? Don't get too caught up with the "greener" grass on the other side of the fence and enjoy the opportunities he's being given already.

He's NG, that's not a bad deal anyway, he will probably fly more than we do on AD. Since he's not even out of flight school, I would say stay in a few years, get some hours and make PIC. Have him try for an AGR slot at his unit. Not that it matters, what airframe does his NG unit fly?

If it does happen, there are a few threads on this, but he has to be prepared to go back to day one with flight school for the Navy, which will not be a joke compared to IERW for the Army.

 

[Godspeed]

The audacity of hope..

Please tell me you are not referring to a certain book i've heard of...

 

[FlyNavy2]

Army Choppers to Navy Jets: Former TOPGUN CO Roland "Dawg" Thompson. Flew Cobras, then TX to A-7s, then onto F-18s. I believe he heads that company that recently brought the SU-27s to the US.

 

[HAL Pilot]

Actually I think a reserve component has to release someone to an active duty component. They did back in 1982 when I went from Army Guard to Navy.

 

[loadtoad]

Actually I think a reserve component has to release someone to an active duty component. They did back in 1982 when I went from Army Guard to Navy.

It's still that way. I have a friend that went from NG to AD Army in flight school. He didn't get too much shit for it from the guard side.

 

[Pap]

Its called a Conditional Release and its really easy to get if you are going from Reserve/NG Enlisted to an Officer in any branch.

 

[Larrykorea]

Thanks for the input

Gentlemen,


Thanks for the input to my question. Again, he still has at least 6 months left in flight school, and I've never asked him about his interests in re-trying to go Navy. Any decision is his, of course. He does plan on going AD ASAP upon completion. I'm just thankful he's flying.

 

[HeyJoe]

Army Choppers to Navy Jets: Former TOPGUN CO Roland "Dawg" Thompson. Flew Cobras, then TX to A-7s, then onto F-18s. I believe he heads that company that recently brought the SU-27s to the US.

That would be him. One of ATSI founders (Randy Clark) was also a Army help type who came over to Navy and flew Tomcats, flew with Blue Angels and then commanded a Tomcat squadron.