Whatever man. I just cringe whenever you mention Jocko, since you do it more than anyone else.
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What can a young aspiring aviator do to get ahead?
- Thread starter undrgrad
- Start date
Jocko is a tool…
For OCS, your GPA and ASTB score are the most important factors. Everything else is a tiebreaker.
Civilian flight experience is not going to give you much of an edge for selection but will definitely come in handy in flight school. I really don’t understand this “flying the Navy way” stuff people talk about. Minor differences in procedure and techniques are nothing compared to being accustomed to the aeronautical environment.
Civilian flight experience is not going to give you much of an edge for selection but will definitely come in handy in flight school. I really don’t understand this “flying the Navy way” stuff people talk about. Minor differences in procedure and techniques are nothing compared to being accustomed to the aeronautical environment.
I am instructing in a collegiate aviation program now and completely agree with you. Yes, there are some things that are different between civil and naval aviation, but there are far greater similarities. For example, the Navy only takes a few exceptions to Part 91. Most of the rules are the same for flying within the NAS.
OP, if you really want to pursue aviation before joining the military, consider getting an instrument rating. That too will help with aeronautical proficiency.
This is preposterous. Do not idolize some tough sounding NSW podcaster. Read about the giants from Naval Aviation history. Their accomplishments are manifold, and much more relevant to the career you're seeking, and will give you a sense of our traditions and culture.
In Love and War by Admiral Stockdale is a good place to start.
undrgrad
Member
Hi, thanks for weighing in. I am looking to do my instrument rating after I get my PPL but it depends on cost for me right now, and not sure if I will be able to afford it. I was considering selling my vehicle(s) and possibly getting it done as I won't be taking my car to college with me, just not sure if it will be that beneficial in the long run.
exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
- Don't do anything stupid.
- Do what you can to not injure yourself, some of those intermural leagues can get kind of wild, everything has a risk just don't take unnecessary ones (refer to item 1.)
- Do good in college, remember it isn't a sprint, if you find yourself having difficulty ask for help and if need be take an easy class to spend more time on your difficult ones to get back on track, both my oldest kids did that and for the past 3 quarters one has a 4.0 the other 3.8
- Stay in good physical shape like you mentioned, it seems like you have a good plan.
- enjoy college and the friends you will make there.
- again don't do anything stupid.
Winston Groom’s The Aviators is a must.
Pay careful attention to one story of Jimmy Doolittle. On a foreign military sales trip to Chile, he did drunk gymnastics the night before a flight demonstration and broke both ankles falling out of a window. He flew the demo the next day and then returned to spend a year at Walter Reed getting his ankles fixed. Between the alcohol related incident paperwork and flight medicine, he would have been done by today’s standards.
Were that to happen, he likely would not have helped develop the attitude indicator and directional gyro, assisted in the conversion of auto factories to turn out planes just before WWII, or led the Doolittle Raid.
Your getting good advice here and you should do everything the smart people are telling you to do.
Having said that, I'll depart the norm and offer the free advice of go to school, have fun, try at school...but not too hard. Don't get in trouble with the law is the best piece of advice I've read so far. I'll offer one more piece of advice: don't get hurt skiing in Colorado or doing something else...NPQ is real.
Also you don't need to be a genius to fly. The aviation industry is going to hire about 10,000 pilots in the next 10 years and they're going to get a lot of them from the military. As such, the bar for being accepted into OCS and the flight program is raised or lowered opposite of the demand for civilian pilots, I.E. high demand for airline pilots = low bar for admission military flight training.
I joined up in 99 and the airlines were booming...even Helo pilots who did IP tours ina T-34 were getting hired by Delta and EVERYONE was getting out. I graduated in the lower half of the upper half of my high school class. I was an All State track runner in High School, ran track in college, and that actually helped in OCS (I was about to fail my second MTT, but I was 1 of only 5 people who could max out the PRT and of all things our class was struggling with for Honor Class it was PT so my Gunny stepped in and saved my ass from getting rolled). My grades in college were weak. 2.87 cumulative, but I was a Math major (3.1 in my math classes) which helped with the weak GPA I incurred as a physics major because...well...that shit is hard. My tests scores for both the Air Force and Navy were outstanding. The Air Force didn't take me, the Navy did. The best piece of advice I got through the whole process was from my recruiter and right before I took the personality assessment: "Almost everyone who washes out of aviation recruitment does so because they fail the personality test...they're not looking for saints." I also got my Private before joining and I think it looked good on the application at that time, not so sure now. All it did was get me accelerated through FAM's/Contacts which actually hurt me more than helped me. The guys who had their instrument ratings were the guys making money on prior flight experience.
You're young so you won't get this, but "There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path." AND there are many paths to your destination...
Final thought: An OCS buddy of mine was Georgia guy who went to Colorado for 3 years after he graduated from college and did nothing but smoke dope (I mean a lot of dope), work construction, and ski before he joined the Navy. I worked in sales for a couple years before joining. He and I also went through flight school together. He had slightly better grades than I did, and got Jets while I got Helos. I sometimes wonder if I had smoked dope in college would I have gotten jets? Don't test that theory.
Having said that, I'll depart the norm and offer the free advice of go to school, have fun, try at school...but not too hard. Don't get in trouble with the law is the best piece of advice I've read so far. I'll offer one more piece of advice: don't get hurt skiing in Colorado or doing something else...NPQ is real.
Also you don't need to be a genius to fly. The aviation industry is going to hire about 10,000 pilots in the next 10 years and they're going to get a lot of them from the military. As such, the bar for being accepted into OCS and the flight program is raised or lowered opposite of the demand for civilian pilots, I.E. high demand for airline pilots = low bar for admission military flight training.
I joined up in 99 and the airlines were booming...even Helo pilots who did IP tours ina T-34 were getting hired by Delta and EVERYONE was getting out. I graduated in the lower half of the upper half of my high school class. I was an All State track runner in High School, ran track in college, and that actually helped in OCS (I was about to fail my second MTT, but I was 1 of only 5 people who could max out the PRT and of all things our class was struggling with for Honor Class it was PT so my Gunny stepped in and saved my ass from getting rolled). My grades in college were weak. 2.87 cumulative, but I was a Math major (3.1 in my math classes) which helped with the weak GPA I incurred as a physics major because...well...that shit is hard. My tests scores for both the Air Force and Navy were outstanding. The Air Force didn't take me, the Navy did. The best piece of advice I got through the whole process was from my recruiter and right before I took the personality assessment: "Almost everyone who washes out of aviation recruitment does so because they fail the personality test...they're not looking for saints." I also got my Private before joining and I think it looked good on the application at that time, not so sure now. All it did was get me accelerated through FAM's/Contacts which actually hurt me more than helped me. The guys who had their instrument ratings were the guys making money on prior flight experience.
You're young so you won't get this, but "There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path." AND there are many paths to your destination...
Final thought: An OCS buddy of mine was Georgia guy who went to Colorado for 3 years after he graduated from college and did nothing but smoke dope (I mean a lot of dope), work construction, and ski before he joined the Navy. I worked in sales for a couple years before joining. He and I also went through flight school together. He had slightly better grades than I did, and got Jets while I got Helos. I sometimes wonder if I had smoked dope in college would I have gotten jets? Don't test that theory.
You mean like the only naval aviation squadron that was ever commissioned and decommissioned in combat?
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Just quit while you’re ahead, shipmate. You can sit this one out.
All good stuff here. One additional thought about NRTOC...
Don't just look into it. You're just about to become behind the power curve as a Senior if you're trying to apply for NROTC. I would get hot on that. Keep in mind you don't have to take the scholarship when the times comes, but it's good to have options.
Big picture, both ROTC and OCS each have their benefits. Given your comment about your grades and not having proper motivation to do better in HS, I would offer that NROTC might help not have that happen in college since you get to play Navy every week which can help keep focus.
I wanted nothing else but to be a Naval Aviator from when I was 12, but I'll admit I don't know if I could have kept the focus in college without constantly being reminded what I was working towards by being in NROTC. That was just me, but I offer it as perspective.
Don't just look into it. You're just about to become behind the power curve as a Senior if you're trying to apply for NROTC. I would get hot on that. Keep in mind you don't have to take the scholarship when the times comes, but it's good to have options.
Big picture, both ROTC and OCS each have their benefits. Given your comment about your grades and not having proper motivation to do better in HS, I would offer that NROTC might help not have that happen in college since you get to play Navy every week which can help keep focus.
I wanted nothing else but to be a Naval Aviator from when I was 12, but I'll admit I don't know if I could have kept the focus in college without constantly being reminded what I was working towards by being in NROTC. That was just me, but I offer it as perspective.
Great points here. I agree that my success in college and NROTC was helped by having a tangible goal at the end of school that I was reminded of on a frequent basis.
I'll also add that getting into Aviation from an Academy or NROTC largely seemed to revolve around showing up and getting good grades. If you did your part things would probably work out for you. From years of watching this board it seems like going OCS is a whole lot harder without a lot of help, advocacy, and subject to a lot of fickle whims. The counter is that going aviation via OCS is "guaranteed" but those air quotes contain a lot of context and risk as well at the expense of free school.
Modern scientists are still amazed that people were able to become Officers before Jocko and BJJ.