Branching aviation from Army ROTC

[ahmed]

Hello all,

I've been reading through the military forum and I found a ton of information on WOCS and WOFT. While I am interested in aviation, I also want to develop my leadership skills and serve as a commissioned Officer. For this reason, I am looking into Army ROTC. I completely understand the concept of serving our nation as an Officer prior to doing your job as a pilot or whatever it may be, but I'd really like to branch aviation if I were to go through Army ROTC. Is this rare? If there is anyone on this board who knows about this or that has done so, I'd appreciate your feedback on what I'm trying to accomplish.

Thanks

 

[MikeD]

Hello all,

I've been reading through the military forum and I found a ton of information on WOCS and WOFT. While I am interested in aviation, I also want to develop my leadership skills and serve as a commissioned Officer. For this reason, I am looking into Army ROTC. I completely understand the concept of serving our nation as an Officer prior to doing your job as a pilot or whatever it may be, but I'd really like to branch aviation if I were to go through Army ROTC. Is this rare? If there is anyone on this board who knows about this or that has done so, I'd appreciate your feedback on what I'm trying to accomplish.

Thanks

If you've been reading through the military forum, youd know that IanJ is a commissioned Army aviator. Not sure his commissioning source.....probably a ring knocker......but he's BTDT and still doing so.

 

[Blackhawk]

My information may be a little dated as I came in on the tail end of the Regan era when, if your breath fogged up a mirror you got aviation.
It is not impossible to branch aviation from ROTC. Just understand that the needs of the Army and the wants of your fellow classmates will dictate your branch as a commissioned officer. I was lucky. All my classmates bought into the huah crap about how great infantry was. Me... I'd got that t-shirt in the National Guard and figured out that lying down in muck on a freezing, sleeting night waiting for an OPFOR that was smarter than you and stayed home was not fun. So what does this mean for you? Four years (if that is how long you have to commissioning), is an eternity. Any information you get today on your chances for Aviation Branch will be dated by June 2012. But if you don't try to go Aviation you will never get it.

 

[abnpx]

Hey Ahmed well Ill be completely honest with you even though you go through ROTC you don't really get a choice of what branch you get. You will eventually finish and will get a wish list of branches you would like to go to. However, keep in mind you will go straight to the needs of the army, which means you could get Infantry, Intel, Chem (which I hear is terrible) just to name a few. On another note, getting your commission is great and all but keep in mind that you will not get to fly as much as a warrant never ever, so make a decision as to whether you are thinking career or possibly getting out afterward. Another route you can do is go WARRANT first then while your already a warrant you can get your full commission which has been done and that would be a way to guarantee your aviation slot. But to be completely honest with you as a commissioned officer you will get hours but it won't be anything great. Basically what I'm saying is do the warrant route go to college get your degree try to get a ppl while in college get some flight time or you could even get your RTW license and your senior year of college drop your warrant packet. Worse case scenario if you eventually decide you want to go commissioned then go to OCS (Officer Candidate School) which is about 2 months if I'm not mistaken and enjoy COLLEGE! Any other questions just let me know.

 

[deadstick]

Hey Ahmed well Ill be completely honest with you even though you go through ROTC you don't really get a choice of what branch you get. You will eventually finish and will get a wish list of branches you would like to go to. However, keep in mind you will go straight to the needs of the army, which means you could get Infantry, Intel, Chem (which I hear is terrible) just to name a few. On another note, getting your commission is great and all but keep in mind that you will not get to fly as much as a warrant never ever, so make a decision as to whether you are thinking career or possibly getting out afterward. Another route you can do is go WARRANT first then while your already a warrant you can get your full commission which has been done and that would be a way to guarantee your aviation slot. But to be completely honest with you as a commissioned officer you will get hours but it won't be anything great. Basically what I'm saying is do the warrant route go to college get your degree try to get a ppl while in college get some flight time or you could even get your RTW license and your senior year of college drop your warrant packet. Worse case scenario if you eventually decide you want to go commissioned then go to OCS (Officer Candidate School) which is about 2 months if I'm not mistaken and enjoy COLLEGE! Any other questions just let me know.

I did what you want to do. The above pretty well sums it up. You're a soldier first. Then officer, then movement officer, then cat-herder , then OIC of...., THEN a pilot. After your time as a platoon leader and company commander (CPT), if not sooner, you might end up in a non-flying staff position. Before OIF/OEF kicked off, a FAC 1 (aka "line pilot")utility pilot (IIRC) flew 96 hrs per YEAR. That was the minimum amount of time the Army determined it took for an aviator to remain current and proficient. Since $$ was tight, the min amount of time became (in general) the max amount of time one would fly. Sure there were cases where some got to fly more, but don't count on it. In a FAC 2 position, I think it was 60 hrs. Regardless, that's a lot of time to do other things.

 

[Ian_J]

If you've been reading through the military forum, youd know that IanJ is a commissioned Army aviator. Not sure his commissioning source.....probably a ring knocker......but he's BTDT and still doing so.

Heck no, man - green to gold ROTC for me. Not that there's anything wrong with ring knockers.

Hey Ahmed well Ill be completely honest with you even though you go through ROTC you don't really get a choice of what branch you get. You will eventually finish and will get a wish list of branches you would like to go to. However, keep in mind you will go straight to the needs of the army, which means you could get Infantry, Intel, Chem (which I hear is terrible) just to name a few.

Not quite. Until last month I was an Army ROTC instructor and was heavily involved with branching and commissioning. Here are the facts about branch choice:

- The top 10% of ROTC graduates in the country get their first choice of branch (as long as they qualify for the branch as in males only in the Infantry or a passing AFAST score and flight physical for Aviation).

- Commissionees who find themselves towards the middle of the pack my elect to sign up for an additional duty service obligation of 3 more years to be put higher on the list for aviation.

- This year 70%-ish of all graduates got their first branch choice. 90%-ish got a branch in their top three choices.

The branching algorithm is very complex and surprisingly holds a lot of weight towards the individual's choice. The idea is that Officers who get their branch of choice will be happier and will therefore be more effective officers. The Commanding General of Cadet Command set mandatory benchmarks for % who get branch of choice and % who get something in their top three. Surveys show most officeers are satisfied with their branch.

- Ian J's opinion: being in the top 10% of all graduates in the country is surprisingly easy to accomplish and should be the goal of any Cadet hoping to branch aviation.

Hello all,

I've been reading through the military forum and I found a ton of information on WOCS and WOFT. While I am interested in aviation, I also want to develop my leadership skills and serve as a commissioned Officer. For this reason, I am looking into Army ROTC. I completely understand the concept of serving our nation as an Officer prior to doing your job as a pilot or whatever it may be, but I'd really like to branch aviation if I were to go through Army ROTC. Is this rare? If there is anyone on this board who knows about this or that has done so, I'd appreciate your feedback on what I'm trying to accomplish.

Thanks

Nope, not rare. It takes hard work and dedication to get there but it is doable. Like others have said though, nothing is really guarenteed in the Army and while the info I provided above is accurate now, there is no way to forecast what things will be like four years from now. The worst case scenario could be the Army draws down and maybe they don't need any aviation LTs the year you graduate. That's unlikely but you never know.

Other than that, if you have any specific questions I'd be happy to field them. Best of luck to you.

 

[ahmed]

Thank you for your responses. I will have to think everything over now that I have a better idea about Army Aviation.