HELP My kid wants to skip college and go straight to the Air force

[TURBOPOWERED68]

I had my kid home today and we went over the regular stuff how are you doing in school and did you pick a college yet and did you send out any applications.
and the response was --- i don't want to go to college i hate school once i graduate from high school (this coming June) i want to go straight to the Air Force to become a pilot.

How do you handle this situation??

How many people actually make it to becoming a pilot??

 

[TNTSNBS]

Actually there is nothing wrong with what he wants to do, is just a matter of him getting good grades, be computer savvy and pass the thought physical exam they require to be a pilot one of those include having near to perfect vision, also must be 6f1' and under in order to be a fighter pilot, once he is done with his years of duty in the AIR FORCE he can go work for the private sector or an airline making bank, my friend is a captain for JET BLUE and he makes $180.00 an hour.. , thats a heck of a lot more than many people make now days..

 

[WH1_T-Type]

He WILL NOT become a pilot without 1 of 2 things happening 1) GO TO COLLEGE 2) spend 10 YEARS in the USAF then apply for a warrent officer and then MAYBE get picked up for it. VERY hard to make Warrent Officer. Something like 10% of people who apply even make it to there..then you have the ones that wash out of pilot training. Oh, and the USAF has VERY FEW spots for warrent officer pilots...they do have them..but not a lot.

To be a standard flight officer you HAVE to have a college degree and then you HAVE to go to flight school. To be a warrent officer you HAVE to have a LOT of experience in the USAF then you HAVE to go to flight school.

Long and short? There is a 95% chance he WILL NOT be a pilot if he ENLISTS in the Air Force.

EDIT: third route is to get a degree while active duty (takes awhile) and then apply to be an officer and a pilot...

 

[longball]

Well, you can get college in the Air Force. You may get a career life skill. Good retitrement package. There are much worse choices your 'kid' could make. I say support the decision!

 

[WH1_T-Type]

In order to begin college in the military you first have to complete ALL of your basic training which means boot camp, job training, then what ever qualifications the command that he goes to will have. That can be anywhere from 5 months to 2 years before he will even be able to START college. Then he will most likely only be able to take one to two courses at a time and that is dependent on NOT getting forward deployed to a location that does not have internet classes available or the schedule is too busy to support taking classes while there.

Wanna be a pilot? Have to have a degree.

Now, not saying don't join..but the whole pilot thing means college.

 

[TurboTnZ06]

Have him look into Embry-Riddle Air Force on ROTC. They pay for school, you graduate and go into Air Force. My buddies in computer science with me in that went pretty much straight to flying F15's...I stuck to computers in the dot com boom... And at ERAU you can go fly any day you want in little prop planes...

 

[Otto J]

Well, you can get college in the Air Force. You may get a career life skill. Good retitrement package. There are much worse choices your 'kid' could make. I say support the decision!

I agree 100% and be proud of him!

 

[TURBOPOWERED68]

What choice do i have besides support??? NONE

i just want my kid to be INFORMED before signing up. We all know what recruiters promise and what you get can be two very different things and don't forget the details that they leave out like the eye sight requirement while talking to a kid wearing glasses.

TNTSNBS
Actually there is nothing wrong with what he wants to do, is just a matter of him getting good grades, be computer savvy and pass the thought physical exam they require to be a pilot one of those include having near to perfect vision,

This is all most an automatic DQ for my kid, Does anyone know the minimum eye sight requirement?

Not trying to discourage my kid from signing up (maybe a little) i just want my kid to be WELL informed of how it works and what the realistic possibilities are.

 

[WH1_T-Type]

It was recently approved that as long as the vision is correctable to 20/20 with laser surgery then he can be accepted to flight training. STILL MUST HAVE A COLLEGE DEGREE!!! The recruiter is going to play up how you can get Tuiton Assistance to pay for school while in...get the MGIB for more when you get out or to pay for more if you exceed TA...what he won't mention is the amount of time it takes before he will be able to work on it or how long it will take before he finishes OR how FEW enlisted people actually make the move to pilot!! College first means a MUCH better shot.

 

[groumoutis]

I will first let you know I am all for my kids going into the Navy but not any other branch but I will accept their choices.

With that being said, your son needs to understand he has to go to more schooling to be a pilot as well. I was in the Navy for 9 years and my whole goal of joining the military was to get the education to get a job that I would enjoy and get paid well for. I was an Engineman in the Navy and went to school for a total of a year and change and I now make more money than my parents and the wifes parents combined. The military education is not a joke. Your son will have tons of chances to get his education with the GI bill and some of the classes offered to soldiers and sailors.

The choices of branches are the hard decisions. Everyone who has served picked their branch for their own reason. I chose the Navy because of the engineering fields are second to none. Your son should look into the ROTC programs as well.

 

[Pronto]

My son's friend's father was fighter pilot. He now works for BAE. The friend was 5th in my son's graduating class. He went to the Air Force Academy. I ran into him last spring. He got though it and is a pilot now. I asked how schooling was. He said it kicked his ass. No fooling around. This kid was brilliant and it was tough for him. If your kid is a superior student then he's got a shot at being a pilot, if not then he's getting smoke blown up his butt. He can still have a great career and get an education but cross off figher pilot if he's average. Either way good luck to him.

 

[rmar]

what he won't mention is the amount of time it takes before he will be able to work on it or how long it will take before he finishes or how few enlisted people actually make the move to pilot!! College first means a much better shot.

xxx10

 

[boostfreak]

If he wants to wiggle sticks for the Air Force, he needs a college degree, period. They only have Commissioned Officers flying their birds. The last warrant in the Air Force was a long time ago. He needs a 4 year degree. I hate to burst his bubble more, but flying is constant studying for the rest of your life. Looking at flight manuals every day. Weather minimums, standard operating procedures, theory of flight, advanced avionics, knowing all your limitations and emergency procedures verbatim, aeromedical factors, tactics, etc. etc. etc....I could go on and on. You don't just learn how to fly and that's it. Constant studying everyday for the rest of your flying career. If he hates school now he might want to explore another career path. Then again the sound of twin pratt and whitney turbines at full burn punching a hole into heaven.....that might be motivation enough .

 

[WH1_T-Type]

^^if they did get rid of warrents in the USAF then the Army does still have them flying helicopters, I know that for sure. The Navy does NOT currently accept new warrents to fly...that could change.

 

[Slow91z]

Hate to just jump on the band wagon, but yeah Pilot=college, yes you can get them to pay for it but as veteran from the USAF here is my advice.

If he really wants that, join an ROTC program in a college, this will seriously help him decide if he wants to become an Officer and they pay for it. If he decides in the end that being a career officer isn't what he wants he can pay back his debt to the military by enlisting for 4 years which isn't a bad thing in itself.

If he wants to become a pilot/officer do ROTC, or go to college FIRST...Lots of people join the military and say they are going to go to college, but the lifestyle can make it hard to actually get your schooling done. Obviously I don't know what subjects he excels in, but let him know the math is HUGE.

Also have him look into the AF Reserves, or Air National Guard...They will also pay for school. He still has to go to basic and tech school full time, but after he graduates he comes back home can work/school and gets to be a solder 1 weekend a month (unless their unit gets deployed obviously, but that's just a fact of life in the Military he'll have to pick up his schooling where he left off).

 

[Chuck Leeper]

I see Cal is on the thread. Ask him how it works..I think he has an "inside track" for info!!

 

[Rivical]

Don't discourage him. My dad did Army and AF and gave me the scoop on each.

If he just want's to fly jets though, there're plenty of career's that'll provide the means to do so with the right education.


I believe I took 3 tests, 2 just for the AF, and they offered me everything but intelligence. So, I figured that was something they offered based on further examination.
Best, yet absolutely dumbest, thing I ever failed to do by not joining. I'm sure it would have been a Great career that I'd already have retired from years ago.
At least two of my brothers went into service to continue the tradition.

There's little chance your son will regret a career with the Air Force.

 

[86turboSix]

I wanted to enlist in the USMC all throughout highschool. Parents never supported it. I had to sneak to the recruiting center every week to PT with the poolees in the DEP...Spring of my senior year in high school after butting heads with my 'rents for 4 years; and just before I signed on the dotted line; my recruiter (who knew my parent's apprehension, NOT knowing I had been sneaking to PT) looked into my background-3.2 avg gpa, extra curricular activities and swim team. He put an officer candidate package together for me and shot it off to MCRC or wherever...long story short I landed a scholarship to Purdue. It has been the best decision of my life thus far and I am proud to commission as an officer when I graduate DEC2012.

Moral of the story, talk to the recruiter. They don't just feed you lies. I can speak only from the Greenside perspective, but right now the Marine Corps is experiencing a shrink in forces from 202,000 to potentially 176,000. That means tougher recruiting standards and fewer scholarships, but I can tell you for a fact there is nothing I would rather be doing and I'm chomping at the bit to start doing my job. And I picked the hard ROTC! AFROTC doesn't even PT! :biggrin: He'll be way smarter than me though

Remember that it's his decision. Good luck!

 

[WH1_T-Type]

Of course they don't feed you JUST lies...they wrap a small nugget of truth in lies to make them easier to sell.
Recruiters have a quota they have to fill every month and their evals are directly tied to how well they fill those spaces with warm bodies.
Since you became an officer canadite you accounted for high POINTS for your recruiter so it was in HIS best interest to sell that to you. In the Navy a male that is eligble for submarine duty is worth a lot of POINTS for the recruiter...so any man that comes through they push subs on..and if you qualify for NUKE duty on subs??? Only thing worth more points then that is an officer nuke canadite..so they push that one a lot to. And they will tell you whatever they can to make it happen.

Have your son talk to actual vets to find out about becoming a pilot and starting enlisted. Might open his eyes.

 

[Fast87Buick]

If he wants to wiggle sticks for the Air Force, he needs a college degree, period. They only have Commissioned Officers flying their birds. The last warrant in the Air Force was a long time ago. He needs a 4 year degree. I hate to burst his bubble more, but flying is constant studying for the rest of your life. Looking at flight manuals every day. Weather minimums, standard operating procedures, theory of flight, advanced avionics, knowing all your limitations and emergency procedures verbatim, aeromedical factors, tactics, etc. etc. etc....I could go on and on. You don't just learn how to fly and that's it. Constant studying everyday for the rest of your flying career. If he hates school now he might want to explore another career path. Then again the sound of twin pratt and whitney turbines at full burn punching a hole into heaven.....that might be motivation enough .

XXX10

Have him check into flight programs at Purdue University, Embry Riddle, or University of North Dakota for some of the best flight programs in the country. If he's still serious about the military, then ROTC at the collegiate flight school of choice is the best bet. Of course if you have the political connections, the Air Force Academy is the best route.


Aviation Technology : Purdue University College of Technology

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - World's Leader in Aviation and Aerospace Education

University of North Dakota